บท 2: A Farmers Wit
On the other side of the endless forest, far away from Karry, several members of Lawless where
continuing their search for Zeke with no success. After searching for several more minutes, they were stillunable to find any trace of him and decided to continue their search in a different area. Nearly thirty minutes after they left a figure slowly and warily climbed down from one of the towering trees.
After carefully inspecting the surroundings to make sure there was no one around the figure
stealthily made its way into the distance. This figure was precisely Zeke who after erasing his
tracks as best as he could, then climbed one of the trees and hid. After dealing with several
poisonous insects and even a few snakes he managed to hide in the giant branches of the tree. As he ran Zeke tried his best to remember the route to the cliff where they had killed the demon boar.
He lost his path a few times and ran into the territory of several savage beasts almost losing his life but he eventually managed to find his way there safely. By the time he reached the cliff the sun had set and it was now completely dark in the endless forest. From reading the monster index Zeke was aware that this was the time that a lot of dangerous monsters would leave their dens and go hunting.
With this information in mind coupled with the fact that he was alone he tossed aside the notion of lighting a campfire and decided against making one for warmth. There was also the chance that a fire might lead the lawless right to his location. Zeke waited for several hours in the bitter cold but Karry never arrived. He began to fear the worst had happened, maybe she had been captured or perhaps she was already…. He stopped himself from thinking such morbid thoughts and decided to continue waiting.
As he sat there in the dark waiting his stomach suddenly growled with such intensity he thought there was a monster next to him. While they were running he and Karry had agreed to leave behind their sacks full of the body parts of the demon boar and other creatures so as to increase their speed. All their other provisions where inside Karry's storage sack so he currently had no food to eat.
After hesitating for a while he decided to go gather some food. As a farmer, he had ample
experience with plants so even in the endless forest he was sure he would be able to find some edible and non-poisonous plants or bark to eat. He made his way through the forest quietly harvesting any edible plants, he could find.
He was focused on his task when he suddenly heard the rustling of plants in the distance, his
heart dropped because he thought it was a savage beast but the rustling was soon followed by light and the sound of voices talking. He was about to ignore their words and focus on his task when he managed to hear some of what they were saying.
He didn't hear everything but he heard things like "damn brats" and "I can't believe we have to
waste our time looking". What truly incited Zeke's furry was when he heard "I wonder if the
captain has been able to get anything useful from that little girl" the men laughed as they
continued their conversation. "I can't believe they were able to kill that demon boar. We
struggled for so long to be able to injure it but it managed to escape in the end. I wonder how they killed it" the color seemed to fade from the world when Zeke heard these words.
"Karry" he said to himself. He had no doubt about who these men were talking about. He now
finally understood why that demon boar was injured prior to them encountering it. He couldn't help but think of what the Lawless might do to Karry. After waiting for so long at the cliff without her arriving he thought something might have happened to her but still he hoped for the best. After a brief moment of contemplation Zeke decided to follow the men back to their camp.
He trailed behind at a distance not too far away but not too close either. He would occasionally stop and carefully pick some plants, these were not edible though. After several hours, he saw a campfire in the distance. There were many voices coming from the direction of the fire. After walking a bit closer Zeke finally caught sight of Karry. She was tied to a wooden post with bruises all over her face. Even from a distance, he could still hear her sharp voice "let me go you fucking creeps. I see your mothers never thought you how to treat a lady."
She had disdain smeared onto her face as she spoke "Now that I think about it, it makes sense
why so many men are together in one place. I bet you guys like to play with each other's things huh? hahahaha" her deranged laughter spread far in the dark.
Zeke couldn't help himself but shake his head. "ahh" he sighed as he thought to himself 'stupid girl they've already beat you this much yet you still taunt them. How do you expect them to let you live?' Zeke kept watching as Lanis walked in front of Karry and kicked her a few times. He then held up a bloodied sack and spoke "shut your filthy mouth, where is the rest of the demon boar"?
"have you checked your men's tents? They probably hid the corpse so they could "have fun"
with it later"
Lanis stared at her in silence for a couple of seconds. He let out a sigh as he pulled out a knife
and spoke. "I've had enough of this nasty tongue of yours" he stuck his hand into her mouth and pulled out her tongue, he was prepared to cut it off.
Zeke could no longer watch in silence, he came out of the bushes and yelled "stop, don't hurt
her."The several members of lawless turned to look at him with shocked expressions.
"captain that's him, that's the other kid that was with her" anger burned in Bryant's eyes as he
spoke.Lanis turned to Zeke with a deadpan look on his face "where is the rest of the demon boar?" "It's not here but I can take you to it just don't hurt her."
Lanis narrowed his eyes as he continued to size up Zeke. "you have to promise to let us go
unharmed once you have it. we really didn't know it was you guys who fought it before."
Lanis continued to remain silent. Zeke spoke once more "I mean it we really didn't know"
"it doesn't matter" Lanis finally spoke "whoever takes what belongs to the Lawless has to pay"
the members of lawless began to cheer and shout in agreement with Lanis's words. He raised a hand to silence them then he continued.
"take my men to the rest of the corpse. If you behave yourself then I might let you leave
unharmed. As for her" there was a slight pause before he continued "she has to pay for her
disrespect."
"haha you think I'm scared of you losers. Zeke don't believe a word he says they're called
"Lawless" for a reason. He definitely won't keep his words."
'I know that you idiot' Zeke secretly thought to himself 'just be quiet and let me handle this'
"Karry, shut up and trust me. I promise we'll both make it out of here safely." He gave her a look that seemed to say, 'I have a plan'. Karry might have been a mind reader because she seemed to understand his thoughts and simply gave him a bright smile and nodded her head.
Zeke rubbed his temples in exhaustion and thought 'if this keeps up I'll have aged several years by the time we leave…if we leave that is.' He then looked to Lanis and spoke "so do we have a deal?"
As if he hadn't heard Zeke, Lanis didn't answer him. Lanis put his knife back in its sheath and
spoke to his men "several of you follow him and bring back the corpse. Make sure he doesn't do anything unexpected. If he tries something foolish then kill him immediately."
"Yes captain" ten men including Bryant got up and followed Zeke as he made his way into the
distance. " this many people just to follow me? Just one would be fine you know" Zeke joked
"shut up and keep walking" Bryant said.
Zeke led the men far into the woods. They walked for nearly an hour with the members of
Lawless asking "how much further" every so often. Each time Zeke's answer would be "almost
there."
After ten more minutes Zeke finally came to a stop. He stuffed his hands into his pocket and
pulled out one of the plants he picked up on his way to the Lawless's camp. This was a thin plant with several stripes of red and yellow on it known as serpent's grass. He scanned the
environment with his eyes until his gaze focused on a specific spot near a large bush.
"Found it" he revealed a cunning smile on his face as only he was aware of what lay behind that bush. He grabbed a small dagger from his belt strap and quickly cut into his palm. "what the hell are you doing?" one of the lawless caught sight of his strange actions. "oh, nothing much" Zeke replied, "just calling for some help."
Zeke hurriedly dripped some blood onto the serpent's grass then he shoved it into the pocket of the closest member of Lawless and turned to run. "hey, get your ass back here" the others were about to chase after him when all of a sudden, they heard strange noises coming from the large bush.
"hissssss" the sound echoed as a large snake raised its head and came out of the bush. It was
over ten meters long and two meters wide with a dark red skin tone. This was a blood serpent, it was attracted to serpent's grass, especially one that was stained with blood. It scanned the
environment until its eerie yellow eyes landed on the man with the serpent's grass inside his pocket.
It flicked its blood red tongue then immediately lunged at the man. Its speed was so fast he could barely react in time. He narrowly avoided its attack as he rolled to the side. He spun around quickly and pulled out his sword to defend but before he could unleash any combat skills or magic spells he heard a "waap" and felt a strong force launching him backwards as its long and thick tail slammed into his chest.
There was a loud crack that followed indicating broken bones as he was sent flying almost 5 meters spitting out blood. He rolled for a bit before coming to a stop. After stopping he quickly cast a few spells but the blood serpent was too fast as it dodged all of his spells. Suddenly it's body glowed a scarlet red color as it cast a spell of its own and unleashed a torrent of dark red corrosive mucus like substance that blanketed the surroundings forcing the lawless members to hurriedly dodge including the one the blood serpent sent flying earlier.
He tried to stand but before he could the blood serpent rushed at him with an open mouth
exposing its sharp fangs. A strong fishy smell assaulted his nostrils but he couldn't even register the stench before the blood serpent swallowed him whole. The only thing that could be heard was "nooo" but even that only lasted for a brief moment before silence returned to the forest. It takes a while to describe but all this happened in a matter of seconds. Before his friends could react, he was already being digested by the blood serpent.
"shit, that little bastard tricked us" said one of the lawless. "It's only a d ranked savage beast
Three people stay and kill it the rest come with me and help find that little shit." Bryant
immediately ordered. The worst parts about dealing with the blood serpent was its sneak attacks,and its speed but once you were prepared for it and had the appropriate counter measures it was a lot easier to handle.
Zeke quickly ran through the endless forest. He knew that as a rank d savage beast the blood
serpent could only keep the lawless busy for a few minutes at best. He looked around as he ran. He was searching for other territories of savage beasts he had entered as he escaped from the lawless on his way to the cliff. He had nearly died when he entered these territories so he
couldn't help but to remember where they were. If he had not hidden his smell with the juice
from an angel root, he would have long been discovered when he entered their territories. At this moment in time Zeke couldn't help but be grateful for his extensive knowledge of plants and vegetation and also the fact that he actually took the time to read the monster index and learn about some of the creatures in the endless forest. The combination of these factors is the only reason Zeke has a chance of survival in such dire circumstances.
It didn't take long before he reached his next location. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dark green flower with a strong smell. This was known as a river lily and it was the favorite snack of the dragon wasps. He looked around, picked up a few rocks then he climbed up a tree and stopped when he saw a large wasp nest that was nearly ten meters in diameter.
He took out his flask crushed the river lily and put it inside his flask. He closed it and shook the
flask to make sure the river lily was well mixed with the water in it. after making sure his preparations were complete. He grabbed a long vine then threw one of the rocks at the nest. He waited a few moments but nothing happened so he repeated the process and threw a few more rocks. This time there was a loud "buzzzz" that caught his ear. Zeke immediately held unto the vine and jumped down. He didn't even look behind him to make sure that his plan succeeded.
As soon as he reached the ground he began to run in the direction he just came from. It didn't
take long before he heard the loud curses of some of the Lawless. "hey, what are you guys doing I'm right here, why don't you come get me" he yelled as he ran towards them.
"you bitch, bring your ass here" Bryant yelled "I'm gonna make you suffer for th.." his words
got stuck in his throat as he looked behind Zeke. What he saw left his spine tingling and filled his body with sheer terror. They had the bodies of wasp but were a meter long in length. Their bodies were covered in snake like scales that were black and yellow in color. They had two dragon like horns protruding from their heads, a pointy sword like stinger nearly half a meter long and numerous sharp teeth that struck fear into a person's very being. These were c ranked savage beasts known as dragon wasps. There was nearly a dozen of them.
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