Chapter 62

Scouting

-Later that same day-

Kevin and I were slogging through the forest’s undergrowth, scouting out the unburned terrain north of the Community in preparation for our advance towards the Bandit camp. A fireteam of Rick's men, a motley group of veterans and national guard soldiers, accompanied us. All four of them currently gripped Ka-Bar knives and sported hefty rucksacks. Their artichoke-colored camouflaged body armor helped them blend into the terrain, while Kevin and I stuck out like sore thumbs. In front of us, Manes, our resident monstrous dog, led the way.

After the Demonstrations, Captain Sherman had allotted several men to accompany us on a scouting mission. It served a dual purpose of investigating possible avenues of attack on the bandits, as well as training some of his men within the system. We didn't do much, we had only explained to them how leveling worked, and the importance of skills and classes. They all did the rest, catching on quickly. Every one of them ended up selecting the [Soldier] class.

There were more than just these soldiers learning the system now though. Alex and Dante had elected to lead another group of soldiers into the dungeon near the Community. It would knock out two birds with one stone. We'd cull the dungeon, while also leveling the soldiers.

I turned my attention back towards Manes, it had taken some prodding, but the dog eventually allowed us to pull him away from Ross. The dog-turned wolf was growing larger every day. Even on all fours, the dog was approaching nearly four feet in height. His paws still didn't fit his body. That simply indicated that the dog was still growing. Rachel had indicated such the other day. She ventured that Manes had only barely reached half the size he was likely to grow to when fully matured. At this rate, he would practically be rideable.

The image of riding a massive, monstrous, wolf-dog through the forest produced a smirk on my face.

With Manes alerting us to any monsters that drew close, it was fairly easy-going as we continued moving forward, the canopy above obscuring an inordinate amount of sunlight. It was absurd to believe that just a month ago the area had been a town golf course. Now it had become completely overgrown. As I focused on my surroundings with my [Mana Sight] skill, it became clear why things had transformed so quickly. The area was overflowing with the green hue of nature mana. It was certainly good to know that the fires had eventually stopped spreading and that nature had won. I had grown tired of seeing the expansive burnt husk of civilization that had surrounded the Mana Zone.

While scouting, we've had to fight off various hostile wildlife. Carnivorous Rabbits, overgrown insects, and even a man-eating plant that had struck out at us. It was as though Earth was transforming itself into a literal death trap. Granted, I wasn’t surprised. The entire planet was being overflowed with a type of energy that it had been without for eons. It wasn't hard to grasp that Earth's wildlife and flora would have adverse reactions.

Suddenly, a crack in the woods in front of us. We all stopped, and I looked towards Manes, the dog had his ears up, yet he wasn't showing any hostility towards the source of the sound. As we heard a slight rustling in the woods ahead of us, I rediverted my attention in its direction—another monster seeking to get the drop on us perhaps? Manes reaction was a mystery though and had me on edge. Why wasn't he growling?

I signaled to Kevin and the other soldiers, and motioned for them to circle around. As the five of them slipped into the undergrowth within the forest, I crouched, sneaking forward.

It was likely that the monster already knew that we were here, but it was still good for training, and being sneaky certainly helped. As of now, we had yet to find anything that could pose a real challenge.

As I crept forward, I slowly unsheathed my sword and began to conjure some water mana in my other hand. This scouting mission was doing wonders in helping me pick up the slack of my lower-leveled skills. I could afford to cast weaker spells. In order to gain access to more advanced magics, greater proficiency was required in the base elements. If I wished to gain access to magma attacks, then I needed a greater proficiency in my earth elemental affinity. Granted, I could probably still force my way to the element, but it would be a highly inefficient use of my mana.

I paused for a moment—a crunching of forest debris. I looked around for a moment, and caught a slight blur, indicating Kevin was in position, the soldiers likely were as well. I threw my hand up, lifting a single finger. Indicating that I would strike first.

Then, just a few steps in front of me, I saw fur-covered ears poke above the brush. I shot forward, ready to impale whatever unlucky beast had revealed itself.

A shrill shriek emanated in front of me, as suddenly a knife flew through the air. I rolled onto the ground as the knife soared adjacent to my shoulder. I was caught completely off guard. Clearly, this was no monster.

“Stop!” I yelled, both at Kevin, the soldiers, and whoever we had just scared the living daylights out of.

As I climbed to my feet, I raised my hands up in the air; and circled a finger, motioning for Kevin to be ready for anything. I didn’t know whether the person in front of us was hostile or not, but I sure as hell knew they had probably just experienced the worst scare in their lives.

The bush where the knife came from rustled, and a slender figure slowly rose from the bush.

I stood, mouth agape as I looked on.

In front of me was not a human. At least, not by any definition that I was aware of. They were human-like, that’s for sure. If you ignored the flapping dog-like ears, the snow-white wolfish tail, the fingernails replaced with sharp claws, and the fur-covered arms and legs, then maybe human would work. But unless someone was really good at cosplaying, this was certainly no human.

We stared and made eye contact for just a moment.

Until Kevin decided to make himself known.

“No wayyy! It's a Beastkin, Thomas!” Kevin shrieked in delight, while the wolf-girl jumped several feet in the air in response.

Apparently, Kevin was much better at sneaking than I had imagined. Or maybe she knew he was there, and his high-pitched squeal simply took her off guard. Hard to imagine we could’ve snuck on someone with hearing as good as any animal, at least, if the ears were anything to go by.

She stepped back and tripped over a root poking through the forest ground. As she fell onto her butt, I got another good look at her.

She looked like she could have been in her mid-twenties and was wearing some sort of leather-hide clothes. Her eyes remained wide in fear.

I continued raising my hands as I glared at Kevin to stay silent. Luckily the soldiers remained back, looking on completely perplexed. “Look, we aren’t here to hurt you… What’s your name?”

“Naog skagza alnej!” she yelled in response.

I stared for a moment. Then I facepalmed. Of course, she wouldn't speak English.

The beastkin looked towards Kevin, and I saw her shake slightly, her eyes quickly moving back and forth, and shoulders stiffening.

“Everyone,” I hissed, “put down your weapons!”

Kevin’s eyes opened wide in understanding, and he dropped them.

The beastkin’s body slowly slackened, relaxing and she slowly released a held breath. To my surprise, the claws that extended from her fingers slowly retracted, just like a cat.

I slowly moved forward, one step at a time, keeping my hands empty and palms faced forward.

As the beastkin looked towards me, it took her a moment to understand what was happening, and she too, dropped the knife held in her hand and she lithely climbed back to her feet.

I stopped just a body length away from the girl, and, while pointing to herself, she said, “Kantje. Alnej Kantje.”

She was introducing herself.

She had also repeated a word she had used before though, alnej? I didn’t know what the word meant, but I was sure that Kantje was likely her name, not alnej.

So, I reciprocated the action. I pointed to her, and repeated, “Kantje.” She smiled for the first time and I was greeted with a terrifying predatory mouth full of sharpened teeth. It made me shudder just slightly, but I continued our interaction. After all, I was apparently making first contact with an intelligent being.

She pointed towards me. So, I introduced myself as well. “Thomas,” I said while pointing towards myself. Then, I pointed at Kevin, “Kevin.” I ignored the soldiers. For one, I didn't know their names. And two? Well, I figured it would be rather complicated to explain who they were in a language she wouldn't even understand.

She nodded, and pointed at both of us, repeating our names.

I smiled. It looked like we had established a small basis for communication.

I then motioned for her to follow us, “come,” I told her. I couldn't wait to introduce her to the Community.

“Come,” she repeated while nodding.

Suddenly, the sound of an engine a fair distance ahead of us caught our attention. Kantje's ears perked up as her head swiveled to look behind her, "nalkra?" she inquired.

It was a question, though neither of us understood the word itself, it was clear that she was perplexed at the noise.

A question was certainly merited, after all, we weren't aware of any military convoys in the area. As far as I was aware, no one but the military had any functioning vehicles.

As I was ruminating through my thoughts, our group pushed through the underbrush until we came to the edge of the forest and to a deteriorating road. We remained hidden within the tree line, watching towards the direction the sound was emanating from. It only took a moment before a vehicle suddenly appeared over the hill in the road, as soon as it crested over, everyone ducked, pulling just a bit further back into the woods. Kantje on the other hand remained standing, staring at the direction the vehicle was coming from. Luckily, Kevin reacted first, and managed to pull Kantje down with us without startling her too drastically.

When the vehicle drew closer, I was bewildered as I recognized it as a humvee. But it was clearly damaged, a lot of the armor plating dented with bits of shrapnel poking out.

The answer came as the humvee drew closer, and I watched as silhouettes formed around the humvee. Once they were close enough, it was obvious they weren't members of Camp Edward.

Their tattoo-covered bodies and all-together sketchy-looking appearance assured me of that. It left me with only one, terrifying conclusion. Bandits. And they were heading towards the direction of the Community.

As we began to retreat into the forest, I suddenly felt a pressure on my right shoulder, turning, I noticed Kevin, a look of indignation in his eyes. A look I had seldom seen before.

"What?" I whispered harshly.

He pointed towards the back of the small group of bandits.

My eyes widened in shock, and my mouth hung open. There, behind the Humvee was a man was in a tattered suit, who looked to be in terrible shape. But at least he had some clothes on. The fact he had somehow seen fit to continue wearing a suit was beyond me.

Liam. If there had been any suspicion regarding their destination, it was now quashed. The man's presence and the direction they were heading only indicated such.

The mere reality that he was there, with the group of bandits filled me with a host of emotions. From anger to guilt, to shame, to ire. I had let the man leave, figuring he would somehow survive on his own, or die in the process.

I had felt guilt at the time over his fate. But now I felt guilt for my Community. The reality was obvious and disconcerting. I had provided mercy to the man, and my decision had now led to his retaliation against the Community, against my people. He was leading the Bandits straight towards us.

Manes had noticed him too, and he growled at the man, perhaps sensing the target of my disdain. I hushed the wolf-dog before he unwittingly gave away our position, and tipped off the bandits.

With a great deal of angst, I bit my lip, drawing blood. I wanted to run out there and take them all out right now. But there were several dozen of them. It could quickly get deadly. I looked towards Kevin, and the soldiers that had paused behind us. We could try and ambush them, but they would likely notice if there was suddenly a large fireball forming in the woods. It would take at least half a minute to cast anything substantial enough to take out the Humvee.

Plus, they were also grasping fully automatic weapons in their hands, and many of them were protected by the Humvee. Simply said, an attack right now might cost us our lives, even if we managed to take out the group, they clearly already knew where we were. We'd only be delaying the inevitable. It would be pointless to waste lives now. The best course of action would be to reach the Community before the Bandits do, and take them out with a much larger force. It was the safer and likely smarter option.

I shook my head at Kevin, and he nodded in understanding. We slunk back to join the soldiers and Kantje, while we made our speedy retreat.