The Elder Lands

Lucan stood on the edge of his newly built road, watching the thick greens of the forest. This was where the merchant had been attacked.

He was flanked by his father’s men-at-arms, the hunter along with his eldest son, and his father. The hunter was kneeling over the tracks with his son, scrutinizing them to ascertain that they weren’t dealing with forest predators.

Lucan glanced down at his armor which had been finished a week prior. He now donned it comfortably. A perfectly-fitted breastplate protected his upper body. Pauldrons made of interlacing polished steel covered his shoulders. Gauntlets, soft on the inside, solid steel on the outside, protected his hands and half of his forearms. A tasset, skirt-like and made of leather lined with small plates of steel, covered his upper thighs, flexible enough for movement yet hard enough to protect the vulnerable area. Thick boots and steel greaves protected his feet and shins, leaving little unprotected between the latter and the tasset. Thick, soft leather covered the exposed area from the knee to the thigh, double-woven with metal mesh in between. Under his upper steel armor was mail that provided additional protection and cover for areas like the one between his gauntlets and pauldrons. His open-faced helmet hadn’t changed from last time though. Lucan still preferred it to anything more intricately crafted.

While the armor was somewhat heavy, it was not cumbersome. Its weight was distributed evenly all over his body, which took nothing away from his balance, even if it took away some of his speed. Training with it in the past week had gotten him used to it enough. It slowed him down slightly when he moved and when he used the Star, but it wasn’t enough to cause him trouble unless he wasn’t prepared for it.

The hunter and his son were quietly discussing something, still kneeling over the tracks. Lucan’s father was standing beside him, or rather, over him. Lucan would be making the decisions today, and his father would observe. He had seen the perplexion on the men-at-arms’ faces when they’d been informed. They now stood lined up beside him and his father.

Lucan couldn’t help but glance back at his road. It stood slightly higher than the surrounding ground, and the earth immediately neighboring it had been dug up into a thin channel to provide easier drainage. The road was made of large flagstones, laid interspersed by thick mortar that kept the path relatively flat and the constituents fixed.

He turned back to the hunter as he heard him giving the final word in the whispered argument with his son. They both stood up. The hunter approached Lucan and his father. He was a man of middle age, his hair a light brown and his face had a severe tautness that suggested he scowled a lot. He had a scar cutting through his brow as though it’d missed his eye by a breath. He came up to them and paused, hesitant whether to address Lucan or his father.

Sir Golan gestured towards Lucan and the hunter nodded, complying. “They’re no wild animals,” he said. “Though the tracks are a bit odd.”

Lucan, who hadn’t known what he would be supposed to do next, found something to grip onto. “Odd how?”

Lucan grew silent, contemplating the description. He pretended he wasn’t trying to delay the inevitable. What was he worried about though? It was simple, find the beasts and the Break. Kill the beasts, seal the Break. Perhaps the memory of the Archsala’wa nearly ripping his face open was still in the back of his mind, grinding at him, reminding him to think twice before getting into a fight he knew nothing about. Suddenly, he realized why so many nobles favored the Analyze Skill. The unknown was scary, and maybe even horrifying.

He finally got himself together as he eyed the men surrounding him and his father, who towered over him like a bulwark. He would be fine. “Well, the Labyrinth can spew out any manner of beast. I’m certain this isn’t the first oddity ever witnessed,” he told the hunter. “Do they lead directly into the woods?”

“Aye.” The hunter nodded.

Lucan pushed against the resistance that encouraged him to delay further and said, “then we follow them in.”

The hunter bobbed his head in compliance, beginning to string his bow and telling his son to do the same.

They soon strode towards the woods. Lucan was flanked by his father on one side and the hunter on the other as they approached the trees and bushes wrestling for territory. The forest here was overgrown and untrodden, which would make their journey more difficult. Two of the men-at-arms stepped forward with blades made for woods just like this one, proceeding to cut a path through vegetation. The party followed them closely, wary of ambushes that could come from the thick greenery. The hunter was foremost after the pair since he’d have to keep an eye on the tracks, then it was Lucan and the hunter’s son followed by Sir Golan.

They were barely four or five trees deep into the forest when a surprised shout came out of one of the two men up front. The party halted and Lucan came up to the hunter. “What is it?”

“They think they’ve spotted the Break,” the hunched hunter said.

The two men-at-arms carefully cut apart some of the shrubs, glancing back at Lucan and gesturing forward.

Lucan observed a crack in the ground not unlike the one he’d seen in Sir Wolfe’s land. This one was smaller though, barely big enough to let one beast out at a time. He glanced around for danger, but he couldn’t see anything through the thickness of the vegetation. He glanced at his father who regarded him neutrally. He was getting no help from him, that was for certain.

Once he grew tired of scrutinizing the greenery around the Break, Lucan decided that anything would be better than staying stuck in place. “Surround it.”

The men complied, spreading out to surround the Break. Lucan remembered how Sir Wolfe had arranged his men when he’d accompanied him. “Stay in pairs at least,” he said. The men nodded but he had the impression that they’d have done that either way

Lucan glanced at the hunter and his son. “Stay in the middle.” Then he turned to his father who was still not forthcoming with advice. Lucan felt justified in the next part as his father showed no sympathy for him. “Seal the Break,” he commanded. When his father fixed him with a stare, Lucan gulped, continuing, “please?”

His father moved to the crack, taking out a wrapped piece of Elder bark and proceeding to plant it in the displaced earth.

Lucan watched their surroundings vigilantly as the Elder Sapling began to take root. Then he heard a roar coming from a distance, echoed by another and another and another, as though the Elder Sapling’s intrusion was a great offense that they’d just detected.

Even if Lucan couldn’t see them, he could feel them bounding through the brush towards them. “Brace,” he choked out as he drew his sword, barely loud enough to be heard by all. He saw his father rising and drawing his sword, while the men-at-arms had been ready long before he’d wrestled out the command.

The vegetation parted from the direction they’d heard the roars from and a beast stepped out. Striding on four legs and covered in thick brown fur akin to long stringy hair, it looked like something out of a nightmare. Two long fangs coming from an upper jaw protruded out of a furious goatlike face which was crowned by two wicked, curling horns ringed with gray circular patterns.

Several more beasts soon spawned out of their surroundings, deep, purring growls rumbling out of their throats. By the time they stopped appearing, Lucan could count nearly a dozen of them. He stepped up beside the men along with his father to fill the gaps.

As the beasts crept closer, two arrows sprouted out of the side of one of them. The beast that’d been striding forward, stumbled to a stop, though it didn’t fall. Lucan glanced back and saw the hunter and his son nocking new arrows.

The wounded beast growled, deep enough to make Lucan’s chest tremble. Its growl soon turned into a roar that the others echoed. Then their hooves struck the ground as they suddenly galloped forward towards the waiting party.

As they grew closer, Lucan noticed an oddity to their hindquarters. A tail extended behind them, and attached to its end was a bony protrusion in the shape of a scythe, thick in the middle and sharply pointed at the edges. It looked vicious. Lucan found himself pointing at it while glancing at his father who nodded at him. He’d seen it too. That meant that the others knew by now as well. Good. He didn’t have to explain while the obviously infuriated beasts attempted to trample him to death.

Three beasts were heading towards him and his father. His father stepped forward, pulling the attention of two of them to himself, and Lucan stepped to the side to face the third with adequate room.

Instead of leaping for him with its non-existent claws, this beast charged him with its thick horns. Lucan activated his Star and waited for the beast to enter its territory. Once it did, he chose the northwest point of the Star and moved, surprising the beast by appearing on its flank.

Lucan twisted to deliver a slash but was surprised by the beast’s scythed tail swinging for him. He diverted his sword for a parry and bronze met bone. A dull sound came out of the clash and Lucan nearly lost his grip on the sword. The bony scythe at the tail of the beast had turned out to be heavier than expected.

Lucan rebalanced the hilt in his hand, tightening his hold on it. The beast was turning to face him after failing to maim him with its tail. Thankfully, it had no claws to deliver a quick strike with and it had to reorient itself before attempting to maul him.

This time Lucan observed the position of its tail before making a decision. It had swung towards the center of the star and was in the process of being swung back to the other side, which meant it would have no momentum with which to strike him if he were to return to the center again. Lucan moved as the beast’s fangs came for his gut, befuddling the beast once more as he moved faster than he looked capable of.

Once his feet settled on the ground, Lucan swung with all he had at the beast’s flank. His sword met its fur, digging into hide and flesh and eventually being stopped by the thickness of the creature’s protection rather than its hardness. He pulled his sword free and instead of waiting for the beast to retaliate, he kicked it outside of his Star. It was the better choice since this time it would have been too centered between the Star’s points once it reoriented on him.

The creature rolled on the ground for a couple of yards before getting its bearings and turning on him again. It charged once more, though Lucan noted a bit of caution to its approach this time. It was coming slower.

Lucan waited until it entered the Star with its hesitant gait before moving backwards to the point of the star behind him. The beast nearly came to a stop where it had expected to ram him but continued on once it saw he was farther ahead. That gave him plenty of time to move to the point of the star to the right, landing beside the same flank of the beast he’d maimed before. This time too he’d taken the scythed tail into account and made sure that it was in no position to take him by surprise. He oriented his sword for an angled thrust and put all his weight and strength behind it. The tip of his sword split the air before it met the open wound on the creature’s flank, sliding into the open path before it, cutting into deeper flesh and sliding between bones. The blade reached something vital and the beast squealed, jerking away from him with desperate speed.

Lucan was surprised by its flinching movement and let his sword slide out of the wound. The beast scurried a few steps out of his Star, giving him a glare but not squaring up against him anymore, content to give him its unwounded flank and circle him. Lucan himself preferred to stay in the Star, so he didn’t try to approach it until the Skill’s duration ended.

He noted that the sounds of fighting were dying down as the Star ceased to exist. When he approached the beast, it tried to scurry farther away but it slipped and fell on its face, wrestling with the ground in an attempt to get on its feet again. It failed. It had bled too much and its life was already abandoning it.

Lucan stood over it, feeling a small measure of pity. It was struggling to survive the same way a head of cattle did during slaughter. He supposed there was little difference between animals and Labyrinth beasts aside from the latter’s unadulterated aggression towards anything but their brethren. In one swift motion, he plunged his sword into its neck. It struggled for a few more moments before going still.

He turned around, seeing that his father had left his side and was far to the back, standing over the corpses of two of the beasts. The initial two he’d engaged were lying in pools of purple blood a few yards from Lucan. The fight was over, and he’d saved his Wraith Strikes for nothing. Still, it was better to save too many than save too few, as long as one didn’t get themselves killed because of it.

He went to his father who gave him a reproachful glance. “Two of the beasts appeared from behind us during the fight. Unnoticed, they would have done considerable damage with their unexpected charge.”

“I was busy with my adversary,” Lucan said, slightly annoyed. “How am I supposed to watch everything that goes on?”

His father shook his head. “When you’re leading, your responsibility isn’t only to fight. You must create space for yourself to observe and command. Don’t take on too much. And don’t be ashamed to pass on some of your combat duties to your subordinates if the need arises.”

“I thought knights were supposed to fight first and foremost,” Lucan muttered, but it was a bit too loud and his father heard him grumbling.

“Yes,” his father said flatly, “we are, when others are in command. It’s then that we have no responsibilities to look after aside from combat, and it’s then that we give it our all. But now there’s no one else in command, is there?”

Lucan nodded sullenly. There had been no chance that he’d impress his father today, and he knew it. Yet, he always felt glum when he failed to live up to his expectations.

At least they’d cleared the Outbreak that threatened their budding trade route, if it could be called that. Hopefully, this forest wouldn’t cause them any more trouble. Even though its very existence was trouble. Thick woods that they couldn’t control nor benefit from standing on their border? He couldn’t help but think they were unfortunate to have it near their road and lands.

Lucan eyed his surroundings before checking on his Blessing. Several of the beasts were now mere corpses. He noted that Cordell and Lee had taken down five of them together, while the others had faced off against a single beast at a time at most. Regardless, he had announcements to check on.

7-Point Star Dance has leveled up.

You have slain a lv6 Hesati and absorbed its Vital Essence.

You have leveled up.

Race: Human

Level: 4

Vital Orbs: 5

Mind and Body

Physique: Copper III 0/10

Spirit: Basic 0/1

Skills (0) 0/100

(Passive) Swordsmanship lv21: Journeyman

(Hybrid) 7-Point Star Dance lv4: Novice (0/1)

(Active) Wraith Strike lv2: Novice (0/1)

His Vital Orbs had swelled to a decent number. He’d wait for the next level which would get him enough Orbs to finally enhance his Physique to Iron.

Another gain from the day was the improvement of his Star. Each level gained from combat during the Novice stage was a Vital Orb saved. At later stages, it would be worth even more.

He hadn’t come here with the intent of empowering his Blessing further, yet he was fortunate enough to take a step further on the path. Still, it was good that the Outbreak had been a minor one and was easy to clean up within a short morning. He was now free to go back to administering his undertaking.