21. Rover

Mark just ignored the guards as he went back to the west gate and grabbed the other chimeric mountain panther.

Since the big panther had pulled this one loose, Mark just had to lift it up and throw it over to his side of the gate. By the time he managed to throw it over and get off the gate, the guards had mostly recovered and were approaching him.

The first to speak up was Phill, the lead guard for the west gate.

"Mark, that was terrifying and amazing at the same time. Thank you for saving our asses, I don't think we would have been able to kill that first panther much less the monster that jumped over the gate."

Mark was just dragging the panther over to the bigger panther as he listened to Phill. Once he had the corpses side-by-side, he looked at the man who was also a bit taller than the rest of the guards.

Phill was about 182cm tall so he was still a bit shorter than Mark but also quite a bit taller than the average guard. His hair was also noticeably different than most people on the mountain as it was a wheat blonde where most people had either black or brown hair.

While the man was taller than the rest of the guards, he showed Mark no less respect than the rest of them; more even as it seemed the responsibility of his position could be heard in his words.

Mark just shrugged.

"I think you guys would have managed. Anyway, I need to check up on the other gates now. They might be getting attacked like this one and could probably use some help. I will come back to make sure this gate is secure once I am done."

He received some more praise and thanks as he took off back to the north gate. He just took it in stride since he would be back for the corpses anyway and he felt that the thanks were unnecessary.

The guards, though, felt that they owed a life-debt to Mark. Each of them knew that the smaller chimeric mountain panther could have wiped them out if it had managed to get over the gate. After Mark left, no one even said anything about the corpses of the panthers but they kept watch over them and silently decided amongst themselves that no one would be allowed to move the bodies until Mark came back for them.

The north gate was ostensibly the safest gate but also potentially the most dangerous for a couple of reasons. It was the safest because it was the side with the least beasts roaming outside of it. The path leading to the north gate had the most traffic from merchants as it was the path leading down the mountain. Thus, it was regularly cleared by professional guards so the beasts didn't even try to make their territories anywhere near the area. It could be the most dangerous side because it had the longest wooden wall that could be breached and the bedrock walls were hardly higher than the wooden walls in this area.

Mark took note of the amount of time he took to dispatch the mountain panthers and how long it was taking him to run from gate to gate as he ran. 

"There shouldn't have been enough time for anything to attack, but even if they are under attack the defenses should hold up long enough for me to get there. Then I can head to the east gate."

Mark was not worried about the east gate since it was likely the safest. While the Unikuma were on that side, most of them came from the rock valley that he had been in and he had seen what was presumably the furthest of their kind run in the opposite direction. That valley wrapped around to the south and after quite a distance of horrible terrain it was possible to get to the west gate but that was highly unlikely. There was also a path down the mountain further to the east if the southern area was ignored which led to a fertile valley but it was inhabited by Giant Vampire Moose. Nothing wanted to fight the various groups of Vampire Moose in the area.

"East gate just has snakes to worry about if anything and those can't climb walls. . ."

While mulling over the possibilities he quickly came upon the north gate where the guards seemed to be resting. Some of them looked like they just fought and the wounded had already left to be replaced.

Mark looked around until he found Sid who was just laying his back on a rock while watching the clouds.

"Don't you think you should be watching the gate more?"

Sid looked up.

"Ah, Mark, you are back. Yeah. . . I probably should. . . but if you look over the gate you will see that we have recently slain a Buffalo Toad. . ."

He was obviously worn out.

"Oof"

Mark knew what it meant to fight a Buffalo Toad.

While they were not particularly tough or ferocious, they did have a special scent that they let out that would make their attackers feel like they had been put through extremely high-intensity stress both physically and mentally. This is why Sid and some of his men were lying about, seemingly without a care for the things going around them. They literally don't have the energy to care.

"Just rest here Sid, I will check things out at the east gate and then I will come back here to make sure you guys have the manpower to take care of this gate until you and your guys recover."

Sid just laid his head back down and closed his eyes.

"Thanks, Mack . . ."

Mark knew Sid was excessively tired if he was already messing up his name.

'Sleep well Sid, and don't die on me'

Mark was not really worried about Sid but he did like the guys' personality and he thought it would be a shame for the village to lose such a character.

Mark did check the gate for the giant toad and, once his curiosity was satiated, he quickly headed to the east gate.

'The east gate will be fine, then I can come back here and this growth should end soon after. I will probably have to check the west gate once more though.'

Thinking out his next few steps on his quick journey to the east gate, Mark took into account the lessening intensity of the shaking around the village area. It had already been about an hour since the growth had started so it seemed to be a weak one this time.

While they were not that frequent, although random, they had been observed enough times by Mark personally to get a rough estimate of when it was winding down.

Upon reaching the east gate, Mark noted that there was literally nothing happening and they guards just looked tense. The injured guards who just had minor self-inflected injuries, were seen back at the wall looking out of the holes for any approaching beasts.

Mark walked up to Alex to see if anything had happened.

"There were some wolves that were approaching the gate but we scared them off with some rocks. They seemed interested in the Gullen you killed but one of them got a rock right in the skull and they all took off after that hehe."

Mark nodded his head as he looked over at the gate.

"The north gate has had some trouble with a Buffalo Toad so I will have to personally reinforce that area and the west gate already had a couple of mountain panthers assault the gate and one of them managed to get over the top. I was there to kill them both and they are reinforcing it with more spikes and spears but I want to make sure they don't run into any more problems."

Alex looked visibly disturbed, "Damn, a beast managed to breach the west gate? I don't remember the last time something like that happened but I guess they did have you there. I really feel bad for the guys at the north gate though. It really sucks having to fight the damn buffalo toads."

Mark agreed on that. 

He had to fight them before and their leather is basically useless to him. He could only sell it to the traveling merchants since it was only good for making potions or something he was unaware of and no one did that in their village.

Raw materials never got him much money so he could never trade it for anything really good.

"Yeah, those things are a pain in the ass and a waste of my time. . ."

Mark more mumbled that part to himself but Alex understood what he was trying to convey.

"Anyway, I need to head out, you guys take it easy. They do look like real guards right now by the way."

Alex smiled, "Ill get these guys whipped into shape in no time, don't you worry about that Mark! hehe, now get out of here and make sure the rest of the village is safe!

Mark quickly left at that point. There was no sense in sticking around when the north gate was weak at the moment.

He quickly checked in on the guards at the north gate and looked out over the top of the walls before he ran over to the west gate to make sure they were fine.

Since they had nothing attack them since he was gone, Mark just left them without much conversation and went to stay at the north gate until the guards were recovered.

Occasionally he acted as a rover to check on the other gates until the growth finally ended.