Capítulo 31: Unsuspecting
Pursuit would be a strong word for what came next. Rackshar's injuries were quite severe and, even though he had bandaged most of his wounds, the blood loss was taking its toll. Even though he could not feel pain Rackshar's body was starting to rebel against him.
He could no longer close his left hand, that had been bitten by the athonex. He could feel his body slouching to one side, due to the damaged ribs. Also, he felt lightheaded, this was due to the blood loss which would affect his control of the body.
All this caused Rackshar's fleeing to be more of a staggering run, like a man with a crippled leg got drunk and decided to go for a jog. Lurching through the forest tree by tree was slow going.
The only thing that made his escape possible was the Elder Athonex's equally bad state. Its crumpled side was in bad condition, with a quarter of its forest covered shell collapsed inward, like a meteor had taken out part of an island. The impact had even caused its body to concave and several of its ribs were broken. The shards from its shell had pierced its soft fleshed causing even more devastation to the injured area. All this was topped off by its head wound which continued to seep blood into its eyes making its vision blurry.
Gone were the long, powerful strides of the Elder Athonex, replaced instead with short shaky steps that caused the earth to tremble as it hobbled on its weak legs and favored its ruined side. The trees that it once avoided or tore up now became real obstacles in its way causing it to weave back and forth in its pursuit.
Several ballista-like spikes were launched at the fleeing Rackshar from the healthy side of the Elder Athonex, but with its sporadic movements it made aiming impossible. The spikes never came within 3 meters of hitting Rackshar, and those were the lucky ones, some landed as far as a dozen meters away.
It didn't take long for Rackshar to be exhausted, He was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. The time he spent supporting himself on tree branches became longer as he would fully stop his steps and pause for a precious second or two at each one.
Such rests would have been his death if the Elder Athonex wasn't already in worse condition. Its eyes had fully glazed over, and blood now freely drained from its open mouth, pooling in the Elder Athonex's lower jaw before overflowing onto the ground. Its jagged breath would send torrents of the blood into the air, painting the surrounding trees red. Its legs were dragging across the ground causing deep trenches, a testament to its journey through the forest.
At this point Rackshar was taking his pauses to make sure he didn't lose the Elder Athonex as much as for his own health. He was afraid that if he went too fast, he would outpace the dying behemoth.
Rackshar felt it was fortunate that the campfire wasn't too far from the location of the overturned crag.
Convenience couldn't fully encapsulate how useful it was to Rackshar to find a group of travelers. People who traveled between cities in this world always consisted of several warriors, whether it was themselves who made up the group or if they were hired for protection. This world was filled with countless dangers, beasts of prey, like the athonex, bandits looking for loot and cores or the ever-frequent calamities caused by mana. Without several core wielders, travel for a normal group of people would simply be suicide. Especially taking into account the large distant between settlements.
Rackshar's plan was to lure the Elder Athonex to the travelers and let them fight it out between themselves. It didn't even matter who killed who, the only winner at the end of the day would be Rackshar.
If the Elder Athonex won, Rackshar was confident that he could finish it off. Afterall it was already on deaths door, if that athonex had to fight with a handful of warriors it could only be holding on by a thread afterward. Rackshar simply hoped that the warriors could keep the Elder Athonex occupied until he recharged an explosion charge in his core. By then it would be a simple matter for Rackshar to sweep up both the humans and the athonex's cores.
On the other hand, if the humans killed the Elder Athonex it would be slightly inconvenient for Rackshar. With how injured he was, if even one or two of the warriors survived then he would struggle to deal with them in a fight. Fortunately, Rackshar was currently in a human body, so he hoped that they would drop their guard around an injured fellow human. He would only need that slight hesitation of them not knowing whether he was their enemy or not to kill them as well. Then he would, once again, have all the benefits for himself.
With how injured the Elder Athonex was he assumed that this second scenario would be the outcome. Afterall, it was barely surviving the journey.
Finally, Rackshar came to a clearing and the first thing he caught sight of was a circle of wagons. Looking past the wagons Rackshar could see a poorly maintained dirt road that was connected to the clearing.
There were 5 wagons all together, circled to leave an opening toward the road and giving the gathered travelers some defense from the forest. Rackshar could hear the talk and laughter and smell the food cooking on the fires coming from the other side of the wagons.
Though these were not just any wagons, instead of cloth coverings these were made with a sturdy wooden roof for protection from the weather. The sides were open but thick steel bars connected the wood base to the roof. Inside Rackshar could make out figures sitting slumped on benches that lined either side of the wagon. His eyes widened in disgust and one word rose up in his mind.
'Slaves.'
Rackshar was not disgusted by slavery, on the contrary he had owned many in the past. His disgust was in how his plans had once again been ruined. If they were slave merchants who ended up killing the Elder Athonex they would not wonder if Rackshar was a friend or foe. They would see an injured human as merchandise, nothing more than livestock to add to the herd to be sold. They would immediately try to catch him without giving him a chance to retaliate.
If that was the case, then he would just have to improvise. he thought, still irked that he had more work on his plate. He exited the cover of the forest and moved into the opening between the tree line and the wagons.
Rackshar waited there until he saw the Elder Athonex catch up. Hearing the shouts of surprise from the camp when the huge athonex towering over the trees made its appearance caused him grin. He made sure it was watching when he dashed to the wagons and rolled under one.
The Elder Athonex seeing its target finally stopping and trying to hide felt elated. Its pursuit had finally come to an end. It steadied itself on its shaky legs and fired a ballista at his hiding spot.
Due to the angle of the trajectory, and the Elder Athonex's poor aiming, the spike tore a hole through the wooden roof of the wagon and down through the steel bars before it came to rest burying itself in the middle of the group of now panicking slave traders.
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