V2Ch54-Retaliation

As James approached the Rodriguez camp, his triumphant strut faltered slightly.

He had been bracing himself for a hero’s welcome, but as the camp came into his hearing range—far greater than sight range in the swamp miasma—he heard discomfiting sounds. Weeping. In the area of the Rodriguez camp, a handful of people were quietly wailing and crying.

“I’m going on ahead!” James barked at those around him. Then he bolted forward at a speed no one else could equal, simply running through any brush or trees that stood in his way. He felt the presence of the wolves trailing behind him, trying to match his speed. They easily outpaced the walking humans, many of them still nursing wounds.

Remember, don’t get too close to these humans until I’ve had time to get them used to the idea that you and they are allies now, James sent. We don’t want any unnecessary fighting. The real enemy is still out there somewhere.

Yes, my King, Luna replied instantly. We will have revenge on those treacherous abominations!

He heard her barking out a few quiet orders, directing the pack’s movements more precisely in keeping with his general orders. He made a brief, satisfied smile. The wolf pack was going to end up being one of his greatest assets, he could already tell.

Then James rushed into the perimeter of the Rodriguez camp.

The first bad sign besides the sounds of weeping was that no one intercepted him. He hadn’t tried to be stealthy, since he was rejoining an allied group. But no sentries responded to his crashing, tree branch destroying, arrival.

Then James spotted Moishe rushing toward him. From the sounds of human movement and breathing, he gathered that everyone else was in their tents. But his mental headcount of the camp felt very lopsided with what he remembered.

There are only about half of them still here! he noted with some alarm.

Moishe reached him and began speaking breathlessly.

“James, I’m sorry, I couldn’t protect them. You weren’t even gone a full day, I—”

“Moishe, just tell me what happened. Do you know if the missing people are dead or alive? Was it the Ghouls again?”

“I don’t know, James.” Moishe looked terribly guilt stricken. “They carried everyone off. I don’t think they were trying to kill them. They used a lot of nonlethal blows. Yes, it was the Ghouls.”

“Then they’re hoping to make more of their own kind,” James said. “Taking them to their master.”

James had gathered a fair amount about the Ghouls from Luna on the way here. How they had deceitfully abandoned their allies to fight alone. He had thought it was because they simply knew a losing battle when they saw it, but now he understood. They wanted to replenish their numbers.

Moishe’s face took on an expression of horror. “What can I do?” he asked.

“Stay here,” James said. “Protect the remaining members of the group. We don’t know if they’ll try and come back again. I—”

He broke off and looked away from Moishe. Suddenly, there were people approaching from the tents. A dozen of them. They walked as if half-asleep. It took him a moment to identify the emotions their faces showed. It was a sad mixture. They were stricken with grief, and they looked at him through eyes filled with desperate hope. A few had clearly just been crying.

“James, thank God you’re here!” cried Karla Rodriguez. “Please, you have to save my husband!”

That opened the floodgates. The approaching people began excitedly talking over each other.

“You have to help—”

“The Ghouls came and—”

A few more people emerged from the tents, including Alan. He wore an expression of intense anguish and guilt.

James raised a hand, palm faced outward, for silence. The talk came to an abrupt stop instantly. “I’m going to go out and rescue anyone I can,” James said. “I’m going to get the details from Moishe, who saw everything happen. The rest of the group is coming back, behind me.” He gestured a thumb into the miasma the fighters were still curtained behind. “If there’s anything anyone needs to tell me that Moishe wouldn’t know, could you please raise your hand? That way, we won’t talk over each other.”

A hand immediately went up from the back.

“Yes, Alan,” James said, resisting the urge to smile. It was painful to him to see Alan in pain, but there was something comical about seeing someone so much older than him raise his hand. Even though James had asked for it, it still looked a little silly.

“Sierra was one of those captured, so it seems important that you know this. She has a Skill that was able to hurt the Ghouls. Her Purification killed a couple of them in one shot. They knocked her out, but if you find them, you might want to release her first. She could probably do a lot of damage.”

Just like a video game, James thought. Where healing hurts zombies.

“You don’t have that Skill yourself, right, Alan?” James asked.

He shook his head.

“Thank you for speaking up. Anyone else?”

Camila raised her hand. James saw she was leaning heavily on her staff, using it like a makeshift crutch. We need more Healers. If the injured were more fully healed, I wonder if the Ghouls would have been able to carry off so many people.

“What about the wolves?” she asked in a low voice. She made a broad gesture at the outskirts of camp, where James’s wolf pack was gathered.

“I’m glad you asked,” he said. We had to discuss this eventually. Better to get it over sooner rather than later. “I defeated the leader of the wolves, and he gave me control over his pack with his dying breath. They’re going to follow me now. They’ve agreed not to go after humans unless they’re humans we decide are a threat, so no one needs to worry about them. And now the rest of the wolves are going to help me recover our lost friends and family members.”

“Well, if you say so,” Camila said in a soft, slightly tremulous voice.

“I won’t let any harm befall you,” James replied gently, looking into her eyes.

The old woman smiled, and James mirrored her expression.

“Any other questions?” he asked. “I’m getting out of here as soon as I can. I have to catch up to the Ghouls, before they have time to corrupt the people we care about.”

“Take me with you!” Alan burst out.

There was another torrent of similar comments from people whose friends or family had been taken by the Ghouls.

I guess Alan is taking it quite personally that Sierra went missing, James thought. Either that, or he’s grown very close to some members of the family. Maybe both. But why would he think it’s a good idea for him to go? He has to know he’s slower and weaker than any of these Ghouls. If I’m waiting for people to catch up to me, I’ll never be able to get to where the monsters are.

James raised his voice to be heard over the gathering. “I’m only taking the physically fittest people who can best keep up with me and the wolf pack! If you can’t keep up with us, we need you to stay here and wait. Otherwise, we won’t be able to catch the enemy!”

The crowd quieted from a low roar to the level of disappointed murmurs. Alan said nothing, but he looked particularly dispirited.

“That means I can go, right James?” asked Moishe a bit too eagerly from his side.

Another person who wants to avenge a perceived loss of honor? James wondered. That wasn’t to say Moishe would be anything less than useful, though.

“Well—”

“There he is!” interjected Cliff. James half-turned his head and saw Cliff and Damien walking out of the fog. He could sense the presence of the rest of the group close behind them.

Cliff stepped into close range with James and clapped an arm around him. “We made it back, gang! Three cheers for—” Cliff finally took in the mood of the camp. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Ghouls came and carried people off,” James explained in a hushed tone. “We have to go on a rescue mission.”

“Well, count me in, sir!” Cliff whispered back intensely.

I can’t trust Cliff at all, James thought. Sure, his Stats are probably high enough to keep up with the wolf pack, since he’s been doing more hunting than anyone else but me. But I can’t trust him. So he’s the absolute worst person to bring on a mission where there will only be a skeleton crew around me.

He thought back to when he had visited Cliff’s dream, what felt like weeks ago. That place full of mist and snakes and wandering naked humans. In the time since he’d gained the power to enter people’s dreams, he’d never seen one so ominous. He could betray us at any moment.

His mind took a turn into the machiavellian. Then again, maybe that’s a good reason to keep him close. On a mission with a skeleton crew like this, anything could happen…

“Naturally, I’ll want to accompany you as well,” Damien said. “Now that we’ve avenged ourselves on the Wolf King, the natural next step is retaliation against the Ghouls, right?” His lips curled into a wolfish grin.

“I don’t think you should all come with me,” James said quietly. “My thinking is that Cliff and Damien should be the ones to go.” He turned to Moishe. “We need at least one strong person to stay with the camp, in case we do get attacked by another enemy.” Moishe opened his mouth to object, but James quickly leaned in to speak directly into his ear.

“You’re the only one I can trust to lead both the Rodriguezes and the prisoners,” he whispered. “Both groups like and respect you. Trust me. I’ll bring back our friends if they’re still alive.”

Moishe swallowed hard. “Yeah. Okay. I trust you completely,” he said. He seemed to convince himself of the words as he spoke them. Finally, he nodded, half to himself, and his expression visibly relaxed.

There’s that taken care of, James thought.

He sent a telepathic message to the wolf pack. Can you all track the Ghouls’ scent? he asked.

The answer came immediately and unanimously from over a dozen wolves. Yes, my King.

We could track the scent of their corruption and decay anywhere, Luna elaborated. No one can outrun their own smell. We will bring you back their dismembered bodies, if you wish.

I’m going with you, so don’t set out yet, he replied. And I want half of you to stay behind and protect the camp. I don’t want any more sneak attacks carrying people off. Luna, please work out who stays behind. And if any of those who stay back get a whiff of a Ghoul nearby, I want to know about it immediately.

As you wish, Luna said. There was chatter between her and the other wolves through the telepathic link, but James largely ignored it. The details weren’t important to him right now. He’d learn more about how each individual wolf fit into the pack later.

I love the eagerness, he thought. They can’t wait to rip into those Ghouls. Although I suspect that if I sent them out without me, with only one Command Forest Wolf left alive, and without the Wolf King, I would end up with a pile of dismembered wolves instead of dismembered Ghouls.

“We set out immediately if you’re both ready,” James said aloud. “The wolves are able to track the Ghouls’ scent and guide us.”

“Uh, right-o, chief,” Cliff said.

Damien just nodded.

The trio walked to the edge of the camp and rendezvoused with the wolf pack.

From there, James ordered the wolves into a tight formation that would make it harder for them to lose members in the thick swamp fog.

The pack caught the scent of the Ghouls, and they began the pursuit at a run.

James proved correct that all three humans were capable of keeping pace with the wolves. Damien, of course, could have transformed into his Werewolf form, but it wasn’t necessary. Cliff, despite his sixty-something years of age, had acquired an Agility and Stamina in the forest that was impossible for a man of his age in normal life.

Orientation has been very good to him, James thought. It’s a pity he’s untrustworthy.

Over the next several hours, they penetrated deeper and deeper into the dense swamp, doing their best to ignore the fetid swamp fog that seemed to grow thicker in front of them wherever they turned. It was obvious the location was hostile to their presence. James hoped the Mana that permeated the fog didn’t allow the enemy to pinpoint their position, though he had every reason to expect that it would.

It doesn’t matter, he thought. Even if they can set a trap for us, there’s nothing in this place I can’t destroy. Hadn’t he managed to destroy even Rostov’s fiery final form? How could he lose to an enemy who had been unwilling to even show his face thus far? Based on the wolves’ intelligence, this Soul Eater seemed cowardly.

Still, every half hour, at James’s request, Luna gave him a head count of the twenty-five wolves they’d brought with them, just to make sure they were not being quietly picked off.

If I thought I was outmatched, I would try guerrilla warfare. But it seemed the enemy hadn’t come up with the same plan that James would have.

Eventually, the daylight began to fade. As night began to fall, James’s companions started to show some signs of fatigue.

“Are we gonna stop?” Cliff asked, obviously breathless and sweating heavily.

“I’m impressed you could keep up this long,” Damien replied, also slightly short of breath, but with only a few beads of sweat on his brow.

“We can take a break,” James said, breathing normally through his nose, his face bone dry. “I’ll check in with the wolf pack and see if we’re getting close to where the Ghouls went.”

He took several strides forward, toward the guard of wolves around them, while Cliff and Damien tried to relax without sitting on the swampy ground.

Are we any closer to the Ghouls? James sent. Do we know how far away we still have to go? The pack’s forward-positioned scouts were still just out of sight range, but when James reached out with his mind, he could feel their presence ahead of him.

Yes, we sense that they’re very close, King, one of the scouts responded.

I need to talk to Luna about this naming thing, James thought. Am I a higher level organism that could name them? Thinking of them as individuals is harder without names.

He was about to ask how much longer they would need to run at their present pace to reach more wolves, when he felt, rather than saw, the lights in the sky.

The will o’ the wisps appeared, and they exerted a psychic pull on everyone who saw them. James felt their influence through the pack members.

The lights, several wolves thought. Everything we want, if we just walk towards the lights…