- Day 21 -

Ogres, Part 2

For the past two days, I’ve been stuck in the back of this damn wagon with Emily, not that I mind her company, that’s not it. Short of when we stop to make camp for the night, I have been condemned to this location. Everyone refuses to switch positions with me for even a minute. While I agree that Emily doesn’t deserve a say in where she gets to sit after being allowed to come with us until we reach the walled city of Asuria, but I’m the damn team leader here!

If I’m being fair, Risk and Bella do make a perfectly sound argument for my current position, on the surface anyway. Being dark skinned, it’s pretty easy to tell I’m a dark elf even at a distance. Sure, enemy scouts and general arseholes can quickly identify me, and I don’t disagree one bit that we shouldn’t try and conceal my identity from prying enemy eyes, so keeping me back here makes sense. But, and it’s a damn big but! We’re travelling around in a brand-new bright-freaking-red with silver-trim merchant wagon with four noble-tanned horses! It’s pretty damn obvious who we are to anyone looking for us or looking to rob us! So why am I accepting this!?

“Risk, we’re changing seats! I’m not sitting back here in the dark for even one minute more--”

Emily looked up at me with a confused look before sniffing at her shoulder. Don’t worry my dear, it’s not you, it’s me.

“We discussed this”, Risk chirps back with a slight chuckle, “With you up here, we’ll only garner unwanted attention. Look, we’re almost at the cave, just bear with it a little longer will you.”

“I can hear you sniggering for crying out loud. I swear, if you don’t want me plotting revenge, you’ll swap seats with me!”

“Fine, fine”, Risk pulls the tarp open, clamouring in and holding it open for me, “Go on, we’re on an old dirt track so it should be fine for now.”

“For now? How long have we been on this road?”

“Not long, a couple of hours maybe...”

Risk lets his voice trail off at the end as he watches my right eye twitch at his words.

“Really…”

I feel myself taking a deep breath. Hold it, suppress the desire to kill!

“I see... You know this isn’t the end of this right?”

“Just get up there already will you, and quit complaining.”

The smile on your face betrays your attempts at annoyance Risk, but okay, I’m going. I’ll get my own back, just see if I don’t.

Ahhh! Fresh air!! Sunlight! Oh! How I’ve missed you so! Wind, how I take you for granted, ah!

I catch Katharine giggle at me.

“Hey, you try being trapped in the back of the wagon for two days straight!”

She doesn’t respond, choosing to give a smile while nodding instead. It’s a damned conspiracy I tell you, they’re all in on it!

...The last time we stopped for food, I asked Katharine if she wanted me to power her up. She naturally agreed but requested I make her a lot faster, so I put more than half her 88 points in AGI.

Katharine Amelia de Armstrong

HP: 3626 / 3626 MP: 1301 / 1301 ST: 5000 / 5000

Level: 64 STR 50 AGI 90 STA 50 VIT 40 PER 13 INT 16 WIS 15 STAT Points: 0

Bella is still quicker than her, but I honestly think Risk wouldn’t be able to handle her at this point, mainly because Katharine is a technically sound fighter with very few bad habits, though there’s still the combat experience gap--

“That’s the cave just ahead”, Bella calls out from the left of the wagon, “Katharine, go on ahead and scout it out would you? Just a quick look and report back what you see. We’ll need to make sure the area is clear before we bring the cart up and make camp outside it. Sybil, we’ll stop here and let everyone stretch their legs while we wait.”

But...but I only just got to ride up front!

Sybil pulls the reins to slow the horses to a stop, getting a nay from one of the horses as she does. Risk and Emily immediately hop off the back as the wagon stops--

“Everyone, arm yourselves!”

“You spot something Aburi.”

Bella asks while pulling her horse in front of Sybil.

“Spot, no. Smell, yes. Blood, and lots of it”, I point behind Bella, “It’s coming from over there.”

Two distinct sources, but not human from what I can tell. Human blood has an oddly sweet smell to me, and this smells more sour and chalky… Ah, opportunity!

[Spectral Shadow]

HP: 5440 / 5440 MP: 29,279 / 31,279 ST: 3626 / 3626

Seizing the opportunity to use one of my newly mastered spells, I push mana into my hand before pulling at Bella’s horses’ shadow, invoking the spell to generate a small silhouette of her horse in my hand. I begin to imbue it with more and more mana before gripping it tightly and throwing it away from my chest, into the woodland area behind her. As I do, the silhouette starts to grow bigger and bigger until reaching the same size as a normal horse… It doesn’t look like a normal horse, nor like the one from whom I drew it, as it stands looking back at me, purple-grey and a mane shimmering various shades of hot pink; A shadowmere with glowing purple eyes.

“Go, check it out.”

I command the beast as it gives a quick snort in response before charging off towards the source of the blood filling the air.

“That’s different… Last time it was a human-like figure, yet this time it’s a horse?”

Bella asks while patting her slightly rattled horse. Her question is to be expected as she and the others have been observing me lately while I experimented with my spells while we camped for the last two nights, but I never stopped to explain any of them.

“Yeah, the shadow I pull from is indicative of the shape of the spell. It’s a useful skill as I’ll be able to look through its eyes from here safely… Speaking of which, shouldn’t Katharine be back by now?”

I ask, slightly concerned. She only went up ahead to scout the cave entrance, some 200 odd metres away, which shouldn’t have taken her more than a couple of minutes being on horseback and all.

“Hm, I wonder what’s taking her so damn long… I’ll go check on her. Risk, you good?”

“Yeah, I’ve got the rear Bella.”

“Then, I guess I better take the front”, I say while jumping off the wagon, donning my chainmail and spear as Bella gallops off towards the cave along the dirt path.

“Should I take the tarp down”, Emily asks, “Sybil and I will be able to cover you from up there if I do.”

It’s a good idea.

“Do it, but do it quickly and pay attention to the tree line.”

Emily gives a single nod before taking to the task, pulling Sybil along to help her. They make short work of the tarp and structs, taking up overwatch positions on the back of the now open wagon with bows.

As we wait on Bella fetching Katharine from the path to the cave ahead, I can’t help but notice that the forest seems oddly silent, almost as if devoid of life. The usual song of flocking birds and various nesting creatures is absent from the ambience of the rushing wind through the trees.

“This… doesn’t bode well”, I mutter to myself while keeping my eyes on the tree line.

[** Summoned spirit has found a point of interest **]

Ah, thanks AE, I’ll connect now--

As I close my eyes to see what it sees, I bear witness to a grim setting. It’s a crime scene, that’s for sure, with dark claret and bright-green blood mixed into one another, dripping from pretty much every tree and pooling on every surface. There are no corpses anywhere, but many of the trunks of the trees are cracked, pushed over or damaged with fresh torn wood exposed.

A hell of a fight between two very different, huge types of creature took place here and recent too, none of the blood looks coagulated… Judging from the damaged trees, the fight either progressed towards the cave or away south-east of it… I’ll send the shadowmere south-east for now as Katharine and Bella are both already towards the cave entrance.

I open my eyes, disconnecting from the spell to see Bella returning to us from the path to the cave with Katharine in tow, eventually joining us and stopping just in front of the cart, beside one another.

“You are not going to believe what we’ve found up there”, Katharine quips.

“Try us”, Risk shouts from the back, “But quickly might be wise, something is making my skin itch.”

Hmm, now Risk mentions it, I have the same feeling. Like somethings watching me intently...

“The den mother we’re here to hunt? It’s already dead”, Katharine pauses a moment, “Looks like it was ripped apart by something and recent too. Probably moments before we got here.”

...

“Katharine… The wounds on the corpse. Were they like deep puncture marks?”, I ask, keeping my sight firmly fixed.

“Yes, how did you know?”, Bella replies instead, having noticed my concern.

“Because that would certainly explain the giant snake looking right at me, right now.”

Bella quickly rears her horse to face the same direction, bumping into Katharine's as she does. Her sudden jerking movement, coupled with a loud hiss and visage of the giant snake is too much for her horse, spooking it and throwing her off. Katharine manages to rear her horse into control but dismounts, all the same, running to stand beside me, drawing her blade as she does.

“W-Why isn’t is attacking?”, Katherine asks.

“I don’t know, but we’ve been locked-eyed since I spotted it…”, I reply, keeping my gaze firmly on it, “I think… I think it’s unsure it can beat us.”

Name: Greater Azure Serpent [Demonic Aura]

Race: Nagi

Level: 201

HP: 68% MP: 42% ST: 27%

“What makes you say that”, Bella, having pulled her herself up onto her feet and now standing beside Katharine, asks while gesturing to Risk, who has also joined us, for a weapon.

Because I’m not sure, I can cleanly beat it either? I can literally feel it’s mana oozing from that [Demonic Aura] which tells me that my spells will be nowhere near as effective as they usually would be against her with it up. She’s clearly hurt though, so I probably would win… Wait, her? She? What makes me think it’s a female?

...Ah. I see. So that’s how it is.

“Oi, go now. If you leave, we won’t attack you. We’re here for the one you killed, not you. Go.”

“Aburi?”

“It’s fine Katharine, look to the left of it, but don’t make any sudden moves when you do.”

The snake-thing seems to understand my offer and whips its tail at the two smaller snake creatures beside her, pushing them back into the forest but never once averting its gaze from me.

“Young?”

“Yeah. I’m guessing the ogres thought they had hunted dinner, only to piss off a mother with a bitch of a temper.”

The snake and I continue to keep our eyes locked as she retreats backwards. She sulks lower and lower until she’s completely invisible to my sight. I continue to watch the tree line regardless for a good ten minutes with everyone in total silence. Risk eventually decides it’s safe and breaks it to speak.

“Well, it’s gone. Now what?”

“I guess we go and collect the den mother corpse. After that… I don’t know honestly.”

This was meant to be a trial run before Aslogia, but some inconsiderate snake-thing had to go and save her children and ruin it all… I honestly don’t know what we do next? There might still be some ogres in the cave, but it’s more likely they were eaten or fled...

“Lova’s nearby”, Bella speaks up while sticking Risks generated broadsword into the ground, “We could always hunt some Orcs?”

Orcs? The Green muscle-men or overweight human-sized pink pigmen? I wonder which ‘Orc’ exists in this world?

“Bella, those bastards swarm in the hundreds”, Risk states while shaking his head, “There’s a bloody good reason Lova is a no go area. The territory was ceded to them aeons ago.”

Oh? Well, that makes me curious. AE, we have anything on this?

[** Displaying information via optic-nerve interface **]

...I see. So it's a pigmen-type then. Bigger than most humans, but also a lot less agile. They tend to be strong but not overly clever. They pretty much always outnumber and swarm in large groups, boasting lower human-like intellect and resourceful battle tactics. Interesting.

AE, show me this ‘Lova’ area.

[** Generating **]

“What the--”, “Whoa”, “A map?”, Bella, Katharine and Risk state in unison.

“Ah, sorry. Don’t mind it. I just want to check something. Bear with me.”

Zoom in... Show me this area, but give me a geological overview instead… This could work.

“Risk is right. Orcs will be difficult to hunt, but what if we let them hunt us?”

“Hunt us? ...Ah, I see Aburi. You want to camp in their territory and let them come to us?”

“Precisely Risk. They swarm, so let’s let them. Look here”, I point to a section of the map on the ground, “This hilly, mountainous range is maybe two, three hours inside their territory and is pretty much impassable, but right here is an overhang that sits pretty much right above this river. Visible from two-seventy degrees, virtually impossible to climb and only has this one gully entrance-way here. No clear path to climb and too high for ground arrows to hit us. We make it to that location, reinforce that gulley, and it’s like a repeat of the goblins all over again. We negate their numbers and force them to charge in, allowing us to butcher them... Though, I will admit we have to first make it to this mountain for this to work--”

“[Warp]”, Katharine jumps in, “The town of Gillia is just up the road. If we head there first, stable the horses and cart, we could travel using short [warp]s like you did to catch us in Axxen. We could probably get there undetected, right? Would you have enough mana to do that?”

AE, show me Gillia.

[** Redrawing **]

“We’ll need to stop to rest here, and here. Twice total, but my mana will hold up using [Mass Warp] in short jumps. Returning from the overhang to Gillia would only take a single warp though.”

Though I admit to being slightly concerned doing multiple [Warp]’s with others as I don’t know what sort of mental damage it will incur to everyone… Meh, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

We all pause to look to Risk who seems deep in thought. It takes him a moment to notice our gaze.

“…I can’t actually argue with this”, Risk places his hand on his chin, ”If the map is accurate that is, we can certainly control the pace there, and their out-matched numbers would mean nothing...”

“Then I guess that’s a seal of approval--”

“Not quite, Aburi”, he interrupts, “If we do this, you can’t fight. You’ll be the support, and I’ll lead this one. If I call retreat, you’ll warp us all out of there.”

I have no reason to argue with his request. The purpose of this side-op originally was to help everyone further develop as a team. I’ll still get EXP on the sidelines as we’re in a party, and I can still cast the odd spell when no one's watching if I get bored… Besides, I can use [Hellfire] should the need arise, rather than warping everyone away.

“Fine. I can live with that, but once we get to Aslogia--”

“You’ll be the commander. That’s your show, I agreed to your terms already, but this one's mine.”

I can’t help but smile and nod.

“Then let’s get that head and get to it.”

As we set to task, I can’t help but let my mind wander off as usual. With Gillia being only a couple of hours from the den mother’s cave, it’s probable that its the origin of the request from the adventurers guild. It’s likely that the Beth Ogres caused a lot of problems for the local livestock farmers and is why they put up a petition in the first place.

I do regret it, taking the request I mean, Risk was right in saying that I would, though its for a reason I didn’t expect. The den mother is probably the ugliest, fattest, blop of a monster I could never imagine. It stunk to high heaven of an odour similar, but somehow worse, than one-hundred fourteen-year-old pubescent boys who had not showered in months, compressed into a single creature. I struggled to hold my lunch down as I took its head from its shoulders, a head that was larger than a horse I might add. I easily see now why Risk didn’t want to fight it. If I see that snake again, I’ll remember to thank it for its service.

We left shortly after that for Gillia, a small town with medium-sized walls. The town is lined with white plastered, red-roofed wooden houses that spiral out from the town square in the centre, giving a total of eight distinct districts and a curved road towards the city walls for each district. I doubt I’ll be here long enough to explore, but the town does have a pleasant quaint vibe to it.

After we located a stable, I left the others to sort the stable rental and cart storage and headed for the local adventurers' branch to turn in the quest and upgrade my rank.

The adventurer’s branch here is nothing like the large one in the Capital, it's just a medium-sized wooden open-plan room with no windows, poor light and quite in need of renovation. It’s more populated than the Capital though, with at least ten adventurers dotted around talking to staff. They’re all well-armed and averaging level forty-six, which surprised me a little. I know it shouldn’t though, this line of work requires skill after all, but they’re significantly stronger than most humans in this kingdom I’ve come across to date… Makes more sense to me now why the King wanted the adventurers to help in the last expedition.

After rejoining the team, we left the town on foot, heading towards the Lova region. Shortly outside Gillia, we happened across a small lumber yard which gave me an idea. It turned out that lumber is quite expensive though, but I decided the investment would still be worth it and purchased eighty trunks for sixteen gold kings.

Gold Kings x92 -> 76 Long Wooden Logs x80

*Blink*

“What are you planning to use all that for?”

Katharine asks as I store the wood.

“You’ll have to wait and see, but collect all the straw or dry grass you come across.”

“A fire then”, Risk interjects, “It’ll certainly make our presence known, a fire of that size.”

“Indeed, though you’ve ruined the surprise. Should speed up the welcoming party.”

“You gave it away when you told us to collect dry grass.”

...Fair point.

We continued on for a few more hours on foot until we entered the ‘Lova’ territory. Continuing on foot from here would likely spoil the plan, so we proceeded further using multiple mini-warps. Katharine was indeed correct, by utilising this method we should be able to arrive more-or-less wholly undetected. Giving us plenty of time to set up and prepare to receive guests.

When we came to a large open area, I decided to stop to recover my mana and check on everyone’s health. Aside from the wooziness caused by the jumps, everyone seems to be fine and sane, which is good, though I’ll need to keep an eye on them for subtle changes...

Having actually stopped [warp]ing, I can’t help but notice that this region of Sinki has an odd climate. Although still clearly within Sinki, there’s a lot more moisture in the air than before. It’s also like a tropical climate with its humid heat. The wildlife is also different, new variants of plants I’m all too familiar with lay dotted all over. Part of me wants to turn on [Herbalists Eye] and go on a collecting spree, but I’ll refrain from doing so as I know the others wouldn’t appreciate stopping every thirty seconds while I dig up some new plant. I doubt the orcs would let me either, now I mention it.

After proceeding on, stopping once again for mana refill and proceeding, eventually we reach the area-of-operation, overlooking the nearby river--

“It’s as your map showed”, Risk comments, crouching down to pick up some dirt before throwing it away, “This will work well… Perhaps set the fire there?”

“Yeah”, I nod towards him, ”though we should wait till nightfall to light it for it to have the biggest impact.”

“True. I’ll leave that to you and Sybil then?”, He asks as I preemptively nod again, “Then Katherine and Emily, could you set up the tents? Bella and I will see to the entrance way.”

The entranceway is the most crucial task in all of this. Our footing needs to be clear of rocks, as level as possible and well lit. It’s the only point of entry, and if we throw all the loose stones into it, it’ll further hamper the approaching Orcs, slowing their pace, or breaking a few legs if we’re lucky.

*bink*

I begin to stack the logs in a large open square, using [Void Ripper] to shred a couple of logs into chippings to use as kindling to get the fire started later--

“Do we really need to use all those logs?”, Emily asks, having finished helping Katharine setup the single tent we bought with us.

“More fuel, bigger fire. Plus, it’s likely going to rain tonight. The fire needs to be more than just lit if it’s to weather a downpour.”

I’ll admit to being slightly concerned by the overcast sky. Combine it with this wet-heat and a strong smell of ozone, that coming downpour might actually be a tropical rainstorm…

By the time we finish preparing the rather large fire, the sun had already begun to sink below the horizon, giving a blazing orange hue that struggles to break through the overcast dark-grey evening sky.

“Risk, I’m going to light this now, that cool with you?”

He is in charge of this op after all, only right to ask.

Risk gives me the thumbs up, so I set to it. It took me far longer than I care to admit to get the flint to catch a flame, but when I did, it didn’t take long for the tower of dry-wood to start spewing out bellows of white-grey smoke.

“That’ll get attention”, Risk comments returning from the gulley, “We’re all set over there as well, but we should put up some torches too. I plan to slingshot lumi stones over the field once the fighting starts, but backup lighting would be prevalent... Something wrong Aburi?”

“Wrong?”

“You look concerned about something.”

“I am”, I look to the sky, “It’s going to rain shortly… Though I doubt it’ll be a simple shower, that smell keeps getting stronger.”

“Smell? What smell?”

“That sweetness on the air? It’s ozone. It comes before rain, only it’s not normally this strong. I’ve only smelt it this strongly a night before I witnessed forked lightning for the first time during a storm that scared the shit out of me--”

“I know what smell you’re talking about, but honestly Aburi, I don’t smell anything.”

Hmm. I know what I smell… I think I’ll make some drainage channels in the gully, just in case I’m right about this.

...

With the sun completely set, the fire hisses, roars and cracks with an enormous flame, fully ablaze, illuminating the darkness around the entire overhang. The heat emanating from it is so hot that all of us have been relegated to the outer rim of the overhang, near the tent--

“I told you”, Emily chirps, “Too much wood!”

“Yes, well, that flame is definitely going to get spotted isn’t it, and that’s the idea, so it’s fine!”

I retort while handing out some of Millie’s cooking from storage. Sausage and onion hotpot--

“How long do you think we’ll need to wait”, Katharine asks, looking towards Risk.

“Well, Aburi’s right. A flame that high will definitely not go unnoticed. A few hours would be my guess”, he points to the east, “I noticed it before the sunset, but there’s definitely two Orc camps in that direction, and one over there. We’re completely visible here and inside all three’s territories. They’ll definitely come to kill us before dawn, it’s their nature.”

As Risk finishes speaking, a rain droplet hit the end of my nose--

“Rain?”, Emily jumps up, taking shelter under the tent

“Just a bit of drizzle, calm--”

Risk calls over at her, standing up himself but being cut off by a thunderous crack as the sky flashes brightly with a streak of white.

“Lightning... As I thought, we’re in for a storm Risk. Do you want to call this off?”

“I guess you were right… How bad is it going to get?”

“I have no idea, I’m not a shaman. It might run for a few minutes, hours or it might rain for a couple of days. I honestly don’t know.”

“Will it affect your ability to warp us out of here?”

“No, but we’re going to get very wet if we stay. Visibility will also be reduced, and that fire is likely to eventually go out. That said, it’ll turn that gully into a rapid, what with the channels I dug earlier.”

“So, you’re saying we’ll have yet another advantage if we stay?”

Well, the orcs can see in the dark, you all can’t, and the rain isn’t likely an obstacle to them, but the terrain will be almost impossible to overcome…

“More or less, yes...”

“Then we stay--”

Risk is interrupted by yet another booming sound, but it’s not from any lightning. A chain of loud, high-pitched squeals are meshed together with a singular, ground shaking deep roar of something huge and commanding.

“War cries!”, Bella jumps to her feet, her excitement clearly evident on her face, “Finally, I was getting bored!”

“As we talked about”, Risk generates a spear and small arm shield, donning it on his left arm while aiming his spear to the gully, “Take up formation. Emily and Sybil, slingshot those lumistones into the passage then switch to arrows and just keep firing down range.”

“Right”, “Okay”

“Kathrine take the right, Bella, left--”

“I’ll stay here and eat my food.”

I interrupt Risk to cause some amusement.

“You do that... But help out if you see us struggling to maintain the line.”

“Will do boss. I’ll also watch the ridge, in the unlikely event that a porker manages to climb it. Good luck!”