Chapter 94: The silent slaughter (1)
The path to the lake was a narrow ribbon of dirt choked by aggressive undergrowth. Reidar’s primal pack wolf moved with a ground-eating lope.
Aaron and Mara followed on Reidar’s other Pack members.
They could smell the scent of the lake from there already, and as the scent of the lake grew thicker, the more they got closer. Reidar’s wolf slowed its pace.
"Smells like rust and decomposition," Mara said. "Nothing like it used to be."
Aaron nodded. "Greenwater Dam was finished in 2008. The river was tamed to power three towns, which it did for almost three decades. Now it’s just a monster-filled basin. The turbines have gone quiet. No power, no irrigation, just a big, still pond for whatever wants to hunt us."
For a while, the only sounds were their mounts’ paws crunching on the path, a monster’s distant cry, and the low hum of the forest. Reidar hadn’t summoned his Spectral Knights yet, but he was eager to see how they fared.
Then he broke the silence. "Mara, Martin told me you were a nurse before all this. It must be hard to see so many people hurt, day after day."
Of course, she was used to it since she was a nurse.
Mara looked back, her face tired but honest. "It is," she said. "The physical stuff is the simple part. The System helps with that. A bad cut that used to take weeks now closes in minutes with the right skill." She let out a heavy sigh.
"But I can’t fix the tiredness; I can’t regrow limbs yet. I can heal a dozen wounds, but I can’t do anything about the look in their eyes when Martin sends them back to the walls before they’re ready."
She sighed. "Thank you for letting us come, Reidar. I know we’re not... what you expected for a mission like this, but this was our best chance to level out safely and get some survival points. By leveling me and Aaron up, things will get easier for us and better for Havenwood."
Reidar glanced at her from his mount. "Don’t worry. It’s just that it is quite dangerous for you here."
A weary smile touched her lips. "It’s not a problem. I had to level up anyway. The injuries are getting worse, and this means I need better skills, but they require a level I do not have. Hence why I’m here."
Aaron placed a hand on her shoulder for a moment. "She’s not exaggerating. The infirmary is a revolving door of pain."
"Martin doesn’t see it," Mara said, "He only sees the numbers, how many monsters they killed. He doesn’t see what it does to people." She sighed. "I’ve treated folks who jump at shadows now, who wake up screaming in the night. We’re not just fighting monsters out there, we’re fighting the despair they bring."
Reidar listened, saying nothing. It was clear that the problems Martin was facing weren’t just related to the church but were also internal. Aaron and Mara’s slandering him were proof of this.
Aside from that, Aaron was clearly working with someone else. All those survival points couldn’t be the result of a level 29 engineer hunting, and it was unlikely the others could’ve lent him the points, as it was simply too much.
<What I don’t understand if he thinks I haven’t realized this.>
Regardless, what Aaron and Mara were accusing Martin of was slithgly out of character. Martin was a liar, but he didn’t struck Reidar as someone who would not care about his citizens.
He actually begged him to help with this last quest, and also pooled a lot of resources into the quest rewards just to entice him in taking it.
Besides, he didn’t look like someone who would hoard resources. At worst he used them for something important.
<Maybe Aaron and Mara are saying the truth, but it doesn’t make a difference at this point.>
<The factions are clearly trying to get on my good side. too bad I’m going to leave after this.>
A flicker of movement then caught Reidar’s eye. It was just a shift in the shadows between two big redwoods. it was there for a moment, and gone the following second.
<We are not alone...>
Reidar didn’t react outwardly, keeping his posture relaxed on the wolf. But internally, every sense went on high alert.
He nudged his mount to slow its pace, allowing the distance between him and his two companions to increase and giving him a better angle to observe the trail behind them without being obvious.
A few minutes later, he saw it again. They were humans, and there were multiple ones of them, clad in drab, forest-colored cloth, darting from one tree to another.
<I knew they would act. What I need to find out its just if Aaron, and Mara, at this point, are connected to them.>
It could have also been these guys had been sent by Martin like Aaron claimed, or by the church, which in that case would have made Mara and Aaron accomplices.
Despite his scheming, Reidar was also appreciating these guys’skills. They were good. They were too fast for him to see them, because of his low F.L.A.I.R. but he caught some of them from time to time. Mara and Aaron were engrossed in their conversation and didn’t notice a thing.
<For sure, they are going to attack. If they are from the church, they would like to avoid the quest being completed and Martin getting the token. If they are from Martin, it would be because they think I’m a spy. If it’s a third party... well, it won’t make a difference.>
He couldn’t confront them directly because of Aaron and Mara. But he couldn’t let them follow him to the lake either, as that would be dangerous. He needed a solution that was quiet, efficient, and didn’t require him to break stride.
An idea formed. He reached out with his mind, not to the Primal Pack or the Bone Militia, but to his Rift-Sprite Contubernium.
The Rift-sprites stepped through the portals.
"What are you doing?" Aaron asked.
"I’m sending the sprites to scout ahead," he said, loud enough for everyone—even whoever was tailing them—to hear. Of course, Reidar gave the contubernium the Summon Primal Pack, Guardian Shade, and Bone Militia skills.
He was unleashing the hounds.
The scouts left, and once they were far away, they summoned the creatures. A hundred bone militia appeared, followed by 30 wolves and 10 Guardian shades.
Reidar, meanwhile, kept his expression neutral, engaging Mara in a question about her healing skills to maintain the facade of normality. Reidar then started a random conversation with them.
In the meantime, chaos broke out behind them. A man stepping out from behind an oak got instantly electrocuted. There wasn’t even time to shout.
Another guy, crouched in some bushes, got bisected by a wind blade. A third took a fireball straight to the face, the heat so intense it burned away any chance of a scream.
There was no grand battle, no clash of steel. It was a swift, brutal ambush. The Rift-Sprites, acting on Reidar’s command, started battling these people.
Then, the notifications started pouring in.
[Enemy human defeated.]
[Enemy human defeated.]
[Enemy human defeated.]
[Enemy human defeated.]
[Enemy human defeated.]
[Enemy human defeated.]