Another World Story

Day Thirty-Two: Disappearance (3)

It was the second month of our venture, returning to the capital from a mission designated by his Majesty himself.

Upon travelling the long distance, we decided to take a rest.

The knights and soldiers accompanying me made their camps, while some surveyed the surrounding.

It was at that time, while I was resting inside the carriage that a knight came bursting in, panicked was evident from his face.

"Count! We encountered a group monsters blocking our road!" the knight reported.

I was not perturbed at that time, so I carelessly ordered the knight.

"Just get rid of them, a few monsters wouldn't be a match to our soldiers anyway"

But the knight didn't budge an inch. Feeling that he wants to say something, I urges the knight.

"What is it?"

The knight upon asked hesitated but eventually answered.

"That is... We counted them..."

"And? Speak faster captain"

"And, they numbered in hundreds, Count"

"Hundreds? What kind of monsters?"

I was shocked at the numbers but the knights and soldiers accompanying me are elites of our Kingdoms, just a few hundreds wouldn't take them down, but a few might lost their lives and many would be injured.

"Night Wolves, sir" the knight captain answered.

"That is a big problem..." I muttered.

A single Night wolf can be killed even if you're low leveled, with the use of items such as alchemic bombs, flame magic, light magic and such are the weaknesses of them.

But if they grouped up, they could kill even a veteran warrior if they're not careful. The might of the Night Wolves, came not from their individual strength, but like any other pack of wolves, from their numbers.

And if hundreds of them gathered it would mean that a strong 'Alpha' was nominated, and them being outside of their hunting zone, the Seira Forest, would only mean one thing.

"Could they be planning on attacking the villages?"

"It's highly likely, sir"

"Then, we should move, we can't let those monsters feast on our Kingdoms' citizens"

"But Sir Count. We only only numbered in 50, we couldn't fight those wolves, especially now that's it's beginning to turn dark" the knight spoke.

I turned my gaze outside the carriage. The sky is slowly but surely being dyed in the color of the night.

"Then, we should wait for the morning to come, tell everyone to stay ale-"

*Hoooowl!* *Hoooowl!*

*Boom!* *B-b-boom!*

I ordered the knight, but before I could finished my command, the sounds of howling accompanied by the sounds of explosion stopped me from talking.

"GROOOAAR!"

Then an ear-splitting roar, that made my body froze for a second erupted.

"Sir, they're here" the knight spoke, beads of sweat can be seen on his forehead.

"Notify the troops! Don't engaged the enemy! Group up and defend each other!" I roared, the sounds of howling overlapped with my voice.

"Ha!" the knight captain saluted, before rushing outside the carriage.

I could only make out the words he spoke.

-----

The knights and soldiers fought their hardest, the onslaught of the unending barrage of monsters didn't let up.

As it's currently night time, even if we're outside the Seira Forest, the ability of the Night wolves to blend in the darkness made it harder for us to fight back, there were no mages accompanying us, the scholars we brought that could use magic were now doing their missions.

Even if the knights that accompanied us can use magic, none could use fire or light attributed magic, the best they could do was wind attributed magic.

The situation turned for the worst, the moment the surrounding was caught on fire, from the unknown explosions.

But due to the fire, the barrage of the wolves stopped. I could see them growling from the other side of the fire. It was like we were being protected by the fire itself.

But that didn't mean that the danger was gone, the fire that seem to protect us at first was now slowly crawling its way towards us.

"What do we do now?" A soldier spoke.

We could leave at that time, and let the fire devoured the wolves, but the wolves that might escape could attack the nearby villages, and we couldn't just let that happen.

"Gregor" I called out.

"Sir count?" Gregor, the knight captain that reported to me earlier looked towards me.

"Take a group of 20 men, and go the nearest villages that could be reached by the wolves tonight" I ordered.

"Are we going to put soldiers and knights on the villages? Sir count?"

I nodded my head, I then looked towards the other side of the flame.

"The wolves are chasing someone, we don't know the reason why, but that person was surely the reason for the fire"

"Does that mean that the remaining few would stay here? Sir count?" Gregor spoke.

"Yes, we would fell the trees that caught on fire so that it would not spread much further. And your group would clean up the wolves that would escaped, make sure no one dies".

"Ha!"

"""Ha!"""

The moment Gregor saluted, the rest of the soldiers and knights followed suit.

"Go" I commanded.

The 20 men, a mixture of knights and soldiers move out, as soon as the command was given. Riding their horses the knights moved their separate ways accompanied by a few foot soldiers.

"Now, make sure you don't get caught in the fire! Start felling the tree!"

"""Ha!"""

The rest that remained, then started their jobs. We fell the trees that would soon be caught on fire, making distance to the further trees.

The fire didn't stopped its fierceness as we continue to fell the trees, some wolves would jump over the fire, but we immediately made a skewer out of them.

The continuous explosion would take my attention whenever they occur.

'Whatever they are chasing isn't helping in making the fire stop'

The sounds of howling and the ear-splitting roar would be heard in intervals, and sometimes a different sound would reverberate through the area, the sound of shrieking and yelling could be heard as well.

"An elf? Dwarf? Beast-kin? Or a human?" the soldiers would sometimes said.

Ultimately we finished with our job, but the continuous explosion said otherwise.

"Be alert, we don't know where and when the 'Alpha' would appear" I ordered and the troops simply nodded their heads, no more words were needed.

We continue to wait for either of the sounds to stop.

The time passed, and the dawn eventually came.

Due to the fierceness of the blazing fire, dark clouds covered the night sky and rain poured down. We had to fight the wolves that were able to jumped over the shrinking blaze.

Dozens and dozens of corpses of black litter the battlefield, where smokes of white rises from here and there.

The sound of explosions are gone, the howling of the wolves disappeared along with it. And the ear-splitting roar of the chosen 'Alpha' of the wolves were nowhere to be heard.

The blazing fire left with scorched earth and ashes in its wake.

Some of the soldiers and knights were heavily injured, but none died.

The soldiers and knights that were ordered to protect the villages returned after the confirmation of the Night wolves disappearance. None of them died as well.

When the 3 suns that lit the morning sky reached their peeks, the troops were then able to take their rest.

Mountain of black corpse, scorched earth from here and there, and the ashes that were left over by teh flames, became their scenery.

"This night is one of the night I would never forget" A soldier spoke.

I also feel the same, though I'm glad that none of them died, I couldn't helped but be worried about the soldiers that were heavily injured.

If worse comes to worst, they wouldn't be able to return back from being a soldier and might live their lives lying on their beds.

"Gregor" I called out.

"Sir count?"

"Take a few men with you, those who are not fatigued and look for a healer in the nearby villages, if there's a priest, show them my insignia"

"At your command" Gregor then left, taking 3 knights with him.

We need to move immediately so that the heavily injured can be treated, but due to the long night fighting the wolves and putting out the fire, added with the clean up of the corpses, the soldiers and knights have no strength to move.

I also needed to burn the corpses till ash remain, so that poison and undead does not appear.

'We have a lot to do' I thought at that time.

I stood up from where I was seated, and began to walk. The soldiers and knights upon seeing me, stood up from their place, but they needed rest more than I do.

"You may rest longer, I'm just going to scout the surrounding" I tell them.

"But sir count, it might still be dangerous, take a few men with you" A knight spoke.

"It's fine, you all should rest. Despite how I look, I'm still a count of the Memphis Kingdom, also, burn the pile of corpses here" I reassured the troops.

"..." the knight didn't speak any further as I let out my killing intent.

It's better for them to rest, they would only become hindrances if they follow me.

Thinking that, I made my way towards the place I saw the explosion.

'There's burned corpses here' I thought.

"Not a single one of wolves have wounds other than the burned parts. It looks like some kind of dragon went wild in this area"

No matter where I looked, all I could see was ashes and corpses, there were also trees that continue to turn ablaze, but I fell it down.

The number of corpse here is much more noticeable compared to ones at our camp.

The further I go the more corpses I see, but I could also see some differences to them.

"This one looks liked its been stabbed, this one too..."

The corpses of the wolves in this area now doesn't have anymore burns, almost all of them have deep wounds from a sharp sword.

Looking at the corpses I plunged my hand at the wounds to determine the weapon used.

"But the dept... It looks like the person who did this used a dagger"

'A dagger to fight Night wolves? Surely the skin of the night wolves aren't sturdy compared to the other element attributed wolves, but using a dagger would take him to a disadvantage due to their numbers, maybe a last ditch effort...?'

Contemplating on why the person used a dagger, I dived deep into the sea of thoughts, but before I could move any deeper, a howl woke me up from my thoughts.

"Night wolves?" I said, looking to the direction of the sounds.

'The person who did this is still alive?!'

Doubt, began to surfaced in my thoughts. Just the sheer number of the piled up corpses made me think that the person those wolves were chasing is now dead.

Night Wolves, are monsters who can recognized strength, if they didn't fell back despite the uncountable number of their fallen comrades, it only means that their prey is much weaker than them, or the 'Alpha' is much more intelligent and stronger than them.

"OOAAAAHHHH!!"

A scream reverberated into the surrounding.

'He's alive' I thought.

Upon hearing the scream, unconsciously, my body rushed towards it. I don't know why, but I felt that I was being drawn towards the scream.

Arriving at the scene. I saw a pack of night wolves injured, they growled towards the person infront of them.

My eyes immediately looked towards the direction the night wolves were glaring, there, I saw you.

"You bastard... *cough*  you taught I'd die with just that?!"  

Standing in a mountain of corpses colored in black.

 "HAHaHAHHAHAHA! YOU WOULD NEED MORE OF THIS DOG BASTARDS TO KILL MEE!!"  

White smokes, rises from the corpses around you.

 "I WON'T LET A SINGLE ONE OF YOU F*CKERS PASS!!"  

Your body tattered, blood continuously poured out of the countless wounds.

 "TIME FOR THE SECOND ROUND!" 

 Yet you stand firm, holding two small daggers in each your hands.

 "COME!!!" 

Your eyes, fierce like a talon eyeing its prey.

 "GROOOAARRR!!!" 

And the battle between you and the wolves began once again.

I couldn't take a single step as I watched your fight.

The uncountable wounds that covered your body made me doubt if you were still alive, but the scene that I saw then answered my doubts.

The nimble movements you showed, despite the deep wounds on your leg that even bones could be seen.

The handling of the two daggers, although rough has its beauty as well.

The pressure you exude, the extreme bloodlust, and the fierce eyes of a hunter.

Those things answered my doubts.

You were still alive, barely, but still moving.

I continued to watch your fight, not even taking a step back nor forward.

The wolves didn't care of my presence as well, they continued to attack you, despite passing right by myside.

It was like I wasn't even around the scene of the battlefield.

Time passed, and a few knights arrived to where I am as well.

"Sir coun-" But before they could speak, the pressure that exudes from your body, made them took a step back.

I don't know if you saw us that day, but even after you've won the fight, your eyes was still as fierce as the time I saw them.

After fighting, you turned around  and started to walk, but before you could take a few more steps, you collapsed.

-----

"And that's how I took you in" The man, Rudolf spoke.

"..." Despite hearing the words from the man himself, he still couldn't remember anything besides the part where Lara and Rabbit was chased by the wolves.

"It seems you still can't remember. Maybe the trauma of the fight made you forget about what happened. That happened sometimes after a fierce war"

"I'm thankful, sir count" John said, trying to bow his head.

"Don't worry about it, you prevented the wolves from attacking the other villages right? So we should be the one thanking you" Rudolf said, joy could be felt from his words.

'I think I'm one of the reasons why they tried to attack tho...' John thought to himself.

"Still, Sir count. If it weren't for your benevolence I wouldn't be breathing right now" John said, his void-like eyes peered into Rudolf's'

'This kid... His eyes truly differ from the time I saw them... Is he some kind of psychopath who enjoy killing and fighting?' Rudolf thought to himself.

"I'm glad you felt that way, take some rest for now, your body isn't fully healed yet. I'll come back again when I have the time, just ring this bell if you need something" He said, putting down a small silver bell.

"I'm truly grateful, Sir Count" John once again tried to bow his head.

Rudolf upon seeing Johns' action smiled.

"Hmm" Was all he said, before turning back, he didn't take the lamp with him.

John stared at Rudolf's' back, until he can no longer see it.

'I need to know what truly happened' he thought.

He didn't trust what Rudolf had said, he couldn't remember anything that's why he didn't trust anything he said.

'I might be turned into a puppet following the command of someone he own his life to, I need to act for now and took as much information I could get' he thought

"But first. I need to sleep" Saying so,

John closed his eyes.

Unbeknownst to him that the person he encountered would be one of the few pillars that would greatly helped him during his Journey.