Chapter Fifty-Three - To the Woods

I'm gonna try for two chapters today! I wanted 68 chapters by the 1st, but that's... not quite possible unless I write a LOT of maid between now and then!

We're getting closer to the official launch on Royal Road! When that happens, please stop by and support the story! I'm... okay so... this is goofy, but one of my dreams is to get one of those super-successful RR launches. You know the sort that happens like, 2-4 times a year? Big story drops and bam 10K followers in a month?

It's unrealistic, but I can dream yeah?

My author friends say that it's not gonna happen :( Black Apron isn't quite on-theme for RR, but I... dunno, I feel like it could be the right kind of appealing for the RR crowd? I'd just need them to give it a chance!

Anyway, that's for later, for now, more chapters!

***

It took the girls a solid twenty minutes to kill the slug, and that included three saves from Rosario where she swooped in and saved them. First from another acid blast, then she had to save Lucky from a nasty seeking spell that the slug spat at her and Cricket when she stepped into a pool of sticky goo that stuck her to the ground with and prevented her from moving. 

All in all, however, they had done well. 

Rosario was moderately proud of them.

She allowed them ten minutes to rest next to the corpse of their defeated foe, and then they continued, only to stop a half hour later for lunch.

After lunch, she showed Lucky a few moves, and then had her practice drawing and undrawing her sword from her hip, then the other hip, then her back, and finally drawing it out of a duffel bag. Basically, drawing and getting into a starting guard stance from all sorts of positions. It wasn’t perfect, but Lucky had to be able to react quicker if they ever got into a fight, and the practice was good for her.

They found another slug that evening that was of an appropriate level. They had passed two others, but one of those was level 49, at the end of its second tier, and another was a third tier, and far beyond what Rosario suspected either girl could handle.

This new one was only level 19 and it looked like it was a little injured already. 

She watched as both Cricket and Lucky fought it, and cheered politely when the fight ended with fewer instances where she had to jump in and save anyone. Lucky levelled up as well, finally reaching level 6 in her [Soldier] job.

They set up camp with a simple guard rotation that only included Lucky and Rosario since Cricket was too lazy (really, it was more so that Rosaio could get to three hours of sleep she needed and to train Lucky’s [Soldier] job a little, since watch duty was obviously part of that) and then they were off again the next morning.

This time, she had Lucky practice her footwork some more, empty pails held out at her sides. Rosario kept an eye open for more slugs, but instead discovered a caravan breaking their camp.

They veered off course slightly and met the caravan. It was seven carriages and a few carts, with sturdy horses and large grasshopper-like insects to pull them along. The caravan had a dozen guards, all between the first and second tier and all watchful as they approached. 

They had a quick conversation, and they let them know about the bandit camp in the gorge since the group was heading back towards Markarfljot. It only made sense to let them carry the new back.

They traded a few things, mostly replacing some gear that was wearing out and Rosario bought a small bolt of rather fetching red cloth as well as some other items that they were carrying through.

They left soon after, not lingering as the caravan was leaving anyway. 

They faced two more challenges. For Rosario it was sewing while walking. It was quite difficult, but she was determined. She settled on making a new hat for Cricket. She lacked the bells to make it into a proper jester’s cap, but the strange shape of it intrigued her. It was bizarre enough to be a proper challenge. 

The second challenge came a little later. At first Rosario thought they were wanderers, perhaps a little lost on account of how they moved, but eventually her sharp vision caught onto the state of the people she saw and she knew better. An [Inspect] at the edge of her range confirmed it.

[Zombie] - Level 12

[Zombie] - Level 21

[Skeleton] - Level 22

[Skeletal Warrior] - Level 4

Undead. An entire little group of them. They weren’t quite walking together, but they weren’t too far from each other either. 

The last of that group, the warrior, was equipped with some rather rusty and worn out armour and was carrying both a sword and shield.

“Looks like we have your next test,” Rosario said. 

Lucky squinted ahead, then nodded. “I’m ready for it,” she said.

“Good! Cricket, your job is to trip them up. Let Lucky fight them one at a time rather than all at once. We don’t want her overwhelmed.”

“I can do that,” Cricket said.

“No killing. And no knives,” Rosario said. She pulled a threat taut, returning most of her attention to the hat she was crafting. She had, of course, switched jobs for the experience. 

“Wha!” Cricket complained. “But then how will I fight?”

“You have hands and legs, I’m certain you can use those,” Rosario said. “If I asked you ‘do you know how to use your hands’ I imagine you’d say something pithy and lewd, so now you get to prove it.”

“I... thou are punishing me for something I would definitely say but haven’t yet? This is most crude!”

Rosario gestured vaguely at the enemies ahead. 

The fight was nothing too special. The zombies were tenacious, but Lucky was in good spirits and took them down with ease while Cricket distracted the skeletons. 

Rosario took note of the fact that Cricket didn’t seem to know any actual martial arts, which was... not too surprising in hindsight. Still, a high Dexterity and a lack of fear, combined with some hard shoves was enough to keep the undead occupied while Lucky took them out one by one.

She was sweating as she came up against her final foe, the warrior was faster than her, swung harder, and had a longer reach, both because him (Rosario assumed that the dead kept their living gender, and the armour and rotten clothes beneath were definitely masculine) arms were longer and because his sword had a longer blade.

Lucky was at a distinct disadvantage, and so Rosario lowered the items she was sewing and paid more attention. 

“A fight can be won in a multitude of ways,” Rosario said. “Hitting a critical spot, chip damage, or simply outlasting your opponent. If you’re faster, then you might win based on that alone. If you can tank hits, then you can win by leveraging your toughness. If you outrange your foe, you can take advantage of that as well. In this case, you’re about equally as fast, the enemy seems more experienced, better armoured, and has no stamina to speak of, I believe the undead can fight day and night without tiring.”

‘I... see,” Lucky said as she weaved out of the way of a swipe. “Then, ah, what are my options?”

“Surrender is off the table,” Rosario said. “I suppose better technique?”

“I’ve hardly learned any!” Lucky said as she tried to lunge in, but the warrior batted her sword aside and swung back, almost clipping her head. 

“Then it’s a good time to start developing some,” Rosario said. “He’s a little clumsy, try walking around him. Try hits coming in from different angles, see if his visual range is wide or narrow. Use your free hand to grab his shield. Throw your weight around, he might be lighter than you for all that he’s larger.”

Lucky tried a few things, and eventually discovered that the warrior had a bit of a hitch in his step, and he tended to only turn slowly and rather clumsily. One of the ties a cuisse had come undone, so there was a metal plate clanking against the undead’s leg when he moved, limiting his range of motion. 

That was enough. She managed to grab the edge of his shield and forced it aside, then she came in with a short, awkward chop at the base of the skeleton’s neck. It didn’t work on the first try, the skeleton brought his sword around and made space, and on the second attempt he shrugged, catching her blade on a pauldron and sending it up to slice against his helm instead of his neck.

But it did work, and eventually Lucky managed to detach the skeleton’s skull from his body. The entire thing simply collapsed.

“Well done!” Rosario said. She returned to her sewing. “Loot away. We’ll keep an eye open for more undead on the way.”

There really wasn’t much to loot. Full plate armour, or... bits and bobs of plate armour, was worth a fair amount according to Cricket, but being rusted through and dented all over rather lowered the value.

The sword was interesting until Lucky swung it around. She pressed the tip into the ground and tried to bend it, to see its flex, and rather than bounce back into shape the tip simply snapped off. The rusty patina on the blade was more than surface deep.

That evening they camped in a small copse of trees. There were more of those around, and Rosario suspected that they were quickly approaching the edge of the Bowman’s Woods. 

That proved more likely the next morning, as they continued on their way, only stopping once to bathe in a large pond of freshwater they discovered. She summoned several illusory walls to keep some semblance of privacy up, and when that wasn’t enough, she glued Cricket’s feet to the ground... as if she’s stepped into a massive bugtrap.

They stumbled across more undead. Skeletons and zombies once more. The same routine played out, though this time Lucky did a little better. Rosario continued with the lessons, teaching her a few more basic cuts and simple techniques. Eventually she had Cricket walking backwards while waving a stick around that Lucky had to cut the end of while Cricket kept it away. 

Rosario wasn’t sure if that was good training or not, but it was certainly working on the right set of muscles.

That evening, after a rather uneventful day of walking and training (she finished the cap, but it lacked bells, which meant that Cricket considered it undone) they made it to the Bowman’s Woods, and finally discovered a trace of civilization. A road.

The roadway was flanked by two tall, wooden towers surrounded by spike-filled ditches, likely to keep out the local slugs. Each unmanned tower had a pair of bright red, slightly weather-worn, banners on opposite sides. In the centre of each was a roaring gryphon in yellow-gold thread. 

They’d officially made it to the Aerie.

***