Lucas couldn’t see anything in that unflinching darkness beyond the campfire, but he sure as hell heard it. Three distinct roars constantly cried out in communication with each other. It was funny that he could tell each one apart; normally, he didn’t think he would’ve been able to tell one bestial snarl from another. But here, he could. One of the monsters’ voices was extremely deep and guttural, ready to pounce on its prey (IE, him). Another sounded a bit weaker and timid – no doubt it was only here because it had to be. The last one was eager, and it frightened him the most. Lucas figured that was the type of sound a monster made when it enjoyed hunting, enjoyed eating, enjoyed killing.

And it was the closest one to the rest stop.

The wagon horses were making a frenzied neighing now, too. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that those beasts of burden would’ve bolted if they had the opportunity, but something was keeping them here. The carriage driver had left them tied to the carriage, so it was odd that they couldn’t run away with it-- after all it wasn’t like they were tied to a tree or anything. To Lucas’s untrained eye, there was nothing preventing them from sprinting out of here with the wagon. But instead, all could do was kick up the dirt beneath their hooves and neigh bloody murder.

All the racket woke up the carriage driver, who was shouting from the wagon things like “what’s going on?” and “what’s that noise?” Before Lucas could even begin to answer that question, the adventurer grabbed him by the hem of his shirt and tossed him into the wagon bed.

[HP 46/55]

And then came the very unhelpful system message. Yes, he knew his back hurt like heck after a landing like that, no he didn’t need a notification telling him he took exactly 9 points of damage from it. He got it. He was hurt. Thanks, system.

He crash landed on a bunch of boxes, breaking them and spilling their contents of furs and foodstuffs. Unfortunately, while furs and foodstuffs are generally soft, the boxes holding them were not, and did nothing to soothe his landing.

“Get those horses running, driver!” the adventurer shouted as he jumped into the wagon bed.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” the driver said, and with a snap of his fingers, the horses sprinted off, carrying the three of them.

Lucas thought that would be the end of it. After all, these horses were galloping as fast as they could, at speeds he didn’t think horses were capable of. But the roars didn’t let up. Well, to be precise, the timid sounding one obviously stopped giving chase, presumably to look around the rest stop they just ran from, but the two other roars still sounded close – in fact, it sounded like they were getting closer. Whatever was chasing them was fast. Really, really fast.

“Calm the horses down before they crash!” the adventurer barked another order at the carriage driver.

“I’m trying!” the driver said, frantically snapping his fingers, but the horses weren’t listening. They were bent on trying to outrun whatever was chasing them, and they were losing.

“So much for being a walking, talking monster repellent!” Lucas screamed over the horses and the roars and the clamor of the wagon. He couldn’t help himself at this point. If he was going to die, he wanted to get one last snark in. There wasn’t a great reason for it, but in a world where nothing had gone the way he wanted, doing something for himself was reason enough – even if it wasn’t good.

The adventurer ignored his sass, and instead chose to mutter something under his breath. When he finished mumbling, a bow appeared in his hand, like it had been there the whole time. Now, Lucas had always imagined magical bows to appear more majestic – carved with Elf runes, glowing white sigils, delicately curved. You know, it’d look like an artifact that belonged in a museum of some sort.

That man’s bow was nothing like that, although perhaps it could belong in a museum – a freak museum, that is. It was colored a blue so dark it was almost black. The wood it was made of was gnarled and twisted, curling in on itself over and over again. The frame of the bow was nowhere near perfect, either – it looked like it had been made by some amateur craftsman who had never made nor seen a bow before.

Without saying a word, the man pulled back the string on the bow – which, if it was as macabre as the rest of the weapon, was probably made out of crocodile intestines or something – and manifested an arrow. Yes, the arrow also appeared out of thin air. Lucas was starting to see why a guy like this was A-rank. He could just do whatever he wanted, couldn’t he. The world just bent over for him, gave him everything he desired. A high-paying job where he got hired by nobles, Intimidating armor, super strength, magical bows that gave him a seemingly infinite amount of ammo, yes indeed.

Lucas’ life might be on the line right now, sure, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have time to envy the guy in front of him. He had it made. Meanwhile, all Lucas could do was… stare out into the night and still not see whatever was attacking him. Could sure as hell still hear it, though. Those wet, gut-wrenching cries.

Without warning, the man let loose his arrow. The bowstring made a deep and heavy twang as its shot pierced the darkness. But for all its grandeur, and for all the adventurer’s dramatic grandstanding, it seemed like the shot missed. The roars kept getting closer, and neither of them sounded pained or even slightly inconvenienced.

The adventurer clicked his tongue.

“Shit,” he said.

“What?” Lucas asked.

“These are some smart aprumbears,” the adventurer grumbled.

“Aprumbears? All the way out here?” the driver asked. The horses hadn’t calmed down at all, but he had given up snapping.

“Yes.”

“Why did they leave the forest?”

“I don’t know!” the adventurer said, frustrated. “This hasn’t happened before!”

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” The driver continued his parade of questions. Hey, at least Lucas didn’t have to be the one asking them this time. He was thankful that someone else was playing the role of dumb idiot who knew nothing about what was going on.

“I’m thinking!” the adventurer screamed.

And then Lucas saw them. They were running right behind the carriage now, those gigantic balls of fur and muscle. One of them was almost as tall as Lucas was, while it was running. If that monstrosity stood on its hind legs, it would’ve no doubt been at least 11 ft tall. The second one was just barely smaller than that. These things were certainly bears, that’s for sure – huge ones, and ones with boar heads instead of bear heads. Another sign of this sadistic mix between bear and boar was the red mane that ran atop the creature’s back; distinctly different from the brown fur that the bear had covering the rest of its body. The tusks on those things were a menace too, curved and dirty with saliva. There was small relief in the fact that the larger bear was missing their right tusk. Sure, that meant that if Lucas stayed to its right, then the chances of him being gored were smaller. But that thing didn’t need tusks to kill him.

The beasts snarled and bared their teeth at Lucas while they slowly gained on the wagon – suffice to say that neither of them had a great dental plan. Their teeth were yellowed and their gums were infested with black and green spots. It looked like the smaller one even had a bit of meat from its last kill stuck between its teeth.

“I’m not going to go down without a fight,” the adventurer breathlessly said one of the most cliché lines Lucas knew of. Couldn’t the man at least say something original before they all horribly died?

With a flick of his wrist, the adventurer made his bow disappear. He muttered another chant, flicked his other wrist, and out popped a sword. A wooden sword, made of the same stuff his bow had been made of. Although tree-flesh would be the last thing Lucas would want to make a sword out of, at least its edges looked sharp.

“Screw this,” Lucas said, laughing. Why was he laughing? He was going to die! For real this time! These things were horrifying! But he had to do something.

“Anyone have any mana potions?” Lucas screamed.

“No,” his companions both said at the same time. Great. He had wanted to cast an [Ice Lance] and skewer at least one of these things, but that wasn’t an option anymore. He didn’t have enough MP or HP to do that, and these idiots didn’t pack any magic potions on a wagon with a mage. Why did nothing ever go his way here? Seriously. [Ice Spear] would have to be enough.

“Keep them off me!” Lucas shouted and began focusing his magic. He really should’ve cast this spell earlier. If he made it out of this alive, he was going to slap himself silly for not taking action earlier.

One of the bears lunged at Lucas, its mouth wide open, ready to take a bite out of him. Lucas flinched away, and the adventurer chopped his sword down on the monster. The less-than-brutal swing wasn’t anything elegant, but Lucas didn’t expect anything less from the man. Someone armored up like that wasn’t going to have some secret sword dance or whatever, and it wasn’t like there was room in the wagon for such a grandeur swing anyway.

It roared in pain and immediately pulled back away from the wagon. The adventurer next to him cursed, as his sword got tangled in the bear’s fur. Great, now they were without a weapon. Fantastic.

“Are you almost done?” the adventurer shouted at him.

Before Lucas could respond, the second bear made its move. Instead of attacking Lucas or the adventure, however, it decided to crunch down on the wagon’s rear end. The dumb beast couldn’t even tell that the wagon wasn’t edible. There was no way he was going to let himself be eaten by a beast that couldn’t tell the difference between something that was alive and edible and something that was dead.

“Done!” Lucas shouted, and his trusted pal and friend [Ice Spear] showed up. He couldn’t see it, but he knew it was there, floating above the wagon’s canopy. Or was it a roof? Do wagons have canopies or roofs?

A thought for later.

“Get bent!” Lucas shouted as he threw his magic. The spear lodged itself into the big bear’s shoulder, crippling it. It let out a pained roar as it tripped over itself and fell behind, back into the darkness from whence it came. It was so dissatisfying. He’d aimed for the big one’s head, but the sway of the wagon must’ve interfered with his magic’s aim or something, since he hadn’t had any problems aiming his magic before now.

[HP 45/55]

[MP 0/38]

“Now get the other one!” The adventurer shouted.

“Isn’t this supposed to be your job?” Lucas screamed back at him. He didn’t want to do it, but he started prepping another [Ice Spear]. Instead of draining his magic, it the spell ate at his HP, and he slowly began to feel worse and worse. His muscles got sorer, his brain became foggy, and his vision became cloudy.

“I’m terrible at fighting! I just keep the monsters away!” The adventurer angrily shouted back at him. It surprised him that the man managed to sound so angry while saying something so pathetic. He really was just a walking monster repellent. He should’ve known that as soon as the guy conjured a wooden sword of all things. The last bear lunged at the wagon again, and again it bit out another piece of it. Lucas was grateful for the small things here, at least. If that bear was even slightly smarter, it’d be attacking him right now.

“You’re a strong guy! You threw me like 10 feet!” Lucas retorted.

“Stop sassing me and cast your spell, magician!” the adventurer screamed back.

Right, why was he sassing him right now? He had work to do. After dramatically waving his hand, his second [Ice Spear] plunged downwards onto the bear, skewering its back. Again, he’d aimed for the head, and again he’d missed, but the bear stopped running after letting out an aggravated howl.

Safe. For now, at least.

Well, as safe as 25 HP could be, anyway.