030. Crucible - 7

030. Crucible - 7

I quickly realized that moving as a part of a large group had its own challenges. Speed was one of them. Alone, using the river as a highway, I could compete with a car, and even without cheating, I was moving at a speed that would kill a thoroughbred horse from overexertion.

However, the moment the first great beast, some kind of mutated tiger, overgrown to match an elephant in the size appeared, rushing forward at a speed I could never match, I was reassured by my choices.

The people with ranged abilities, from all three groups, held the beast under the rain of arrows, easily hitting the tiger despite its size. Even Karak stepped forward, using his precious arrows while Jertann and Silas guarded him.

Halfway through, I could already see the beast slowing down due to its wounds, its vitality not enough to prop it up when its skin was filled with arrows.

While they continued to deal with it, I turned back and looked at the horizon, toward the forest I had left behind, wondering if the distraction effect of the forest was finally over. I didn't see the cursed fire as I looked, though, to be fair, I didn't even see the forest itself. We were already too far away to see unless I found an elevated spot of observation.

However, in the sky, I could see two flying castles peeking down from the clouds, showing that, whatever was going on, they still needed reinforcements.

But then, if it was a small problem, I doubted that they would have triggered such a comprehensive evacuation.

I turned my attention to the tiger, still rushing toward the center held by the Blacks, who pulled back slightly, pulling the tiger into an envelopment. Interestingly, even the other groups used their ranged attacks recklessly. For a moment, I was surprised by their support, as I hadn't expected it givenh the obvious tension.

Then, the situation revealed itself as the tiger collapsed, and a celebration exploded in one of the greens. "You didn't get it?" Jertann asked as he turned toward Karak, who just shook his head.

They were talking about the last hit. "How much experience it grant for you to care about it that much?" I asked, looking at their expressions like they had just lost the lottery.

"Well, probably about ten thousand," Jertann guessed.

"A bit lower," Silas spoke. "It went down too fast to actually grant that much."

Karak nodded, agreeing with the conclusion.

I frowned as I calculated just how much experience that could be gained from other sources, and realized that something was wrong. There were almost a hundred archers in three groups which meant an expected experience payoff of about a hundred points.

Which could easily be gained by simply killing two or three larger beasts with their arrows rather than wasting their arrows against that large beast.

I would have assumed it was the mindset of a gambler as I had seen many ruining their lives in a misunderstanding of their chances of victory but that hardly explained their passion. It wasn't unlikely, but I didn't want to neglect another possibility.

"That's a lot of experience," I muttered as I raised my hand, making a show of counting my fingers like I was struggling to count. "Almost" I muttered, my face scrunched to further give a mathematically challenged expression. "A thousand ordinary beasts, like this," I counted as I pointed to one that I just killed.

"Try ten thousand, old man," Terma connected, hurried in his answer to show his superior math abilities. "Unless you're a pathetic loser that yet to get his first Promotion, of course," he delivered, pushing his chest out proudly, showing off his early achievement.

Jertann seemed to be unaware of that detail, too lost in his task, which only made Terma act faster and faster, even if it occasionally forced him to take bigger blows, exhaustion taking hold as he was gasping for a breath.

He was not in bad shape, but constantly pushing himself to the limit was clearly exerting a cost. He didn't use his Health to cure his exhaustion, which didn't imply nice things about the state of his Health reserves.

I caught Karak's gaze more than once, confirming that I wasn't the only one watching him. He nodded, implying that he would handle it.

I decided to leave the glorious task of convincing a teenager not to push himself past his limits to Karak, and focused on my job to handle the rear, though I started to move from side to side a bit more to lighten the load.

Not entirely altruistic, as it also allowed me to hoard the experience I collected.

I was hoping to have a calm mission until we could return to the camp as far as it could be under the constant attacks of rabid monsters when we hit a little snag.

A beast, this time a rat, overgrown enough to rival a hippo, rushing forward with great speed. The problem, they were charging right at our group. I tightened my dagger and moved forward, while Karak and other ranged warriors started to petter it with arrows.

I wasn't exactly scared of the beast itself, but what would follow, especially since I had seen the Red group that was closest to us pull back slightly, and along with them, another group attacked the beast with much less frequency.

Their trick was not hard to guess, but the way the members of the nearest Red group smiled once a cheer from the Blacks revealed their success.

"Such horrible luck," Jertann cursed. "Another miss."

Silas didn't say anything, but the way she shook her head confirmed that she shared his opinion.

While Jertann and Silas cursed about missing such an opportunity, Karak glanced around the distance between the nearest group of the Reds and the Blacks. His eyes widened as the realization hit, showing that they were set up.

"Terma, would you go and get me a new quiver," he said as he unhooked it immediately, and pushed it to his hand before he could react, using some of his very rare words as he faced the emergency. He looked a little unconvinced, and Karak also looked helpless, his gaze jumping between two groups of Blacks, approaching toward the corpse, and the Reds, who were decidedly not approaching.

I decided to help a bit. "You don't want Karak to lose his next opportunity because you're feeling lazy, right?" I goaded him.

"What, I don't feel lazy. I just don't understand why I need to go."

"I thought you were the fastest, but maybe Karak should go. After all, you look very exhausted."

"I'm not exhausted," he growled and immediately started to run. Karak nodded in appreciation, and I sent a quick one back before I turned toward the Blacks.

Though, as I watched them approach, I couldn't help but feel rather amused. It felt like I was a teenager all along, accidentally finding myself in the middle of a gang skirmish that escalated into a war that enveloped the whole city, irrevocably forcing me into my unique career path.

"Let's see this time I could handle it better," I muttered