Soul Knight - Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Nick’s party had run at a frantic pace, and arrived at the trees just in time. As planned, Jasper and their tribe were ready for when the enemy arrived. The horses were hot on Nick’s tail, if they had begun their dash ten seconds later, they would have been caught out in the open.

“Let’s move, Noblefrost Tribe! If the horses enter the forest, target the horses only and run away if the humans attack you.”

Jasper barked out Nick’s intentions, the wolflings getting into position in various trees and bushes along their path.

Nick and the girls headed deeper into the trees, and the numerous horses and their riders followed. But as the horses entered and chased after Nick and his party, spears flew from their sides, the many wolflings from their hiding spots howling and barking as spears flew.

Thankfully, the horses did not have any kind of barding. The smaller spears pierced through the horses’ bodies, their charge crumbling. Riders were brought down, the many humans tumbling to the ground as wolflings yipped and barked.

The leader of the human forces looked around confused, calling a halt, as many wolflings threw more spears. Seven horses were already downed or weakened from them trampling over one another, and now Nick’s party was looking a lot more dangerous with its numerous allies.

The terrain was not great for a horse in the first place. Nick thought the only reason they chased into the forest was because their enemy was in sight.

Their surprise attack thwarted, it appeared they understood it was too risky to chase Nick’s party, and they picked up the downed riders and fled. The leader of this company of soldiers was not all that powerful, and was likely planning on just clubbing Nick and his party over the head.

As before, the many men, while many wore armor, they all carried bludgeons.

Nick actually thought his party had a good chance against the enemy, though the number of wolflings that would have died from those clubs would have been many, a massacre of them.

He whistled. “Man, that was close! Good job, guys!” He clapped and woo’d in excitement and praise, and the creatures looked at him curiously, before he thought they made similar sounds, or at least tried.

Some even tried clapping, especially after Eirwen joined him with a smile. The creatures clapped with their furry paws, the muffled thumps similar to people clapping while wearing gloves.

Kaya laughed. “You really want that for some reason, huh? I guess it’s kinda cute.”

Eirwen giggled. “You know, hubby, there’s no reason to try to teach them much right now. In just–”

Kaya shushed her, before whispering in her ear. Eirwen laughed, before nodding.

“What was that, Winny?”

Eirwen looked him right in the eyes, her smile wide. “Nothing important! I guess we have to make it over to the orcs, but I dunno. They have hostages, and if I saw those images from your Judgement right, they’re children!”

Nick sighed–she chose her words carefully, speaking the truth about the importance of what she had started saying. He decided to move on, “The meeting couldn’t have gone much worse. It sounds like we should be able to gain allies in the orcs, but will that matter? I bet they can’t act because of the hostages, and that won’t change just because we’re here.”

Kaya shrugged. “You never know. Maybe with their help, we might be able to rescue them, allowing them to act. Or maybe we can work on the drakes together. I’d rather check that out than to try a breakout of the hostages without knowing enough about the situation. We could make things worse.”

Nick had to agree with that. He turned to see the wolflings preparing the dead horses for transit. While they had originally only injured a few of them, they were stomped on by the oncoming horses. The wolflings put them out of their misery, and now the four horses would be lunch.

He whistled. “That is a lot of meat that I won’t eat.”

***

Nick, unfortunately, had to eat some of the horse meat. It was like his tribe refused to eat something that he refused to eat. They had picked up on his distaste for eating the creature, but he needed to make sure his pack was fed.

Once again, Kaya teased him for his need to do his duty, but he just had a few bites and played up enjoying it. They watched him with narrowed eyes and barks and yips, but eventually, they accepted it, thus enabling them to happily enjoy their meal.

Throughout the day, they worked their way toward the orc settlement, taking breaks to eat and rest as they moved through the forest.

About once per thirty minutes, they would climb a tree near the edge of the forest to check on the human settlement. No movement had come from them, and it appeared they were keen to wait out Nick’s party’s actions.

Either that, or they were preparing more terrible methods.

The wolflings continued their hunt, and they continued feasting on the food on the go. The creatures were happy to serve their new generous alpha, and they enjoyed Eirwen and Kaya’s teachings on how to cook the meals properly.

Nick wasn’t sure, but it appeared their desire to cook was mostly the gluttonous alpha’s. The wolflings were not good at it, but they were quickly learning.

After absorbing all the essence from using Judgement, Nick had reached level six. But the odd thing was, his Soul had improved by more than just the plus one from increasing his level. It was small, but the 1.0 he was expecting from leveling, was actually 1.14.

Nick would get additional benefits from judging people. It was something he needed to keep in mind, as it would improve his attributes beyond his level.

He didn’t receive any skills when he leveled, which was unfortunate, but the Aura at the previous level was definitely massive enough. He now had all the skills identified when he selected the class, so he wondered what else he would be getting.

Rather than push to the orc settlement to arrive at night, they once again spent the night in a different set of burrows. This one was less spacious than the last, and without a throne, a small location for the tribe to migrate their hunting grounds.

The wolfling tribe had stuffed themselves throughout the day, and now Nick was certain: the wolflings were growing rapidly.

The three females that followed Eirwen like ducklings were half a head taller now, and had really filled out quickly. They still weren’t anywhere near the alpha’s size yet, but Nick was still amazed at how far they had grown in what was a little more than twenty-four hours since they met them.

This did track with how quickly Eirwen had filled out, but he thought these monsterfolk were growing a lot more rapidly than even that.

Nick trained Kaya through the night once more in dream training, pushing her forward with her skills. She eventually reached Intermediate Axe, though it wasn’t enough to unlock the class.

When they awoke from their training, they discussed this from their cuddle pile. The little wolfling girls were petted by Eirwen and Kaya, the creatures finally taking to the latter a little more.

Eirwen offered, “Maybe it’s because your ferality is too low? Perhaps, you have to focus on it? You were so afraid of it, that I bet your desire to reduce it carries into your cultivation. You can handle it now, Kaya.”

Nick asked, “Is that all I need to increase a specific attribute? Desire it while I absorb the essence?”

Kaya sighed, then nodded. “That’s right. Unfortunately, I think Winny is right. I’ll have to spend at least a level or two correcting it.”

Nick was going to keep that in mind. He didn’t want that monstrosity attribute going any higher, making him become a weird freak.

Eirwen narrowed her eyes on Nick, and added, “I wouldn’t avoid monstrosity, hubby. It is one of your people’s strengths. You should continue to spread things evenly across what makes your people special. As long as you don’t let things go out of balance, you won’t end up weird.”

Nick shivered. “How’d you know what I was thinking?”

Eirwen giggled, her ears wiggling up and down. “It was a hunch! But I’m always watching you, hubby.” She kissed him on the cheek, before getting up and wandering off to prepare for their trek.

Kaya smiled at Nick, her own cheeks red. She hesitated, but eventually said, “Thanks for all your help so far, Nick. I can tell I’m getting control over this thanks to you. You’re really capable, and you have kept true to your word. I appreciate you.”

She pecked Nick on the cheek before he could say anything, dashing off into the crowd of waking wolflings.

During their training, he certainly felt like she was warming up to him, that he was breaking down her barriers. It had only been a few hours for two nights, but Nick was able to show his wide breadth of experience with weapons.

He didn’t just help her with her axes, he helped increase her ability to face various weapons, and taught her essential martial arts theories.

Nick thought his most important lesson for her was controlling the tempo of a battle. For some reason, this was huge for her–she said something about visualizing a drum for her essence usage, and it just clicked for her.

She built a deeper respect for him, and he built one for her.

Kaya was fast, and she had excellent instincts–once she began to trust them. Her strength and speed when using her beast transformation were amazing. Combining it with how her method of moving essence seemed to shrug off damage or slice into enemies, he thought she was quite powerful.

She took to his lessons like a fish to water, and he thought she would in fact make an excellent beast warrior once she became one. He was more than a little interested in finding out what that looked like.

They continued their trek once more, until they ran into something they hadn’t expected. The wolflings were yipping and barking, finding a new quarry like the moose.

When it came into view, Nick came up with what he thought was a good idea.

“Wow, it’s like fate! You can have your own mirror match, Kaya. What do you say?”

It was once again a large bearcoon. It was definitely bigger than the original one they faced in front of their forest home, though not by a large margin. But it was also scaled, like the moose was.

Kaya looked more than a little interested, her tail swishing behind her.

She smiled. “I should say I’m not a damn bearcoon or whatever that is, but I’ll do it! I can really put into action what you taught me.”

Kaya drew her axes, and Nick had the wolflings back off. They had it cornered against a steep hill, likely too difficult for its claws to find purchase.

Kaya stirred her essence, and Nick watched as she transformed into a red panda. Covered in her fur and thick leather armor while holding axes, she definitely looked like a beast warrior to him.

The bearcoon roared out its challenge when it saw Kaya, and she roared in return. The bearcoon dashed on all fours, but Kaya ran at the monster on her two feet. When she arrived in range of her axes, the beast didn’t stop and tried to barrel into her.

She leapt and spun to the beast’s right as she swung her left hand’s axe into its shoulder, dashing back at the beast with a downward swing of her right axe as she finished her spin.

The bearcoon had to skid to a stop after being cut on its shoulder, and it tried to block her downward swing with its claws by standing up on its back legs. But her downward swing was a feint, and she twisted further as her tail whipped her other axe across the bearcoon’s exposed chest–having switched to it from her left hand.

It wailed in pain, though Nick could tell the cut wasn’t that deep. Its reaction was to swipe at Kaya in anger, but she had expected this and easily ducked under its blow and followed up with a much more powerful two-handed swing of her axe into the beast’s back leg–which it had reared up on to.

She swung into the leg powerfully, like a lumberjack felling a tree. Her attack seemed to contain a fair amount of feral essence, cutting deeply into the leg. The beast stumbled and swung at her once more, but Kaya’s movements were timed, her enemy’s actions predicted.

Kaya easily moved out of the way and then countered, each movement and step of hers like a staged dance that predicted the enemy’s movements. Wounds piled onto the bearcoon rapidly, as each movement was parried or dodged, then countered with ferocity and precision.

The bearcoon activated its berserker rage much like the male bearcoon they faced before, but compared to her, its movements were ponderous. It chased and tried to swipe at her, but she leapt and spun out of the way, even as she cut repeatedly into the creature. Her attacks disturbed the beast’s momentum and stance, keeping it from mounting a decent offense or defense.

The bearcoon’s movements slowed as blood was lost, but Kaya moved even faster, her body essence building throughout her body. She roared as she dismantled the enemy, her axes moving faster and cleaving deeper into its flesh beyond its scales.

Eventually, she removed the beast’s arm, before she swung two-handed down onto the monster’s skull with all her strength.

Her axe cleaved deeply into its head, the beast collapsing onto the ground.

The wolflings howled in victory, though it was much more like an, “awooo” sound, mimicking Nick’s calls from before. They clapped, and Nick and Eirwen joined as they walked over.

Kaya held up both axes in triumph, reverting to her beastfolk state easily. Her smile was beaming, filled with pride at what she had accomplished.

Eirwen cheered. “Wooo! Yeah! Good job, sis! That was awesome!”

“That was great, Kaya. You really controlled that battle.”

Kaya put the axes into the hoops at her belt, then leapt at Nick.

He was shocked as he caught her in his arms, but her soft lips met his as her body collided into him. Her tail danced behind her, and her eyes lit in excitement as their kiss deepened.

She eventually pulled back with a smile, as Nick put her down. “There, how’s that for a thank you, Prince Hero?”

Kaya sauntered back toward the dead bearcoon, a large smile on her face as she sat calmly down to absorb the essence. He supposed that Eirwen using her Loot ability on the creature would split the essence, and once again would be a bad move.

Instead, Kaya would absorb all of it from the higher level creature–focusing on trying to increase her ferality.

Nick thought something about her had really changed.

Eirwen chuckled. “That was cute! Kaya is really finding herself in battle. I’ve never seen this side of her. It really feels good to see her happy like this.”

Nick agreed. Compared to her obtuse self originally, he was really starting to like this red panda.

He noticed a commotion among the wolflings by Eirwen’s side. The wolfling girls seemed to look at the dead bearcoon, then at Kaya, Eirwen and Nick several times, barking and yipping at one another.

They then gathered up spears from their brethren, and joined next to Kaya, barking and yipping.

Eirwen giggled. “Those girls are so cute! It looks like they are taking a new approach to getting your attention.”

Nick groaned. “Not you too, Winny. Kaya’s already messing with me enough.”

“Hehe, you started it! But, it’s all in good fun. Now, we’re almost to the orc settlement. Judging by the humans, it seems the enemy of our enemy should be our friend. But there are a few things you should know about orcs.”

“Alright, lay it on me.”

“Many of them love to fight. Their entire culture is built around it. You heard us call them raiders, and that is true. But often, they are honorable raiders. They will surround a caravan and attack it, but more often than not, they will call for duels, and not always to the death. Many people may participate, their people enjoying the thrill of combat.”

“And then what? What happens if the caravan loses the duels?”

“It depends! Maybe it depends on how bad they lost, or how well they put up a fight. The orcs are into the thrill and glory of combat, and great battles mean great experiences, stories, and gains of strength and skill. They will take from the caravan if the orcs consider it their win, but depending on how well the defender did in the duels, the orcs may actually give them goods instead!”

“Whaaat? A raider giving them things? Like what?”

“Hehe, many orc tribes do focus on various trade goods, so once again, that depends on the tribe! Orcs will trade with others, but they are much more generous to those willing to do battle. But at the very least, they might just give back some of the goods they raided previously. The orcs can be quite generous, in victory and defeat. Of course, some are more honorable and generous than others, but generally, if a caravan is traveling through orc territory, they should have strong defenders and expect that some of their goods might be lost to raiding. Really, things they should be doing anyway thanks to bandits and monsters, don’t you think?”

“It’s a little weird, but I think I get it. With how you say Orion is dangerous, it’s like they are training folks and themselves to be ready for conflict, in a sense. These people sound pretty cool, but I guess I should be expecting a battle from one of them. Are they going to expect to fight you gals?”

She shook her head. “To some extent, if Kaya is interested, they might. But in their culture, the men value strength of body and arms. They look for any thrilling battle, and don’t discriminate against any strength, but orc women simply cannot compete with the men in this. Those that join in combat are often focused on archery or magic. Not all combat is honorable raids, and they are involved with their other fights, including their dives into the tower.”

“Alright, so orc men equal big buff guy with weapons, orc women usually ranged or magical casters. Can’t wait to meet them.”

“They will almost certainly want to fight you, and will use every excuse to do so. They may not like your blade though.”

“My soul blade? Why not?”

“It’s magical. It’s an impure means of melee combat. They are all about strength of body, remember? They will take you more seriously if you can defeat them using their ways. It’s the same thing with the caravans, if in the duels someone defeats them with magic or powerful equipment that is not their strength only or such, they will not be as happy with the outcome.”

“Huh. But we don’t have a legit sword for me to use. I’m really at my best with one. Kaya’s short swords aren’t quite long enough for me.”

Eirwen hummed. “Well, it shouldn’t be a dealbreaker, but we’ll have to make do. Just know if you can fight without it, your win will count for more in their eyes. Unless something changes when we see them, I think you should come to the gate with us, and that we should bring the wolflings.”

“Really? Why’s that?”

“It should prove to them that we are not with those humans. It’s also a show of strength, which they respect.”

Nick looked at the wolflings again, dubiously. “Uh, how? Like no joke, Kaya could slay almost all of them by herself at the moment. I could see if they like…doubled in size.”

Eirwen gave a mysterious smile. “Yes, but it will show that you have your own tribe when meeting theirs. They respect strength, and having thirty hunters is no small thing. When used correctly, like you just did with the horses, they understand that having the wolflings under your call is power. More power than the four or five of us walking in. Besides, other than their leader, I have every confidence you can duel your way out of whatever situation they put us into.”

Nick raised his brow. “Really? You don’t believe I can beat their leader?”

She giggled. “It’s more that I don’t trust in the unknown, hubby. We don’t know enough about the Trial. What level are these orcs and humans? Just like Davon would be limited when he comes in, what about the inhabitants? Havendale has reasons for keeping its people’s levels low, but what about these orcs?”

It was a sobering thought. A race that valued strength would probably spend an abnormal amount of time within the tower, increasing their levels. There should be no way that they would be weak.

Eirwen continued, “Do you really think an Ordeal owner would be stuck in the first stratum? They can’t enter into a Conflict without owning their Ordeal. That means someone completed the tenth level, hubby. Sure, it could be their ancestor that did it, but unless that leader is maimed, my money would be on him being powerful and in the second stratum. Orcs don’t fear death, there’s no way the leader of an orc tribe would be weak!”

“But he’d be limited to our level? I suppose his skill at arms should be amazing, and at least an expert with his chosen weapon.”

Eirwen shook her head. “The orcs and humans will likely be limited to around the level of the floor, but these leaders are a special objective of the Trial. They can definitely be far above that. It is entirely possible for a Test or Trial to provide a threat that is way above the level of the floor, if you are not meant to face it in a fight. Of course, defeating it in that case should be a profound achievement that should be recognized.”

Nick sighed. “That is not good news. Alright. Well, I’m ready as soon as Kaya is done. Let’s go meet these potential allies.”