Chapter 199: Warming up

With her reasons for coming there completed Scylla seemed like she wanted to say more. Walker almost asked her but instead had realized she was not looking at any member of the party. Instead her eyes were resting on a fairly terrified Maria. She had pushed herself as close to Su's leg as possible almost as if she thought she could blend in. 

Scylla slowly took the few steps forward while still looking at Maria, her head was looking down a completely deadpan face. Her eyes seemed to share a connection for just a moment, Maria detached herself from Su and looked straight up at Scylla. "When I was taken from my family I was brought to where the knight of gluttony reigned. I was freed from there after fifteen years. What knight owned you?" 

Maria had wide eyes hearing this, she had not expected someone so powerful to have been in the same situation as she had been, I was with envy." Maria looked downwards. The two of them had both been in different territories. These territories were reigned over by the seven knights of sin. They were often the villains in children's books, the most evil of all the demons. Most people knew this was all part fantasy and part truth. 

The truth was that there were indeed knights that had systems that made them considered the pinnacle of their respective sin. They would often rise to power claiming their own areas within the demon territory as their own. The power rules all mentality that is the core of demon traditions caused many small battles between the knights, this was often the reason that they would keep to themselves. Sometimes they would branch out to cause some trouble to other neighboring nations but often were caught in their own internal struggles. The last time they were recorded to stop their own battles was in a story book, there had been a demon lore that rose to power and forced the knights in to a contract. This gave them his army which he brought against the demi-humans. After the war had passed both sides had stepped back leaving a significant hatred for each other. The ruling king of the Demi humans created his city and the demon lord disappeared in to the shadows. 

"Well I do not believe you will find yourself feeling envious with them by your side." Scylla showed a small smile and walked away down the large open road. The guards followed her with a respectful nod to the party. Aria was looking off towards the direction of Scylla. The two were not friends nor did they speak much but they knew they were connected deeply. The sight of someone who had dragged themselves from the bottom and been freed from the cruelty of the demon territory inspired Maria, she would not sit idle, she would make a new life just like Scylla.

Su gave Maria a small pat on the back to signal it was time to start moving, Maria took a small corner of Su's clothes between her fingers and walked step to step with her out of the gates and towards her future. The lands around the capitol of Ordist were dotted with small villages and farm lands. The snow that had completely blanketed the plains seemed to have thinned just a bit, spring was on its way.

Realizing that Maria had legs much too small to keep up on the trails, or in the snow Su picked her up and placed her on her shoulders. Su was playing the older sister role very well, so much so that even Remey was a bit jealous. With their walking arrangements set they started to head out in to the true open plains where villages and farmland was nowhere to be seen. The merchant trails seemed fairly well worn, another sign that spring was starting to show its head. The mud however on the trails they walked was not a welcome sign, it made moving a bit harder. The only one that seemed to be enjoying the mud was Gil who was scouting ahead, narrowing down some possible prey for their dinner later. Many small animal tracks were keeping him occupied, one in particular that drew his attention were the tracks of a common rabbit. They developed white fur for the winter and Gil wanted to challenge himself to spot it. 

Continuing well ahead of the party he saw that the tracks left the trail and went on in to the snow, the grass was popping slightly through the snow in this area making tracking much rougher. He was trying to stand a bit taller so he could try and spot movement from farther away when something caught his attention. What he thought was going to be just the white rabbit he was looking for turned out to be more, much more. The much had only been a small layer before the still frozen ground. Do to this the footprints of the much larger horned rabbits looked unlike they normally would. 

For the party this could spell some trouble for the party, if the horned rabbits were already leaving their hibernation they would be out in the plains in droves. Not only would it mean they need to battle them more often as they traveled but it also meant the predators that constantly hunted the horned rabbits would also be hunting the party. The plains were suddenly much more dangerous.

Gil retreated from his distance to return to the group, he needed to let them know to adjust their strategy for a more agile opponent. They could handle snow imps and ice wraiths but adding the horned rabbits and potentially other monsters, this could easily throw them off their course. Gil turned and retreated quietly until he knew he was out of hearing range, then began to run the distance back to the party. However as he approached them he realized they had already discovered the new enemy.

There was a large horned rabbit jumping around Remey trying to stab forward with its yellowing horn. Unlike a regular rabbit these horned rabbits were almost triple the size. The yellow horn that grew out of their head to a point would be longer the more years they lived. The females had a deadly paralyzing poison that developed within their horn but the males did not. There was no way to tell the difference normally. 

Remey was doing her best to dodge the quick leaps from the horned rabbit. It's large legs gave it the advantage in close combat. Gil had already drawn his bow but was farther away than he preferred, the rabbit was moving way too much for him to fire his arrow without potentially hitting Remey. Instead of firing he let out an annoyed grunt and sprinted forward to get closer.

Su had Maria safely guarded behind her shield with Midnight behind them guarding their backs. Walker had warned Midnight to stay away from the horned rabbit, he was not sure if it was able to paralyze her and did not want to take the risk.Walker was waiting for the right chance to slow or stop the rabbit but its movements were erratic, Remey was going a great job of dodging it's attacks but this could not go on forever. Noticing movement in the distance Walker's heart almost stopped thinking it was another enemy, however to his delight it was a sprinting Gil. Gil had run a few more feet to get to a better vantage, he was still not sure of his shot but he aimed for the ground near the horned rabbit.

With the arrow let loose it landed in to the snowy ground making a solid thunk. The rabbit heard and saw this instinctively jumping away. This put enough distance between them for Walker to send a fire bolt its way. The spell impacted the rabbits white fur causing it to burn and tumble around. In its panic Gil was able to aim and get two quick shots in to it nearly ending the battle there. Remey jumped in with a hammer fist completely ending the fight. The slightly burned and arrow pierced horned rabbit was down for the count.

'Defeated one horned rabbit male

Gained 20 exp multiplied to 200exp.'

Gil caught up to them, "So if you haven't realized, the horned rabbits are out of hibernation. There are plenty of tracks ahead of us so we will definitely be bumping in to more." 

"No duh they are out of hibernation, while you were off exploring I was doing all the work." Remey ran at Gil and reared to punch him in the arm. Gil tried his best to dodge but Remey found her target and Gil found a new bruise. 

"You really need to stay a bit closer when you leave to scout, what if the horned rabbit had found you and not us?" Su took on a strict tone as she started in on reprimanding Gil.

Walker watched all this smiling while he stored away the horned rabbits body. Tonight they would have a pretty good meal. The horned rabbits were tougher than regular rabbits but had more meat, something Midnight was sure to enjoy.