Olimpia

A snap sounded to my left, causing me to freeze in place as the noise of a tranquil forest vanished. I tried to calm the sudden pounding of my heart with long, slow breaths as I waited for something to happen, my body tense. I was not concerned about the source of the noise, as I knew what — more precisely, who — made it.

If it wasn't Jim, it was probably Lutious, whose name, I reluctantly learned. He seemed like a good enough guy, but I was half expecting him to die on this trip… Him and the rest of the trainees, for that matter.

There was also a chance it was Kathren, but the last few hours of experience told me it was most likely one of the first two. I had long since passed the point of warning them to be quiet or giving pointers. There was no changing the situation now, no matter what I said, and saying something could cause them to become more anxious and loud. So I decided to use them for what they were best at, bait.

Anything nearby will be drawn to them with all of their stomping through the forest like a herd of charging bulls. With me circling around the trio, I hoped that I would be able to catch any ambushers before anything happened.

It was a small, naive hope, but it was a better safety line than the other teams had. At the end of the day, I was one man, and there was far more area in which I couldn't see something approaching the trio than what I could see. As of right now, I was content with my efforts to safeguard them.

Eventually, the chirps of birds sounded again, and squirrels scampered across the limbs of trees as they continued on their way. Slowly, I moved my head to the left, catching the movement of the trainees in the corner of my eye. They were trying to make their way forward along a game trail but couldn't make it more than five feet without making a noise loud enough to quiet the wildlife.

Remaining in place, I let them pass as I continued to scan the area with my eyes and let out a few small pulses just in case. With everything looking normal, I turned, only to freeze. My sight was still full of the empty forest, but something had pinged my senses.

My pulses hadn't revealed a beastkin or anything like that, but the dome I had yet to reshape picked up a vibration. While I wasn't all that interested in the trainee's development right now, the casting would instantly tell me if they started fighting, making it worth the small trickle of willpower required to maintain it.

What I felt hit my dome didn't originate from the trio. First off, it was too faint, and it felt strange, unlike anything I had ever felt before. Second, what I detected felt like an echo coming in from the side. Everything about it was weird, and when moving through what I feared was an enemy-infested forest, weird didn't bode well.

Slowly, I panned the dome from the recruits to the right, shifting the angle higher than lower as I rotated, ensuring I covered the trees from their canopies to their roots. Seconds passed, and I scanned a ninety-degree arc before the trainees several times, detecting nothing.

As I saw it, the most important and most dangerous area was the position next to the river. The hoards that attacked the walls of the Northern Fort had fallen back along the northern side of the Rush to the Northern Forest, giving plenty of opportunities for wanderers to cross.

They might even be trying to build a bridge over the damn thing, for all I know. I thought to myself. It was the reason why I was here, as it was the most likely place the scout trainees would encounter beastkins, and it seemed to be putting my emotions on… Wait… what is that?

I moved my detector back slightly to the left and got a hit again. It was that strange energy, except this time, it was more… vibrant? Yeah, that was the right word. If I were to describe the difference between what I was feeling and mental energy, it would be like mental energy was a high warble, and this was like a low and slow deep thrum similar to the pulsing of a massive beast's heart. Except it was… becoming louder? Deeper? Yeah, that's right, it was—

"Ohh, shit!" I hissed to myself as I sent out a pulse message, signaling an ambush to the west while moving forward as quickly and silently as possible.

From what I could tell, the energy came from a rock outcropping in the center of some trees sixty feet to the side of the game trail the trainees were moving along and eighty feet from me. An excellent position for me to flank from, as long as I had the time to get into place and I knew where the enemy was. Try as I might, and no matter how much my eyes roved the area my detector was telling me the energy originated from, all I could find were mossy rocks partially hidden by large tree trunks.

Throwing a quick glance to my left, I saw the trainees scrambling for cover. Whatever surprise the one who controlled the source of energy thought they had, they had to know now that it was no longer the case. As I turned my head back, my eyes widened in shock, and I stumbled over a rock from the distraction, falling to the ground on my hands and knees. Fuck, I should have known!

One second, I was looking at a pile of mossy rocks hiding within a clump of trees. The next second, I was looking at two tents and a campfire surrounded by those same trees.

Standing before the camp, facing the legionaries, were three wolfkins with raised swords and round and unusually long-bladed axes. The last beastkin, I could not tell what subspecies he was as he wore a cowl that hid his face, but the staff in his left hand had a crystal glowing a pale blue on its tip. Not even the glowing crystal held my attention for long, however, as my eyes were drawn a couple inches above the gem, where three shards of growing icicles floated in the air.

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Even as I was suppressing the latest shock to fill my mind, my body was acting out of instinct born from long training. My left hand raised my new bow while my right reached over my shoulder to my quiver, grabbing an arrow shaft. In one motion, I knocked, drew, and released the arrow while I remained kneeling on the ground.

Once my shaft had been loosed, I pulled up on my harness with the tendril that I reshaped the dome into, popping myself to my feet without tracking the path of my shot. I was filled with a calm surety as I reached for another arrow and picked out my next target. My blow would land true. There was no wind, and nothing was in its path. Only half paying attention, I noticed my arrow would strike the chest of the staff-carrying beastman as I was moving farther to the right to get a better angle on the warrio—

What? My mind froze as I could not accept what I was seeing. Again, I missed my step. But at least this time, I didn't fall to the ground, thanks to my harness tendril.

It did not change reality, however. A reality that had my arrow fragmenting like it had hit a stone wall a foot from the beastkin's skin. A telekinetic shield? Has to be. But beastkin didn't have those… And they can't shoot fireballs or form ice from the air either! Forget the past and fucking move!

I jumped to the right, slamming my side into a tree before moving past it, quickly building up to a sprint. I hadn't initially planned on moving past my cover, but as I reached the tree, the ground trembled, and I could feel shrapnel peppering my back, compelling me to keep moving.

Hardly a few steps past the tree, I heard a loud crack followed by the peppering of wood slivers hitting the ground. As the sounds were dying out, a creaking groan cumulated into a loud snap that filled the forest as the tree started to fall.

Vaulting over a large boulder, I hung in the air long enough to pull out an arrow and knock it to my string to fire at the dangerous hooded beastkin as a distraction. "Fuck." I grumbled under my breath as I yanked on the back section of my harness, rotating my body forty-five degrees before pulling myself upright again.

My arrow had been wide by a mile because my jump also gave the beast man the perfect moment to aim his last ice shard. An attack that was as fast, if not faster, than my arrow as it skittered over one of the steel plates inlaid into my armor.

After a few stumbling steps to catch my balance from my interrupted landing, I turned and started running directly towards the beastkin camp.

I was quickly closing the distance, but I wouldn't be fast enough. I could already see the beastman forming more ice spears over his glowing staff, and two of the warriors had positioned themselves to block my advance.

Forming six mental strands, I moved five of them to each grab one of my arrows while grasping the hilt of my sword with my hand, unsheathing mid-step it as I dropped my bow. Everything around me was a blur as I focused all my attention on my opponents.

Their shields were blocking their chests, and they were close enough to support each other no matter which one I attacked. From the speed of the ice forming above the staff, I knew the time until the knight-beastkin's next attack was ready would be counted in a handful of seconds, so I had to take risks I otherwise wouldn't have by rushing headlong into battle. It was better than staying at range, at least.

Raising my sword hand over my head like I would try to stab over their shields, I broke into a sprint despite the awkward position. As I was two steps away, I pulled my arrows from my quiver and drove them forward in two groups, one at each of the beastkins. The three and four arrow shaft groups arched over the top edge of the beastkin's shields and cracked before ever making contact with the creatures. But the attack did cause them to flinch and lift their shield in an attempt to cover their faces.

At the same time I controlled the arrows, I was mentally pulling myself forward, adding an extra burst of speed. Instead of swinging my blade over the shield like I pretended, I moved it in front of my chest, turning the edge so the flat side of the blade was facing me and then pressing my other hand against the steel as I thrust it forward, slamming into the beastman's shield hard enough to shake me to my bones. "Humph!" I grunted from the impact.

Expecting the result, I was able to plant my right foot backward as I bounced off the shield, taking two steps back. The beastman was not so lucky, as he was thrown off balance and stumbled from the hit, falling onto his tail.

Glancing to the side at some movement, I cursed as I dove to the left, avoiding the blow from the other beastman, who was uninjured and no longer distracted. Showing his displeasure at my attempts to kill him, his lips were curled back, displaying off his long fangs as he swung his axe at my chest. Rolling to my feet, I pulled out three more arrows with mental strands and shot them at the beastmen, who was just beginning to get to his knees as I rushed at the standing one.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the arrows strike the kneeling beastman as I passed him, splintering against an invisible shield again. "Give me a fucking break!" I shouted in frustration and anger as I charged forward. When I got close enough, I used two tendrils to grab the side of the round wooden shield and pull it to the side. That was the plan, at least.

When my tendrils touched the shield's edge, I got one yank, and then my mental energy came into contact with a foreign energy. I can not say what it was, but it was not the mental energy of humans.

There was a moment where nothing happened. Then, the foreign energy lashed out and latched onto my tendril, seeming to seek it out. As the two energies intermingled, they fought with one another, resulting in the mutual destruction of both. In less than a second, the mental energy forming my castings was ripped from my control as it was pulled into the struggle between the opposing forces.

On the bright side, the shield had been pulled to the side, but I could not take advantage of the opening as I was mentally reeling and struggling to stand. Spots filled my vision, as a third of my energy had been sucked away along with all of my tendrils in whatever that encounter was. And the world was kind of swirling and twisting around me. So, no big deal, really.

Rapidly blinking, I spent what felt like only a moment staggering around, but it was probably longer. At the end of my little episode, I was surprised to come out of it while still on my feet and uninjured as the world slowly stopped spinning. Not willing to test my luck any further, I raised my sword to attack the staggering form before me. Staring into the yellow eyes of the beastman, I could see he was also shaken from whatever happened, as his shield was not yet back in position.

Planting my foot to prepare my body to lunge and slash open his chest, an arrow sprouted from his throat. Coughing up a fountain of blood over his chest, the beastman collapsed to the ground, choking on his own blood.

Blinking once, I turned to attack the other beastkin, only to find that they were already dead, the two male trainees standing over the bodies, blades drawn and bloody.

Eyes sweeping the camp, I groaned, "Aww, fuck!"

"Are you okay, Instructor," Asked Kathren in concern as she jogged up, her eyes sparkling with pride as she looked from me, then at her kill, and finally around the area. "Is something wrong?"

Pointing, I slurred, "That's a legion saddle."