Chapter 38:

  Reckless Heroism

  Our group of nine spoke quietly amongst ourselves as we followed the road that led back toward the coast. The afternoon sun began its slow descent from its peak, and cast long shadows through the trees as we made our way toward our destination.

  When we reached the place where Halius and I had encountered the gnoll spawn the day before, the mood amongst the group shifted instantly. Quiet chatter died out ,weapons were loosed from their sheaths, and the guild members began to move with purpose as they prepared to enter the forest.

  The blood from yesterday still marked the road in dark, uneven streaks where Halius’s hammer had crushed two of the cackling hounds in a single sweep. The bodies were gone, likely dragged off by scavengers, but the stains remained, a crude testament to the battle that had taken place.

  Jarus Welker, the leader of the small group from the adventurers guild, looked every bit the warrior from the stories told around the taverns in Wheat Hollow. He was a large man with an oversized blade strapped across his back, scars crossed his neck and face in uneven patterns, and he spoke in a voice that carried the steady confidence of someone who had lived through far too many close calls.

  “Alright,” he said, addressing us on the road, “According to reports, I don’t expect much more than these spawn. We might’ve caught this nest early, so with any luck we can clear it out within a hour or two. If the unlikely happens and it proves too much to handle, we all fall back, and put in a formal request to the guild. No point in being brave if it gets you killed.”

  He turned to each of his companions in turn, giving his orders in quick, confident succession.

  “Williams, prep your tracking skill. Let’s aim to stay downwind of these things. They’ll smell us quicker than they’ll see us.”

  At his command, Williams stepped toward the tree line, knelt beside the brush, and placed a hand against the earth. His eyes closed shut as he activated some skill that pulsed through the earth.

  “Tabatha, you stick close to me. If all goes well, we won’t need your fancy spells, but if things do go south, you’ll be responsible for watching our backs.”

  Finally, he turned toward the youngest of their group, a freshly awakened young man who looked to be about my age. “Curly, you hang back with that bow of yours. Once the area looks clear, we’ll send you back to bring the valley folk forward.”

  Then, without any further ceremony, the adventuring team slipped into the forest. The sound of snapping branches and the rustle of thick underbrush followed their advance as they pushed deeper into the tree line until they completely disappeared from sight.

  The rest of us were left to wait. At first, everyone held themselves stiff and ready, eyes fixed on the forest as if expecting trouble to burst out at any moment. But as the minutes crept by… ten, then twenty, then nearly half an hour, the tension slowly eased. No one allowed their guard to drop entirely, yet the rigid alertness softened into something steadier and more casual as the quiet stretched on.

  One of the men of the valley, who I think was named Paul, exhaled softly and leaned his weight against his spear. After a moment, he glanced my way, breaking the quiet that had settled over our small group.

  “So, Sam, right? Halius said you’re a healer, does that mean you studied with the priests back where you’re from?”

  I shook my head.

  “No. I am… was… just a farmer’s son. The only other person of note in my family is my uncle, and he was already considered an outlier. This was just a choice that happened to be offered.”

  Even though I was answering Paul’s question, I could tell Halius and our other shield and spear bearer, Chris, were both listening closely to my words.

  “Forgive me for asking a selfish question,” Paul continued, “but are you able to assist others in leveling up, like the Priests of the Path? That would be damn nice to have a neighbor like that. You’d cut us a deal, right?”

  All three men chuckled, but I could feel the weight of the question lingering in the air. I had not even considered that a skill like that could be a possibility, and I could see why that was the first question he would even ask me.

  The cost of leveling each guard in the valley must cost a fortune, especially depending on how many there were. It likely even dictated how many could step into the Martial Domain at all. Low income families would be better suited to roles like fishing or labor, rather than trying to scrape together the gold needed to advance as a fighter.

  “Honestly… I’m not sure. That might be something I can do at a later date, but I haven’t fully explored what my abilities are capable of yet. I’ll experiment with it when I get time, and you three will be the first to know about it if I can.”

  Upon hearing my response, the man perked up and stood a little straighter.

  “That would be damn nice, wouldn’t it, Hals?”

  Halius grunted in response. “What did I tell you about calling me Hals? I… ”

  His hand shot up suddenly, cutting off both his words and the conversation.

  The road fell dead quiet, save for the faint rustling of leaves. I strained my ears, trying to catch whatever Halius might have heard, and after a moment of fruitless listening, I chose to use my Augment Senses skill that I had acquired earlier this morning.

  I guided potential up toward my ears, and made a pointed effort to grasp its flow as tightly as I could. Slowly, I let it trickle into my perception as I increased its amplifying qualities bit by bit.

  Next, I began the careful task of filtering out the different sounds pressing against my awareness, pushing my hearing as far as my heightened senses would allow. After a moment of intense focus, I finally caught something: a distressing series of explosions, sharp bursts of cackling laughter, Jarus Welker shouting commands, and the rapid, labored breathing of someone sprinting toward us through the trees. All of it was coming from the same direction Halius had emerged from the day before.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Halius,” I said, turning toward him as blood pounded through my veins. “I think something has gone wrong. Someone is running towards us, and I can hear the faint sounds of fighting deep in the forest.”

  All three men turned and stared at me in bewilderment, but before anyone could respond, the thick brush to our right shuddered violently. A young man burst out from the clinging branches, and stumbled into the open with wild eyes and dirt streaked clothing.

  Between ragged, grasping breaths, he lifted his head and looked up at us pleadingly.

  “They… please, help,” he choked out, voice breaking as if the words were scraping their way out of his throat.

  Without a word of discussion or even a moment of hesitation, Halius hefted his shield, planted his foot, and launched himself into the forest. The sheer force of his movement left a small crater in the road as he vanished into the shadows between the trees. Leaves exploded in his wake, and drifted slowly to the ground as the man tunneled deeper into the forest.

  I barely had time to consider what to do before the two guards and I sprinted after him, doing our best to follow the path he tore open ahead of us. Twigs snapped beneath our boots, low limbs whipped at our faces and arms, and the thick scent of pine and damp earth filled our lungs.

  “Salted hells,” Paul muttered breathlessly beside me as we ran, his armor clattering with each pounding step. “He always acts without thinking it through. Come on, keep up, or that fool will get himself killed.”

  Roots twisted across the forest floor like hidden snares, as if waiting to catch the foot of some unfortunate prey. The canopy above flickered with shifting light as we darted beneath it, chasing the thunderous crash of Halius’s advance. We ran steadily for several minutes, long enough to leave me heaving for breath, and the farther we pushed, the louder the distant chaos became: the incessant, cackling laughter of gnolls, the ringing clash of steel, and an explosion that shook loose a rain of leaves from the branches overhead.

  Somewhere ahead of us, something terrible was unfolding, and my thoughts began to race.

  What am I even doing out here? I’m not prepared for this, if not for Halius I never would have ran into these damn woods.

  “Halius, wait for us damnit,” Chris shouted ineffectively, as the shielded man exploded into the clearing just beyond the treeline.

  When we finally broke through the last line of foliage and stepped into the wide clearing beyond, my mind struggled to keep up. For a heartbeat, all I could do was stand there, lungs burning, as I tried to make sense of the chaos erupting before me.

  From the mouth of a cave that yawned open at the base of the mountain, a steady stream of gnoll spawn poured out, yipping and cackling as they sprinted toward the remaining members of the guild.

  The number of beasts pouring out from the cave mouth was far more than I could have imagined. It did not fit the description that had been given by Jarus earlier on the road, nor did it match what Halius had stumbled into the day before.

  I noticed that the ground in front of the caves entrance was scorched in broad, uneven swaths, and dozens of charred gnoll corpses lay scattered across the burned soil.

  From here, I could barely make out the faint stalks of potential that had sprouted from the burned corpses scattered across the field. Tabatha, the woman with the unique gloves that housed monster cores, stood with her hand raised high above her head. She drew deeply on the potential within one of the red cores, and fire began to coalesce in her palm, swirling brighter and hotter with each passing heartbeat.

  A cluster of gnolls had begun to flank her and Jarus, as they slipped through the smoke and ash at their side. With a sharp, practiced motion, she pivoted toward them and hurled the blazing mass straight into their ranks.

  The explosion hit with a deafening roar, engulfing the creatures in a violent burst of fire that sent a wave of heat rolling across the clearing. Charred bodies were thrown backward, landing in lifeless heaps as flames danced across the blackened earth.

  Jarus Welker’s greatsword swung in heavy arcs through the air, and cut down every gnoll foolish enough to draw close to him or his companion. His entire body moved with the weight of the weapon, letting its momentum hurl him forward as he activated abilities similar to those I had seen from Halius, only far more refined. He was an armored, spinning blade of death, and it was hard to even consider him human each time his abilities added a new surge of power and speed to his strikes.

  Yet for all his power, exhaustion had clearly began to take its toll. As the warrior moved into another powerful swing, his foot slipped on the blood pooling beneath him, causing his balance to falter, leaving him exposed to the many gnolls that steadily surrounded him.

  Just as a gnoll lunged for Jarus’s exposed side, Halius barreled forward with his shield raised high. He struck the beast before it could land its claws, and the impact sent the creature rocketing backward into the pack behind it. Without missing a step, he planted himself at the front of the group and brought his hammer up, readying himself for the fight to come.

  For a moment, I simply stared.

  It wasn’t the first time I had seen Halius fight, but witnessing him throw himself between Jarus and death, without hesitation, without fear, without even a thought for his own safety, hit me harder than any blow I could imagine. Every movement he made seemed larger than life, as if he were carved from the same immovable stone as the valley’s cliffs.

  I felt the weight of his presence like a physical thing, steadying the chaos around us even as the horde pressed in.

  So… this is what a true warrior looks like.

  I silently chastised myself for complaining about Halius moments earlier. He was reckless, without a doubt, but he was also the kind of man who would throw himself between an enemy and an ally simply because he felt that it was his duty to do so.

  Within moments, the valley spearmen and I closed ranks around him, forming a tight formation and giving Jarus and Tabatha a much needed moment to breathe.

  “What the hell happened?” Halius roared, as he clashed with the beasts in front of him alongside Paul and the other spearman.

  “They took Williams,” Tabatha sobbed, her voice breaking as she forced the words out between heavy breaths. “He was caught by surprise by something big while scouting, and those damn beasts dragged him down into that pit… salt and blood, the screams. We couldn’t leave him behind.”

  “The stupid bitch ran off by herself,” Jarus spat, anger twisting his expression, “and now we might die because she couldn’t control her emotions.” Jarus gritted his teeth angrily, as he struggled to compose his rising emotions.

  As all of this unfolded, I found myself contributing very little. Despite the chaos raging around us, it felt as though I were only spectating. I didn’t have the reach to strike with a spear, there were no wounds within my grasp to heal, and if I stepped out of our defensive line, I would surely be torn apart in moments.

  I drew a steadying breath and forced myself to wait. If I could not act without getting in the way, then I would bide my time. It was a frustrating, helpless feeling, but I was determined to be ready the moment I was needed.

  “We need to fall back!” Halius shouted, swinging his hammer into an overly zealous gnoll that lunged into his reach. “There are too many, and this has already gone far worse than we planned. How the hell are there so many of these bastards? This cave wasn’t even here a month ago!”

  Jarus snapped his head toward him, already forcing his way back into the fight with renewed intensity. “We can’t retreat!” he shouted. “If we try to pull back now, they’ll run us down. We’re already in too deep, we have no choice but to see this through.”

  Halius grit his teeth and shot me a quick, searching glance. I nodded, letting him know I was with him, that whatever decision he made, I would support it, and I would not abandon him. Despite the situation, a brief smile tugged at the corner of his mouth at my approval, and a heartbeat later his expression hardened with resolve.

  “I’ll draw them,” Halius said with absolute authority. “Jarus, push with Tabatha and bomb the entrance. Maybe we can bring the cave down on them. Sam, stay close and keep me standing, it’s about to get ugly.

  As soon as the words left his mouth, a rush of aura exploded from his body, rolling out in an invisible wave that rippled across the clearing. Just like the day before, a surge of raw, violent aggression flooded the air around us. It was a challenge, a pulse of intent that dared the world to come and try to strike him down.

  “Come at me you filthy mutts!”

  Augment Senses (Rank 1 : Level 1)- Channel potential into any chosen sensory organ, enhancing clarity, range, and sensitivity for as long as potential is actively applied. Effects vary by sense. Excessive channeling may overwhelm the senses or cause temporary disorientation. Efficiency scales with Perception and skill mastery.

  Path Ability: [Sow] (Domain:Divine) (Legendary) - A tool of potential, Sow allows the user to amplify various forms of potential.