The Pursuit
Three from one side and two from the other, they were closing in on us.
I pointed first toward the three drawing near.
"I'll take this side. Runesa, stick with me."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Right. If anything happens, yell first."
The moment we split, the gnolls drew their weapons and started to growl.
"Runesa, don't step in yet. Start preparing a spell and you'll make yourself a target."
Runesa let out a tense breath and clutched her spellbook to her chest.
"Once I've dealt with two of them, get ready then."
"Yes. Understood."
I faced the gnolls at once. They didn't look ready to rush me, so I charged first.
"Haaah!"
I'd been drilling the habit of feeding mana into my blade, so the instant the fight began I was already pouring it down the steel without a thought.
"Krrngh!"
"Hup!"
I cut at the gnoll swinging a blunt weapon toward me. The blade opened its belly; the light armor it wore split, and blood burst out.
Strength drained out of me all at once and the world tilted, but it passed quickly. I drew a short breath, stood over the gnoll I'd dropped in a single stroke, and faced the two that remained.
Clean enough. It just feels like the whole fight got crushed into one exhausting instant.
I was still breathing hard when they yanked the long spears off their backs and hurled them at me together.
"Hk—"
I twisted on reflex away from the spears knifing in. One grazed my arm and tore the armor as it passed; the other buried itself in the ground just in front of my feet.
"Ha... shit."
The dizziness had kept me from moving fast enough. I'd nearly died for real.
Having thrown one spear apiece, they snatched up their weapons and came at me — one with an axe in each hand, the other gripping a club in both.
The first to reach me leapt and brought both axes down at once.
Clang!
"Ugh..."
I caught the two weighted axes on my sword, and in that same breath the other gnoll swung its huge club at my side.
A blunt weapon wouldn't kill me outright, but the moment my stance broke I was as good as dead.
The axe-gnoll fell back so it wouldn't be caught in the follow-through. I locked both hands on the hilt.
Just these two. That's all I have to finish.
The pressure on the blade eased. I stepped in and drove the sword forward, shoving the axes off it with everything I had, and in that brief opening I gathered mana and cut straight through the gnoll's torso.
Shhk!
It was a mana-laden stroke. Even the gnoll's tough hide couldn't hold, and blood burst free.
The arc of my swing hadn't even finished when the club slammed into my back.
"Aagh—!"
I reeled beside the gnoll I'd just dropped, nearly going down with it.
"Ugh... ughh..."
It hurt worse than I'd thought. My back felt shattered to pieces.
I barely stayed upright. When the club came at me again, I threw myself backward and went down hard.
"Miss Selen!"
The instant I hit the ground I heard Runesa's voice, and then a fierce heat. A fireball tore past above me and exploded where the gnoll had been.
"Keheng!"
The blast was strong enough, but the gnoll didn't seem dead.
I planted a hand and tried to rise. My arms shook so badly I couldn't get up on my own, and Runesa, already at my side, hauled me to my feet.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah... that one looks like it's trying to run."
"Sh-should I catch it?"
I shook my head at her frightened face. Instead I drank a stamina potion and a mana potion, one after the other, and took up my sword.
"I'll go."
I ran straight after the fleeing gnoll. The gap had widened a little in that brief span, but I didn't lose the shape of it escaping somewhere into the northern forest.
With the distance already open, there was no point forcing the chase. I only needed to see which way it ran.
"Hey — Selen, you all right?"
I'd only gone a short way before I stopped, and Levan was already sprinting toward me.
"Yeah. It went that way. Couldn't catch it."
"Can't be helped. Taking all of them at once was asking too much."
"Let's head that direction."
Even if we'd lost sight of it, following the forest track it had fled down ought to turn up a clue.
"All right. Tracking, then."
Levan let out a short breath and set a hand on my shoulder.
"I'll go on ahead. You and Runesa take your time."
"You sure you'll be all right?"
He nodded, wearing that confident grin of his.
"Far as I know, there's a river at the end of this path. I'll track as far as I can and circle back near the water. You two wait there."
With that, he took off after the gnoll. He ran at a ridiculous speed. Unlike me, his fight clearly hadn't been that hard.
"Still got stamina to burn, huh."
"Ah — I caught a glimpse. The gnolls on Mr. Levan looked a little weak."
"That so."
Runesa pressed her lips tight and nodded as if there could be no doubt.
And here I am humoring her again.
I laughed, looking at her, then felt wind leaking through my armor and checked myself over.
"Ugh. Do I look okay? I took a lot of hits."
"Um... this side is torn, and your back looks badly shredded too. But it isn't serious."
Then we got off easy enough.
"Let's follow."
"I'm not sure Mr. Levan will be all right."
"He's good at that sort of thing. Don't worry."
Levan tracked the gnoll that had fled so fast. Wounded and running in a panic, it had left easy signs everywhere.
"Love a fight, these idiots, but they've got no sense."
He moved quickly, checking blood on the brush and ground and trees scored by weapons. Before long he could even hear something moving close by.
That way.
Calmly, careful that his own sound wouldn't carry, he followed the noise.
Not far off he found the gnoll — and with it a palisade lashed roughly from timber, and a small encampment visible beyond.
They hid something this size in the forest.
The chase had carried him quite a distance. The spot was cunningly placed, nothing humans would stumble on easily, and the scale of it was no small thing. Levan swallowed as he looked over the gnolls' mountain camp.
He hesitated there a moment. Go back and tell Selen, or slip in as he was?
I'll have to do it alone anyway...
The hesitation didn't last. What good would telling her do? Whoever went in there would be going in alone.
He closed his eyes, opened them, and crept a little closer to the camp.
Runesa and I reached the river, just as we'd promised Levan. We'd come at a good pace, but he didn't look likely to be back anytime soon.
Runesa went down to the water and drank. I watched her and scanned the surroundings. The thought that gnolls might be nearby kept me uneasy, even with nothing to warn me they were close.
"Oh — Miss Selen. Now that I think of it, gnolls don't take revenge the way goblins do, do they?"
"Hm? Hard to say."
Worry sat plain on her face.
"One of them got away in the end... Won't they come looking for us again?"
"Well, they're not the type to charge in headfirst the way goblins do. Humans who already beat them — those, they'll actually be careful around."
I painted it a little more optimistic than I felt, so she wouldn't fret over nothing. The gnolls had lost, sure, but they were still the sort to come right back the moment they decided a rematch was winnable.
"I'm anxious. Haa..."
Me too.
The longer we waited, the worse I felt about Levan. Had I been wrong to send him off alone? What if he'd pushed too far and been caught — or walked into a trap? All kinds of ugly thoughts were starting when hurried footsteps reached my ear.
"Runesa."
"Yes?"
"Get the scroll ready."
Her eyes went round. She stared at me, then yanked a scroll from her pack in a rush.
"W-why? What's the matter?"
I drew my sword, and before long there was Levan, running from the far bank.
"Selen!"
Dozens of gnolls were pouring after him.
What the hell did that idiot do to end up like that?
"I found it! I found it, but—!"
Something like a letter was clutched in his hand. I'd thought he'd only gone to pin down the location. Looked like he'd grabbed the letter while he was at it.
"Do something about the ones behind me!"
He hit the river about then.
"Runesa, get ready."
"Yes, ma'am!"
She opened the scroll and began the spell — return magic, the kind that could take us back to a village near Belmor Castle. If the three of us moved at once, this operation would end clean.
Levan came across the water. I felt mana spilling from Runesa's body.
"We are departing. You need only take hold of me."
I caught her shoulder. She reached for Levan. The moment the three of us were linked, violent mana surged out of the scroll.
Fwoosh!
Heat slammed into me.
Was return magic always this hot...
BOOM!
"Huh?"
I blinked, and we were still standing in front of the river in the northern forest. Across the water lay the scar of an enormous spell.
A dozen gnolls or so looked to have been dropped by a massive fireball.
"Wh-what just happened?"
Runesa stared in a panic at the scroll crumbling away in her hand. What happened? We'd been sold a fake, that's what.
"Well... not the worst outcome. A few of them are still on their feet."
Levan was still breathing hard. He stuffed the letter into his clothes and drew a dagger. I waved him back and stepped forward.
"Rest a second. I'll fight."