Chapter 23 - The Incident in Black Hollow forest (1/2)
*GORE WARNING*
(Shit I overslept again)
As she awoke she instantly checked her surroundings, while holding her shortbow with an arrow nocked and ready to fire.
(....No enemies or monsters that i can see, huh.. time for breakfast, or more like lunch at this point)
Carefully stretching her body, she freed herself from her camouflaged sleeping bag and reached for her bag, suspended right above her. Opening the bag, some of it contents spilled out and dropped onto her and her sleeping bag.
”Oh shit!”
As her stuff spilled from her backpack, so did a particular magic gem inscribed with runes, and she barely caught it by extending most her body out from the warm sleeping bag, breaking her balance and falling out her sleeping bag with the runestone about a meter, only being saved by her safety line.
”I'm so glad I still use this thing…”
Being saved by some rope bound around her waist she dangled about 10 meters above the forest floor, while she watched some of her food rations drop to the ground.
(If any of the other rangers saw this they would probably laugh at me… Well I don't really care, it just saved my life. Probably… maybe.. no I would totally have caught that branch and been saved. Who am I kidding?)
Noticing her own hubris, the young ranger facepalmed, before dangling lifeless in her safety line for about a minute, until her stomach reminded her of more pressing issues. She quickly stopped the gem in a pouch hanging by her belt, crawled back up in her sleeping bag and ate some rations from her backpack suspended above her with some rope while she thought about the day's work ahead of her.
(Today is… the 8th day of my patrol huh.. 2 more days and I can finally eat something else than these shitty rations.)
Freeing her backpack she quickly checked its contents, before dropping it to the ground below, next she looked through her sleeping bag and found her climbing gear, consisting of 2 gloves with metal claws inscribed with runes on them. After equipping the gloves she found her boots that she had stuck to the tree trunk with the help of their spike tips. Equipping her boots the young ranger carefully crawled out of her sleeping bag and stuck herself to the tree trunk with her spiked boots, and channeled mana into her gloves and after they started to glow dimly she dug one of them into the tree trunk with no resistance. Now secure she undid her safety line and dropped it along with her sleeping bag to the forest floor some 10 meters below. Now done clearing out her camp, she climbed about half way down the tree and then jumped down, landing unscathed with the use of strengthening magic. Quickly gathering her dropped supplies and jamming her sleeping bag into her backpack, the young ranger picked up her backpack and started her morning patrol of the Black Hollow forest.
(Ah my hair is itching, I really need a bath… and I smell too, why the F.U.C.K did I chose to become a ranger..)
As she contemplated her career choice, the young ranger quickly moved through the forest, reaching a clearing she took out the magic gem that she almost dropped earlier, and channeled mana into it until it started glowing in a dull purple light.
(Let's see what's around here..)
Finishing the chant a faint purple light wave speed out around her and burst out from her through the surrounding forest.
(A couple of trolls and a single arachnid.. but no humans, okay next point)
The young ranger quickly moved to the next point, some 5 kilometers away, when she reached another clearing in the forest and once more channeled mana into her gem, but this time she reacted differently, and quickly climbed a nearby tree and hid in the tree's crown.
(They're close..)
Having climbed the tree the young ranger removed her backpack and nailed it to the tree trunk and drew her shortbow before nocking an arrow
(Here they come… 4? No they're 6. 2 mages 2 swordsmen and 2 bowmen)
As she predicted 6 men clad in black came running into the clearing, having sensed the ranger use her detection magic.
(They look like smugglers.. first the magic user's)
She quickly prepared her bow and aimed at the first mage, then shot the first arrow.
”Gah!”
”Shit! Spread out, it's a ranger!”
”Where is he!?”
”Show yourself, f.u.c.k.i.n.g coward!”
The first arrow hit the mage at his shoulder, shattering his collarbone and piercing his lung making collapse as his lung was pierced and he slowly drowned in his own blood.
”Frank! F.u.c.k, he's gone! Find the ranger fast or we'll be next!”
As the mage collapsed one of the swordsmen shouted his commands while scanning the tree tops, and quickly received an arrow to the face, reaping his life instantly as the arrow pierced his brain through his eye socket.
(Stupid move dude, of course I'll go for the leader first, so don't shout commands like a madman. Next is the other mage.)
As she mentally criticized the dead hostile commander the young ranger prepared another arrow to kill her next target.
”WHERE THE F.U.C.K IS HE!?”
”Up there! That or that tree, Jonathan!”
”WITH PLEASURE!”
(Shit, they're not completely dumb)
Having guessed her approximate position the other swordsman pointed at the tree she was hiding in, as the other remaining mage smashed the bottom of his staff into the forest floor and several rock shards ripped themselves from the ground and flew towards tree tops, pelting the general area where she hid. While the rock shards flew past her the young ranger channeled mana into her body and with the help of strengthening magic she jumped to a nearby tree, landing unscathed with the help of her climbing gear as the claws on her gloves sank into the tree trunk she received traction and quickly jumped to another tree while leaving a boot print in the tree trunk.
”There he is!”
”Shit I can't hit him, he's too f.u.c.k.i.n.g quick- gah!”
”Fight with some pride you f.u.c.k.i.n.g coward!”
After she had dealt with the last mage the battle quickly turned one sided, as the young ranger jumped from tree to tree the smugglers couldn't keep track of her, and she calmly picked them of one by one with well placed arrows.
”F.u.c.k! I didn't come here just to die!”
Watching his last ally collapse with an arrow in the head, the last bowman dropped his bow as his will to fight evaporated, before channeling strengthening magic and running for his life.
”Shit! Was that a ranger? Nobody f.u.c.k.i.n.g told me that they're f.u.c.k.i.n.g monsters!”
The bowman came from the bordering empire, and knew therefore little of kingdoms border control forces. What he had heard he could only think had been confused with legends of the illusive and isolated elven city states, but then again he had never been the brightest subject. After assaulting a fellow hunter he had been thrown out of the guild and had struggled to find work, that is until he had been approached by one of his more shady associates offering him and some friends what seemed to be a simple job.
”F.u.c.k this shit! 'It's just a simple currier job' I'll f.u.c.k.i.n.g kill him when I get out of this f.u.c.k.i.n.g forest!”
As the bowman ran through the forest with the aid of strengthening magic he seemingly had energy to spare as he complained loudly.
”Ha ha ha, f.u.c.k. That must be enough distance..”
Stopping to catch his breath, the bowman was sure that he lost the enemy ranger, but turning around he received an arrow to leg.
”Ah! F.u.c.k.i.n.g coward, show yourself!”
As he kept shouting the ranger never showed herself, for she had left him as a gift to the forest.
(Why did he have to run that f.u.c.k.i.n.g far? But at least he's acting like a fine monster lure while I check out what they were smuggling)
Having eliminated the last smuggler the young ranger ran back to the other smugglers to check what they had tried to smuggle into the kingdom.
”Let's see… that guy was the commander.. no this one?”
The young ranger took her time searching through the corpses while she held a piece of cloth over her mouth.
(They f.u.c.k.i.n.g smell, must have been traveling for weeks. What the hell is that valuable? Not drugs that's simply worth the effort… must be some kind of special package- yeah something like this.)
Finally finding what she was looking for, the young ranger carefully unpacked a small metal container wrapped in cloth
”What do we have here?”
Carefully examining the metal container she found a single locking mechanism.
(A mana lock.. and extremely high grade at that.. This doesn't make any sense)
A mana lock or a mana essence recognition lock as the name implied is a kind of special high grade lock that only responds to a single persons kind of mana, while lower grades of mana locks can simply be forced open brute force by channeling mana into it until the mana circuit breaks, some part of the rangers intuition told her that is was not gonna be that easy with this one.
”I knew it, it's trapped”
Having recognized this particular kind of lock from her father's endless teachings, she noticed that this kind of lock had a secondary mana circuit, designed to trigger if any overload was attempted.
”Fire magic? No it's much more crude.. a bomb, huh. This must be an extremely high value package, but that doesn't make sense at all, why where these numbskulls transporting something like this?”
It indeed didn't make sense, why have low ranked former hunters transporting something worth enough to smuggle it in a container worth several platinum coins alone?
(Unless.. Shit!-)
While she had zoned out thinking about her current dilemma, the young ranger had just barely noticed a flash - some metal reflecting light out the corner of her eyes, and had immediately channeled a reckless amount of mana into her legs, and used it to jump to the side. Just in time too, as an arrow ment for her chest grazed her upper arm, ripping through it her flesh as it passed trough, leaving a deep cut on her arm.
(F.U.C.K! I knew it - A second escort)
Having dropped her bow as she had dogged the incoming arrow that was meant to reap her life, the young rangers brain went into overdrive as her training kicked in while she ran to cover, grabbing a branch on the way.
(F.U.C.K ME! F.U.C.K ME! F.U.C.K ME! F.U.C.K ME! F.U.C.K ME! F.U.C.K ME! F.U.C.K ME! F.U.C.K ME! F.U.C.K. ME!!)
Biting into the branch she quickly gathered some surrounding mana as she prepared a crude healing spell, finishing channeling the spell in about 4 seconds she held her hand over the wound and activated the spell.
”mmmMMmmmMMm!!!!”
Screaming while biting into the branch the healing spell forcefully closed her wound by pinching the intact tissue together, ripping muscle tissue from the bone in the process. An extremely painful but effective short term solution. After the emergency treatment had completed she spit out the branch that now had deep bite marks and drew her shortsword with her intact arm.