chapter 16

Once an hour passed and we were both sufficiently prepared, we made our way outside of town. And headed in the direction of one colossal hill that would give us a better line of sight over the lands near the town.

It took only a ten-minute jog for us to reach the top of the hill. And once there, I took out the map and gestured for Wilson to come over.

"that sam fellow is known for operating around the town by ambushing travelers and merchant caravans going through these roads. he also seems to appear and disappear without leaving any traces meaning we don't have any leads on the location of his base except that it's somewhere in the vicinity of the town." I said while pointing at the dirt road beginning at the town and disappearing into the horizon.

"common johnny, get to the point already, you know I don't care about this stuff, I just need to know who I'm gonna tear apart and when I need to do it," Wilson said while rolling his eyes at me in annoyance.

"Now listen here you fucking muscle gorilla, this all necessary so we can find our target. so drop the attitude and start taking this seriously so we can get this thing over with as quickly as possible," I said in equal annoyance as I lit a cigarette.

"Alright, alright I'll just have to listen for now I guess, " he said mutteringly as he started to stretch his limbs in boredom.

"anyway like I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, we don't have any leads about the location of his base. but we do know that it's near the town and that he attacked a caravan two days ago. so we can go there to investigate the ambush site and search for any remaining tracks." I said. I jumped down and started to slide down the hill while gesturing for Wilson to follow me.

"and if that doesn't work then there's a merchant caravan heading in the direction of the capital tomorrow, we can tail it in case that sam guy decides to attack it," I said again as I spat out the cigarette in my mouth.

It took an hour of jogging to reach our destination this time. It seems that the ambush site was cleaned up, as the only things I could see were traces of dried blood and several carriages that were damaged beyond repair.

"I'll check around for any tracks, you... you just go and be yourself I guess," I said as I kneeled by, bending one of my knees to get a closer look at the ground.

'Successfully tracking someone is a product of logical reasoning and common sense, and, in part, the carelessness of the prey,' I thought in my head while surveying the area in search of any signs of said carelessness.

'When a person passes by an area, they often leave tell-tale signs of their presence behind. This can be a shoe imprint, a discarded item, or upturned pebbles or stones... things that will be out of place but detectable only to a trained eye.' I thought to myself again as I searched for such signs.

However, this sam fellow seems to be quite proficient in covering his tracks, as, after an hour and a half of search, I was only able to find several turned rocks, evidenced by their tops that were covered by more sand and dirt than the other rocks nearby. And a barely visible footprint that I only managed to find thanks to my improved vision and zoom function.

"Hey, big guy, I found something. it seems that the left in this direction after the ambush." I said while pointing to the north of the ambush site.

"what're we waiting for then, lets get going." came Wilson's answer that was spoken in an impatient and eager tone of voice.

After heading in the same direction for two hours and not finding any more tracks, I was about to give up, but then the sight my eyes caught as I activated my zoom function to check the horizon one last time made me change my mind.

"look alive people ahead, fifteen or so, they seem to be cleaning something which that explains the frustrating lack of tracks. these guys are quite thorough they're still covering their tracks even after two days," I said as I looked in Wilson's direction with a malicious smile while pointing in their direction.

Wilson, of course, understood my meaning and obliged quite happily as he started to charge in the direction of the cleaning crew since he was even more frustrated than I was at this wild goose chase.

"make sure to leave some of them alive and kicking, we need to question them about their boss and base after all," I quickly shouted as I watched Wilson's back becoming smaller and smaller in my vision.

"can't make any promises," Wilson shouted back jokingly, and even though I couldn't see his face, I was reasonably sure he was smiling widely at the prospect of finally letting out some steam.

His shout seemed to have finally alerted them to our presence as all of them took out their guns and started to aim at Wilson charging figure.

Wilson noticed this and raised one of his hands in front of his face to shield his eyes which were the only vulnerable part of his body, as he continued to sprint in their direction.

Several bullets were fired with surprising accuracy. And I watched as they impacted Wilson's body and bounced off his skin harmlessly while increasing my pace to remain close enough to react in time and cover for Wilson if needed.

"m-monster, bullets don't even seem to faze him." said one of them as he took a step backwards in fear at the spectacle Wilson while gazing in horror at Wilson's approaching figure.

"don't shit your pants just yet, so what if he can shrug off bullets we just gotta use something bigger. you over there take that thing out," said one of them, who seemed to be one sizer bigger than the rest while pointing at a large black bag one of them was carrying on his back.

"make sure to keep that one alive and able to speak by the time you're done," I shouted at Wilson while pointing at the guy who just spoke as it didn't require one to be a rocket scientist to figure out he was in charge.

Wilson didn't answer as he continued to charge, but it seemed that the guy's encouraging words or maybe my mocking tone snapped them from their fear as one of them quickly reached inside a large bag one of them was carrying and took out a large hand canon.

Looking at that scene, I merely smiled in disdain, and I imagine Wilson did the same as he didn't halt or even slow his charge.

The big guy took the weapon from his companion's arms and only took a single second to steady his aim and fire a small canon round with a thunderingly loud bang at Wilson.

Wilson snorted as he raised his leg and unleashed vertical rankyaky slash, which bisected the canon round in half, sending the two halves behind them as they exploded in an even louder bang.

Looking at this sight, even the big guy was speechless as his eyes popped and his jaw opened wide enough to stick one of Winston's large hands inside of it while he froze in both shock and horror, finally realizing the situation he found himself in.

"ready or not here I come", Wilson shouted as his figure became closer and closer to them by the second.

Wilson's last line, along with his previous display of atrocity, however, seemed to have been the straw that broke the camel's back as they snapped out of their shock once more and started to reach inside their backpacks.

They were taking out ropes this time instead of futile means to defeat the monster charging at them. They dropped their weapons and started to tie each other up.