Unmoved and unsure of what the Jormungands would do to us. When the tracker took one step forward, Brock grabbed a nearby trashcan and threw it at his face, knocking him out on the ground.
“Brock, what have you done?” Katie snapped as everyone’s jaws dropped from what just happened.
“I-I, I panicked.”
One of the Wolf Reigns snapped after a moment of dumbstruck, “What’ve you done to our lieutenant?”
“Hey, isn’t that Commander Raja?” The Wolf Reign’s gazes fell on the former Jormungand commander. They were flabbergasted as to why he was with us.
“It’s them, Commander.” Wilt pointed at them. “They’d been following us ever since we joined you.” Our leader took a bold move to confuse the Wolf Reigns further with a tall tale.
“That’s impossible! There’s no way you joined the Jormungands!”
“Didn’t you fight each other on that last par-tay?”
Suddenly, three Wolf Reign members fell on the ground with arrows on their bac
The three of us slowly and achingly rose on our feet. Ten armed braves approached us with nasty smiles. “We got ourselves a fine catch.” The voice came from a guy with a black tooth. “Isn’t that right, Captain?” A towering guy came forward with a rope in his hand. He was the one who lassoed us. What was worse, he was none other than Madhur the Maelstrom himself. “It’s that big blue guy,” Brock exclaimed, referring to Madhur’s Asura form. No wonder we didn’t find him in town. That meant they were all from the Jormungand Guild. I snapped the rope that bound us with ease while glaring at Madhur with my rage-filled gaze, though he was given me a stone face in return. “Never expected we would run-in with the Raid Breaker Party,” Blacktooth said. “We were waiting for a deserter in case he flees to Sweet Haven.” It must be their former Commander Raja that he was talking about. “But you, folks, would do just fine,” he cackled. “This is gonna be a bonu
After three days of running and two silent, wary nights, we arrived at a deep gorge. There was a three-hundred and fifty-meter long wooden bridge hanging over with ropes for suspensions. It was wide enough to be a two-way lane. As the stagecoach began to cross at a slow pace, there was a bit of rocking when we were in the middle. Hoping if it could support everyone’s weight, I held my breath until we got to the other end. The stagecoach stopped about twelve yards. We all went out to gaze at the bridge one last time. Anne stepped forward with her golden bow readied. “Are you sure about this, Chief?” Raja asked. “We’ll be a week away by the time they get around the gorge.” “But, this is King Martel’s bridge,” Marseille protested. “He was your —” “He wouldn’t mind,” Anne insisted. “Trust me on this.” Katie asked Zeki in a hushed tone, “Who’s King Martel?” “He was the first king of Blue Bucephalus,” he answered. “Green Bits used to
We’d been walking for hours through the narrow tunnel, though we stopped four times to take a break. There was enough space for my legs to stretch for a bit whenever we sat on the ground. After our fifth break, my forearms started to get goosebumps. The feeling was indescribable yet familiar. Like I was watching a horror movie. Maybe we were in one. “Something’s not right here.” Marseille felt it as well. “I know, my lady,” Raja agreed. “You hear that?” Abraham picked up a sound. Many were weaving their heads while their fingers hovering near their weapons. “Sounds like running water,” Mary said. The Green Bits relaxed when the sound was getting louder, and the air became a bit damp. “That means we have arrived,” Miranda said. From the lanterns’ lights shone ahead of us, we reached the end of the tunnel. There was an underground river. The rock formations on the walls and ceiling appeared natural, with no signs of being man-made. We we
“Hmm, this is good.” I took another bite of a deathstalker meat. Earlier, several deathstalkers managed to get out before the mine shut, only to be killed by Green Bits’ arrows and rocks I threw. The Green Bits roasted one for today’s lunch while the rest were cut and preserved for our next meal. We were all in a clearing, eating beside the closed exit. This place was large enough for Brock to play his football match if it weren’t for the scattered tree stumps and ponds that got in the way. “Are you sure you don’t want some?” Miranda glanced at Brock, Katie, Marseille, her companions, and the Green Bit recruits. They were munching a different meal that didn’t have more than four legs. “Nah, we’re good.” Katie was grossed out at the giant scorpion roasting over the fire pit. “You sure?” Miranda had been coaxing them to try except for Raja and Li. “They were actually good. Tastes like chicken.” “Almost every meat we caught tasted like chicken,”
Once our visions became clear to see the dark, we saw the thing that was dragging him. It was a leafless tree, smaller than the common ones here. However, its branches were alive, hundreds of them; vine-like, slithering, coiling on its own like snakes. I didn’t know what that thing was, but Brock was definitely in danger. I was about to leap to save him when dozens of them were coming at us. Plucking a thick branch off from a nearby tree to fashion myself a club, I swatted the vines away before any of them could touch us both. “Katie, stay back.” “What about you?” “Don’t worry about me,” I said. “I can handle this.” Reluctantly, Katie paced backward about eight steps and watched as six large vines were about to flank me. I lunged forward and rolled before they slammed into each other. Back to my feet, I twirled around, and with one downward swing of my club, the vines were smashed like smooshed pasta. The monstrous tree emitted a screeching s
“We’re home, dear,” Mary said, to which Abraham smilingly nodded. After two weeks, we finally reached the northeastern part of the continent, at the border between the flat wasteland and the forest where the bulge-shaped tree line stretched kilometers upon kilometers. In the middle, we gazed at the only landmark around. The Mayflower Guild’s Blue Zone was called Rockflower. With a small blue sky above, Rockflower was a ring wall of jagged rocks about the size of a stadium and had, what appeared to be, a large wrought iron door. “Looks ominous,” Li said about its appearance. “It’s to keep the monsters away, dearie,” Mary explained. “We’ve got all the comfort inside that would make city folks feel right at home.” “Good, I could use a real bath,” Katie groaned. “Me too.” Brock sniffed his collar. “I can’t believe this forest is so huge, and we still haven’t found a single river.” “Didn’t you check our map yesterday?” Miranda asked.
After we left Marseille and her companions at their lodge, we arrived at a two-storied log house. Raja and Zeki were staying with us for the time being. The first floor had a living room, a dining and kitchen area, a chimney, and stairs leading to the second floor. The decors were like any typical hunting lodge found from outdoor movies; furs, trophy heads, and wood carvings. “We’ll send you something to eat in an hour,” Joseph said. “Our guildhall is that big one in the middle.” After he left, we went to the second floor. It had two bedrooms, with each having six beds and a bathroom. Therefore, one room would be for the boys, and the other was for the girls. We were unpacking our bags in our room when Katie burst in. “They got showers and flushable toilets. And hot water too.” “Huh, I thought they have something of an outhouse here,” Wilt commented. “Guess we don’t have to go business behind the bush anymore.” That was also what we did for the past t
“W-we’re Wilt Wallace’s party, actually. My leader is….” I pointed at Wilt, not wanting to perceive the guilds here that I was the leader since people kept saying that we were the Raid Breaker Party. “He’s right,” Wilt said. “I’m the one who founded our party, though we will be temporarily calling by that name from now on.” He crossed his arms as he glanced at the leaders and representatives. “Judging from the guilds in this hall, I’m guessing the number of raiders has increased. And you were all driven out of your homes, am I correct?” “Indeed, sir,” the Grendel Representative replied. He was wearing knight armor and had shoulder-length brown hair styled like from a medieval era. “Aside from the Equatorian monsters, there was a second wave of outlaws. The Sleeping King is now festering with them. From here in the northeast, to Sweet Haven, and the southwest.” “I see, and you are…?” “Ah, pardon for my late introduction,” he introduced himself. “I am J