Chpt. 22) On the road again

Ford cast size on Ace, shrinking him to the size of a puppy as he played with his ball. Once the spell finished, he froze and looked at the ball that looked bigger than him now. Ace’s jaw dropped, “The ball got bigger. The ball got bigger! THE BALL GOT BIGGER!!” he yelled as he jumped around excitedly.

Ford cracked a small smile, picked up the ball, and began walking toward the portal, “Heel,” she commanded, and Ace fell into step on the left beside her. They walked out of the portal, and she looked around for where Ee lay in her hammock. Ford approached the hammock and yelled, “Ee, we need to talk!”

“Can’t it wait?” Ee responded from within the hammock.

“No, it can’t.”

Ee sighed, unfurled the hammock, swinging her legs off the side, and asked, “Fine, what do you want?”

“I just found a spell that allows us to teleport anywhere in the world so long as we have the coordinates.”

“And?”

“And! Why didn’t you tell us that so we could skip all this walking and go to each dungeon right away!?”

Ee sighed again, “Okay, I know the spell you are speaking of, so I’ll try to explain,” she raised began to count off with her fingers, “One, the skill you’re talking about at level five will only teleport one person in total, you. Two, I only know the direction of the dungeons and how far they are, not their precise coordinates. Three, because you need to level up before each dungeon, or else there’s a penalty. Four, because fuck you, that’s why.”

Not having any argument for a retort, Ford sighed, “Fuck you too. Anyways,” she then turned to everyone else, “let me introduce you to Ace.”

Ford gestured to him, and Lilly immediately lunged for him and started petting him, “AWWW! Ye jus’ a wee li’le cu’ie aren’ ye!?”

“Yes, I am cute! I am a good boy. Do you have ball?” Ace responded.

“Ye gave him a voice?” Lilly asked as everyone else came to meet the Hellhound.

“Yep, when we finished making him, he could talk, but only to me. Then Morgan built a speaker for him, and now he talks.”

Farah stared at the dog that walked up to her, then back to Ford, “Did you seriously waste our time building this little mutt?! I thought you were making something to replace the horses?!”

Ace walked past Farah to Gimble, and Ford smiled, “Oh, we made something to pull the wagon instead of the horses, alright,” then she released the spell on Ace.

The dog grew to his full three-point six-meter height, and Farah turned, looking shocked at the reveal. Gimble stumbled back as Ace grew taller than him. “Do you have ball?” Ace asked, standing over Gimble.

“Uhh, umm, uhhhh,” Gimble managed to get out before the Twins interrupted.

“HE!”

“IS!”

“AWESOME!!” they yelled as they climbed up the hound’s sides. “What’s his name?” they asked in unison.

“His model number is HK-9, and his name is Ace.”

Then a gentle breeze blew through the camp, and Ace froze, sniffing the air. He turned, facing south, his flames turned red, and growled, “Danger.”

The Twins were the first to react, summoned their rifles, and aimed south. “See anything?” Ford asked over comms.

“It’s hard to tell in the setting light, but.”

“Looks like people. Approximately one point four kilometers away.”

“Don’t know how many. Too many trees. But there’s enough light for them to see by at least.”

Ford nodded, “Break down the camp. We leave now.” She then ran to her tent and threw it and the ball into her void space, and Gimble helped her do the same with the rest of the tents. “Max, Benet, get Ace hooked up with that harness I had the rest of you make,” she commanded.

“Right,” Max said, “Ace, come.” They ran to the wagon. Max and Benet began hooking up a specialized harness to Ace designed for him to pull the wagon. Lilly splashed ice cold water on the fire, and Ford grabbed the food and tea, putting them into her void space.

Max and Benet quickly got the harness attached, finishing when everyone else finished their preparations. Ford hopped onto the front of the wagon with Max and said, “Everyone hold on. Ace, run north!”

Ace moved forward slowly and turned the wagon north, and then he began to slowly gain speed on the dirt road as he pulled with all his might. A horn blew behind them, and Ford cursed, “Shit! They spotted us! Gimble, Morgan, Kii, Mizu, get ready!”

Morgan stood and hefted his shield, planting it in front of himself, Gimble did the same behind him, and the Twins climbed his back and rested their rifles on his shoulders. They waited for the first enemy to come into view as they rode. However, they didn’t have to wait long as war cries roared through the cool evening air and men and women came riding around the corner on horses.

Ford peered over her shoulder at the coming enemies and activated her linchpin skill. Fifteen, level twenty-five enemies came at them, evenly split between knights, paladins, and hunters. She saw no weaknesses to stop them from chasing other than highlighting the road. “Max,” she said, grabbing her by the arm, “Make a wall on the road behind us. That should at least slow them down enough for us to get away.”

“Right,” she said and hopped into the back of the wagon with her staff. She pointed it at the ground and created a wall of granite three meters wide and three tall, then did the same four more times.

The war cries quickly faded into the distance and Kii said, “Alright, we’re safe now.”

Ford nodded and relaxed her body, facing forward. “You good to keep going for a while Ace?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Ford nodded again, “Good. We’ll go for a while longer then stop and eat. Then keep going.” Everyone agreed and they began to relax their bodies, but kept their weapons drawn.

***