Chapter 16: Escape

Very rarely, a monster is born that is capable of human speech. Strangely, this ability seems to be irrelevant to the form of the monster, being just as likely to appear in say, a monkey – which has similar vocal chords to that of a human – as it is in a squid.

Regardless of how exactly this ability comes to be – there are much stranger things in this world, after all – each and every monster with this ability is almost guaranteed to be very powerful in comparison with other members of its species.

Still, they aren’t all bad. I once met a really nice talking dragon. We still have a chat every now and again…

-An unknown scholar

“Kill them.” The lead werewolf speaks softly in a guttural voice, echoing in the eerie silence. “All of them.”

“So…” Aaron says slowly to his companions. “Time to run?”

““Aye””, They say in unison, and they start running in the opposite direction.

In the face of death, exhaustion slips away. The few minutes of rest help as well. Aaron still only has a small portion of his usual mana pool, but he is new enough to mana reinforcement that the upkeep is negligible. Unfortunately, that also means that the effects are equally negligible, and were the twins not restraining themselves, they would have long outstripped him.

But their only chance of defending themselves is to stay together. And friendship, that too.

Behind them, sounds of battle start. After only a few moments, people start shouting and screaming in pain.

Then, a roaring crash. Unable to help himself, Aaron glances back over his shoulder. A building is collapsing, turning in mere moments from a neat construction to a disorderly pile of rubble.

Aaron’s eyes widen in shock and fear.

Collapsing buildings aren’t the only thing behind them.

One of the grey werewolves is loping towards them at nearly double their speed.

“Incoming!” Aaron shouts out to alert Jakin and Boaz to the approaching danger. He throws out a compressed block of earth mana to stall it, even for a moment longer.

But to the werewolf, it may as well not exist. It ploughs through without even a pause in its stride, a cloud of dust and dirt scattering in its wake. It continues, unfazed, to attack the man behind.

The twins don’t hesitate, slamming their shields down in front of him and bracing for impact, planting their stout feet on the ground firmly. In less time than it takes to take a breath, the werewolf is upon them.

With great momentum, it barges shoulder first into their shield wall, sending them skidding backwards uncontrollably into a nearby building. Without the weight of their shields and hammers, they would undoubtedly have been sent airborne by the strike.

Its charge stymied, Aaron doesn’t leave it the opportunity to recover, sending a quick stab at it.

Contemptuously, the grey-haired werewolf reaches out with a clawed hand, grabbing the blade and stopping it dead in its tracks.

Aaron tugs on the blade, but it doesn’t budge in the iron grip of the werewolf. With a toothy sneer, it clenches its hand, shattering it effortlessly into a million sparkling fragments. Shooting out like shrapnel from a grenade, they simply bounce off the tough skin of the werewolf, but human skin is fragile. Weak. The shards slice shallow furrows into Aaron’s exposed face and arms.

Blood begins to seep from the wounds in bitter trails.

‘So… I don’t suppose there’s a way I can get out of this?’ Aaron thinks to himself as he involuntarily winces in pain. ‘I can try lava magic, that would still make sense with fire and earth magic.’

A dull orange glow blossoms forth, a stream of lava weaving around him like a dancer’s ribbons before whipping out against the werewolf.

With a wave of its arm faster than the eye can see, the werewolf splatters the lava against a nearby wall. That wall is set aflame in an instant, not having the fortune of being made of a less combustible material.

The blaze spreads fast, bathing the otherwise dark street in a shifting red light.

Surging forwards, a claw slashes downwards at Aaron. Unable to make any reaction beyond a slight lean backwards, the claws rip into his face, creating four deep, uneven tears winding across his face. Blood gushed from the wounds, covering one eye in a sheet of red.

Just when it seems like the end is approaching for Aaron, there is a shift in his mind.

The fear and panic on his face vanish like snow on a summer day.

(POV Elder werewolf)

He was weak! Pathetically so. The short ones were downed by a single strike, so I had wanted to have some fun with this one for the first time in years, but he’s just too weak!

These men… it’s no wonder we didn’t slaughter them years ago. It’s so easy that it’s just…

Boring.

If not for them killing his son, we wouldn’t be bothering with this.

I shivered in fear.

Just thinking of him makes my fur stand on end. His power is unheard of among our kind. Why else would I heed the words of one not much older than a whelp?

Still… Perhaps I could feed before going back…

Running my tongue across my dagger-like teeth, I grin at my prey and sniff at the air. Fear is such a sweet scent…

It’s not there. It’s not there, why is it not there, why can I not smell your fear!

I leap backwards, putting distance between us.

Something is wrong. Very, very wrong.

With how weak he is, it’s impossible he doesn’t fear me.

Absolutely impossible.

He must have allies hidden nearby.

Putting my nose to the skies, I inhale deeply.

The scent of burning wood fills my nostrils. The musk of tasty morsels, blood, raw flesh… a faint scent of fear coming from where the others are… but nothing here?

I swivel my ears around… nothing.

I really must be getting old.

Striding forwards, I move in for the kill.

Silence suddenly split through all the sounds irritating my ears.

Then.

The world.

Became.

Blood.

The next thing I know, I am in the forest, running back to the pack.

What… was that?

(POV Aaron)

It really ran fast. I suppose its base instincts took over at the end there.

As for what I did to it… Technically, I didn’t use any powers, I was just taking advantage of a side effect from a past use of an ability. To be exact, I accessed my memories of earth and focused my bloodlust on the werewolf.

Think about it: in my memories lie the experiences of countless murderers, soldiers, assassins, not to mention the innumerable wild animals. As it is, my bloodlust is so endless it can practically coalesce as a physical presence.

Considering how powerful an effect it has even on strong monsters, I won’t be using this regularly. Still, this should be sufficient way to resolve situations that would otherwise result in death.

As if returning from a moment of sleep, I absentmindedly look around me. Then I break out in a cold sweat as I remember the last thing I saw, and I whip my head around frantically.

Phew… It’s gone. But why? No, rather than that, the twins!

I walk over to their still bodies, and check their pulses.

I sigh in relief.

Still going strong. But how on earth do I get us out of here? I suppose I’ll have to wake them up somehow.

I try slapping Jakin lightly across the face. It leaves a bloody handprint on his face. Right, I was bleeding. I probably should have attended to that first.

Oops?

Then I fall over backwards in a dead faint.

(POV Jakin)

Groggily, I open my eyes.

Then, recalling my last memory, I jolt myself into being fully alert.

Like any true dwarven warrior, my pick and shield hadn’t left my hands, even when I be out fer the count. Readjusting my grip, I warily look around.

The elder werewolf is nowhere to be seen, but both Boaz and Aaron be lying on the ground around me.

I take a step towards Boaz, then stumble harder than a halfling sailor after a few pints of rum!

That blow took more out of me than I thought.

Steadying myself, I take the few steps towards my brother. I be the veteran of far too many hangovers to let some puny dizziness affect my stride!

Falling to my knees, I shake my brother. If I be alive, he will be as well.

“Brother! Bo, wake up!”

He groaned! Praise the earth, he’s alive!

“…Eh, what?”, he mumbled sleepily. “Brother? Why is there blood all over yer face!?”

Eh? Putting a hand to my face, I feel a slick layer over my skin. When I look at my hand, it has some blood on it. But I don’t feel any pain on my face.

“I don’t think it’s mine, I feel fine.”

“Thank the earth!” He exclaims. “But where has that werewolf gone?”

“I don’t know, brother, but we can’t stay here any longer. First, though…”

I flipped Aaron onto his back.

I hear Boaz murmur beside me, “Dear God…”, and I feel the same way. His face is covered in a thick sheet of blood and dirt, along with any other part of his body that was exposed.

“Get out the bandages, I’ll get the booze!”

We both hurry to extract the supplies from our packs. His life be returning to the ground as we speak! Finding the right flask, I start pouring it all over his body, cleaning off the blood and revealing the true extent of the damage. At the same time, Aaron lets out a pained breath.

Good, he is still alive. Looking at his limbs, I breathe a sigh of relief. Nothing serious there, just a whole lot of scratches.

But then I see his face, and my skin starts sweating like a pig over a fire.

“Boaz! I be needing those bandages about now!”

The sounds of rummaging get faster. On his face are four deep wounds, narrowly diverging around one eye, exposing the cartilage of his nose and the bone of his forehead. That nose isn’t going to heal straight without holy magic, and that don’t be an option right now.

“Here!” Boaz says, clapping a roll of clean bandages into my hand. Let’s get to it, then.

After I be done wrapping him up all proper, he be looking strange instead of half-dead.

It’s only then that I finally have a chance to look around. There be a building on fire! No wonder I could see so damn well.

“His sword’s in a hundred pieces! What in the name of stone and steel happened here?”

Boaz’ voice is scarcely louder than a whisper.

“Doesn’t matter, we have to get out of here. We’ve wasted too much time already. Get his legs, we’re carrying him!”

I’d carry him myself, but his feet would drag along the ground. Damn humans and their height!

I grab his arms, Boaz grabs his legs, and we start hightailing it out of there.

(POV Greg)

This whole thing is a bloody mess. A bloody mess, literally.

This was a normal night just an hour ago, how did it all go to hell so quickly? I don’t even want to imagine what would’ve happened had we not been there.

Heck, it was a slaughterhouse even with us there. So many people dead…

Dear God.

But when those special werewolves popped out, and one of them talked, we knew then and there that we had to get the heck out of dodge.

But of course, they weren’t about to let us leave, were they?

No, they decided to send both of those blood red werewolves out at us.

Some idiots tried to fight.

…It didn’t go well for them.

Then somebody shouted ‘run’, and somebody else shouted out ‘split up’. Great idea, we all thought. There are only two of them, they can’t chase all thirty-fo… thirty of us.

We conveniently forgot about the horde of ordinary werewolves just outside the wall. Now that we were routed, they came right back over.

Great. Just great.

So here I am, running for my life from a half-dozen of the damn things, and distracting myself by thinking how screwed up this all is.

On the plus side, this has given me a practical opportunity to try out my ice skating. Went well, managed to get me a good lead on the ones chasing me, what with all these turns in the road I can freeze over and make them slide about.

Unfortunately, werewolves seem to be spreading throughout the city.

Looking for survivors, no doubt.

Looks like I’ll have to leave the entire city. We spend one night here, one night, and the city gets overrun by monsters.

How unlucky can a guy get?

I round the last corner before the city gates, and see a large crowd of people, crying and screaming, all trying to flood out of the gates at once.

Me and my big mouth.

Well, there are other ways to get out of here.

I look for, and find, one of the guard towers. It has stairs up to the wall, and I quickly climb them. I need only to tie a rope to one of the crenellations here, and lower myself down.

Huh, it looks like I’m not the only one here.

There are two dwarves tying some ropes around an unconscious guy and… is that a tower shield? This looks a bit suspicious. Still, I shouldn’t assume anything.

“Need any help there?”

They’re up with weapons at the ready in a flash. Woah. They relax somewhat when they see I’m not one of the werewolves, but they don’t put down their weapons.

One of them says, “Who are yeh?”

“I’m Greg, an adventurer. I’m just trying to get out of here, same as everyone else.” I reply. “What are you doing with that man?”

When they see I have no hostile intentions – I still haven’t drawn my sword – they holster theirs and introduce themselves.

“I’m Jakin and my brother here be Boaz. The man on the shield there is Aaron. He took a swipe from one of the werewolves, and he’s out like a log. So, of course, we have to find a way to get him out of the city.”

He gestures at the man, Aaron. “Hence the shield. We be lowering him down in a moment, if yeh don’t mind…”

With that explained, naturally I don’t.

They start lowering down their assembly on ropes. Slowly. So slowly that I start seeing werewolves trickling towards us from the streets.

It never rains but it pours.

Suddenly, I remember the reason we are up here in the first place. Running back along the wall a bit, a rapidly diminishing, but still sizeable crowd is surging through the gates.

“INCOMING WEREWOLVES!”, I shout before moving back to the dwarves. There is nothing more I can do for them, I’m already running low on mana as it is, and I’ll need every bit of it if I want to have any hope of survival here.

The dwarves, finished lowering Aaron, are knotting the ropes around the battlements to go down themselves.

“Mind if I use the ropes after you?”

Barely sparing a glance at me as he jumps over the battlements, rope in hand, the words “Go ahead” floating in on the wind in his wake. His brother swiftly follows.

Looking over the edge, I see them already touching down at the bottom, starting to work on cutting their friend free.

Now let’s see… when was the last time I went abseiling?

Oh right, never.

Okay, grab the rope, lean backwards over the edge, you can do this Greg.

I feel myself falling, my stomach dropping as my body pivots ninety degrees to its usual orientation. Gravity suddenly feeling very strange.

Still, my feet are still safely on the wall, my grip is strong, and despite my fear I feel perfectly in control of my descent. I start walking backwards down the wall. Very strange, but I can see why some people found it enjoyable.

I’m not enjoying it, however. Why?

Because werewolves.

I’m running away from a bloodthirsty horde, no time to enjoy myself. As to why I abseiled instead of just shimmying down the rope?

Well, I probably won’t get another chance to abseil for a while, so I may as well.

Now, to get out of here…

“I don’t suppose you’d mind me going with you for a while?”

They glance at me. It’s hard to see precisely in this darkness, but it is clear they are probing for any ulterior motives.

He begins saying something, but at that moment we hear a howl from atop the wall and screams coming from the gate. Damn, they’re already this close?

Abruptly, he says, “Very well. Let’s go!”

They begin running while awkwardly carrying him between them.

We don’t have time for that. “Let me carry him!”

immediately, they offloaded him onto me. “Fine, but if yeh let him die, we let you die.”

I just nod, adjusting him on my back as I run.

We can only ignore the sounds of wailing and screaming behind us as we run from the dark tide.

Later, as we pause to rest hours away, I look back at the city. Its silhouette stands outlined against the dark sky with the flickering light of flames spread throughout it.

The city of Ginerbe is no more.

(POV Aaron)

I wake up to a burning pain in my face, arms, legs, and a bit of a dull pain in my torso as well.

Ow.

On top of all that is a gnawing hunger in my stomach, and my mouth feels dry as sand.

Opening my eyes, I see a stretch of fabric above me. Seems we got out of there fine, great.

Unless – plot twist – I’ve actually been captured by someone and am now a slave. I look down at myself.

No restraints, looks like I’m clear. I try to stretch up in a sitting position.

Aaaaand fail. Blood loss SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKS.

Okay, trying again. Aaand, hup! Seated position reached, achievement get.

…I think standing is beyond me right now.

Running my tongue along the inside of my mouth in a futile attempt to moisten them, I crack open my mouth and try saying something. “Foooo… ooood…”

Well, it’s a start.

A short frame ducks under the entrance to the tent. Here I am, head touching the roof while in a seated position, and he barely has to duck.

Judging by the absence of a facial scar, it’s Boaz. “Glad to see yeh aren’t dead. Close call yeh had there.”

“Food”, I moan again.

He chuckles, and hands me a leg of cooked meat. “It’s not much I know, but we don’t have access to anything better right now…”

I don’t hear a word he says, as I’m busy ravenously devouring the meat. I really need to stop getting myself into situations where I’m starving. This is painful.

Next, a drink. Taking a water skin out from my bag, which is conveniently placed beside me, I take a long drink, draining it completely.

Refreshing… apart from that bitter taste of leather. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that.

“So, where are we?”

He shrugs. “Somewhere north of the city. Things were a wee bit crazy last night. We’ll have to check our maps before we go any further. Besides that…” He gives me a deep look. “What happened while we were out?”

I frown, trying to remember further. Perhaps now that I’m not a panicked mess, I can recall something else? Or… not.

“I don’t know myself. The blasted thing was strong. It shattered my sword, clawed my face and looked like it was just about ready to kill me. Then… next thing I know, it’s gone, I’m trying to wake up Jakin, then I’m out again.”

He looks at me for a while, then shifts his gaze. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. We’ll be staying here for a while longer, but we need to move after mid-day. Yeh should get some rest till then.”

He leaves the tent, and I slump back down onto the hard ground, easily falling into sleep.

I get woken up some time later, and start packing up the tent, which the dwarves had taken from my pack. I knew it would be useful at some point.

“Hey Aaron, this is Greg, he’ll be travelling with us fer a while.”

What? What happened while I was unconscious!?