Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Don’t overdo it, please! Part

A week passed like it was nothing and the only one missing their settlement was Ayumi who couldn’t stand the sight of another woman hitting on her husband. Meanwhile everyone else was faring well, the most successful were Hiraku and Helena, the first was making a killing on his trading business while the latter was so skilled in tailoring that the richest people in town would fight for a set of clothes.

Anne, Bob and Ryu decided to join Rudd in one of his mining expeditions. Since Rudd was also a hunter, it was his duty to keep everyone safe on their way to their mining spot.

It was the coldest morning they’ve faced, but they were not alone in this trip. Every three days hundreds of people would gather at the north entrance for what they call the shift change. There weren’t many professional miners, but most inhabitants would go into the mines every so often so everyone knew the basics.

Ryu analyzed the equipment everyone had but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Most people carried a cloth sack or leather bag with food and some utensils, a lamp and a pickax, others instead of a pickax carried a toolbox with small prospecting tools, and some others carried only luggage.

“What are they carrying in those boxes?”

Ryu asks

“Prospecting tools, how else would the rest know how to mine?”

.....

Rudd replies while looking at his surroundings. They could be attacked anytime by beasts and spotting them a second earlier could mean the difference between life or death to dozens of people.

Even though Rudd didn’t allow Ryu to meet the mayor, he was happy to accept him on the mining trip. His vast experience tells him that the more people the safer a trip to the mines is, and this is likely the last big group to go mining since the earlier signs of the freeze were starting to appear.

The group was so big that it looked like a small army, to keep everyone safe the ones tasked with leading them were the hunters. Most of them carried big blunt weapons while others carried small sticks instead.

Rudd’s crew was geared with light leather armor and a fur cape that came out from their shoulderpads and only his weapons varied. Their biggest member carried a big weapon made of Iron, Rudd had a shortsword and several knives, the other members carried a pickax each and the luggage. This team composition was traditional in Ironwoods since it allowed them to dispatch their enemies quickly, and time was money after all.

“Why is everyone staring at us?”

Anne asks trying to hid behind Ryu’s back.

“It must be that you’re carrying unusual weapons, spears could be useful on the outside, but inside the mines they’re completely worthless, and bows are as good as being bare handed. Also, it’s rare to see a team with only three hunters, the usual is two members focused in combat and two in support.”

“Why is that?”

Ryu inquiries, Rudd seems annoyed but replies nonetheless

“If your weapons break you’re a walking meal for beasts, and since fighters need to have their hands free it’s necessary to bring people to carry spare weapons. Figure this: you have four daggers and four mates, one of them hits hard, the other can fend himself and the other two can barely graze a beast due to their lack of strength. It doesn’t matter who wields the weapon, either way its going to break. Isn’t it better to arm only the strongest ones?”

Ryu nods in agreement.

“By the way, why isn’t Luke with us today?”

Rudd asks Bob who was still trying to figure out the reasoning behind the team composition.

“He’s otherwise engaged.”

That’s what Luke instructed him to say, but in reality he just doesn’t go out of the brothel much these days. He’s been trying all the different flavors of pleasure madame Bianca’s place has to offer, but even though it’s been a week already, he still has to spend as much as Bob did on just one day.

Back at the town Hiraku could finally leave the construction site unsupervised, Both Ayumi and Helena took this chance to head back at the settlement and bring with them the last supplies they had stored. This time they won’t sell anything, if they were living by themselves it would be just enough to last through winter but now that they live in Ironwoods there will be plenty to spare.

Also, they need to bring the cat with them before the freeze or it’ll be as good as dead. Even wild animals perish if they don’t have a proper place to take shelter from the cold. But that’s not everything, ever since Ryu tamed it, it became impossible for Mochi to live by itself on the wild, because once tamed a creature becomes loyal to his master.

As soon as the crowd starts walking, Rudd’s crew walk faster in order to be on the front. Ryu’s group is left behind and they follow the crowd. Everyone walks in silence, which was fine for about half an hour, but then they started feeling uneasy. It’s as if everyone agreed beforehand to not say a word during the whole trip.

One hour later the road starts getting sloppier, making those who were carrying heavy luggage walk even slower. Luckily, Ryu’s group managed to finish two medium sized sleds with a limited capacity, but a lot sturdier than the first one they had. If it wasn’t for Luke they wouldn’t have finished them in time, it was only for this reason that they indulged his behavior at the brothel.

As long as he keeps pulling his weight they can’t complain, he’s his own person and able to decide what kind of life he wants to live.

“WOLF!”

A loud scream can be heard, the hunters quickly get in position, surrounding the crowd as they repeat the alarm. The weakest among the crowd move into the middle and then everyone stops moving.

Up on a hill a huge wolf-like creature standing on a hill to the west lifts his snout pointing at the sky and howls for a long time making everyone shudder. Soon other wolves join them and even if none is as big as the first one, they still strike fear into everyone’s hearts.

Even veterans have a hard time stopping themselves from shaking out of fear. Some youngsters start crying and lamenting themselves for being naive enough to risk their life just for a quick revenue.

Bob quickly gets in front and Anne draws her bow, both awaiting instructions from Ryu. It’s been a long time since they fight for their lives, but they practiced their strategies time and time again.

A second howl echoes and every wolf, except for the pack leader, runs forward with their mouth watering. This kind of attack is not the usual, but if a wolf pack is not able to get enough food to last the winter they become desperate, sometimes enough to even attack human settlements.

Win or lose they still manage to survive, if they win they get food, and if they lose their numbers diminish, thus needing less food to survive. Only the strongest wolves can survive in the harsh environment of the far south, and among the wolves the strongest one is their pack leader.

Its a huge wolf almost the size of a horse, its blue and silver color mimic perfectly the white of the snow on the ground and the open sky respectively. The mere sight of its fangs is enough to make some faint, and he stands proud on top of the hill grimacing at the carnage taking place down the road.

The first wolf to reach the group passes by the hunters ignoring them completely and pushes past the helpless people cowering in fear. A young man who’s on his first trip to the mines is grabbed by the leg and pulled far from everyone, the mid sized wolf moved so quickly that most people couldn’t even see its shadow.

Loud screams can be heard all around and even some hunters lost their will to fight thinking that maybe if they let the wolves eat their full they would be safe. Blood splatters on the soft snow painting a macabre picture on the landscape.

A woman is being pulled outside of the crowd as the helpless husband fights to free her from the firm grasp of the beast. Everything breaks into chaos as more wolves join the onslaught.

Those at the back of the group run in the direction of the town, only to fall prey of the smaller wolves in the pack and their cries of despair form a pitiful choir. Those who die immediately are the fortunate ones, the rest can only beg for help with whatever strength they have left as they’re being eaten alive.

Among the mess of blood and guts a man stands his ground swinging his spear from side to side chanting in a mysterious language. His clothes are dyed in red but it’s not his blood. He’s an unmoving totem in the midst of a flesh river.

From the distance, a medium sized wolf walks slowly towards his target, he considers Bob to be a suitable meat source for the one who will challenge the alpha as soon as the winter ends. A low growl is the only heads up to what seemed an impossible jump for a beast that heavy. Bob countered the beast tackle with a powerful swing of his spear.

The wolf took the pain and carried its momentum attempting to make Bob fall but he proved to be a worthy opponent and didn’t budge an inch.

Meanwhile the battle carried on with heavy casualties on the human’s side, making it a gruesome spectacle for those who were unable or unwilling to take part.

Taking advantage from the confusion, Anne ran through the battlefield trying to remain unnoticed. Whenever she finds a safe spot an arrow whistles followed by the thump sound of a wolf dropping dead on the ground. As long as she avoids the medium sized wolves she’ll be out of harms way.

People took notice of her battle prowess and did their best to follow her around and hide behind her, thus making her strategy useless. She realized this a second too late when a medium sized wolf was lured by the amount of people taking cover behind her.

To make matters worse, a man old enough to fight for himself and dressed in fine clothes, grabbed her by the fur coat she was wearing.

“Hurry up and shoot woman! kill it!”

He said trying to use her as a meat shield as the wolf came closer by the second. Anne was put in a tough spot because she knew if she moved, everyone behind her would die, but if she stayed still she’d be in danger.

***

“Bob stay your ground.”

Were the last words I managed to say before the crowd dragged me into the center of the formation. By the time the first wolf easily broke the ranks I realized this would be a massacre.

Much to my despair I’m surrounded by strangers who wouldn’t hesitate to put their lives on top of mine.

I scan my surroundings looking for anything useful but there’s not a single tree or rock I could climb to be safe, it’s as if the animals knew exactly what would happen. Though to think that they’re capable of making a strategy goes against everything I know about animals, something tells me its not a coincidence they chose this spot either.

I didn’t hesitate to leave everything in the sleds behind, but now I’m all by myself loaded with stone weapons. Even if I could manage to land a hit I highly doubt it’d be more than a nuisance to a wolf. For what I’ve seen even stronger people than me are falling like flies even though they’re armed to the teeth with Iron weapons and leather armor, so a head on encounter would be the end of me.

I forcefully make my way through the crowd, only to find that there are half eaten corpses on the ground. On the upside, if I wanted an iron weapon I could easily grab one. Realizing this I drop every weapon on the ground except for my best spear and run straight to the abandoned sled.

I bet that people would try to steal from us if the battle wasn’t so tilted towards the wolves. I drop everything useless on the ground until I find a bottle of oil. Now I’m glad I didn’t trust these magical lanterns and brought some oil to make torches in case of necessity.

After wrapping the tip of my spear with what was intended to be a cloth bandage, I dip it in oil and lit it on fire using magic.

Because I was so focused on this, I failed to notice the wolf approaching me from behind on time and it manages to bite my ankle and refuses to let go. It scared me more than it hurt and with a firm grip on the spear I strike it’s side setting it’s fur on fire.

This alone is enough to make it run for its life making the other wolves be wary of the mysterious bright force I’m wielding.

Another look on the battlefield and I see Bob is right were I left him, I had the hopes that he would be nearby but not in the exact same spot. I walk crouched in the direction where Bob is, this and my stealth skill will hopefully help me go unnoticed until I reach him.

Bob is surrounded by wolves corpses and is completely bathed in blood, he seems to be engaged in battle with a medium sized wolf but he doesn’t move forward nor takes a step back. I think he may have took my words a bit too literal. I can’t complain though since it helped me locate him quickly and also forced the wolf to take his time studying its enemy.

It looks like a stalemate until Bob’s spear breaks after hitting his target on the neck leaving him with just a broken stick on his hand. The wolf quickly manages to bite his left arm, interrupting Bob’s usual chantings and making him scream in pain.

I run with everything I got and throw the spear at the wolf using the aim skill.

“Bob grab it!”

I scream to the top of my lungs to help him locate me among the chaos, my intention was to hit the wolf but Bob’s reflexes were so impressive that he managed to grab the flaming spear in mid air and then thrusted it into the wolf’s side.

After being punctured by the sharp end of the spear the wolf seems to be in pain caused by both the hit and the fire, but now it’s Bob who won’t let go of the wolf and grabs him by the snout immobilizing it and keeping it close enough that he can beat it with his bare fists until the wolf drops unconscious.

As soon as the wolf drops on the ground Bob picks up the spear and finishes it off.

“Where’s Anne?”

“I think I saw her move around but she’s too fast”

That’s great, but if we don’t find her in time she may end up in trouble because she’ll soon run out of arrows.

We move cautiously through the battlefield while Bob makes quick work of every single wolf stupid enough to get within reach. I take the chance to analyze weapons lying on the floor, even though none is that great there’s one that draws my attention.

Warhammer 115/240

As soon as I grab it I realize it’s way heavier than I can carry, let alone wield.

“Bob, come pick this up! this will be your new weapon.”

Bob gets near but turns pale like a ghost

“what’s the matter?”

“This...this is...”

He stutters while pointing behind me. A big man with one arm chopped off and his entrails scattered on the ground lies on the ground lifeless. Something on his face unsettles me, is it his expression?

It can’t be, I’ve seen my share of pain and guts today and I’m unmoved. As I get closer I finally understand Bob’s reaction, he was the big guy on Rudd’s crew.

.....

Bob is on the verge of tears, but before he speaks a single word I slap him with all my force on the face. If it hurt him or not he didn’t show it, nor I have the time to use consider on him. But at least it was enough for him to get back on his feet.

“Get it together Bob! if we don’t find Anne she might be next.”

Bob picks up the warhammer and puts it to good use making our way clear, when we finally reach Anne she’s being held by a man from behind and a wolf is running right at her.

“Anne duck!”

Anne snaps out of her apparent confusion, takes off her fur coat and crouches just in time for the wolf to tear apart the man who was cowering behind her. Anne turns back and shoots an arrow making the wolf yelp in pain, after making a U turn the wolf attempts to tackle Anne, but she’s too fast and the Wolf meets Bob’s hammer instead.

After this, we finally have a much needed moment to rest as we are covered in sweat despite the cold. Anne is panting but looks to be unscathed, so I move past her and pick up the man’s sword.

Bastard sword 250/250

It’s brand new!

Not only that, it’s well balanced and sharp. I try to give it to Anne who declines immediately

“What are you doing picking up a dead man’s belongings?”

“It will do him no good, but it can save our lives. I’m sure he would be ok with this.”

“No, he wouldn’t... he tried to use me as a meatshield.”

“Then let’s consider this a compensation.”