Growth Hero

by Brent Tyman

  Instead, we found ourselves staring at a giant stone door at the end of a wide tunnel. We approached it slowly.

  I still had the injured woman wrapped up in her cloak against my shoulder and was hesitant to walk into an unknown location, with her unconscious. Her armor suggested she was no stranger to fighting, though.

  “So, this is it?” I asked.

  Juliana nodded. “Yes, I’ve never been here before, but this fits the description.”

  “It’s really hot inside,” Anny commented. “And there are a lot of people waiting on the other side of the door.”

  “Well, I guess if they are being invaded by Ogres, then they would man every single entrance,” I said, nodding. “So, do we just knock or… what?”

  Clarissa stepped forward and banged hard on the stone door. I heard some rattling from behind it, for just a moment, before all went silent.

  She banged again, harder this time, and then placed both hands on her hips.

  “Open up already!” Clarissa shouted. “I need a new dress right this instant.”

  “That’s not going to work,” I said, but to my utter surprise, the door gradually began to open.

  “See, handsome,” Clarissa said, looking back to me. “You just have to take the lead in these types of situations, like you did in bed.”

  I laughed at that. Clarissa referenced that wild night as often as she could in front of Julianna.

  “If you say so. Let the soldiers take point though, just in case,” I said. At Juliana’s instruction, the soldiers took up defensive positions in front of us, leaving a gap so that we could see. There were more Sovereignty troops than Hogannan ones with us, though there were only two more red-armored troops than green-armored ones; they seemed willing to take orders from any of us.

  Clarissa retreated to stand beside me, and we waited as the door fully opened. Once there was a big enough gap, scores of Beastkin lined up in front of the door, spears at the ready. They wore heavily scuffed plate armor that still had a bit of a light blue finish and held shields that were as long as my arm.

  Clearly, these guys meant business.

  “State your names and purpose,” one Beastkin said, with a slight growl in his voice. That made sense, I supposed, since they looked like beasts. Their faces were covered in fur.

  “I am Juliana Vos Tasberg,” Juliana said, switching to her formal tone. “We have come at my Father’s request to aid you against the Ogre menace.”

  The Beastkin instantly relaxed at that, while a line of their soldiers parted for a much older Beastkin to pass through. This one had fur as white as snow and walked with a refined gait.

  “Ah, forgive the welcome, Lady Tasberg,” he said with a strangely smooth voice. “We knew of your coming from our Clan kin in Tringall, but other things have troubled us of late. Allow me to escort you and yours to the elder. My given name is Grotsanik, if you please.”

  “This woman here isn’t with us, but needs a place to recover and some rest,” I said, motioning to the limp form on my shoulder. “Can we stop by someplace where we can drop her off?”

  “Of course.”

  At that, Grotsanik turned on his heel and motioned for us to follow. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of all this, but they seemed friendly enough, I supposed.

  “Onwards then?” I asked.

  Juliana nodded. “It’s best we speak to the elder about our situation right away after dropping the woman off.” Juliana assured me, “I’m sure they will help her.”

  “That’s assuming they don’t freak out over our distinct lack of troops,” Clarissa snorted. “I bet they are already wondering how we are supposed to provide this relief of yours.”

  The Beastkin soldiers didn’t say much as we walked past them, but our own soldiers had already begun to whisper to themselves.

  “Those spears could skewer a boar in one blow.”

  “Think they will still expect us to fight those Ogres?”

  “As long as that damn monster doesn’t show up again…”

  At least the men were in better spirits than they’d been before.

  As we followed Grotsanik, I noticed that the wall closest to me wasn’t made out of stone but some exotic black metal I had never seen before. It had distinct grooves on its surface and, as Juliana had mentioned, it indeed looked quite sturdy.

  The heat here was getting noticeably more pronounced, and I looked up to see if I could spot the furnaces, but there was still an empty ceiling so far. The exotic, black wall eventually led to a gate that was heavily guarded by more Beastkin soldiers.

  When they opened the gate for us, the Beastkin town finally came into view. In all honesty, while the town didn’t have the massive scope of Tringall, I found I much preferred its more subdued nature. The streets had very few Beastkin milling about, mostly just soldiers patrolling the streets.

  Maybe I just liked the change from the hustle and bustle of Tringall’s city life.

  As soon as I stepped through the interior gate, a massive gust of hot air swept over my shoulders and I looked up to see the giant furnaces I’d been told to expect. They looked like square boxes attached to the ceiling with long pipes connecting each one to the next.

  Based on the configuration, one line of pipes near the top side of the furnaces were transporting whatever the furnaces were burning, while the second line of pipes along the bottom moved the heated byproduct.

  Based on the fact that the second line of pipes were visibly red from the intense heat, they must have carried some kind of molten liquid, which no doubt circulated through the rest of the town.

  I believed from what I could see from here, that the very tops of these furnaces were simply left open. Black smoke belched out of them constantly, feeding into a multitude of small holes in the ceiling.

  This was, hands down, the most sophisticated technology I had seen so far on this world. If I’d seen this back home, I would have been impressed, too. Even if it was just some furnaces, the scale and understanding of thermodynamics required simply to circulate enough air to remove that much smoke was awe inspiring.

  “For a town of this size, there sure are a lot of soldiers,” Juliana commented.

  “Indeed,” Grotsanik agreed. “Most of the populace has been drafted into the garrison. This attack by the Ogres threatens our very way of life, so we have been forced to take drastic measures.”

  Now that he mentioned it, most of the soldiers I had seen wore mismatching pieces of armor. I guess they outfitted everyone with whatever they’d had and aesthetics were the least of their concerns.

  Another thing I noticed was that all the Beastkin women looked to be cat girls from popular RPG’s. They contrasted quite drastically with the several types of male Beastkin, sporting cat-like ears on the tops of their heads and sleek tails.

  Their faces were strikingly human.

  Their tails were something I couldn’t help but stare at, many having different varieties—extra-long ones, long-haired ones, and even ones that split into two at the end.

  It made little sense to me how a species’ males and females could look so different, but this world had plenty of quirks that made no sense to me.

  “Nyaa,” a cat girl said, “Look! Humans.”

  “What are they doing here, Nyaa?”

  “I’m not sure, Nyaa.”

  I raised my eyebrow at the display and had to shake my head. This was strikingly similar to how some cat girls talked in those light novels. Oh jeez…

  “Do you think we have time to drop by the tailors?” Clarissa asked. “I don’t think this tattered dress presents the right image for us.”

  “Must you really?” Juliana complained. “I’m sure you can manage without such things for a night.”

  “You have no idea how itchy my back is,” Clarissa insisted. “I suppose if Alex scratches it for me, I might be able to go on…”

  “Haha,” I chuckled. “Now’s not the time, Clarissa.”

  She pouted at me but quickly lat
ched onto my arm as a consolation prize, causing Juliana to roll her eyes.

  “Ahh,” Anny suddenly said. “There are yellow auras behind that gate!”

  She pointed to another gate along the wall where a sizeable chunk of soldiers were stationed. It was also the most activity I had seen in the town so far. Soldiers carried wooden planks, steel plates, and even pieces of large furniture to the gate.

  This was all in an effort to keep the gate closed. We all froze when a massive force struck the gate with an echoing boom, causing it to momentarily open before the crowd of soldiers managed to shut it again with a loud shout.

  “What the heck was that?” I asked, speaking for all of us.

  “As you can see,” Grotsanik said. “The situation is dire. The Ogres have chosen to attack the town through this tunnel. It is the only one that lies flush with the walls. We have lost our window to collapse the tunnel as a result.”

  “Wait, wait,” I said. “There are Ogres just behind that gate?”

  Grotsanik simply nodded,

  I was floored. I hadn’t realized they were so close.

  “What are your plans if the gate breaks?” Juliana asked, and Grotsanik pointed along the path.

  “We are planning to set up barricades on the street. You may have noticed that there are archers lined up all along this route.”

  I looked around and sure enough, there were archers stationed everywhere that had a vantage point on the gate. I noticed most of the Beastkin looked scared and unsure, counting their arrows as they watched the gate warily.

  These archers were probably the townsfolk who had been drafted, while the Beastkin at the gate who wore heavier armor and looked very much like soldiers were the town’s initial guard force.

  “Have you evacuated any citizens?” Juliana asked.

  Grotsanik shook his head. “For some reason, many tunnels that lead to the surface have collapsed. There isn’t any place to send them.”

  He paused, licking his lips. “I personally was about to leave to check other passageways to the surface when you arrived. Once you speak to the elder, I would very much like to discuss what route you took to get here.”

  “Oh…” I said, not sure how to approach this delicately. “Well… about that.”

  “Please, wait to speak until we get to the elder,” Grotsanik said as he urged us onward. “There isn’t much time.”

  I watched the gate warily as we passed by it and noted the many cracks running through it. A quarter of them had been boarded up with wooden planks by the soldiers, while along the bottom all sorts of furniture and metal sheets had been wedged in front of it.

  I doubted it would last much longer, given how hard these Ogres were striking it. I could hear the thuds of their weapons distinctly, once we got close enough.

  Grotsanik led us away from the gate towards a small building that he assured me was an apothecary where we could leave the injured woman. Inside, the small building was a single, large square room. Rows of beds held many injured Beastkin. Only two cat girl nurses were there to attend them.

  The nurses from bed to bed, not really paying us any mind.

  “Uhh,” I said. “You sure this would be the right place? Seems a bit busy.”

  “There is another Apothecary on the other side of town, but it is far more crowded, I assure you. You may leave the woman here and the staff will tend to her.”

  I looked over at the ladies, but they didn’t offer any comment on this. It seemed like the decision was up to me.

  “Alright,” I said. I picked an empty bed that didn’t look too mussed and set the woman down on it gently.

  “We already healed her injuries,” I told Grotsanik. “She just needs some rest and should wake up tomorrow. Again, we don’t really know her, but I want to make sure she’s taken care of.”

  Grotsanik flagged down one of the nurses and relayed the information to her. She simply nodded and left with an affirmative ‘Nyaa’.

  I still felt a bit uneasy leaving the woman here, but I supposed it was better than just leaving her in some random inn.

  Grotsanik led the way back through the streets, and I observed that most of the buildings here were made of stone. They looked to be well-crafted houses, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if the town had been a series of tunnels and they had carved out the houses from the outside in.

  We finally arrived at where this elder stayed. It was a rather humble stone house only slightly bigger than the other dwellings around it. There were a few extra guards here, but not enough to be considered excessive.

  Juliana had our soldiers stay outside with the guards.

  Grotsanik entered first, followed by Julianna, and then me. I looked around, noting it was a fairly basic abode where everything was made of stone. Stone tables, stone chairs, even the fork left on a plate appeared to be made of stone.

  An old, Beastkin male sat on a cushion next to a fireplace, watching us as we filtered in. Why the fireplace was lit was a mystery, given all the furnaces, but to each their own, I guess.

  This Beastkin had white fur, though it was a tad less shiny than Grotsanik’s. His face was angular with a slightly larger snout than most Beastkin, but that was the only major difference I could see. He wore a simple leather jerkin and pants, his tail laying idly beside him, next to the fireplace.

  “Who are these humans you have brought me?” the Beastkin elder asked.

  Juliana stepped forward and bowed her head.

  “I am Juliana Vos Tasberg, heir to the Tasberg Sovereignty, elder. We have come to aid you against the Ogres.”

  “Ah yes,” he said. “The city state council sent word that they had requested aid from any of the three nations. What of your friends?”

  “Ahem,” Clarissa said, stepping forward. “I am Clarissa Vos Hoganna, heir to the Hoganna Federation, and we too, are at your service. This is my retainer, Anny.”

  “Ahh… Anaisia Fardonna is my given name, heir to the county of Luneria,” Anny said. “Nice to meet you.”

  Of course, even Anny would be the heir to some sizeable piece of land. The major Clans in this world were quite proud of their land ownership.

  “And I’m Alex Augere,” I gave a short bow and smiled. “No fancy title, as such, but I’m happy to lend a hand.”

  “Hmm, good, good,” the elder said. “Please call me Elder Nelroga, and I speak for all the Beastkin in this town. You have come to us during our darkest hour and I humbly thank you.”

  The elder bowed his head and let out a tired breath. “To think that two of the three nations would send help this quickly. This is truly fortuitous.”

  We should probably tell him that most of the help we had brought had been wiped out by a Troglodread, sooner rather than later. We needed the Beastkins’ help to find Juliana’s retinue and our remaining soldiers.

  “Please listen, elder,” Juliana began. “There were… complications during our journey here.”

  “Complications?” he asked, one brow climbing higher.

  Juliana seemed distracted all of a sudden and looked to me, of all people.

  Seriously?

  “Ugh, well… you see…” I tried to think up a way to deliver the news as gently as I could. These Beastkin were clearly run down and dangling from their last rope.

  Clarissa had other ideas, though.

  “We were attacked by a Troglodread on the way here, and the majority of our forces have either perished or are fighting the Ogres outside of the town, on their own,” she said in one breath.

  “Clarissa,” I said, tapping her on the shoulder.

  “Trust me, handsome,” she said. “These Beastkin prefer their news raw and fresh, as opposed to Juliana’s stilted formalities.”

  “Excuse me?” Juliana started, but was promptly cut off by the elder’s bark of a laugh.

  “Ha! I see the Hogannan spirit has not waned after all these years. Would you care to enlighten this old Beastkin of your… complications from the start?”

 
Juliana started off with our tale, before handing the story off to me. I wasn’t sure if all the events had just caught up to her and left her drained, but the glazed look in her eyes reflected a deep fatigue…. Or she was deep in her Clan interface.

  That made a tad more sense. She was likely going through the Clan Messages from her father or from her retinue.

  “Hmm,” the elder said. “A Troglodread in our midst. This does indeed complicate matters.”

  The elder stroked the fur along his cheek before continuing. “I am deeply sorry for your retinue and your soldiers, but sending men out to dig up the collapsed tunnel would spell doom for this entire town.”

  “Surely there is something you can do?” Juliana prompted; she had likely just finished checking her Clan Messages.

  “Such things are not easy,” Grotsanik said from beside us. “Almost every able bodied Beastkin is aiding the defense of the town. Pulling so many away from their tasks would cripple our efforts.”

  “Just so, just so,” the elder said. “And even if we managed to clear the cavern, there is no guarantee we would be able to catch up to your retinue in time.”

  “So, you will do nothing?” Juliana asked, her voice taking on a dangerous edge.

  “Calm your temper, young heir and listen,” the elder said. “I have another alternative to this problem of ours.”

  The elder laid out a fairly detailed plan to stop the Ogres attack. The gate we had seen on our way in, the west gate, was flush with the wall which stopped the Beastkin from collapsing the tunnel it housed.

  What he proposed was for us to open the gate prematurely and force the Ogres back far enough that the Beastkin mages could cast the spells required to collapse the tunnel. If we helped out with this, then they would spare the men needed to dig out the collapsed cavern, so we could link up with Juliana’s retinue.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about causing another part of this cave system to collapse. I was pretty sure one cave-in was more than enough for me.

  “Opening the gates and fighting the Ogres head on is very bold,” Clarissa noted. “And could go very wrong, very quickly.”