Chapter 185

185 Watch your back, please! part Breaching through the dense vegetation was Bob, the one in best shape among the adventurers and also the biggest which helped a lot in making way.

The only downside to it was he was slowly but surely depleting his healthpoints. Everytime he passed through thorny bushes or hard branches, his health took a small hit.

Once night started to fall, it was Luke’s turn. He didn’t have the night vision skill, but he did have a torch Ryu handed to him.

“It would have been nice to have a lamp”

“Stop complaining ad do your job”

Sera scoffed at Luke, before he even finished. She felt anxious moving in the jungle, and Ryu being hurt didn’t help at all.

Anne was the only one mounting Famine now, except for Mochi that is, it didn’t matter how hard they tried, Mochi refused walking on his own paws.

Although adventurers like them were supposed to be able to travel long distance for a long period of time, without sleeping or eating, they decided to take some breaks and have decent meals. The reason behind this was, of course, to keep their stamina high at all times and to recover some lost health points.

This was only because they knew, once their pursuers picked up their tracks, a fight was unavoidable and they couldn’t afford to caught while tired. Still, no one mentioned it and they acted as if they didn’t notice.

.....

Eventually, it became apparent the enemies were drawing near. There were shouts in the middle of the night and when hey were finally able to see the lights in the distance they knew it was time to get ready.

They chose a clearing to be their last stand, if things went south there was always the possibility of scattering in multiple directions. Ryu set up a couple of traps, he wasn’t an experienced hunter but he picked up some tricks by chatting with the hunters at the Ironwoods tavern.

A cord on the path their enemies were coming from and a pitfall to make them fall if they avoid the first trap. He also fasioned a spiked barricade with the help of Bob, and that was it. There wasn’t much time or resources to get ready.

When Bob placed the barricade on the pathway, everyone fell silent. Their breath could be seen because it was a cold night, Luke placed some torches around, they weren’t on lit yet, mostly because they didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention. But in the end, it was useless.

“They are about ten people, fast moving, fully geared and they’re mounting on...”

Anne started to say out loud what she was able to see, providing any piece of information could mean a huge difference. But she had to stop because she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Are those raptors!?”

Anne was gaping at the sight of adventures riding on biped lizards, they were just the right size for riding, but not to big as to hinder their movement in the forest. Their fierce looking claws and maws made it difficult to believe they were tame.

“What is a raptor?”

Risa asked more confused than scared.

“It’s a lizard, the size of a person, but they’re riding those”

“No, no, no! this is bad! this is really really bad!”

Risa’s face was drained of color and her easygoing attitude was nowhere to be found.

“What is it miss Risa, why are you so scared?”

Sera asked in a calm voice, but inside her mind she knew this must be very bad news. She had never seen Risa so scared before, if anything, she was always excited to fight a strong enemy.

“Those are dragons!”

“What!? Do you mean big lizards that spit fire?”

Luke’s eyes were filled with excitement for a brief second, until he remembered they were being chased after.

“Exactly, those are pseudo dragons, they are fast moving, can walk on any terrain, they’re tough and can spit a variety of elements from their mouths”

As fear started to crawl in on everyone’s minds, the enemies drew closer and closer.

Ryu, who had always relied on stealth attacks and tactics, climbed on a tree just like a gobling would do and Luke followed his example. Bob and Risa stood just behind the barricade, waiting for the enemy. Anne and Sera took cover behind the amarok and they took Lea with them, she had been unresponsive since she attempted to heal Anne so many times and they couldn’t just let her wander off.

Risa tried to grasp her sword, but her fingers were still swollen because of the acid, if she hadn’t been wearing the red cape she would have been done for on the spot when she was swallowed by the giant worm.

The enemies were close enouogh to be seen, they carried elemental stone powered lanterns on them. When they noticed there was a clearing on the way they started slowing down, one of them, obviously the leader, kept advancing towards the hulking figure of Bob.

He seemed to want to speak, but before he could do so, his pseudo dragon tripped over the rope and fell right into the pitfall. The pseudo dragon wailed in pain because it was pierced by many wooden spikes placed inside the pitfall for that very purpose, but the man was unscathed because he was wearing full plate armor.

A ray of light was seen coming out of the pitfall, followed by a tall man climbing out of it. The light of the lantern casted a terrible shadow on the trees. Ryu was about to drop on top of the man, but before he could do so the man raised his voice.

“Why the fuck would you guys do that!?”

To say everyone was dumbfounded would be the understatement of the century. They were so worried because they were certain they were being chased after by the sacred empire, but they never stopped to consider that maybe, just maybe, it could have been a different person.

Risa took a step forward and greeted the man with a smile.

“Hey! so you finally came, Lorenzo!”