Book 5: Chapter 20 (1/2)

Helden grimaced as he pulled his sword out of a boar’s neck. “This is the tenth one already,” he said and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure,” Forster said and shook her head. “You only ever see animals panic like this when there’s a forest fire.” She lowered her bow and frowned. “When I was younger, a fire broke out while I was in the woods, and animals were rushing out, disregarding everything in their path. However, they avoided me. It wasn’t like this.”

“Are they under a spell?” Ingwer asked. “Maybe the fairy cursed them to attack us.”

“There’s no curse that can cause a creature to disregard its life,” Forster said and shook her head. After a moment of thinking, she turned her head towards Blau. “Right?”

Blau frowned. “It’d have to be an extremely powerful fairy,” she said. “However, I don’t think it’s a curse. There’s no hints of discordant mana in their bodies. It’s clear they’re running from something terrifying. Perhaps the evil beasts are much more dangerous than we first thought? If they’re displacing the local fauna, then it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to become more aggressive to claim territory.”

“Claiming territory?” Helden asked. “If that were the case, we wouldn’t have been attacked by deer too. Something else is going on.” He frowned. “Haven’t you noticed? We haven’t encountered any corpses despite following our target for so long.”

“You mean we’re being targeted?” Ingwer asked. “Should we retreat?”

“You’re always thinking of retreating,” Forster said and clenched her teeth. “Do you remember the last two nights? Don’t you want revenge for what they did?”

Ingwer pouted. “It feels like a cat toying with a mouse,” she said. “And we’re the mouse.”

Helden narrowed his eyes as he marched forward. “We’re not running. Haven’t we overcome countless challenges? We killed the goblin king, the kobold pack leader, the orc lord. As long as we work together, there isn’t anything that can stop us.”

“Except two dragons,” Blau said. “You might be able to distract one, but the other one will kill the three of us before coming to the other’s aid.”

Helden sighed. “I was trying to say something motivational,” he said. “Think about it, Blau. What are the chances we even encounter a single dragon? How unlucky would we have to be to encounter two at once?”

“The odds are close to impossible,” Blau said and nodded. “Didn’t the target’s companion introduce himself as a dragon though?”

Helden rolled his eyes. “Do you think dragons walk around in human form?”

“Well, the field of dragon research isn’t very advanced,” Blau said. “Not much is known about their behavior.”