Jaken walked into the circle past a couple of the fighters with a smile on his face and continued toward the center.
They stepped back and raised their weapons out of instinct, and I tensed. If they moved to attack him, every one of them here would die. Badly.
They didn’t attack, but they looked visibly shaken.
“Seems they may have some higher levels in their group, we should move with caution.” The cloth wearer, likely the caster, advised the leader from where he hid.
They’re starting to get a little wary of us, James mentioned as he walked calmly into the center from the south. We need to make sure that they’re all eyes on us.
“So, you don’t plan to walk away?” James called. “We don’t want to fight. And we didn’t do anything that you’re accusing us of. We don’t want any trouble.”
“Then all you need to do is come with us and let the Governess know what your side of the story is.” He spread his hands and stepped forward magnanimously. “She’s a fair woman. All she wants is justice.”
“And all we want is to be left alone,” Jaken called back. “Ours is a mission from the gods. You’re interfering. Please. Leave us to our pursuits.”
“Oh great, some other kind of zealot,” one of the fighters near the leader grumbled. Then he looked to the leader. “That cart is bothering me, though. What’s inside?”
“Why don’t you take a group of three and go check it out but be careful.” The leader ordered. His men took another step forward, the one he had given orders to marched over along the line of men and collected three others to go with him.
“Wouldn’t recommend that,” James said, then growled as he turned to keep these in sight.
This wasn’t going to be good. Something shifted inside me, the werewolf looking out.
Soon. These ones would make excellent additions to the pack. Specifically, the young one in the robes. I can smell him. The deep rumble in my mind was appreciative as I fought to control my eyes.
You have no place in this fight, wolf. My friends are in danger. I growled back. The small group was closer to the cart now.
Did you so swiftly forget that promise you made me? If you do not use my strength now, I will never come to your aid again.
I snorted softly as I shifted into my fox-man form. I wasn’t worried.
I would see all of your friends die. And if you think I won’t sabotage you in any way that I can, you are dead wrong. The wolf was silent. Almost contemplative. I wonder which of them will fall first because of your inaction. Will it be the green one? The gray one? Or the mate?
Fine! But we’re brutal and efficient. No turning anyone or I swear I will swallow silver just to spite you. Got it?
A flash of muted light in my mind saw me back in the throne room standing across from the werewolf. We fight together. Come.
I was back just in time to watch as the cart door burst open wide. Three arrows burst from the lead fighter’s head before Manly barreled out, rolling to the ground onto a knee and firing another arrow at someone in her sights. Frederick leapt from the tree line into the other three nearby and began walloping them with his huge fists.
Now! Jaken, Yohsuke, and James shouted, and the fight was on.
I took my werewolf form and crossed the distance between me and the unsuspecting mage in a single leap, my strength, and dexterity carrying me far enough to clock him in the back of the head hard enough to knock him prone.
He did not stand back up.
The sound of arrows flooded my heightened hearing, and I turned my sights on the bowmen. I dipped my shoulder and sprinted into the one on my left.
“Oof!” He grunted as I shoved him bodily against the tree behind him and sunk my claws into his throat.
More! The wolf roared, bleed them all!
I fought him back and just finished the man in my grip by cracking his head against the tree brutally, his HP falling to zero.
I turned in time to see Balmur materialize between two of the bowmen and slice through their bowstrings. The bows snapped up, catching the one on his right in the chin, knocking him unconscious and the other in the shin. Balmur decided to take that one with a blade to the temple and moved on before the corpse could even hit the ground.
We respect that one, the wolf growled even as I thought the same. Could he read my mind?
Would you shut the hell up? I fired back, and it just chuckled.
Arrows flew into the men who had the rest of my friends surrounded, coming from Manly and Bokaj. The bounty hunters fell right and left and didn’t seem to be doing all that well. They had stupidly decided to group together and fight against Muu, Jaken, and now James.
The three of them fought savagely, red aura radiating from Jaken as he took the enmity of those around him and Muu assisting him with his spear. James waltzed through the fighters around him with his ki surrounding his fists, and now feet, as he struck with impeccable timing and cruelty.
Limbs snapped; people shrieked in pain. Lightning flashed from above us where Kayda dropped through the air, and a man next to Yohsuke froze solid, a look of terror on his face. The spell blade slashed through it and moved on.
This could have been avoided if they had just listened. Though, maybe we ought to take a trip to Lindyburg to clear ourselves of this.
“Surround them again!” The armored figure ordered loudly as he tried to corral his people. There were maybe a dozen of them still standing and uninjured, though they looked ready to run. “Do not lose your composure!”
Frederick was losing his fucking mind. He bellowed at all comers, picked one man up over his head and threw the guy onto his buddy’s sword, then taking a spear that one of them had dropped. He launched it into another man ten feet away before turning toward the cart once more.
Someone get that asshole before he rallies them, Yohsuke said like a bark to us.
The fight was going poorly for them, and the archers slowly stopped firing arrows to try and regroup around the leader.
That won’t do, I growled as I stalked into the light. They were distracted, so I used their ineptitude to my advantage and plowed into them like a freight train of teeth and hatred.
I slapped one of the archers out of my way with a backhand that left thin claw marks across his features and pulled the leader toward me by the throat.
Bite him! Claim their alpha as your own, the wolf howled. Think of how much safer the pack would be if we would just add to our numbers!
I blinked, a low growl trickling from my chest as I stared into the man’s eyes. To his credit, he didn’t look terrified, but I could tell they hadn’t been prepared.
“We will leave.” He swallowed heavily, sweat beading on his forehead, his body shaking in my fist. An arrow dug into my lower back, a couple percentage points of my HP bar fell away, then came back as it left my flesh and fell against my ankle.
“We gave you that chance.” My tongue lolled out of the side of my mouth, drool and spittle hit my chest, and I wanted to bite him.
Take his throat in your jaws and clamp down. Let the gift flow from you into him. This is what the alpha does. This is as it should be!
It was harder to fight the beast in me back with prey this tantalizingly close. The scent of his fear, all of their fear wafted into my nostrils, and the drool came faster. I swallowed hard as I fought myself.
We are the predator. We are the ones who should be feared. Their numbers could be our numbers. Take them. You could rule!
“I don’t want to rule,” I snapped. “I want to protect my friends!”
I looked up at the man in my clawed hand and saw his confusion.
“And you’re making that harder.” My fist moved before I could even begin to comprehend what I was doing. I punched him in the nose, grabbed his head in both hands after I let go of his throat, and snapped his neck in one fluid motion.
I turned to find that all but one of the archers had been slain by Yohsuke, Manly, and Muu.
“I got him,”
Balmur called, Tmont springing from nowhere and dragging the man screaming and kicking to the ground before she went for his throat. A second later, he was quiet.
“What’s up with the werewolf form, man?” Muu asked, the others seemed uncertain, as well. Manly had an arrow drawn and aimed at my chest.
“If I didn’t use it, he would have sabotaged my attempts to protect you guys.” I began the process of mentally separating myself from the power of the beast and reverted to my fox-man form.
“You can drop that arrow now, Manly.” Yohsuke settled his gaze on her angrily. “He’s not a danger to anyone, now.”
“He snapped a man’s neck with his bare hands!” She only lowered the weapon a fraction.
“And you put three arrows in a man’s eyes from two paces away,” Jaken retorted with an eyebrow raised. “We’ve all killed people tonight. It was a necessity. Grim, though it was.”
“Loot ‘em.” James patted me on the shoulder and nodded toward the mage I had knocked out.
I walked toward him with Yohsuke pulling up beside me after a second. “Hey man, you good?”
“You guys always ask me that after I take werewolf form.” My gaze wandered the area to be sure we were good before continuing. “I’m a fucking werewolf, man. No. I’m not good. But I’ve got it under control, no matter how badly he seems to want me to turn someone.”
Yohsuke grasped my arm lightly and pulled me to a stop, lowering his voice so we would not be overheard, “Do we need to try and find some kind of cure?”
I knew this was coming from a good place. I knew he cared. I knew that he was only trying to help. But I still wanted to lash out. I couldn’t tell you why. Summon Celestial aside, we had options to get rid of my lycanthropy, but that particular spell was kind of emergency only use.
Could it have been anger at the beast howling at me to take a life, even now? Could it have been that I was close to turning that leader into a snack pack? Probably that one, actually.
“No man, I’m good. It gives us an edge, and despite the thing being an asshole, he does care about the pack.” I glanced over at the mage. “We need to get him bound and possibly gagged before he gets to waking up. He could be trouble.”
“Why don’t we kill him then and be done with it?” Yohsuke asked with a shrug, his astral adaptor igniting readily.
“Because we aren’t murder hobos, damnit.” I shoved him lightly as I stepped toward the kid. “We need information and he may have some.”
Chapter Five
Other than money, okay weapons and armor, and some really shitty travel rations, the bounty hunters had very little of value on them. No enchanted items at all, and there were no orders or anything. After Balmur collected a couple eyes he thought might be useful, I used the shadows to get rid of the evidence, the hungry void eager to take them away.
Maebe had come out of hiding while we were eating, looking especially victorious.
“None of you could find me,” she purred happily as she sat next to me. “I am the queen of this game.”
We glanced at ourselves, at her, and then back before most of us broke into fits of laughter. She was unfazed, used to us finding her funny.
The kid woke up after we had eaten our dinner and looked around as if in a haze.
“Bokaj, you want to talk to him?” Jaken motioned toward our captive guest.
“Sure.” Bokaj sat in front of the kid with his legs crossed. We had taken the precaution of binding his hands and searching him. All we found on his person was a small book.
Bokaj tapped the kid with his last Silencing Arrow, a projectile that played hell on a caster’s ability to use spells. It silenced you and cut off the flow of mana.
“This arrow will not only silence you, but it will hurt like fuck if you try anything funny, okay?” This kid was silent, stoic even. “Now, why were you all here?”
He just stared at Bokaj in defiance, not answering his question.
“Come on kid, your friends are all dead, and we don’t really want to have to kill anyone else tonight, right guys?” He glanced back at all of us, and when he got to me, he winked.
I smiled, working desperately to make it look as bloodthirsty as I could, feeling like I would rather be doing anything else at that moment. “I do.”
Again, the kid was silent. His eyes unfocused.
“This is getting us nowhere.” James groaned as he threw his hands into the air and stood to pace. “We know why they came—to die. They had no idea what the hell they were doing and were hopelessly outmatched. They didn’t even give all that good of experience!”
“You take that back!” The kid spat vehemently as he struggled against the bonds.
James stepped past all of us to kneel in front of the kid so that his eyes were level with our captive’s, “They thought that numbers would be enough against innocent men, and when we gave them three chances to run after seeing they were outmatched, they refused.”
So, the old spite bit, eh?
“Yeah, I mean, he didn’t really last all that long once I got my hands on him.” I yawned lazily. “Snapped his neck after I knocked you out; again—wasn’t hard to do, kid.”
Tears ran down his face, and I was beginning to feel bad for him, but then he spat in James’s face and shouted, “We got the wrong information! It wasn’t Captain Kelly’s fault! He was a good man and then you monsters killed my friends, like animals. You’ll pay. You’ll all pay!”
Bokaj reached out and touched his shoulder, his voice soothing, “Listen kid, we don’t want to hurt you. And we didn’t want to hurt them. All we want to do is go about our business. You know how that is, right?”
A dazed look fell over the kid’s face for a moment, then his vision sharpened, and he nodded, “Yeah, but that’s not gonna happen now. You all are wanted criminals.”
“Wanted for what?” Bokaj must have charmed him because he stared at the ice elf even as Yohsuke asked the question.
The kid looked to Bokaj, who nodded for him to speak. “Stealing from the Governess, murder, evasion of justice and murder of the Governess’ guards. Lindyburg wants y’all bad.”
“But we had nothing to do with any of that.” Muu blinked before looking at the rest of us. “I mean, right? All we did was leave. Pharazulla came with us, but we had no idea that she stole anything, and she mind-fucked Zeke into killing those guards. It wasn’t his fault. Fuck, she made him try to kill all of us, too.”
Balmur touched Bokaj on the shoulder. “You left that one out, man.”
“Sorry.” Bokaj looked back at the kid. “Who sent you?”
“The Governess put out a contract.” He shrugged in his bindings. “Once we got wind of the price, we came to collect.”
The more he spoke, the more the kid began to look lucid. He was beginning to float back to the top of whatever it had been keeping him calm.
“You charmed me.” He blinked as if waking up to stare almost through Bokaj, then his face went beet red, and he opened his mouth, lurching forward.
An arrow sprouted from his throat that rocked his whole body back, and flame erupted from his neck in a geyser ten feet high.
“What the fuck?!” Bokaj grunted as he fell backward away from the show. I cast Void Shield in front of him to take the falling flames, 203 MP draining from me instantly.
I turned back to see everyone staring at Manly, who still had the bow in hand with an arrow drawn and her pipe in her teeth, as if ready to keep firing.
“What the hell was that, Manly?” Jaken was the first to stand and move her way.
She planted the arrowhead in the ground between her legs and lifted her chin, even as she puffed on her pipe. She expelled the smoke hurriedly and turned her eyes to Maebe. “Queen Maebe, I swear to you, here and now, what that boy had been about to do would have put all of you, needlessly, in danger. I ended it.”
Maebe blinked and looked to the rest of us. “She speaks the truth, or at least believes what she says to be true.”
That went a long way toward clearing her with me. She had saved my friends. Fought with us. Tried to be nice. And had knowingly risked herself to swear to Maebe, who could murder her easily for lying to her.
I stood and marched over to her, looking her dead in her eyes before offering my hand. “Thanks for that.”
She eyed me hard. “You won’t turn me into a werewolf, will you?”
I blinked, she snorted and took my hand. “I’m teasin’. But it would’ve been nice to know.” She looked to the others. “I’ll be beddin’ down for the evenin’. Thanks to the lot of you for the assistance in the fight, and for playin’ with Frederick. I don’t think I’ve seen him have so much fun in years.”
“He speared a guy in the chest.” Muu spread his hands wide. “He’s welcome to play any time he fuckin’ wants!”
We laughed at him, despite that, he insisted he was serious.
James looked at the book after Balmur checked it for traps. It was just a bunch of complex formulae that the monk just couldn’t comprehend. Looking at it, it seemed vaguely familiar to me, but it just hurt after a while to look at it.
“Those are spells,” Balmur confirmed after taking a glance at it. James and I looked at each other, then back at him, and he continued. “Yeah, this one right here is for Fireball. And the page after that is for some kind of Lightning Step?”
“How do you know that?” I tried to look at what he claimed were spells, but all I saw was a headache coming, so I stopped.
“It could have something to do with the fact that my magic is actually arcane based, where yours is a gift from nature.” He half-heartedly shrugged as he turned another page.
He looked it over more seriously and seemed to forget that we were standing there as he went to his bedroll over next to Bokaj and Tmont.
“Guess that solves who gets the book.” James shrugged. He patted my shoulder, then went to take his place near his bedroll.
I went and sat down next to Maebe, her back was to me, but she turned as soon as I was there. While I went through the experience notifications, I saw that it had been enough to almost put me up to level 38. I was so close.
Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 4) Page 12