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I exchanged glances with the other recruits as we followed Elin out of the door. Neither of them seemed to know what to make of the situation either. Outside, we found Hassan and Vale waiting with Elin, who refused to make eye contact with any of us.
Mason directed us out of town immediately. It was still surprisingly early, not even 0800 yet, and he said we had enough time to make it to the campsite before dark. As we walked out of town through the eastern gates, I switched back into my armor, feeling much more secure as I did so.
We followed the road past a number of farms and then continued on into the wilds towards the south-east. As the town receded behind us, Hassan left the formation to range out ahead. The rest of us were unusually quiet, Elin’s sullen attitude infecting the group.
With everyone back in the same Squad, there was no way to chat with anyone without being overheard. I desperately wanted to gossip about Elin and her maybe-wealthy family, but it would have to wait for another time.
A mile or so past the last of the farms, I started to feel a bit strange. It seemed like the air was a bit heavier, like there was a subtle sense of pressure around me. I looked around, but the other recruits seemed oblivious. Behind me, Vale and Block were bringing up the rear and I noticed myself noticing Block.
The strange sensation gradually increased over the next hundred yards or so. I was starting to get concerned, when Block suddenly spoke up from behind.
“Ah, that feels nice,” he commented casually. I turned around and looked at him.
“What are you talking about? I feel weird, like something is pushing on me.”
“You feel it already? We’re entering a Tier 2 zone, but I’m surprised you noticed it so soon. Does anyone else feel anything?” He directed the question at the other recruits, who all denied it.
“High mana sensitivity, remember?” Vale grunted as if that explained everything.
“I feel a tingle on the back of my neck, like someone is watching us,” Raylan added a few minutes later, looking around suspiciously.
“Just so you know, that’s super creepy,” I muttered, getting a laugh from Block.
It wasn’t long before we could see what he was talking about. There were scorch marks scattered around the road in various places, with multiple small fresh-looking craters blasted into the dirt. I noticed what looked like some dried blood near the base of a few small boulders ten yards to the side of the road. Beyond that, there was a single, large burned area about fifteen or twenty feet wide.
In the center, there was a modest pile of ashes getting a bit smaller every time a breeze caught it and flung some into the air. There were a few scorched bones, cracked and splintered from the heat, among the pile. I smelled the scent of charcoal and ash as we passed – the wind had been blowing it away from us before.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He kept up the pace as we moved on past the devastated area. We were moving even faster than I was used to from the previous days’ marching – it was a very brisk walk for me. Vale, with her short legs, was jogging despite the weight of her armor and the increasing heat of the day. I drank a bit of lukewarm water from my canteen to quench my thirst.
A mile passed without us seeing any living creatures and nothing more than sparse plant life. I spotted a few specks in the sky that were probably birds, but I couldn’t tell how big they were or how far away. We were now beyond the eastern end of the Shadow Hills – they had stopped at the Devil’s Gorge, but some small, rolling hills nearby had blocked the view to the south. A few minutes later, Hassan suddenly came back on the Comms, his voice urgent.
I had my gun in hand and was looking north when a large group of shapes burst into view.
Monster: BorghoundStolen from RoyalRoad. Support AzureInk by reading the original.
Level: ?
They looked like a pack of dogs at first, but as they swiftly approached I could see that they were much larger than the few stray dogs that roamed Sunland. Block sprinted to meet them, sword and shield flashing, while Mason trailed about twenty yards behind him. He shouted, raising his shield, and the pack of borghounds angled towards him. There were at least twenty of them, and though I tried Identifying a couple more, I could only see ‘?’ for their Level.
Block shone with gold light as he triggered a defensive Skill, and then Mason was among the monsters, his blade moving too quickly for me to follow. Each cut sent a monster tumbling to the ground, blood spraying through the air. The Tier 4 Delver demolished three quarters of the pack in a single, continuous dance of death before his Skill finally ended.
From behind us, I heard a sound almost like a gunshot and the air cracked
Every one of them was different. Parts of their bodies glinted in the sunlight like they were made of metal, while the rest was covered in tan or brown fur. Fascinated, I moved closer to the grisly scene. As I approached the nearest body, I saw that it was easily over three feet tall at the shoulder, maybe closer to four. Its right front leg was mostly metal, fused smoothly into the flesh above the knee.
Instead of muscle, various metal rods and cylinders were attached to a metal frame, ending in a big paw with sharp knives for claws. The rest of it looked like an oversized, muscular, vicious dog, with long, sharp teeth and short fur – mostly brown, with some patches of tan and black. The next closest had both rear legs made of metal, while another one nearby had flesh legs and patches of exposed metal on its side and belly.
I shuddered and backed up, watching as Mason and Block finished gathering up the creatures. Vale set them on fire, though it clearly took much more effort to get them burning than when I’d seen her use the fire Spell before.