Chapter 26: Wolf hunt

Alex wondered through the fortress city, pondering what to do.

Alex ducked and weaved his way pasts crowds of people, eventually coming to a small fountain, surrounded by many small stalls selling various wares, some so bizarre and esoteric in their usage, Alex wondered how the stalls made any money.

Though, this could be a good place to set up shop when he had things to sell.

As for now, he spotted a group of hunters getting ready to head out of the city, or, at least that was what Alex assumed, due to their full quivers and highly polished equipment, probably newbies as well, their gear wasn't up to much. He saw a replica of a sword belonging to who he assumed to be the leader of the group going for thirty silver at a nearby store, the rest of the group wasn't any better in terms of gear.

Alex decided to sit on a small wall bordering the entire square, observing the group the entire time, while pvp was not something he really did often, he still had to make sure that they didn't go to hunt his subjects, best to make a few newbies disappear and give the place some bad rumours, while making sure the local guard had no real reason to get involved.

The first member, and who Alex assumed was the leader, was a young man, probably barely scrapping eighteen, he was human, Alex was sure of that, but he seemed to have pure scarlet hair that made him stick out like a sore thumb, he was probably a player, that hair colour could not be natural. The man wore simplistic leather armour that consisted of a pair of studded bracers, and a leather chest protector, that covered his rib cage, defending his lungs and heart, but left his stomach and anything below unprotected.

The second member was a girl, roughly the same age as the young man, though her pointed ears told Alex she was some kind of elf, so who new how old she actually was, every one of these fantasy had a different of how long elves lived for. As for how she looked, she had long, flowing locks of curly blond hair, and exceedingly pale skin, to the point where Alex worried for her health, whether she was a player or not, it was hard for Alex to tell. She wore a similar armour to the man, maybe it was the cheapest set on offer, but she firmly held a bow, with a quiver of arrows slung around her back, in stark contrast to the heavy iron sword the man was wielding.

The third member was a slightly more burly figure than the the rest, with much broader shoulders, but that may have had something to do with the thick layer of rock covering the mans skin, ensuring it impossible for hair to sprout out of his head, making Alex question how he even moved, his joints must not have been as well protected. His equipment was a lot heavy, but also a lot more slapdash then the rest, as if he had just stuck some metal plates to himself and called it a day, he had no weapons to speak of, but he did carry a massive slab of metal, which Alex assumed was meant to be a shield.

The last member of the group was a young woman with dark blue hair, definitely a player, who wore priestly robes and carried around a metal pole, she was a human, just like the man with a sword. she was most likely the healer of the group, as he couldn't see that pole doing much damage without at least a little training.

All together, they had a pretty standard team composition, a tanker, a healer, a long range dps and a short ranged dps. And from the look of it, they where all pretty new, if Alex had to guess, from the familiarity they talked with each other, they where probably out of pod friends, and had all decided to start together.

Alex sat on the wall for a little longer, glancing over at the party every so often to see whether they had begun leaving yet.

As he sat, he noticed that many people where looking at him strangely, he could only assume it was due to his monstrous appearance but he couldn't really tell.

After sitting down for a while, a small child approached Alex, he couldn't have been more than six years old, Alex didn't notice until the kid was right next to him, staring up with a look of curiosity.

"Hey mister" the kid suddenly said, causing Alex to turn around in surprises.

"me?" Alex asked awkwardly, looking around for anyone else the kid could be talking to, finding no one

"Yes mister" The kid said innocently.

"What is it then" Alex responded in the most friendly tone he could muster.

"Why are you so ugly?" The kid asked, an air of pure innocence around him.

"Huh" Alex responded, not really sure how to respond.

"My mum said that if your a bad person, you will become ugly" the kid continued, "are you a bad person?"

"No" Alex reassured the kid, still a little unsure of what the kid was doing here, "looks aren't everything, you can't call someone bad just because their ugly"

"Then did mum lye? Is mum a bad person"

"No, no" Alex tried to reassure the kid, "she is just, well, uh"

Alex pondered for a minute how to respond without making the kid view his mum worse.

"Your mum is just, she just doesn't believe the same things I do"

"Oh" the kid replied in mock understanding, "then is it true you live in a bush?"

"Huh" Alex exclaimed in surprise.

"Mum said you where a, a" the kid stuttered, as if trying to figure out the answer to a piece of calculus.

"a Wem-mi-do," the kid continued proudly, finally settling on what he thought was right, "and she said Wem-mi-dos live in the forest, so does that mean you live in a bush?"

"No" Alex answered in a slightly awkward tone, "I live in a house, by the way, where is your mum?"

The kid pointed at a woman standing a little ways away, seemingly going through a great crisis.

"She seems worried" Alex told the kid, throwing a quick glance at the party, who where all beginning to leave, "I have to go know"

"Okay," The kid replied cheerily, skipping merrily back to his mother, who looked as if she had been given all the riches in the world.

The woman threw Alex a quick glance of fear, and then hurried away as quickly as she could, child in tow.

Alex began to follow the group as discreetly as possible, he could have asked the party directly, but what if they found him strange, what if he made a fool of himself, there where so many people, it would keep him up at night.

So he just decided to follow them, would cause less trouble.

Not much happened as the group moved toward the outskirts of town, they didn't seem to notice him despite his imposing stature, all the better for him.

They reached the edge of town after a while, the party still oblivious to his existence.

There was a small border check at the gate, Alex paid no head to it, it was quick, and over in a few routine questions asked by a particularly bored looking security guard, who seemed a lot older than the one that Alex met when entering the town.

The group seemed to finally notice Alex once the guard asked him a few questions, but they seemed to have no intention of approaching him, in fact, the group moved a little ways away from him.

Alex quickly moved into the forest, the trees parting slightly, as if welcoming him in.

He stayed near the entrance, keeping the group in sight, he did a little research before coming here, the city was surrounded by the forest on one side and vast plains on the other, the forest, on average, had higher level monsters, making the red path the only viable hunting grounds in the forest, while a large chunk of the plains was perfectly suitable for newbies.

If it wasn't for this fact, Alex would not be hunting people in the forest, if the city lost its only place to train newbies, they may take drastic action, but if they lost a small part of it, the most dangerous part at that, they probably wouldn't bat an eyelid.

While it didn't really sit right with him killing newbies, it was the easiest way to stop players from entering the forest.

If he tried to bullshit people out of entering the forest, a lot of suspicions would be raised, and he would have to have a good reason to tell people not to enter, which could lead to high level players trying to enter the forest, thinking it was some kind of event.

If a few newbies didn't come back, they bit of more than they could chew, and others would be more wary of the forest and it's dangers.

Was it fair, hell no, but it was quick, and hopefully effective, after all, Alex couldn't claim to know how every player would react, he could just hoped he would at least dissuade the majority.

As the party entered the forest, Alex followed closely, the trees moving to form cover for him, he wouldn't kill any of them if they left the wolves alone.

As he tailed them, he caught snippets of conversation, one particular back and forth catching his attention.

"So" the stone man asked in a curios tone, "what was the quest you found, you sounded like you found a big one"

"Well" the young man said with a smug grin plastered all over his face, "I found an odd request on the quest board"

"Oh" the stone man replied in intrigue, "strange how?"

"Well," the red haired man continued, the grin not leaving his face, "this quest, gives contribution points"

"What," the elf suddenly exclaimed, "isn't that something you can only get through a personal quest, no way you found a quest like that"

"Well" the red haired man continued, "they just said they would be willing to trade a title for some contribution, sweet deal right"

"And how do we get this title?" the stony man asked sarcastically, "it's not like it's going to fall from the sky right"

"We just have to kill a certain monster" the red haired man responded calmly, "easy right, and I got some info on where to find it, we will get that contribution in no time"

"Sure, sure" the stony man continued in the same sarcastic tone, "and I assume that this monster will just roll over and die for us, great pla- shit"

Three wolves had emerged from the bushes, lips pulled back in a snarl, bodies pressed low to the ground, ready to pounce.

"Formation" the red haired man shouted, causing the group to get into a, tightly nit formation, the stony man in the front, shield raised, the red haired man directly behind him, sword raised, the elf on his right side, arrow notched, and the blue haired girl on his left, a soft glow around her staff.

A notification popped up in front of Alex, provoking a small smile.

[Players has engaged in combat with one of your subjects

No penalties will be applied if you engage the players]

"Don't back down" the red haired man shouted at the stony man, "we can hold them off, they are just a few mobs, conserve your strength as much as possible"

"Easy to say when you aren't the one staring down a mouth full of fangs" the stony man retorted angrily, "three at that"

"It's fine" the red haired man reassured him, swivelling around to face the blue haired woman "Mira give Leo some... buffs..."

"What?" the elf said impatiently, " Hey Tristan, what's wrong with Mi...ra"

Turning around, the elf saw something shocking, the sounds of the forest seemed to fade away, the growl of the wolves failing to reach her ears, only one sound filled her ears, pounding against her eardrums, echoing throughout her mind.

A soft pitter-patter echoing of the forest floor.

Mira stood still, her legs shaking from the effort of keeping herself up, her eyes rapidly contracting, a look of shock over her face, as if she couldn't quite understanding what was happening, her breathing becoming rapid, though it was getting hard, as currently, there was a knife, sticking right through her windpipe, restricting all air flow.

Mina's robes became stained crimson, as red ooze gushed from her neck like a morbid fountain, staining the forest floor, well, it was called the crimson path for a reason.

Tristan began to open his mouth, as if to speak, but no sound came out, it was like an invisible hand was forcing the words back down his throat, the incessant nagging from Leo confusing him even more, blanketing his thoughts with a fuzzy haze.

A tall figure, about eight feet, stood behind Mina holding the dagger, its limbs where long and lanky, what little skin that was exposed was bark brown and gnarled like a tree trunk, a purple leather armour set clung to its body, half a massive snake skull sat around his left shoulder, defanged. What caught Tristan's eye was the skull that sat proudly upon his head, elongated, grotesque, horrifying, small stubs of bone where antlers should have been.

Tristan wanted to look away, but couldn't, the creature stared down at Mina with cold, amber eyes, that swivelled quickly in the beasts head, before landing on Tristan.

A horrible feeling came over Tristan, it was as though the beast was mocking him, laughing at him, but before he could do anything, the beast began to speak.

"You should take care of your comrades, better to keep the rest alive than kill them for the sake of this girl"

At these words, both the elf and Tristan turned around to stare at Leo, who was fending of three wolves at once.

Tristan turned around to stare back at the beast, only to find it had disappeared into foliage that had not been there before, the massive skull, and those piercing amber eyes the last thing Tristan saw before it was gone.