Rayne stared ahead at the dirt road moving straight to the horizon. The forest closed on both sides of the road, towering trees blotting half of the sky. Shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy here and there, falling like scattered spears across the dirt track.

  The squad’s boots crunched in uneven rhythm, the sound broken only by the occasional rustle of armor or clink of a weapon against a belt. And of course, the chatter.

  “Couldn't we have gotten horses for this? We would have been at Bricksall by night,” Kesh said for what felt like the hundredth time. “Camping on the road might just be the worst part of being a soldier.”

  “I always thought getting chewed by a monster is the worst part of being a soldier,” Nate fired back, his perpetual grin on his face. “And you’re talking about horses like you’re into them. I doubt you even know how to ride one.”

  John chuckled from behind. “The horse would just bolt at the smell coming off you. Poor animal would run off into the forest and get killed.”

  The others chuckled while Kesh shook his head, muttering something about bathing twice a day before stomping forward to join Rayne at the front.

  “I’d rather be on the march than with these poor sods,” he said, looking at him with a flushed expression.

  Rayne smiled. “The smell will be far worse there, and a lot more walking. At least we can sleep in an inn for a day and explore the town before heading back.”

  “And prostitutes!” Jason whistled from the right. He was a burly guy that stood half a foot over each of them with an axe strapped to his back, and was one of the three soldiers Edran had assigned from the other squads.

  Welix snorted from his side. “They’ll shiver just seeing your face, Jason. Small town whores aren’t equipped with dealing with half-orcs.”

  Both Nate and John laughed while Heins chuckled from the very back. Jason glared at Welix, but the shorter man pretended not to see it.

  He was the second soldier assigned to them. He had a bow slung over his shoulder, and was one of the better archers from the fort—or at least that’s what Nate had told him.

  The chatter soon went from horses to prostitutes to tales about half-orcs, which were apparently a real thing. He didn’t join in the jokes, but listening to the others bicker loosened something tight in his chest. After facing the trolls and the blood duel, this—soldiers marching, laughing, pretending the world wasn’t trying to gut them—almost felt like the closest thing to peace.

  Unfortunately, it was sometimes broken by the sweat gathering at his brows or the mosquitoes buzzing around him.

  Rayne drank heavily from his waterskin every half an hour, and the others did the same. Sadly, one bad thing about not having enchanted waterskins that could magically refill was that you’d run out of water fast.

  As soon as he drank the last few drops in his waterskin, he halted and turned. “We need to find a stream. There’s one around here, but the map doesn’t say where exactly.”

  “Then what use is the map?” Nate said, and the others nodded in agreement.

  “It’s not made by me.” Rayne took out the folded map from his pocket and opened it up. The others circled behind him as he traced the map with his eyes.

  The map mentioned a stream running parallel to the road, but didn’t give a location. It mostly had markings of monster nests around the area, but otherwise was completely useless since the road was just a straight path to the town other than one fork that led to some barns and mills.

  At least the monster nests marks were useful. Rayne wanted to stay as far away as he could from creatures like mana sniffers, slasher apes and rockler boars.

  “So, what are we going to do now?” Jason asked, scratching his beard.

  “Wait for Quinn to get back. He might have found the stream while scouting ahead,” he replied, and everyone nodded before they continued the march, the same jokes continuing in an attempt to forget the heat and insects.

  Rayne felt almost glad that both Jason and Welix were gelling well with the party. They seemed to understand that it was a simple supply run where they could take a breather.

  He appreciated their company as the afternoon sun burned their skin. It was only after another half an hour that they saw Quinn walking towards them in a healthy run.

  The man was the last soldier assigned for the quest, and was really short at barely five and a half feet. But he was also able to move through dense forest and bushes easily because of that. In Bran’s absence, he was their scout.

  “Where have you been for the last two hours?” Jason took a step forward as Quinn paused his steps.

  “Scouting,” he replied with a smile. “Did you already miss me in such a short time? Your sexual tendencies are gonna make the other soldiers uncomfortable.”

  Jason sniggered. “Bastard.”

  Rayne interjected before the two could bicker more and asked, “Did you find a stream? Our waterskins are empty.”

  Quinn nodded. “There’s one deep in the forest. I was late because I was following it upstream. Actually, there’s something I believe you all should see there.”

  “What?” Nate raised an eyebrow.

  “A corpse.”

  Rayne exchanged glances with the others before Quinn led them through the treelines deeper into the forest. None of them talked as they followed the scout.

  But after half an hour, as they drew closer, Rayne slowed. He sniffed the air. There was a coolness carried by the wind, but he smelled something else with it. A foul scent that made his face scrunch in disgust.

  When they reached the stream, they saw it immediately.

  A carcass sprawled half in the water, half on the bank. It was a horse, half mutilated. Its head was torn off and belly split open, ribs jutting upward like shattered spikes. Blood seeped into the stream, staining the current a sickly pink.

  “Henrexa preserve us,” Kesh muttered, gagging slightly. “What the heck is a horse doing here and who killed it?”

  John crouched and prodded the carcass with the butt of his sword. “It could be a number of things, but it’s certainly a monster,” he said grimly. “Whoever did it chewed the meatiest parts of it.”

  Rayne crouched beside him, eyes narrowing. The wound wasn’t ragged. It wasn’t a troll’s brute tear or goblin hacking. The ribs were split clean, as if something had pried them apart with deliberate strength, and there were claw marks over the body.

  A wolf? For some reason he doubted that.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Heins chuckled nervously, pacing a step back. “Whatever did this wasn’t hungry.”

  “No, it simply ate the best bits, and wasn’t interested in the rest,” Nate added quietly, his hand tightening on his sword hilt.

  Rayne touched the torn flesh, his glove slicking with blood that was still warm. “This was recent,” he said flatly.

  Silence fell. The forest, which had moments ago echoed with their banter, now seemed far too quiet. He noticed that even the birds seemed to be silent.

  Jason and Welix looked around the stream, taking out their weapons while Rayne turned to Quinn.

  “Did you find any tracks around?”

  Quinn nodded, taking everyone’s attention. “Yes, claw marks on the bark around the stream. But no sign of a nest. It’s hard to say what monster it belonged to. I checked the map before I moved, and there should be no nests around here.”

  “Can’t they have wandered here or chased the horse?” Kesh asked.

  “Unlikely. A horse won’t be able to run away from monsters for long, especially in a forest. And I don’t even know what a horse is doing out here.”

  Rayne nodded, looking down at the carcass. He knew there were farms a day away from here, but if a horse had run away from there, it was strange it had ended up in the forest when the town would have been closer. Horses weren’t stupid—no animal was.

  Then, what was going on here?

  Before he could think further, something caught his eyes on the other side of the bank. He snapped his head and his breath hitched.

  Shapes moved in the trees. Not goblins. Not trolls.

  Monkeys. Or at least, that’s what they looked like at first glance—lean, long-limbed creatures clinging to the branches. Their eyes glowed faintly amber in the dappled light as they watched them. Their bodies were wiry muscle, fur patchy and matted, with claws instead of nails on their hands and feet. Their mouths hung open in jagged snarls, teeth too long for their skulls.

  One of them hissed, the sound eerily human, and his whole party followed his gaze to look at them.

  “Gods above, what are they?”

  Another monkey bent low over the branch it perched on, and with an ugly screech, it mimicked the sound of tearing flesh.

  The squad shifted uneasily.

  “Slasher apes,” Rayne replied, and just as he wondered what a group of them was doing here, one of them leapt from the branches.

  The slasher ape soared through the air with terrifying speed, arms stretched wide, claws ready to tear him open.

  For a second, Rayne saw death right in front of his eyes before he put a shield forward. Claws scratched the surface of it as it crashed down, the impact splashing water high in the air.

  He rolled aside before another claw could come at him. The beast hissed a blood-curdling noise and threw itself straight at him.

  Rayne lifted his blade high, catching it in the chest as it flailed around. One of its claws bounced off the armor, and the weight of the ape dragged him down. He didn’t let the monster get the upper hand—or claw in this case—and punched it with his shield.

  It bounced back into the river. Blood sprayed across the river stones as it raised its body, snarling. An arrow hit its arm, blood spraying into the water.

  He didn’t turn to see who had fired it and stepped into the river, bringing down his blade with a wet squelch before the monster could get up.

  Rayne twisted his blade into its neck, claws grazing his armor, but the monster went down soon. A notification buzzed in his mind, but another pair of screeches took his attention.

  Wood creaked, swaying under the weight, as two more apes jumped straight at him.

  Rayne readied his blade, but a grunt echoed from his left as Jason charged at one of them, his axe cleaving the ape in the air and slamming it down into the river. The second one got hit by arrows.

  Three of them punctured into its side and shoulders before another whistled through the air to hit its eye. It went down, screaming in the river before more splashes rang out.

  Nate and Kesh rushed towards it, bringing down their blades at the same time. The former stomped its legs and cleaved the shoulders while Kesh’s blade sank into its skull.

  The slasher apes snarled and flailed around before going limp.

  Rayne raised his gaze back to the trees, but none of the other apes leapt like their fallen brethren.

  They hissed, teeth flashing, bodies shifting with restless energy. Then, as if some unseen signal passed through them, they melted back into the canopy. The shrieks echoed for a moment longer, then silence returned to the forest.

  The squad stood still, weapons still raised.

  Then, once Rayne realized it was over, he gave one last look at the ape at his feet, kicked it, and then took a deep breath. “It’s all over. We are safe… hopefully.”

  “Cowards,” Jason snorted. “All of them.”

  “They probably realized they would die an early death if they jumped at us like these fools.” Nate spat at the ape before pulling his blade back.

  Rayne agreed with him before turning back and getting out of the river. The others hadn’t even gotten time to join the battle, but all of them had their weapons out.

  He looked at Welix, who lowered his bow. “Thanks for the assist. That was fast.”

  “It would have been faster if it had hit the damn monster’s eyeball. Those shots are the best.”

  The man grinned as everyone moved back to the bank. All of them cleaned up their blades as the tension from the encounter slowly eased.

  Rayne had no idea what the slasher apes were doing there. Their nest should be northwest of here. Fortunately, even if they looked scary, they were only level 15–20 monsters according to what he had gathered.

  All of them could have taken on one if it came to that.

  “Let’s refill our waterskins and be on the way,” he said. “I don’t want more encounters with them if I can help it. I doubt they would chase us, but it’s better to walk faster.”

  None of them had any complaints, and they swiftly moved upstream to gather clean water, away from the blood and grime of the monsters.

  Rayne scooped up water and let it cool his throat. Even as the stream soothed his thirst, he kept his eyes on the trees, ears sharp for any sound. But there was nothing ominous.

  He drank once more before refilling the waterskin to the brim before all of them moved back to the road. As they moved, he suggested moving in a formation in case another attack came their way, and they did just that.

  Fortunately, they found the dirt road the same as before. The next few hours went silently as none of them had the mood for chatter. Quinn scouted around them, going back and forth in a circle to make sure they weren’t being followed by the slasher apes.

  They weren’t, but it was only after the fourth hour of walking that he saw some lightness return to their steps. It was already evening by then, and according to the map, the fork was close.

  Once they reached it, the town was only half a day away.

  They decided to camp once they reached that, but none of them had any idea of what awaited them there. It was Quinn who spoke of it once he returned from another scouting run.

  The grim expression on his face already told Rayne that he had found something. “What did you find?”

  The others tensed behind him as Quinn gulped, eyes lowering to the ground. “Just come with me. I can’t explain it. It’s at the fork.”

  “Another monster?”

  “No. Please just follow me.”

  Rayne didn’t ask anything else. Just the tone and slight waver in Quinn’s voice were enough for him to shut up and follow him in a run as they neared the fork.

  But when they neared, a heavy scent of blood paused his steps. The others stopped at the same time, and the run became a slow crawl.

  None of them spoke as Quinn led them before pausing and pointing at one of the trees on the side. Rayne raised his head, looking at it before his eyes widened.

  He instinctively took a step back and heard gasps from all around him.

  Five bodies hung from the tree, swaying with the wind. All of them were naked, and blood and cut marks covered their bodies. Parts of them seemed to have been chewed by monsters, and flies hovered all around them.

  Before he could even let out a single word, his stomach churned and he resisted the urge to vomit. Kesh, Heins and Welix weren't so lucky as they emptied out their stomach.

  Rayne glanced at them once before daring to look back at the corpses again.

  Just what in this godforsaken world was happening?

  ***