NOVEL NEXT 95 - Ambush in the Night
The sun was barely peeking over the treetops when Div, Lugsellos, Segorix, and Ambisena met at the foot of the northern section of the wall of trees.
Brigaseta had tasked them with investigating the upper stretches of the Lien River. Camboaci was located right where the waters started being too shallow for navigation. The river's main branch then extended north for a few days before taking a sharp turn east until its source in the eastern range.
"Everyone has their gear?" Segorix asked. "If you've forgotten something, now's the last chance to get it."
"This is the third time you're asking, Seg," Ambisena said, tapping her foot on the ground. "Let's move."
"Better be safe than sorry," Lugsellos sighed. "I have everything with me."
"Me too," Div yawned. Having been left alone at home, he hadn't had a good night's sleep.
A few more checks from Segorix, and the party crossed the wall of trees and went on their way.
They quickly reached the Lien River and started following it upstream. Div remembered this landscape from nearly three years ago. But unlike last time, the group made good progress instead of being bogged down by the vegetation.
With experience in navigating the forest, it took less than an hour to go further than Div ever had.
The atmosphere was relaxed. Still close to the village, the fact that they'd be gone for days hadn't set in yet.
"It blows," Ambisena complained. "I wish Genno was allowed to come with us…"
"Yeah," Segorix agreed. "And En too, it's too bad he decided to leave."
"That's how it is," Div said. "I try not to think about it too much."
Through their shared Bound Genesis skill, Div was able to sense which way En was along with a vague idea of the distance involved. About a month after his departure, all he could tell was that his brother was south and that he was still traveling further.
Four hours into their first mission, they decided to stop for an early lunch.
"We've made good distance," Segorix said. "At this pace, we'll reach the turn in two more days."
"You three start a fire," Div said. "I'll see if I can catch some fish."
Being so close to the river, it would've been a waste not to try fishing. They had enough food supply to last them for a while, but there was only so much they could carry.
Furthermore, as they went further upstream, the river would only get shallower. They had to take advantage of his fishing skills while they could.
As usual, Div found a spot in the water where he thought he had the best chance. His shadow blended with those of the surrounding trees, hiding him from his prey.
Standing still, he waited.
And waited.
And waited…
But there was no fish.
"Why does it always have to be so complicated," he grunted. Since there weren't any fish at his spot, he moved along the shore looking for a better one.
"The fire's ready," Lugsellos said, catching up with him. "Any luck?"
"No," Div said, shaking his head. "I haven't seen a single fish so far."
"Brigaseta did say there were fewer fish in the river."
"Well, I can confirm that," Div shrugged. "I don't think I'm catching anything today."
Without fish, the group ate bread with dried meat. After putting out their fire, they resumed their journey.
Along the way, Div paid attention to the river, just in case he noticed any fish swimming close to them.
There weren't any.
It was hard to tell if that was normal. Considering he wasn't slowing down, he could have missed them. Plus, he'd never come this far upstream. It was possible that this section of the river never had fish to begin with.
But with the mission they were on, Div didn't think it was likely.
"It's awfully quiet," Ambisena said.
"I don't mind that," Segorix answered. "Not having to fight our way through the forest is going to save us a lot of time."
"No, listen. There's not even a bird chirping."
Hearing Ambi's words, Seg, Lug, and Div all paused and listened. She was right. The forest was completely silent.
It wasn't normal.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"Keep your guard up," Lugsellos said. "Something isn't right."
They didn't need to exchange more words to know what to do. They had been trained for such situations. Their will and resolve had been hardened by the dark days.
Still, the silence unsettled them.
They walked a few more steps before Div's Trap Detection flared in alarm.
His immediate reflex was to step into Blighted Passage to escape. But, this time, he wasn't alone.
"Careful!" He shouted, hoping his friends would be able to protect themselves.
Moments after he dodged, a lynx dropped from a tree and landed right where Div had been standing.
Species: Mountain Lynx
Skills:
Ambush - Basic - Lv8
Bite - Basic - Lv7
"What's that?" Segorix exclaimed, drawing his sword.
Div was already moving to counterattack. The large cat had failed its ambush. It shouldn't be too difficult to take it down.
Sure enough, with the four of them teaming up against it, the lynx didn't last long. Ambisena was the one who landed the finishing blow. A simple strike of her spear into the monster's side.
Skill leveled up: Trap Detection Lv6 -> Lv7
It had been an eternity since Trap Detection leveled up. Despite the danger, Div couldn't help but smile.
It was a dangerous way to think, but he couldn't help but yearn for more.
"We're still far from the foothills of the eastern range," Lugsellos pointed out. "Mountain lynxes don't normally range that far inside the forest."
"This is consistent with our briefing," Segorix said, nodding. "Monsters are migrating west. Look at this beast, we can see its ribs through its skin and fur."
"It was starving," Div said.
Not good. Migrating monsters were one thing, starving ones were a whole other level of danger.
"We need to be ready for constant attacks," he continued. "As far as I know, lynxes don't hunt humans."
"Yes, they normally don't," Lugsellos agreed.
Faced with the reality of the situation, the group was forced to slow their pace down. Moving too fast would increase the risk of an ambush.
It was especially true since they were following the river. Sources of water were hotspots of animal activity. Like them, they needed to drink—prey and predators alike.
They ended the first day by making camp and setting up their watch rotation. With a party of four, they would all be able to get enough sleep through the night if they took two-hour shifts.
After drawing the short straw, Div got the third shift. When Ambisena woke him up, the night was pitch dark. Moonless days were not ideal for camping out, but they didn't have a choice. At least it wasn't too cold.
Div sat on a log next to his sleeping comrades and ate an apple quarter to shake off his drowsiness. With all his senses, he scanned the surroundings of the camp.
Surprisingly, in these conditions, Rotlife Sense proved invaluable. He wasn't planning to use rot magic, but the ability to sense rotlife in every living being ensured he would be able to detect a threat if it approached them.
The skill was unimpeded by the lack of light. It worked as an extra sense, similar to his mana sense. The only downside was that, since rotlife was so prevalent, he hadn't practiced enough to differentiate individual plants and animals, especially in the dark where he couldn't cross-reference with his regular sight.
With nothing better to do, Div took this as an opportunity to train. Keeping watch over his surroundings was exactly the thing his friends expected from him, so he might as well kill two birds with one stone.
After a few weeks spent using the skill, he was already able to tell the difference in rotlife between plants and animals. The former was slow, acting in predictable patterns. The static nature of plants made it so their rotlife didn't have to adapt to the rapid changes in the environment beasts would have put them through.
Div kept his attention up for two hours. It was only when the time came to switch places with Segorix that he picked up something entering the edge of his perception.
A beast. A massive one. Larger than a house.
It was close but completely silent.
His heart rate quickened, and Div shook his three friends awake, urging them to stay silent.
They could barely see anything, but through the darkness, Div read the question in their eyes.
Yet, he didn't dare to talk. The beast was walking toward them at a leisurely pace. It wasn't too far, but they still had a few minutes before it would reach their camp.
As Div was furiously thinking about a potential solution, Lugsellos' eyes went wide.
He was an archer, he had his own perception skill.
"That's…" he whispered. "A targ."
"What?" Segorix said, his voice low yet tinted with urgency. "We need to run. We can't fight something like that."
During their school years, they had studied dozens of monsters native to the Lien River basin and its surrounding regions. Like the mountain lynx, targs hailed from the eastern range.
But that's where the similarities ended.
Targs were nightmares made flesh—massive, pale beasts born at the Evolved Rank. From a distance, they might be mistaken for white wolves, but only briefly. No natural wolf stood taller than a house or spanned the length of a boat from nose to tail.
Their monstrous size wasn't their most terrifying trait. Targs moved with unnatural silence, able to cross forests without breaking a twig. Trees didn't warn of their approach. Animals didn't flee. Sound itself seemed to avoid them.
Worst of all, they didn't just defend territory or hunt opportunistically.
They hunted people. Deliberately. Persistently. Intelligently.
Div didn't need time to ponder. His evolution was too fresh to take a chance against a beast like that. Even if he could survive the encounter, his friends were still at the Basic Rank. It was a pointless risk to take.
"One minute," Div said. "Pack what you can and let's bail."
The four of them didn't waste any more time and frantically gathered their belongings into their bags. Thankfully, they had decided not to set up their tent, otherwise they would have had to give up on it.
"It's accelerating," Lug said, a little too loud as the rest gathered their gear. "Leave it! Run!"
Div, Segorix, and Ambisena listened and immediately started running in the dark. They rushed toward the river. Visibility was too low to stay under the tree cover.
Running along the shore, Div's lungs burned, and his calves screamed with every step. He could hear Ambisena just behind him, her breath ragged.
Don't trip.
If one of them fell, it was over.
Behind them, the night was swallowing everything. It was as if the forest was dying behind them. A silent, invisible predator devouring everything in its path.
And it was coming after them.
"We need to cross," Segorix said. "It's our only chance."
"Let's do it," Div said. His Rotlife Sense was picking up the targ's signature behind them. The water wasn't deep enough to swim in, but they had nowhere else to go. "It's catching up."