The Elder Lands

“We were lucky they didn’t corner any of us alone before,” Sir Wolfe said, following up with a command. “Let’s not give them another chance. Stay together.”

Maybe not all of us were lucky, Lucan thought, glancing in the direction of the two missing men-at-arms. But it seemed that the knight didn’t think his two men had perished.

They formed up as Sir Wolfe commanded, close enough to assist but not close enough to get in each other’s way.

The monsters that came galloping out of the bushes were mostly similar to the previous ones. Mostly. These ones had wider shoulders and longer arms that made them look more like apes than hyenas as they charged. They still had the same skin tone, snouts, and most of the other bodily features.

Lucan decided to hold back on using his Skills since he only had one more use for each one. He would try to tangle with this new wave of beasts with skill alone. He’d begun to get a feel for how to handle them.

The beasts outnumbered them, but not by much. Sir Wolfe stepped forward, ahead of everyone else, to attract the attention of two of them on his own.

Lucan gauged the directions of the incoming monsters, realizing that two of them were coming for the man-at-arms to his right, while none were coming for him. He reluctantly stepped forward, attracting the attention of one of the two by waving his sword into its path. The beast angled towards him, abandoning its initial target.

Lucan stepped back. Making sure not to put too much distance between him and the closest ally, he found a tree and put it between him and the beast. He leaned to the right, tempting it to attack him from that side.

The beast accepted his invitation, charging towards the right side of the tree. Once it got close enough to leap at him, Lucan hopped to the opposite side of the tree. The beast tried to correct its leaping direction, but the tree was between them, so it ended up grazing it and missing him. As soon as it landed, it turned towards Lucan and met his boot. His kick took it in the face and neck, grounding it.

It scampered away from him in an instinctive reaction. Lucan followed it with his sword, lunging forward to catch its neck with the edge of his blade. The beast somehow retracted its upper body away from his reach. He heard Sir Wolfe loudly warn someone about something at the same time the beast in front of him pushed itself up onto its back legs and stood up.

On two legs and upright, the beast was a bit taller than him, with long arms that nearly reached its knees and the same scowl of fury around its snout. Its wide shoulders along with its height made it more intimidating than any man.

Lucan took a step back in spite of himself. The beast caught onto his fear and stepped forward, swiping with its elongated claws. He was the one to scamper backwards this time, evading its claws by a breath. Then his back hit the tree and the beast took another step forward, swiping at him again. He barely ducked in time, hearing its claws taking a chunk out of the tree above him. He rolled to the side and the beast followed him.

Lucan eyed its hands, trying to gauge their reach. They seemed comparable to his sword’s reach. “Just treat its arms like they’re swords,” he told himself as he activated his Star. To hell with saving it for later, he had to survive now.

The beast didn’t give him time to do much more. This time it mouthed a deep growl as it swiped its left arm at him diagonally. Lucan met its forearm with the edge of his blade, batting it away and delivering a cut in the process. Even without much leverage at the point of contact, the beast’s swing jolted his arm the moment it met his blade. He was definitely outmatched when it came to pure strength.

The beast’s right arm was already in motion the moment its left was pushed away. Lucan quickly crouched, ducking the strike, and picked the point of the Star between forward and left, so that if the point beneath the beast was north, the point Lucan was going to would be northwest. Before his move could commence, however, the beast corrected its aim, its arm veering down and catching his shoulder where the breastplate ended and the mail began. Two of its claws scraped against the steel plate and two sheared off several rings from the mail on his arm. Lucan didn’t stop, immediately moving to his destination.

Before the beast could retract its belligerent arm, Lucan was below it. With an underhanded slash, he cut into the beast’s armpit which elicited a pained roar. Lucan prepared himself to move back to another spot in the star, expecting it to whirl and face him. But the creature surprised him with a kick from the leg beside him, throwing him out of the Star.

Lucan was mouthing “Fuck” before his back had even hit the ground. He got back up as quickly as he could and found that the beast had also fallen on its back and was getting up. It had lost its balance once it had kicked him. So it was barely balanced while standing on just two feet. That explained why its attacks had been so rigid.

The beast got on all fours again, covering the distance between them in a blink. It leapt at him and Lucan threw himself to the side, but its claws caught his arm in the passing strike, tearing several rings out of his mail. He felt pain shooting through the muscle it had struck at the same time he hit the ground.

As he rolled, getting back to his feet and turning to face the monster, he found it already standing on its two back feet again and swiping at him with its claws. Lucan hastily swung his sword to meet its arm, but the beast suddenly stopped its attack, folding its arm on his sword even as he cut into the crook of it, cutting through hide and flesh and then stopping. It trapped his sword further by twisting its hand and closing its claws around the blade.

Movement attracted Lucan’s eyes. Its other arm was heading towards his face, its claws poised to pierce all the way through his skull. The clawed hand was already halfway to his face, and he realized that even if he were to use Wraith Strike to free his sword, it’d be too late to interpose it in the attack’s path. He was also too off-balance to duck. So he leaned back desperately, even though he knew he wouldn’t be out of the attacking arm’s reach, he leaned anyway, instinctively trying to expand the distance between his eyes and the approaching harm. While doing it, he hoped…for something. What? He didn’t know. He’d been stupid, letting himself get kicked out of the Star, and then swinging his sword carelessly enough for it to be trapped. His father would be scoffing at him. And now he might just be heading toward an early, stupid death.

One moment he was watching the claws slowly making their way to his face and the next…he saw a barrier of wood and an arm blocking his vision. The claws scraped against the thin layer of enchanted bronze covering Lee’s shield. The beast freed Lucan’s sword, hoping to use its liberated arm to punish the one who’d dared to interfere.

Then Sir Wolfe was behind it. His axe hacked into the back of its knee and the beast buckled, kneeling on the ground, its long torso jerking from the pain. The strike heading towards Lee lost its direction as the beast was forced to kneel. Its head snapped back to glare at the one who’d taken it by surprise.

Lucan, realizing that he was free, slipped under the shield and into the beast’s guard as it busied itself with his two saviors. Flush with fear and anger, he thrust his blade into where its heart should be. The tip of his sword pierced thick hide and thin flesh then got stuck halfway through the bone in its ribcage. Without much thought, he used his last Wraith Strike, his sword glowing and slipping all the way through.

The beast suddenly gurgled, its body jerking then growing rigid just as fast.

Lucan pushed it to the side so it wouldn’t fall on him. His sword hadn’t pierced it all the way to the hilt since his Wraith Strike had lost its glow midway through. Now his sword was stuck in the beast’s bones and he had to saw it out.

“Are you well, Lucan?” Lee’s grave voice came from behind him.

He turned halfway as he struggled to free his sword. He looked at Lee and nodded. “My body is well. My pride? I’m not certain.” Not that I’d had that much pride in my physical prowess before this.

Sir Wolfe’s guffaw caught his attention. “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, boy. This wasn’t easy prey, at least not for you.”

Lucan glanced at the knight and dumbly mouthed, “huh?”

“See for yourself.” Sir Wolfe tapped a finger under his eye, the sign for checking on one’s blessing.

Lucan called up his Elder Blessing.

You have slain a lv9 Archsala’wa and absorbed part of its Vital Essence.

Your Swordsmanship has leveled up.

You have leveled up.

Race: Human

Level: 3

Vital Orbs: 5

Mind and Body

Physique: Copper II 0/3

Spirit: Basic 0/1

Skills (0) 0/100

(Passive) Swordsmanship lv21: Journeyman

(Hybrid) 7-Point Star Dance lv2: Novice (0/1)

(Active) Wraith Strike lv2: Novice (0/1)

Lucan saw his level, then eyed his Swordsmanship proudly. He’d gotten it to Journeyman as his father had wanted. He dismissed the manifestation and finally freed his sword from the beast’s body, hefting it in his hand. He felt as if it was lighter, even though he knew it wasn’t. Perhaps it was more of a familiarity that came to him with the improvement of the Skill. His father had told him that at much later levels he would feel as if the sword was a mere extension of his arm. He had even told him of sword masters who could actually feel through their swords.

Before he could thank Sir Wolfe and Lee then begin cleaning his sword, he heard a yell echoing between the trees, coming from somewhere in the forest. The beasts had all been finished off and everyone’s eyes were attracted to the source of the noise, the two men-at-arms who were running towards them. The two missing men-at-arms.

The pair came to a stop in front of Sir Wolfe, panting and bending over with hands on their knees.

“Where in the hells have you two been?”

“Bandits,” one of them said, gulping lungfuls of air and pointing behind him. “There are bandits in the forest.”