Chapter 154: How much we grow (1/2)

“I’ve never fought them really.” Ilea said as she got up again from her crouched position.

“They’re nasty, evil and breed like nothing else I’ve seen. Good thing the usual monsters around here tear them to shreds. As do we.” Dale said and sighed before he leaned on the wall of the underground cellar. Looking around, Ilea realized it must’ve once been a crypt.

“I guess they are, caught you unawares it seems?” she asked.

“They did, some of them are higher leveled than expected. It’s mostly the bad weather though, spotting traps is harder like this and they’re small.” Dale said and then looked at her. “I didn’t even greet you yet. It’s been a while Ilea. You’ve well changed as expected.” he said and sent a meaningful look towards Kyrian.

Most of the soldiers were in the crypt now, somewhat apprehensive of the newcomers but seeing that their captain knew at least one of them made them ease up a little bit.

“A lot has happened, joined the Hand and fought some demons. What about you? I can see you’ve been taking the training seriously.” Ilea asked after she had identified him to be at level 121, considerably higher than last time they had met.

“And every week brings more reason to do so. First the elves and now the demons. I heard rumors about the Hand being involved in all of it, I do hope you’re still on our side.” he said but didn’t seem to put a lot of faith in such rumors considering the casual way he talked about it.

“The Hand was involved but we cleaned it up again, at least in Ravenhall, at the core. I’m sure it’s gonna take a while to kill all the remaining demons but in time it’ll clear up.” Ilea said and looked upwards, hearing shouts from the room above.

“Goblins?” Kyrian asked and Ilea shrugged.

“Let’s go check. Or do you want to let the recruits deal with it?” Ilea asked as she looked around, finding the eyes of young soldiers staring back at her.

“Today is not the day for that, I’m not going to lose anybody here. Let’s finish them.” Dale said and unsheathed his sword, an aura of power forming around him. Ilea nodded and blinked upwards twice to find herself in the room with four soldiers. There were a couple small green creatures, most of them naked and armed with crude weapons running around and attacking the taller soldiers who used their weapons to keep the monsters at bay.

Ilea kicked one of the creatures and blinked to one of the soldiers who was getting cornered by two of the goblins. She grabbed their heads and smashed them together, creating a sickening crunch of bone as blood splattered on her veil and the soldier before her. Another blink and a kick killed another goblin before the remaining ones scrambled to flee.

“Any of you hurt?” Ilea asked as she looked at the fleeing goblins. The creatures were between level five and twenty. Weak to be sure but she had seen the tactics they employed. They weren’t stupid, not something as easily dealt with as a Drake or demon spawn. Daled rushed out into the room at that moment, sword in hand and looking around to find a couple dead goblins and Ilea looking out into the rain.

“You killed them already?” he asked and sheathed his sword. “Still like to put up a show don’t you?” he asked and shook his head.

Ilea didn’t reply. It was less about the show and more about simply using her abilities but Dale wasn’t like her in that regards. The man had something to protect and a lot to lose. A more careful approach was reasonable for him, plus not everybody loved fighting as much as she did.

“Someone’s coming.” Ilea said as she watched a man approach through her Sphere. Kyrian had joined them as well by that point. They all looked towards the entrance when a warrior clad in full plate armor entered and looked around, mostly ignoring the people and focusing on the goblins. He walked up to one of the corpses and stabbed his sword into its chest.

“They’re quite dead mister.” Ilea said but the man simply continued to do the same thing to each goblin before he looked up.

“Where did they go?” he asked and Ilea pointed the way.

“I see.” the man said and left back into the rain, towards the indicated direction.

“Hunting goblins I guess.” Ilea said and shrugged.

“Yea, seen him around. He’s capable enough but there won’t be any more goblins here for us to train the recruits anymore.” Dale said.

“Back to Riverwatch then?” Ilea asked.

“We’re going to venture further north tomorrow. For now we’ll stay here. For some of them it’s the first time out in the wild.” the man explained and sat down next to the fire. “You and you,” he pointed to two guards who stood at attention immediately. “Clean out the corpses and the blood.”

The men confirmed their orders and went about their business as Ilea joined Dale at the fire. Kyrian leaned on one of the walls and looked towards the rain. The other guards in training warmed themselves on the fire or stayed down below.

“Expedition tour for the new trainees. Isn’t the experience somewhat bad if you’re with them?” Ilea asked as she summoned a meal. She didn’t deem the people around her dangerous enough to do anything stupid with the information on her necklace. The stares were getting a little annoying though, as if she was some rare breed animal. Then again if the guard was anywhere close to the military on earth these guys probably haven’t seen a woman up close in weeks.

“Levels aren’t everything Ilea. I forget that you’re pretty new to all this yourself. At least your growth is ridiculous. Surviving in the wild, knowing what beast to approach and what not to. Learning to track and finding abilities you’re talented in. This is a good way to start. You can always go out and kill monsters, being as prepared as possible is key.” the man explained and she had to agree. If she didn’t have her healing and blink abilities, she’d be dead fifty times over. Good thing she got lucky with her class.

“Agreed.” she simply said before she started eating in silence. The recruits were looking at her still and Dale seemed to be mulling over something.

“Guys, I get that I’m really really nice to look at but stop staring or your heads will be the next thing to be scraped off those walls.” Ilea said with a mouth full of food. They all looked away rather quickly, some of them changing their focus to Kyrian instead.

“You’ve fought demons then? Only a few have reached this far west but I wasn’t involved in any of the encounters. They sounded terrible.” Dale said. “We lost ten guards two weeks ago. Took a group of adventurers and guards four hours to hunt and kill the responsible monster. Above level two hundred. And we had to burn the corpses.”

Ilea swallowed. “I’m sorry.” she simply said and waited for a while before continuing to eat.

“We lost many as well.” Kyrian said from the side. Dale looked downwards a little before he chuckled.

“Crazy world isn’t it?” he asked. “Elves and demons, the past year has been rather turbulent around here. I wish we could just stick to wolves and goblins.”

Ilea didn’t say anything. She didn’t agree with the man of course but seeing how much they lost she understood. Having lived the past year in this exciting and dangerous world made her unable to return to the boring and safe place she grew up in. Would she have realized that something like a professional kick-boxing career was what she truly wanted? Probably not. She lacked the talent as well and the means to focus on the sport enough.

One unlucky fight could’ve ended her aspirations as well. Here she could heal even a lost head when she took her skill descriptions seriously.

“You came here just to see me?” Dale asked after a while.

“We had something to do nearby. Thought I’d check in.” Ilea said and finished her meal, making the plate vanish into her inventory again. Dale nodded and got a ration from a nearby pack.

“I hope you get a break for a while, with the elves and demons I mean.” Ilea said.

“Me too. The refugees are still coming from the west and soon they'll come from the east as well. The cases of murder and theft have gone up and we barely have enough cells to keep all the people we catch. It's not going well, I tell you.” the man said.

“Didn't a lot of people leave after the elven attack. There must be plenty of space in the city.” Ilea said.

“Space? Yes, there's plenty of space for people to hide. For people to form gangs and try to take over the bloody city.” the last words were spoken in a hiss.

“And there's nothing you guys can do about that?” Ilea asked seriously.

“We tried. Looking for the leaders but every time we got close, we simply lost more people. There's some high levelled assassin or rogue class involved I'm sure. We simply don't have the resources to deal with something like that. We train to fight monsters and keep the peace with citizens and normal adventurers, not trained murderers.” Dale spat. Power flowed around him.

“You must have some adventurers who can deal with that? What about all the strong people I saw when the elves were around? You managed to defend against them, I doubt a human as strong as that would target Riverwatch.” Ilea said.

“We're an independent city Ilea. It's the exact place someone like that would target. Though I agree, he or she is likely weaker but the people you saw weren't from here. You remember the Hand was around as well when the elves were here.” he explained and smiled at her.

Ilea sighed. “Yea alright, I can weed them out and bring them to you. Or outright murder them if that seems like the best option.” she said. “Alright with you?” she asked towards her companion who shrugged.