A Soldier's Life - 407 - Crimson

Chapter 407: Seeing Crimson

The early morning sun was peaking through the windows. I ordered breakfast for everyone, and a large spread was ready as they came down one at a time. The food was still plentiful, and it was months before the harvest, but if the dungeons didn’t regain control soon, there might be an issue. When the Telhian Empire was ravaged by magical weather, it was the people who suffered.  Since everyone was crowded into cities, the flocks, herds, and fields were unattended. I imagined the influx of creatures from the Endless Dark and dungeons would decimate the herds, and these people would suffer too.

Evie’s appetite was still monstrous, and she seemed to be competing with Benito to see who could eat more. It was not a fight she could win, but she put in a valiant effort. Watching her eat, I decided that after Evie consumed all the essences, we would check her progress on the reader.

“Are we leaving today?” Benito asked with a full mouth. He swallowed and asked the question again, thinking he had not been heard.

“We will saddle the horses and head to the gates at noon, but will only travel if the roads are safe. That will give us plenty of time to get to the next large town before nightfall,” I explained. “This morning, get what supplies you need. Blaze, see if you can turn in the vouchers Kyrenic gave us for our bounties.”

“I don’t think there is an adventurer hall here,” he said doubtfully.

“Take Lesna, and check anyway. Benito, you can come with me and Evie to resupply my food stores.” My group was soon moving from stall to stall in the crowded streets, gathering as much fresh produce and prepared food as possible. The only apples I found were bruised, but Ginger shouldn’t be picky. The cost was already starting to rise, and the scarcity would likely increase soon.

Benito and Evie both had ideas on what tasted good. Benito liked sweet and spicy, while Evie preferred sweet and savory. We focused on buying from the street vendors to get hot, fresh food. They were busy this morning with the influx of people to the large town, and I added our purchases to my space as inconspicuously as possible. If anything, we got a good variety of the local cuisine.

We found makeshift camps along the walls, and by the odor in the air, it was clear that sanitation was quickly deteriorating. When we circled back to our inn, we checked on the horses before finding Blaze and Lesna.

Blaze nodded as we returned, “One of the captains honored the vouchers, but the kills will not be credited toward our guild medallions.” He patted his purse. I nodded as I didn’t need the acclaim from the guild, and Blaze would use the coin to pay expenses for everyone.

“Saddle the horses and meet me at the gate,” I decided as I started walking. If things were too dangerous, we would ride the horses outside the city for some exercise before returning. We still had our rooms for three more nights. I quickly found the exhausted captain at the gatehouse. It looked like he had not slept since we talked yesterday. He was not the captain who had paid for the vouchers, but he recognized me with a nod and smile.

With a friendly smile, I asked about dangers on the road. “I wanted to ask about the safety of the roads? Particularly the road to Donianos.”

“We still have arrivals from that way,” he said helpfully. “The problem is that more and more soldiers are being pulled east. I have been asked to send thirty men in the morning.”

“Any encounters on the road?” I questioned.

“A dire boar yesterday. Big as a horse from accounts,” he said after some thought. “Gored a cow and dragged it into the woods.” Dire creatures were saturated with aether, and it made them larger, stronger, and faster. A side effect was that their eyes glowed a shade of red.

“Are dire creatures normal around here?” I asked seriously.

“Rare. Maybe a dozen in a year, but this one appeared to have been displaced. Boars are territorial, and this one was claiming new territory, according to the hunter who tracked it. After seeing the beast, he left it alone,” The captain relayed.

“Thank you. I believe those are my companions coming. We are leaving today to make it to the town halfway to Donianos,” I said, offering my hand.

“Donia is the town, and the boar was seen just north of it,” he warned. We shook hands, and soon I was on the road with my companions.

A short distance into our ride, I told my companions of the danger. “A dire creature, a boar, was spotted on the road. There was only one, so if it shows itself, let me handle it. It will be highly aggressive and likely attempt to gore your horse.” I made sure everyone was clear of the plan before we continued.

The sky had dark rain clouds overhead for much of the afternoon, but no rain fell as we moved along the road. The air had a chill in it, even though it should have been hot with decent humidity. Not just the weather, but everything just felt off on the ride. Fifty or so soldiers marched past us, likely gathering in Kryna to head east toward the growing threat from the Endless Dark. I was happy our destination was taking us northwest after the center of the disturbance.

Although we remained alert and tense throughout the ride, doing our best to stay safe, we didn’t encounter any threats. In fact, I don’t think I saw a single living creature the whole ride—not even a bird. Maybe they were smarter than we were and hiding.

The farms were still abandoned along the trade road, but as we approached the city, some fields had farmers in them with soldiers nearby. The walls of Donia were a welcome sight. The gates were closed as we approached, but slowly swung inward on our approach. We were not even questioned as we were allowed to pass within. Just like Kryna, Donia was serving as a refugee site from the surge of dungeon monsters.

Lesna was able to speak with a sergeant at the gates, and I communicated through her to learn that the dire boar had not been seen in over half a day, and this large town had not faced any kind of attack since the dungeon exodus. The crowded, modest town was unlikely to have any rooms available. Once we confirmed this, we secured a loft in a stable against the town’s wooden walls for a few silver. It was going to be an uncomfortable night for us as we dined from my dimensional space in the musty stables with the horses below. Ginger did not look impressed with the bruised apple, but the fussy mare did eat it. “I have spoiled you too much,” I said, rubbing her neck.

After a substantial dinner, an exhausted Evie asked for an essence. “Should I take another essence? Should I start working on a new spell form?”

I could tell she wanted me to guide her, but I was not the best person to mentor her. “I handed her the strength essence. “Take this and then work on your aether shaping with Lesna before going to sleep. We will wait on any new spell forms until after we investigate the Death Hunters.”

Evie gratefully took the sphere, studying for a few moments before placing it in her mouth. Immediately after consuming it, she sheepishly asked for a second dinner. I gave her some grilled, skewered chicken spaced with onion balls on a stick. Once everyone was settled in, I took two more essences myself: the minor aether pool and energy essences. I could get used to this rush before going to sleep every night. I curled up in the corner, planning a short nap and then spending most of the night awake. Soon, the people of the city would start to realize the trouble they were in, and I just hoped it was not tonight.

It was fortunate that we were in the barn, as a few hours before dawn, some men entered and attempted to steal our horses. Ginger was getting antsy and riling up the other mounts when the intruders entered. I kicked Benito awake, and he roused the others silently. As we stirred in the loft, the three thieves noticed us and fled. This signaled that we would be leaving for Donianos in the morning, no matter what. Perhaps we would even make a push for Cydonti, about twenty-two miles further. According to my maps, Cydonti was one of the major cities in the Kingdom of Gorgiphia. It was located on the largest trade road running east to west, and should be the western boundary of the disturbance.

I stayed awake and let everyone get a few hours of rest before rousing them to leave. We were out of the Donia’s gates just after sunrise. A few farmers, accompanied by soldiers, departed with us for their nearby fields. At least the soldier’s commander was smart enough to ensure the nearby fields were attended to.

We were soon on the road alone with Benito at the front and Lesna assisting Evie with her magic in the middle. Blaze and I rode at the back, each scanning one side of the road. Large swaths of overturned earth were not far off the road on my side in a field, and I warned my companions. “Boar-sign. Tighten up, and Benito, switch with me.”

“I don’t see a boar,” Lesna said, perplexed.

“The overturned earth,” I indicated. “Boars use their tusks to dig, and this one was raiding the beet field.” I swung off of Ginger and went to the front to lead her while everyone else rode close together behind me. Maybe I was being slightly greedy, but a large dire boar should yield at least a major essence.

Lesna saw it first, pointing and exclaiming at the woodline beyond the field. “I see it! It doesn’t look that monstrous.”

The spyglass was in my hand as I looked, and it was a normal boar—likely a fat sow, as I could see piglets scrounging at her feet. “It’s not the dire boar,” I said, disappointed. I soon spotted a second female, although large, it was also a normal beast.

“To the right. Deeper in the woods,” Blaze said anxiously. It took a moment to find it in the spyglass, but a large boar was studying us. Its eyes looked crimson and wild at this distance, and I couldn’t tell if it was a dire boar or something else. Even in the Shimmering Labyrinth, the dire creatures’ eyes had a luminescent quality in bright light. There were a few diseases Hearne warned us about that caused the eyes to fill with blood, but they all tended to obscure the vision, and this beast was intent on us.

Another factor in my uncertainty was that dire beasts attacked recklessly, while this giant boar was holding back. Perhaps it was our distance of about half a mile that was keeping it at bay, or maybe it was protecting the sows and piglets. It was as large as the guard captain had said, with its shoulders likely exceeding Ginger's. I turned to hand Ginger’s reins to Blaze. “Wait here, and ride if things go sideways.” Blaze snickered, indicating he would do no such thing as he readied his bow.

The boars had turned over the field, and my earth pulse didn’t return any threats as I walked and drew magebane. Ginger whinnied unhappily behind me, but there was no need to put her at risk. Both sows had stopped foraging and were now studying my approach. Halfway across the field, the male finally exited the woods to confront me. He had glossy crimson orbs for eyes, and it was a little disturbing.

From his control, I thought he would scatter with the sows and piglets, but he held his ground. He let out short growling grunts and then charged when I didn’t stop my steady walk toward him. The earth churned under his feet, and the earth thudded under my feet from his immense mass. I stepped onto an air disc to take his charge as the soft ground would make it difficult to push off when we clashed.

When the charging boar reached me, I jumped off the air shield, stepping on a second to give myself plenty of height as the boar passed underneath me. I did a flip in the air so I could keep my eyes on the boar as my aether pool bottomed out. The creature had modest resistance, but not enough. I hadn’t thought the landing through completely, as I probably reached ten or more feet in height. My right boot sank a foot into the soft earth, and I wrenched my knee as my momentum was going the wrong way. The boar crashed and skidded to a stop deep in the soil, and I checked on the sows, but they had already fled.

“Stop!” I yelled at my companions. “The fields are too soft for the horses.”

Freeing my leg was rather difficult as the spot I had landed was both soft and muddy. I realized I had definitely torn something, and I was determined not to try acrobatics in a fight again. It only looked cool if you didn’t die afterward. My boot was actually pulled off as I extracted my injured leg and I had to dig it out of the earth.

“Are you going to harvest the boar?” Blaze yelled back, and I knew he wasn’t talking about the essence. I just waved him off, not looking forward to getting bloodied. I healed my knee when I recovered enough aether before approaching the boar with the collector. It had been a precise extraction, and the beast was still breathing labored breaths, but I had removed a large block of its spine and it was immobilized. Perhaps this was a cruel way to kill the beast, but living creatures usually gave better essences.

Coming around to the front of the boar, its eyes were alert but completely crimson—and still no glow. It wheezed fetid breath, and I imagined it tracking me with its pupilless eyes. I rested the collector over the bloody void in its neck and activated it. The beast shuddered as the thick blue essence was pulled from it. Its jaw and yellowed teeth snapped loudly, but there was nothing it could do to stop the inevitable.

The apex essence that formed didn’t make any sense, and made me hesitant to harvest any meat from the creature. The sphere was a swirling crimson pool. A lesser essence appeared in my other hand, matching the interior of this sphere. The beast exhaled its last breath, leaving me confused. The creature hadn’t demonstrated any magical ability, yet it yielded an apex abyssal essence.

I backed up apprehensively, as the recent appearance of this creature likely coincided with the ley line surge, but how they were connected eluded me. If this was not an actual boar, why was it guarding the sows and piglets? Should I hunt down the piglets to make sure they were not some type of abomination?

I shook my head at that; it was unlikely since the surge had only happened a week ago, and those piglets were a few weeks old. Also, this wasn’t my problem. I started to walk back toward the road. Benito yelled, “You forgot the bacon!”

“Beast is diseased,” I yelled back to their disappointment. I wasn’t sure that was true, but the abyssal essence it yielded disturbed me. Ginger nudged me hard as I took her reins, and I patted her neck after swinging into the saddle. “Let's pick up our pace,” I said distractedly. Something was definitely not right with the world.

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