The Elder Lands

Chapter 14

Lucan crept between two aging trees, avoiding shrubs that were tall and entangled enough to rustle with noise. His eyes moved constantly from side to side, seeking either oddity or movement. His open-faced helmet was thankfully not impeding his vision. He never used visored helmets as they always made him feel suffocated, no matter how much his father tried to force the feeling out of him through training.

A dozen yards to his left, Lee crept just as quietly. And to his right, one of Sir Wolfe’s men-at-arms moved at the same pace. The knight and most of his men were spread farther to the right but Lucan couldn’t see him.

The sun wasn’t yet at its zenith, so while there was light, it was sparse and choppy, the thickness of the forest restraining a significant part of it.

They had been moving deeper and deeper into the forest for a while now. Their incursion had begun with a more relaxed approach until the hunter had pointed out the spot where he’d sighted the monsters. Since then, they’d spread out with the purpose of finding more evidence of their presence before regrouping for an attack.

Lucan glanced to his right, making sure the man-at-arms was still there and wasn’t signaling him to stop. Then he glanced to his left where he saw old Lee watching the forest intently as though the beasts could spawn out of thin air. By happenstance, Lucan also got a glimpse of the man-at-arms that was a dozen yards beyond Lee. The man seemed well enough.

Lucan resumed his creeping, a wide grip of tension closing on his heart. It began at his stomach and it felt as if the muscles were perpetually contracting, then it moved up and up, grasping his chest and heart in a strain of exertion and pain. He’d only ever felt like this when he’d managed to achieve some unique disaster so distinct that he hadn’t known what his father would do to him. Except, this time, it was more intense, because at least back then he could see his father coming.

After a few steps forward, he and Lee stopped at the same time. There was a burrowing sound like that of a hare tunneling underground. Lucan searched the ground around him, looking for the source of the noise. However, it stopped as fast as it’d started. The pair of them stayed in place for a few moments, until the spread-out line of men began to get ahead of them, so they moved to catch up.

It only took a bit more searching for the noise to return with vengeance. This time it was coming from ahead, loud enough for the others to hear it, and it was getting louder as it approached them. Those Lucan could see all stopped, including him and Lee who raised his shield and braced himself. Lucan had forgone the use of a shield to preserve his mobility specially with the Star, and now feeling exposed with only a sword in his hand, he regretted it.

Ahead of them, earth began to explode up and out of the ground. Growls and snarls sounded out of the shrubs where the earth moved. No sooner had they heard them than the beasts stepped out of concealment. Each one was nearly as large as a bear, though they looked sleeker, their heads and gait like that of hyenas, and their hide sick purple on gray.

A whistle went out of the man-at-arms on Lucan’s right, likely to alert those far enough to have missed the occurrence. The beasts didn’t give them much time after that, dashing towards them.

One of them honed in on Lucan, charging him, the skin on its snout folded in fury and its fangs bared in a bloody promise. Lucan gazed at its eyes, and he felt as if he owed it a blood debt that could never be repaid, because he only saw vicious anger in there. But most important of all, they were the eyes of a creature that knew what it was going to do. Lucan didn’t. The fearful grip that had been confined to his chest spread into his limbs and his body froze. Only his eyes were tracking the amalgamation of death that was coming towards him. Something was painfully stuck in his throat, making his eyes tear up, yet he still watched it as it ate up the distance between them, and he watched it as it leapt at him, and as a studded boot kicked it out of the air and to the side.

Lee, the old man-at-arms, came up to him, gripping his shoulder and looking him in the eyes for a brief moment before glancing around them to check for threats.

Lucan’s breath came back to him and his limbs unlocked themselves allowing him to move. “I-I don’t…”

“It’s alright,” Lee’s voice entered his ears, calm and wise, and experienced. “Everyone freezes up the first time. Focus. Do what you were trained to do for years, Lucan, and let the blade do the rest. You don’t have to wrestle the creature, just sink your blade into it before it gets close to you.

Lucan nodded quickly, even as he imagined it sinking its fangs into him. Another beast was creeping up from the direction Lee had come from, and the man-at-arms turned around to face it, taking out his mace even as he raised his round shield.

Lucan turned to his own quarry as it shook itself off after getting up. It eyed Lee’s back before it refocused on him, its spittle flying out, some of it sticking to its teeth as it snarled. Then it charged him again.

Lucan stepped forward, securing his footing and quickly eying the terrain around him. The beast was halfway to him when he activated the Star. And it was almost upon him when he prepared his sword for the opportunity he was about to create.

It leapt at him once more. At the same moment, Lucan moved to the point of the star to his right, letting the beast tackle thin air. And before it could reorient itself, Lucan had turned around and moved back to the center of his star, now behind it and his sword pulled back for a vicious swing.

As soon as he found his balance, his slash took the monster in the hip while it was turning around. It went through hide, muscle, and…stopped, the bony joint in his blade’s path cracking but not giving way.

The beast tried to free itself of the blade and Lucan’s breath caught in panic. Before he could make a wiser decision, he activated his Wraith Strike, slicing through the rest of the creature’s hip sideways.

Lucan swallowed through a dry throat, eying the beast. With no back legs, it lay on the ground, helpless and bleeding to death. Words came into his vision, but he remembered the rather humiliating warning from Thomas and dismissed them.

He glanced around. The rest of their party had converged on their position, fighting several of the beasts. He quickly spotted another of the monsters nearby at the same time it spotted him.

It growled and loped towards him.

Lucan stayed stuck to his Star so as not to lose its limited use even though that forced him to stay inside, making him feel like a diving duck, confined to a small lake as long as it wanted to survive its predators.

Lucan waited for the same moment as before. As soon as it leapt at him, he moved to the point on his left. The beast had come from a different angle than the previous one, so it ended up biting thin air and hitting the ground beside its dying brethren.

This time, Lucan chose to move to the point of his Star that the beast had landed on instead of returning to the center. One moment he was a couple of steps away and the next he was on top of the beast, his sword coming down like an executioner’s axe and striking its neck. The beast buckled as the blade cut halfway through its wide, muscular neck. Then Lucan pulled the blade free and hacked at it two more times, beheading it.

Around him, men were putting down the rest of the beasts. He saw Lee glancing at him while pulping his third victim with his bronze mace. Then he heard Sir Wolfe calling for them to gather as the sounds of fighting died down.

Lucan and Lee trotted to the knight and his retainers. They were gathered in a half-circle that did well to keep their surroundings observed.

“Where are Reede and Dane?” Sir Wolfe said.

One of the men-at-arms pointed to the right. “They were farther to that side. I couldn’t see them when the beasts attacked.”

Sir Wolfe gazed in the indicated direction. “We will find them before we seek out the source of these creatures.”

Everyone including Lucan nodded. Though his eyes were following the letters he’d recalled.

You have slain a lv3 Sala’wa and absorbed its Vital Essence.

You have slain a lv2 Sala’wa and absorbed its Vital Essence.

You have leveled up.

Before Lucan could bring up the manifestation of his Blessing, he heard a familiar noise from the earth nearby.

“Oh, gods damn it.” Sir Wolfe’s voice rose. “There are more of them?”