One More Stag At It
Preparing to teleport directly behind the stag, Logan set his mind to one task. Utter concentration. Last time he had been in a situation like this a couple of days ago, Logan had ended up almost dying prematurely in what should have been a doable fight. Logan wouldn’t make those same mistakes again. He couldn’t afford to.
Instead, Logan prepared himself to activate his Soul Sword Ability immediately after closing the distance with a teleport. Although the stag was already injured, Logan wasn’t going to give it the chance to defend itself further.
Letting out his breath, Logan teleported behind the stag, already summoning his Soul Sword. As the blade of crystalized Divinity swung down, the stag barely had time to react, turning its head in time to see the blade descend. The Beast’s eyes met Logan’s, and then its head was lopped off.
Almost comically slowly, the body collapsed after standing for several seconds. Logan stood there for much longer, the scene flashing time and time before his eyes. Logan had killed Monsters, Beasts, and Abominations in equal measure, but never before had it been easy.
This time, it had been. Enough to shock Logan, and really make him consider his course of actions. Surely he could teleport around either Fort Errstile, or the enemy encampment, and find a way to live in a small town. Then he realized that it wouldn’t change anything, and this was the way of the world. Kill or be killed, such a concept had even existed on Earth for all of human history. There was no avoiding the bloodshed here, and besides, Logan was much less likely to fall to the latter than most. He may as well make use of his unwittingly acquired Divinity and skillset.
-Ok?-
Yeah, Remy, I’m good. Let’s carry this sucker back to camp, and see if I can get a decent fire going.
The companions made their way across the woods, and back to their makeshift camp in the trees. Or more specifically, they chose to set up their cooking area a little whiles away to avoid bringing unnecessary attention, choosing an open area about a hundred feet from their base.
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Although Logan and Remy had devoured their food, it could hardly be considered fine cuisine. Instead, the only name that quite fit was sustenance, but regardless, the companions were indeed sustained.
They had gone through this well before the sun set, to avoid any potential chance of the group of enemy scouts seeing their plume of smoke and investigating. So they had enjoyed their feast of overcooked stag and let themselves relax for the first time in days.
Logan had taken to tearing off small chunks of meat, and tossing them up for Remy. Of course, to challenge the Rizzel, Logan was throwing the food bits further and further, forcing Remy to teleport to catch the stag meat from mid air.
After a particularly impressive catch, Remy had come over to Logan, and was receiving the appropriate amount of petting for the achievement. The Rizzel’s ears were tucked back against his head like they usually were under such circumstances.
Then, Logan’s companions snapped to attention. Remy’s ears stood at attention, and he looked to the woods around him.
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-They come. Let’s go.-
Huh, who’s coming, Remy?
-Forest cutters. Let's go.-
Although Logan doubted that's what the enemies were actually called, he had no more appropriate names he could think of. Deciding now wasn’t the time for semantics, Logan followed the Rizzel back towards the hacked out path.
Teleporting back into a perch close enough to the path, Logan and Remy waited for their targets to walk past them. It didn’t require them to wait long either. Within minutes, the same group that Logan had trailed last time made their way through the previously cleared path.
Now that the companions had confirmed the group's schedule, they had a decision to make. Should they follow the scouts, or follow the path back to their base?
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Logan’s mind was made up quickly. He didn’t trust himself to fight against a group of opponents right now, but he was confident he could at least scout out the location of the enemies origins without revealing himself.
Relaying his thoughts to Remy, the duo began to follow the path in the opposite direction of the group that had just passed them. Teleporting branch to branch, and jogging along its periphery, the companions made steady progress on their course.
However, after over an hour of following the rough hewn path, they still had yet to discover its endpoint. It spoke to the length of time this operation had been continuing, as the path Logan and Remy had traversed would be the work of several weeks of cutting and hacking through the forest. However, that wasn’t what worried Logan.
Instead, Logan’s mind was concerned over thoughts of the path’s purpose. If they were developing a road, it seemed likely that more effort would have been put into converting the natural footing, to some degree. Contrary to that, no effort had been put in besides carving the path in the first place. It made Logan suspect that this group wasn’t the only one cutting their way through the woods, creeping closer to Fort Errstile.
If Logan’s thoughts were correct, the enemies were attempting to figure out the range of the Fort’s scouting efforts. The next step would be to begin tracking patrols, until they could surround the Fort at a pivotal moment. Although there were enough Legionnaires stationed there that a permanent scouting presence was possible, Logan didn’t have faith in the Prince’s tactical abilities, beyond his personal dislike for the man.
Logan’s escape spoke to his highness’s incompetencies, although possessing a Blessing that allowed almost no cost teleportation was a massive boon to Logan in that endeavor.
Still, Logan could not help feeling somewhat dismissive of the man after letting Logan embarrass him in such a manner, in the absolute center of his domain. With multiple Companies worth of manpower at his disposal, the only conclusion Logan could draw was that the Prince had either very little talent, or very little experience for his position.
Either option meant that the enemies' stratagems were much more likely to work. Pushing forwards, Logan and Remy tried to at least figure out what those stratagems were.
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Amar was out on her second scouting mission since coming to Fort Errstile. Her first experience had helped her acclimate to the position, and now she felt much more confident heading out in her small group of Legionnaires.
None of them had previously traveled with her, but that was how most scouting operations worked, to Amar’s knowledge. When it had been announced, there had been a brief explanation that people who hadn’t worked together would possess different methods of scouting, making mixing the groups more effective.
Amar had her doubts, as she thought that overlapping different methods would also likely lead to blindspots, as teammates that normally covered different roles would not be there. However, she had neither the authority or the inclination to bring up such matters. Instead, Amar was happy to finally be following the Goddess’s instructions. Although Logan seemed ordinary, if powerful to Amar, Selerys had constantly hammered home his importance, to the point that Amar had no doubts such was the case.
The fact that the Goddess Selerys, who many considered to be the most powerful of all the Gods, was asking for Amar’s assistance meant that she was likely the only one who could fulfill such a role. The weight of that honor weighed on her, far more responsibility than she ever thought she would possess, but Amar wasn’t shirking away.
If the Goddess needed her specifically to help, then she would be foolish to disobey. Selerys had no reputation of punishment, but even the smallest children grew up on stories of legendary heroes that followed the Gods’ wills and brought order and peace to the world. With skill, perseverance, and a little luck, Amar may one day join them.
However, to make it that far, she would have to survive. Setting her mind to her task, Amar engaged the Root Ability, sensing the thriving greenery around her. Although the Ability wouldn’t let her detect anything beyond plantlife, with some convincing, Amar convinced the plant life around her to inform her of what they could detect, unveiling a large, if indistinct, map of the area in her mind.
“Let's go.”