Chapter 163

After about an hour of steady running at a light speed, Luke called for a break. He wasn’t at a hundred percent following the caravan battle and he could tell that Zea was hanging on through sheer grit. Her arm was tucked tightly against her stomach and held in place with her good hand, and he could tell each and every step sent a jolt of pain through her.

“You sure we should stop? We’re not that far away from those bandits,” Zea said.

Luke waved off her concerns. “They’re not coming after us. I was watching, and besides, that whole fight was a bit of acting anyway.”

“It was?” Zea asked, her eyebrows shooting up. “I recall blades being drawn and stabbings being attempted.”

“By Val, yeah. This whole thing was personal for her. Ruca was just putting on a show to keep the peace with her. He could have done much better if he’d tried.”

“Maybe he was just tired,” Zea suggested. “It’s not like any of you were at your best.”

“Nah. Val was trying. Ruca wasn’t. And Val doesn’t know what the fuck she’s doing. Her build is almost identical to his, minus a few ranks and stats due to the lower level, and she doesn’t know how to use half her skills. He made it look good so she wouldn’t be pissed with him after we took the money, but there’s no way she’s going to abandon her sister to come chase after us.”

“Hmm. Well, if you’re sure.”

“As much as I can be about anything,” Luke said. “So, late dinner before it starts getting dark, and maybe we walk through the night to get to the next city?”

“How far away is it anyway?”

“One way to find out. System?”

“Yes, Luke?” the apparition said as he formed out of thin air.

“Got a geography question for you. If we keep going on this road, how far do we need to go to reach a decent sized town or city where we can find someone with healing magic?”

“I am not able to confirm the location of an individual person, but the closest city south of your current location is three hundred miles away. It is known as Heishin, and is the capital of the Beilon Province. It has a population of approximately fifteen thousand people, including both human and aerivesta.”

“What’s an aerivesta?” Luke and Zea asked at the same time.

“They are a bipedal race capable of flight. You met one when near Tenebrous Valley soon after arriving on Aros.”

“Oh, those guys.” Luke winced. He could still remember the splitting headache he’d sported after a short telepathic conversation. On the other hand, the enchanted feather he’d received had ended up saving his life, so while he didn’t want to have another chat with one, he didn’t have any bad feelings about the bird-man himself.

“Is it a problem?” Zea asked.

“Nah, nothing like that. They just… they’re hard to talk to, what with the whole beaks for mouths. The one I met used telepathy, which apparently gives you a nasty headache.”

“It’s probably fine here? If they make up a significant portion of the population, I can’t imagine having any problems.”

“Guess we’ll find out when we get there. You want the fast and painful way or the slow and less-painful way?” Luke asked.

Zea groaned. “You’re going to carry me, aren’t you?”

“Up to you. You want that arm fixed or what?”

“Fuuuuck. Fine, let’s go as long as I can last and we’ll take a walking break.” Luke adjusted his pack and scooped Zea up while she huffed and cradled her arm. “You might as well ditch this armor. It’s got a dozen holes in it.”

“Eh, it’s still got good overall coverage, and it’s slowed down a lot of attacks, you know? Turned shit that would have gone in one side and out the other into scratches and flesh wounds.”

“It’s supposed to stop them completely.”

Luke shrugged. “Not like I’ve got anything better after the chain died.”

“Well if you want me to make another one, I need both hands working.”

“Let’s get going then,” Luke said, starting in a slow—for him—run. Zea clenched her teeth and held her ruined elbow tighter. It was going to be a long evening for her.

* * *

“You think those people the slavers captured will be okay?” Luke asked four hours later.

Zea just groaned in response.

It had actually been weighing on Luke’s mind all evening. He didn’t regret keeping some of the money looted out of Torwin’s stash, but there’d been a lot of truth to it being difficult to keep that many people fed and clothed. Hopefully someone in that group had some survival-oriented skills, stuff like [Tracking], [Butchering], and maybe [Leatherworking]. Most of those people had been basically naked, and it was damn cold at night this far north. Zea had put on her enchanted cloak when they’d stopped for a break an hour ago and she was still shivering.

“Do you think you’re okay?” he asked.

“Depends how far away we are from Heishin,” she responded weakly.

“Little over half way, I think. System, can you tell us?”

“You have one hundred sixty miles to go,” System said.

“Okay, little less than half way then. I was close,” Luke said.

“Put me down,” Zea said. “I need to walk a bit.”

“You know, I can make you a sling for your arm,” Luke said as he knelt down to let Zea get her feet under her.

“Meh, it’s not going to make it hurt any less and we’ll have it fixed up by morning anyway.”

“If you say so,” Luke said. It was the fourth time he’d offered, and he suspected she was as sick of turning him down as he was of suggesting it. But every time he looked at her, his [First Aid] skill went nuts. He’d rarely ever used it, and most wounds healed up well enough on their own, but she didn’t have his outrageously high stamina, and while her skin had stretched back over the wound, it was obvious that the joint was, in his professional medical opinion, extremely fucked up.

The sound of people running in unison pulled him away from his examination. A glance down the road showed him a group of people in some sort of armor with swords strapped to their back and long red scarfs trailing behind them running in unison up the road. They were perhaps five miles away, and given the pace they were moving, Luke guessed he’d be seeing them up close in the next ten minutes even if he just stood there and waited.

He counted out twenty-one people in two rows of ten with one leading them, and liberal use of [Analyze] put them all in the high twenties except for the one he marked as the leader, who was level 37. A brief perusal of their skills showed a ton of overlap in their builds, with most of the combat-oriented skills revolving around hyper-fast precision strikes with their swords for melee or the use of throwing knives for range. There was also a skill called [Blade Wall] that encouraged group tactics by making it easier for them to protect people next to them that every single one of them had. Luke could picture them holding a passage using that skill or fighting in a circle formation against a horde out in the open.

“Got some soldiers coming up the road,” Luke said. “I don’t think they’ve got anything to do with us, but maybe we should get out of the way just in case they have issues with random foreigners.”

“Nobody else has had a problem with us not being natives,” Zea said. She gestured at the countryside and added, “Besides, this is all open plains. Where would we hide that they couldn’t see us?”

There was some truth to that. They had at best five minutes before the soldiers spotted them, and there wasn’t a tree in sight. The best Luke could come up with was to head out a mile and dig a hole to hide in. Considering the time constraints, it didn’t seem like a winning strategy to him.

“That’s a lot of guys to take on all at once,” Luke said. “What are the chances you could [Ghost Script] something up with just one hand?”

Zea gave a short, bitter laugh. “Maybe if it wasn’t my right arm that was out of commission and you held stuff in place for me. As it stands, there’s no way I’m going to write runes with any sort of accuracy like this.”

“Fuck,” Luke swore. “Okay, new plan. You can use your whip in your left hand, right?” At Zea’s nod, he continued, “If it comes down to a fight, the guy at the front of the line is level 37. I’m going to demolish him as my opener, and you keep your whip moving to give you space. They’ve got braces of throwing knives across their chest as part of their uniform, but most of them don’t have strength over 35 or agility over 30. Just keep them from getting close until I kill them off.”

“You think they’ll attack us?” Zea asked.

“I mean… No? But it always seems like that’s what happens. At this point, I see a potential threat and I start considering the best way to put it down. If they want to talk instead of fight, then fine by me. I just won’t expect it until it’s happened.”

“We’re going to find out in a minute. I can see them now too.”

The soldiers were running at a decent pace, and since Luke and Zea were still walking too, they met up a minute later. The soldier at the front of the line held up a hand and his subordinates all stopped. They even ended their run on the same foot, an impressive feat of coordination in Luke’s mind.

“Hello,” the one Luke had mentally dubbed the captain said in Trade Consortium.

“Hi,” Luke said. “Can we help you?”

“Hmm, perhaps. We are Jigon-Sai.” The captain looked at Luke expectantly.

“Uh…” Luke glanced down at Zea, who shrugged back. “We don’t know what that is. We’re from the west.”

“Of course,” the captain said, nodding. “Jigon-Sai are special operations soldiers from the Imperial Province. We were sent north to investigate rumors that demons have breached the passes between Beilon and Hurang to the east. Have you seen any sign of such creatures?”

“Can’t say that I have, no,” Luke said.

“And your companion? She can speak?”

“I can,” Zea said. “But language skill is only rank 1. Sometimes I don’t say what I want to.”

“Ah, that is fair. I understand completely. Tell me, where have you been recently so that we can mark that you’ve seen no demons in that area.”

“Uh, just on this road. We got off the boat at Naldrin and have been following the road south.”

“I see,” the captains said, nodding along as Luke spoke. “And your companion’s arm?”

“There was a problem with some bandits farther north. She got shot with a crossbow.”

The captain gave Luke a speculative glance. His gaze lingered on the holes in Luke’s own armor. “She was not the only one.”

Luke shrugged. “My stamina is higher.”

“Yes, about that… One last question, travelers. You have seen no demons at all in your travels, which have taken you from Naldrin to here, but only across the road.”

Luke nodded. That wasn’t a question.

“You are aware of the demons though, so you have heard the rumors,” the captain said. “You know that they are monsters that do not grant XP from the system when killed, nor would you receive a kill notification after dispatching them.”

“Right, that’s what we heard,” Luke said. “Haven’t seen anything like that in person.”

“Then perhaps you are aware that demons are particularly difficult to hunt down, because we are not able to sense their power.”

“Ah shit,” Zea said softly.

“Tell me, strange travelers,” the captain said, his hand going to his sword. “Why can I not sense power from either of you?”