The horse had burst out of the woods, from the right side. It had bolted from the road at an angle, its flanks drenched in sweat, moss still clinging to its hooves. The saddle was there, as were the straps, but there was no rider. Its eyes rolled wildly, and it fled into the distance, across the plain.
Rin swore under her breath.
"That's not good," she muttered, eyes already on the tree line.
Towa tightened his grip on his shield strap, knuckles whitening.
Nao glanced at the driver, then at the forest to their right, without saying a word.
The Nursery Wood started there. The edges of the forest seemed thick, almost impenetrable. The interior, however, seemed to breathe. Tall bushes stretched between the trees lining the road, as did long ferns.
They walked along the edge for hours, tense.
The road was wide, and the dirt compacted by repeated passage. The Scalehauler moved forward without complaint, its claws digging into the ground with each pull. The wheels sometimes squeaked, but the pace was steady. Inside the carriage, the passengers remained silent. More than rest, it was waiting. As if everyone were counting the minutes until they reached Selis.
Rin walked ahead, scouting, the chain around her forearm and her gaze alert. Towa stayed close to the Scalehauler, ready to serve as a wall if anything came out of the forest.
Nao stayed in the middle, within reach of everyone without being exposed.
Kai and Peko brought up the rear, where the forest could spew something out without warning. And that's what it seemed to want.
First, it was a bush. A few meters from the road, a pile of leaves vibrated slightly, as if struck by the wind. Except that the air was calm.
Kai slowed down instinctively.
Peko's ears, perched on the shoulder of his summon, pricked up in the direction of the ferns.
A second bush moved a little further away. Then a third.
Rin didn't turn around right away, she continued to stare at the road ahead of the convoy.
Towa whispered, without taking his eyes off the road neither. "We're being followed."
Nao replied very quietly, as if the trees could understand. "Keep going. Don't spread out."
The driver must have sensed the tension, because the Scalehauler accelerated slightly. Not a runaway, but a more hurried pace.
The movement in the forest intensified. The bushes were now shaking for several dozen meters, as if something was running parallel to the road, not wanting to show itself. At times, a silhouette would jump over the tall grass... then disappear. Too fast for the eye to catch.
Kai didn't like it. It wasn't the presence of a predator. It was the feeling of an intelligent pack.
A customer inside pulled back the curtain, his face pale. "What's going on?"
Nao placed a hand on the wood of the carriage, without slowing down. "We haven't identified it. Stay seated. Selis is close."
The customer hesitated but was cut off by a new movement that caught his attention.
Rin, in the front, finally glanced behind her.
At that moment, something came for the convoy.
A jump. A mass sprang from the edge of the road, crossed a small ditch, and landed on the road before leaping again, like a large hare. Except it wasn't really a hare.
It had the size, the silhouette, the momentum. But its fur was replaced by dry, almost scaly skin. A flat tail trailed behind it, heavy like a beaver's. And when it opened its mouth, fangs spread out.
Its target wasn't Rin. Nor was it Towa. It was Nao. The monster leaped straight at him, as if it knew exactly where to strike.
All thought the same thing.
They're aiming the weakest. They're smart.
Nao's reflex was to reach for his dagger. Kai materialized a knife in a breath. But Rin was faster.
She snapped her chain with a sharp, precise movement. The blade caught the hare in mid-leap and pinned it in the air. Then Rin pulled, without mercy. The creature was thrown backward, rolled in the dust, and fell back toward the bushes from whence it came.
The creature didn't even scream. As if it didn't hurt.
Rin didn't celebrate. She already reset her stance.
Towa took one step closer to Nao without thinking.
The driver's head turned, eyes wide. "What in the hell was that?"
Nao didn't look away from the tree line. "I don't know."
"Rank?" the driver snapped, already reaching under his seat.
Nao's jaw tightened. "The one we saw is F. But there are more in the brush. As a pack, it could be E, or even D."
The driver pulled out a small metal tube, flicked a catch, and fired it straight up.
A white flare streaked into the sky, then stopped high above them with a soft crack, blooming into a bright, white cloud that glowed from within.
"Now, we need to hurry, the village is close," the driver said.
"Let's run!" Nao shouted, his voice louder than he would have liked. "To the village!"
Upon the driver's command, the Scalehauler accelerated suddenly, causing the carriage to lurch forward. Inside, the customer hit the top of the curtain. Then... he toppled over.
He fell off the moving carriage, carried away by his own imbalance, toward the side of the road.
Kai felt his blood run cold. "NO—" Kai lunged, too late.
Peko moved before him. For a split second, he forgot the monsters. He only saw the person falling.
He sprang from his position, quick as a shadow, and a new summoning appeared in the same movement, while the previous one started disappearing. The new one didn't look like much. It was like a large body that embraced the customer as he fell, then wrapped itself around him before crashing to the ground beside the road.
Kai had already stopped.
Nao clenched his fist as he ran, looking at the driver. His jaw flexed once. He hated it. But also understood it. He knew the man hadn't seen them. And he also knew that he wouldn't slow down, even if he had seen them.
The pack finally emerged from the shadows.
Two, then three creatures sprang from the bushes like arrows. They weren't after the convoy, but the three people who had been left behind.
Kai, Peko, and the client on the ground.
A hare with snake fangs leaped first. Another had a scorpion's tail that whipped through the air. A third had small, twisted antlers on its skull, like a malformed deer. Then the bushes began to move again, as more were arriving.
Kai looked up at the convoy.
"Don't stop!" he shouted again. "We'll catch up!"
Nao turned around, running, his face tense. He saw Kai, Peko, the customer. He saw the creatures. And he made a decision.
He grabbed Rin's arm as he passed, without slowing her down, and spoke quickly. "Rin! Get in the back. Towa, stay in front. We have to take the carriage to the village and then go back to help them."
Rin clicked her tongue in frustration and slowed down alongside the convoy, without leaving the road. The convoy continued to accelerate.
Rin didn't even have time to check if Kai was okay. More creatures continued to surge toward the convoy, all looking like hares, with some extras.
Two leapt directly in front of her, aiming for her legs as she ran. The first had spines like a hedgehog. The other had a long horn on top of its head and an even longer tail. Meanwhile, another creature gained height, jumping from branch to branch, higher and higher up the trees along the roadside.
Towa saw it too. It had pigeon wings, which it did not use to fly. In addition to its two powerful hind legs, it had eagle claws instead of front legs.
Rin threw her chain into the tree above her and pulled hard on it while pushing off with her right leg. She managed to get high enough off the ground to avoid the two monsters that had jumped in front of her, while keeping her momentum behind the caravan. She found it much easier than she had imagined. But there was no time to revel in it. Once she landed, her chain detached from the tree, and she swung it down on the hedgehog-like hare behind her, blade first.
She kept the spiky monster hanging from the end of her chain to use it against the second one. The second monster stopped on its hind legs and leaped directly toward her chain. It impaled its fellow monster with its horn, without being touched by its spikes. It then used its long tail to grab onto the chain, preventing Rin from separating it from the body.
Another monster emerged from the ferns at that moment and lunged at Rin's arm holding the chain, its cat-like claws extended.
At the same time, the one that had gained height perched on the Scalehauler driver.
Towa had not taken his eyes off him and shouted, "Get down!"
His battle axe disappeared from his back and appeared in his hands. He turned around and swung a heavy blow just above the driver's head. The creature saw the blow coming and flapped its wings, just enough to escape a fatal blow and hope to continue on its way.
However, Towa didn't let it get away. He turned his axe during the blow and struck the hare with the flat of his axe. It was thrown over the carriage. But it grabbed the tarpaulin with its claws and tore a large hole in it before crashing to the side of the road.
Inside, screams echoed. But Nao shouted louder.
"Stay inside, don't move!"
Rin, still running behind, lengthened her chain, shaking it to catch the new attacker's claws inside. The moment the claws got caught, she released a powerful discharge, which passed through the entire chain and her three catches at the same time.
Rin didn't hold back, and the three let go and fell, a light smoke escaping from them on the ground. Her arm went numb for a heartbeat. She shook it once, angry at her own body, and forced her grip back into place.
"Again," she muttered. "Try me."
They then ran for a few minutes without any further attacks. However, the movement did not stop.
Nao was on his guard, blade drawn. He was focused on the bushes that were still moving on his right, but also on what was happening to Towa and Rin, ready to adjust their strategy.
Towa turned around to shout something when he saw it.
Another monster jumped out of the bushes. This hare had toad skin, covered with a strange substance. It rushed toward Nao's face, which he tried to defend by brandishing his dagger.
The sword slipped on contact with the hare's skin, which almost touched his hand.
Towa shoved Nao with his shoulder to get him out of the monster's path, while brandishing his shield in front of it to punch it back. It went back to the forest right after.
Nao almost fell, then went to tell Towa to hold his position.
He didn't give him time. "The village is right there."
The village was, indeed, finally beginning to appear at the end of the road. At least, its wooden barricades, which surrounded it completely. But really completely. There was no entrance for the road. The gates were closed, and there seemed to be commotion behind it.
Towa's face tightened. "They locked it down."
Nao didn't slow. "They're doing it right."
The bushes suddenly stopped shaking. Not because there were no more creatures, but because they had turned back. The silence was worse than the chase.
⸻
A few moments before, Kai and Peko were left alone. Kai positioned himself between Peko and the monsters. His hands felt too empty. Too slow. And he felt the blessing there, like a mechanism waiting for its turn. So he blinked.
The world stopped. But Kai's heart hammered.
The snake-toothed hare was already on him. Too close. He wouldn't have time to materialize a weapon and throw it. Not without getting his leg stabbed. And those fangs... they didn't bode well.
Fire was a bad idea. Too close to the forest. Too close to the client. Too close to Peko. He needed something else.
Kai inhaled.
The dust remained suspended. The monster's muscles frozen in mid-jump. The client, still held by the invocation, his mouth open in a breath that would never come out.
And the Presence was there, attentive and silent. As always.
Kai thought quickly.
Three visible enemies. Maybe more in the bushes.
Peko was protecting a civilian. And even if that wasn't the case, Kai didn't know his abilities yet.
He thought about regaining his agility to dodge the bite, but...
Rin still seemed to have it. And Kai didn't know if he could cancel the sharing without Shared Skill. And even if he could, it might be bad for Rin. He needed something else. Both to get out of this and to protect the client and potentially Peko.
The Presence seemed... amused, watching Kai rack his brains, while being careful not to move from its initial position.
Kai finally looked up. His choices were made.
[Epic] Mastery: One-Handed Titan. Remaining points: 9.
[Uncommon] Power: Quick Hop. Remaining points: 6.
The sensation of mana flowing through his body seemed to change slightly. It was as if the muscles in his arms and legs were learning new movements.
Kai sighed. "I should have tried this Skill yesterday..."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
I'll have little time to react, so I can't afford to mess this up.