noveltune Chapter 116: Pursuit
Chapter 116: Pursuit
Chapter 116: Pursuit
I started to walk with Konstantin when Zyna halted me, “Eryk, good job protecting me. Castile suggested I give you one of these as a reward.” She placed an essence in my hand, “Don’t get yourself killed,” she smiled and returned to talk with Castile, Delmar, and Adrian.
Konstantin walked beside me as we entered the woods. Flavius was already ahead of us to the left. When everyone was out of earshot, Konstantin asked, “You know I serve a Praetorian Guard?”
I cautiously replied, “I do.”
“She has tasked me with keeping an eye out for potential, and you have drawn her attention,” he said to silence. “It would mean spending a few years in the Hounds as preparation. I will tell her you declined her offer.” I did not reply. Konstantin added, “It is what I would have advised you anyway. No matter how appealing they make it sound, it is a life service. If she asks you personally, tell her I asked you and offered you ten thousand gold for ten years of service, but you still declined.”
I laughed internally, then aloud, “Ten thousand gold does not do you much good if you are dead.”
Konstantin smirked, “I keep telling people you are not as dumb as you act. Now, tracking the hill giants to where they were summoned should not be too difficult.” How did I ever act dumb?
It was easy to follow the broken branches and large footprints pressed into the earth. The two giants were summoned to the north. As we moved, Konstantin constantly reminded me to move in stealth—using bushes and trees for cover. It caused me to move slower, and Flavius also slowed his pace so as not to get too far ahead. My training with Maveith significantly improved my ability to move stealthily. Konstantin even noted my improvement with a grunt.
The path was well-marked as we moved further and further from the company. After about five miles, Flavius came back to us to confer, “The ritual summoning circle is just ahead. I do not think the summoner is still there, but there is a cave.”
Flavius had deferred to Konstantin, who gave it some thought. “I will explore the cave. You two find cover and stay close.” Flavius did not argue and moved off.
The summoning circle was large, almost fifty feet across, and was charred into the flattened grass. It looked like the summoner had fed the hill giants after summoning them to contract them. The grass was stained red, with a deer head and giant elk antlers within the circle. The cave that Flavius found was just fifty yards away. I took cover behind a boulder. The woods were to my back, as well as a quiet stream. I figured a splash would alert me if something came at me from behind.
Konstantin moved along the rock face to the cave and waited for a long time, listening outside the cave before entering. After a few moments, the cave lit up from a glowstone. Konstantin waved us over, and we moved inside. The cave was only twenty feet in depth and fairly small. A fire pit was in the center, and Flavius dug in it with his hand. He sighed, “Been out at least half a day. We should head back and let the mages know.”
Konstantin shook his head. “We will find the tracks and follow them. The summoner should be exhausted after summoning those two brutes. He is vulnerable, as I killed his two hounds. We can catch and take him out if we are fast enough.”
There was some tension in the air. Finally, Flavius caved, “I have a flare. I can signal Master Mage Sebastian.”
“A flare?” Konstantin said with amusement evident. I sensed something between them, and maybe it had to do with Sebastian. “Use it. We will continue tracking the summoner.”
We went to the clearing with the summoning circle, and Flavius fired off the flare. It was not gunpowder but some other alchemical concoction. A tail of blue fire propelled it in the air, bursting into a bright green star—without any sound. “Wait here for the drakes,” Konstantin said as he waved me to follow.
When we got to the edge of the clearing, Konstantin slowed. “Why are we leaving Flavius behind?” I asked, concerned.
“We are not. We are searching for tracks leading away from here. We will circle wide and hopefully find something. Most elves have a fair amount of woodsman training, but we should come up with something,” Konstantin studied the ground as we moved. He paused near the stream. It was wide and had soft sandy soil along the edges. Even I could see the tracks, but that meant nothing, as they could have just been getting water here.
Konstantin studied the tracks for a long while before announcing, “They left through the stream. Either up or downstream. I don’t know. Down is the hill giants' direction, so I am assuming upstream. You take that side, and I will take this side.”Vissit for updates
I was about to take a step and paused. Something was tickling my mind—something I had seen or done. I looked up and scanned the trees. They wouldn’t have been dumb enough to climb a tree? I split my vision from the ground to the trees. There! On a massive tree, its trunk over six feet in diameter, there was a thick branch about twenty feet off the ground. Two figures lay prone on it, covered in brown cloaks.
If only one had been, I would have overlooked it, but two brown lumps were very suspicious. A bow twang to my left made me know Konstantin was fighting something—more elves? Flavius’ bow sounded as well. I looked up to see an enormous spider rapidly repelling toward me.
I slashed and rolled away, using the rebound from my strike to gain distance. The crunch on my blade told me I had removed a leg, but a second spider was also coming for me. I created an air shield over my head to prevent the attack and backed away. I had a trio of dog-sized spiders on the ground, advancing in unison now. One walked awkwardly from the missing limb.
The two brown lumps suddenly leaped off the branch to the ground, rolling as they landed. One of the spiders coiled, drawing my attention. As it leaped at me, I barely had time to establish my air shield. It crunched into the shield and fell to the ground, stunned. I lunged and stabbed its abdomen before retreating further and making sure I did not have any more visitors from above.
“They are poisonous!” Flavius yelled a warning from my right. I grunted; of course they were.
My eyes darted from the spiders to the canopy to the two elves running away. Maybe they would have stopped to fight us if they knew we were only three. Blue ooze leaked from the spider I had stabbed, and it was struggling to move, slowly dying. A second spider leaped, but I was ready with an air shield and hacked its carapace, cracking it and taking two legs with it. My last opponent was the injured spider, which could not do its leap attack with the missing limb.
I pressed forward and stabbed it in the mandibles. One of its legs stabbed me through the thigh. I had not expected the quick attack, and the pain flared. I hacked the leg off and fell on my ass, cursing. I worked the spear-like spider leg out of my thigh, blood oozing with the removal. I applied my spell form to heal the injury and muscle while staying alert. I could hear Konstantin fighting, but it was quiet from Flavius’s direction.
With my leg mostly healed, I ran to help Konstantin. He was hacking into the last of his spiders—four in total. Two had arrows in them. I declared, “I saw the elf pair. They were wearing brown cloaks. They ran when the spiders attacked.”
Konstantin nodded and kicked the spider, “Summoned creatures. At least no variety of spiders I have seen before.” He looked around, “Are you okay,” he indicated the blood on my pants. “Is Flavius alive?”
“Just a scratch, used a salve I had purchased in the capital.” I ignored his focus on my leg and looked back to where Flavius had been fighting, “It was quiet on his side, so I came to help you first,” I responded.
Konstantin nodded appreciatively and retrieved his bow. We both raced to check on Flavius. Flavius was leaning against a log and breathing heavily. A pair of spider fangs was lodged in his vambraces. I counted four dead spiders around him. I had received the lucky draw with just three spiders.
Flavius looked up with glassy eyes, “Some disorientation poison. I can’t stand without falling over.”
Konstantin asked, “Can you hear me fine, or is it muffled?”
“Muffled,” Flavius huffed.
“Most likely seasickness poison. Probably jungle canopy spiders. You should live. You will lose your hearing in a few minutes and may bleed out your ears, but you will live, and it is healable,” Konstantin informed the scout.
Konstantin stood and looked in the direction of the fleeing summoners. “Ok, Eryk, it is just me and you then. Let’s go.” He started after them, and I hesitated for a heartbeat before joining him.
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