Brace For the Wolves Read online

  “Was it enough to avoid detection earlier?” I asked as we walked farther across the clearing. I could see the other refugees waiting for us deeper in the treeline. Either they wanted to see if we had survived our encounter or they were afraid to go deeper into the woods without us. But whatever their reasons were, I was just glad they were still alive.

  And I hoped I could keep them that way.

  “It may very well have been enough,” Karim admitted. “The monsters we had heard earlier have excellent tracking abilities, but if I heard Avalon’s last conversation with you correctly, then people have been avoiding those beasts for some time by hiding here. At any rate, our last foes were far more interested in you in the most recent battle,” he said that last part carefully.

  “Yeah, I noticed,” I said with a nod. “I’ll explain what I know when we get time, and I’m going to need you three to do the same. But basic needs are still a problem, especially since we don’t know the conditions of the other group of refugees.”

  So much to cover. But just do what you can for now, I told myself. You can process it all later.

  We caught up with our group of refugees at the second treeline, and I felt a strange sensation settle over me, as if I had been wrapped in a magical, invisible warm blanket. Then I felt a whumph as a small brown shape tackled my stomach.

  “Buddy Wes! Buddy Wes! You’re okay!”

  “Yes, Little Gabby,” I said after I caught my breath and gently pried the little girl off my stomach. “I had to make the bad things go away again.”

  “It’s scary when you’re not around, Buddy Wes,” the little girl sniffled, wrapping one of my arms around her.

  “I know, Little Gabby,” I said gently, as a string pulled somewhere inside my chest. “But sometimes I have to go so I can make things safe for everyone. Can you do me a favor, Gabby?”

  “What is it, Buddy Wes?” Gabby asked with another sniffle.

  “I need you to help me keep everyone calm, like I saw you do back in the dungeon.”

  “But that was easy, Buddy Wes. You had just come back!”

  “So I’ll have to keep coming back,” I told the little girl, afraid I had just made a promise I wouldn’t be able to keep. “But I have a lot of people to take care of, and I need all the help I can get to do that. Can you help me, Gabby?”

  It wasn’t fair of me to ask that of her. I knew that. But I also knew that right now none of us were in a fair situation, and if we didn’t all keep pulling more than our fair share then none of us would make it. Not when we were all trapped in a world we didn’t understand, hiding from things that hunted us in the night.

  Little Gabby sniffled a little more before she finally answered me.

  “Okay, Buddy Wes. I’ll try and be brave. But only because you’re my friend.”

  “Thank you, Gabby,” I smiled at her and gave her a hug. After I let her go, I turned to the rest of the refugees. “I’m told there are others here, and that you’ve met with them?”

  The woman who had spoken up before nodded.

  “A few of them came forward and asked if we were a new group. They asked if we had any food, but they left when we told them who rescued us.” She looked at me. “They said we had to be a trick, because people claimed everywhere that you had died for good.”

  Right. Weylin had told me about that rumor. She started speaking again before I could reply.

  “We know,” she said as she read my eyes. “We all saw you those times.” She shuddered, then bit her lip. “We’re glad they weren’t permanent. And that you came back and saved us.”

  I was afraid Gabby would start crying again, but then I remembered she was brand new to the dungeon, and that she hadn’t see me die yet. Then I remembered the other three girls weren’t brand new. And that they still wouldn’t look me in the eye.

  You’ll fix it later, I reminded myself. Back to work.

  “We’re going to need to make contact with them again,” I said firmly. “Did you see where they went? And sorry,” I added belatedly. “I’m probably going to ask this more than once. What’s your name?”

  “Emalee,” the brown-haired woman replied, giving me a carefully respectful nod. “And they just went deeper into the woods.”

  I turned to look at the three men for suggestions. Weylin nodded at me.

  “I should be able to track them without spooking them.”

  “Can he do that Avalon, or will they be hidden from him?”

  “Avalon recognizes all current inhabitants inside the shelter as non-hostiles. Concealment among the two groups is unnecessary and contrary to the wishes of the current Lord of Avalon.”

  “Thank you, Avalon,” I said, then thought of an idea. “Would you be able to just direct us to their location?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “That works too,” Weylin said with a shrug. “I’ll keep an eye on our rear in case the Horde find a way in.”

  “Hopefully that won’t happen,” I said with a nod. “But good idea.”

  We picked our way through the misty foliage. As we walked deeper inside, we began to see mist filter back up from the ground. Much of the mists in Avalon had left when the world fell to Rhodes’ organization, the Order of Malus. Now that their portal and most of their cultists were gone, it had begun returning, albeit very slowly. Here, though, it plumed up to where it almost resembled Avalon at its normal state. The plant life seemed the better for it, sparkling with hydrated health wherever the mist touched it, and I finally began to hear night animals sing and chirp high over me.

  Finally, after about half an hour of picking my way through the mists I was able to see signs of civilization. The ruined marble pillars and columns I was used to seeing started to rise up in front of me, resembling Athenian-style ruins. Just past them were a few buildings of white stone that actually had partial roofs and walls with windows. The white mist glowed just enough to admit light, and in that dim light I saw fearful eyes sparkle and dart behind windows and doorways.

  Right, I thought. How do I do this?

  “My name is Wes Malcolm, formerly of Earth, now of Avalon,” I called out after a moment. “I’m the Challenger the other traitors from Earth said was permanently dead. You can examine my Deeds and Renown if you don’t believe me. But we don’t have a lot of time for you to decide to believe me. You can either hide in these ruins while other people try to live here, or you can come out and help me make sense of things. But if you’re already looking for food—and we have some—then you probably are already in need of help. So come out and let me help you.”

  I sat there and waited for a few moments while my own refugees gathered around me. For an entire minute, no one answered me. Then a pale-skinned woman with straw-colored hair poked her head out.

  “Emalee?” she asked, eyes widening in shock.

  “Anna?” the woman who had spoken to me earlier replied.

  Both women walked forward, looking at each other.

  “I thought you were dead,” the brown-haired woman said. “We heard that your village was razed by the Earth-men.”

  “They took us here,” the other woman answered. “We were rescued as soon as we came here.”

  “By who?” I asked quickly. “Who rescued you all? How have you been safe here? And for how long?”

  The new woman looked at me and hesitated.

  “He’s real,” Emalee said quickly. “He saved us. He slaughtered our captors and the mage that tortured us.”

  Right, him, I thought. Rest in pieces, Mr. Shepherd. And if you ever come back I’m killing you again.

  “We’ve been here for weeks, at least,” Emalee’s friend replied. “But day and night pass oddly here, so we do not know exactly how long we have been here.” She pointed to the white fog billowing around our feet. “The beasts outside do not follow us here. We do not know why. But the one who saved us said we would be safe here.”

  “Who saved you?” I asked desperately. “And where are they? Are they safe themselves?
”

  “I don’t know,” Anna answered me. “All I know is that she was one of the Small Folk. She attacked and confused them with some sort of magic. Then she led us away as we fled from them.”

  “Small folk? As in one of the fairies? Was it Breena? Tiny, pretty, pale woman with spiky pink hair?”

  “She called herself that.” The woman nodded again. “And that was her appearance.”

  But she was supposed to be hiding…

  “Avalon, confirm the actions of Lady Breena of the Fair Folk. Is she still hiding at that same location?”

  “Confirmed.”

  “How long has she been hiding? Was she battling the Malus men before?”

  Malus men… that was probably a good name for them.

  Well, there were probably some women in the group, but I didn’t particularly care about giving them credit for it.

  “Data not found.”

  “You mean you didn’t have enough power before to monitor her movements?”

  “Confirming that surveillance was performed but all available power was spent restricting hostile life-forms in vicinity. Storage of data was deemed a secondary concern.”

  “Ugh,” I said placing a hand to my head. “Fine. But you can locate Breena now, right?”

  “Confirmed that Lady Breena is holding position in previously designated coordinates. Confirmed that hostiles are within vicinity but not currently in pursuit.”

  “Good…” I started to reply.

  “Update,” Avalon interrupted. “Hostile creatures are moving closer to Lady Breena’s position. Actions indicate they are gaining knowledge of her location.”

  “Dammit,” I swore. “That means I have to move.”

  Then I reminded myself I was still in charge of over fifty noncombatants, and hesitated.

  My first idea was to have one or all three of my new fighters stay here while I ran off either alone or with a much smaller group to save my friend. But the more I thought about it, the less helpful it seemed. About an hour ago we had slaughtered about forty enemies without breaking a sweat, but they had all gone straight for us. I personally didn’t have any real spells to protect others, and even my Earth spells could only catch a dozen or so monsters total. There just weren’t enough of us to protect all the non-combatants. That meant I had two real choices: make it to where I had fewer enemies, or gain more of my own combatants.

  Going after Breena accomplished both.

  “Avalon,” I asked after a moment. “Are any hostiles still near the shelter?”

  “Negative. Closest nearby hostiles are the ones currently closing in on Lady Breena’s location.”

  “Confirm if you can monitor their level of safety and alert me whenever nearby monsters or Malus men come within several miles of the shelter’s perimeter.”

  “Confirmed. Also confirming that Avalon has enough power to directly assist in concealing or guiding the refugees away from further danger.”

  “That settles it. Karim, Weylin, Eadric, you three are with me. Everyone else listen up,” I raised my voice. “Avalon can assist you right now directly and help you stay safe. If it tells you to do something, listen to it. I’m going to save the fairy that helped you get here. Don’t panic, just keep hiding like you’ve been doing until I come back with her. Understand?”

  The faces hiding in the doorways and windows still looked frightened, but I saw several nod. That had to be good enough.

  “Buddy Wes, are you going away again?” Little Gabby spoke up, with a crestfallen expression on her face. Her eyes made me wince.

  “Yes, Gabby, I have to go again. There’s a friend who will need my help. I’m going to bring her back here. I think you’ll like her a lot.”

  “Okay,” she said, after biting her lip. “Go save more people then, Buddy Wes. We’ll be rooting for you. Right, Valerie?” she asked the Earthborn girl next to her.

  The older girl, a young teen of Vietnamese descent that my parents had tried to adopt in the past just before she helped frame my dead father, didn’t answer her. She kept her head low and still didn’t make eye contact with me.

  “Right, Val?” Little Gabby tugged on her leg. “We’ll wait for him, right?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Val mumbled. I winced again.

  “Thanks. Val, Kayla, Sam, we’ll talk when we have time, but I need you to know that whatever happened wasn’t your fault. And I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to stop it.”

  I sounded like an asshole to myself, but I needed to reach out to them and I didn’t know what else to say. They all nodded at me again, but Little Gabby was still the only one to make eye contact with me.

  “Alright,” I said, shaking my head to get my focus back. “Let’s go. Avalon, can you augment again, like you did when I fought Cavus? Or have you already been doing that?”

  “Negative. Avalon is unable to augment a Challenger’s original body. Will assist in other means where possible.”

  “Good enough.” I turned to look at my new teammates. “I’ll lead the way. Weylin, can you help with our speed again?”

  The elf nodded, and as he began a light chant we all took off.

  As we took off, Karim jogged up next to me. I finally wondered how he had been moving so quickly in robes. Then I realized that they had long slashes coming up from the hem, allowing his leggings to move freely. That figured out, I stopped thinking so much about another man’s clothing.

  “A question for you,” the man asked he ran next to me.

  “Do you always chat during cardio?” I asked back at him. “Because I can’t decide whether that’s hardcore or just rude.”

  He actually had the stamina to snicker at that while we ran. Even after Rising so much, that was still a little intimidating to me. But he ignored my dirty look and kept talking.

  “I was going to ask about your connection with Avalon, specifically how the planet tells you whenever monsters are near you.”

  “Right, that,” I huffed back. “I can get at least a general idea about their location and numbers. Same for the Malus Members.”

  “Malus Members?” He raised an eyebrow at me, not even looking at the tree root he casually stepped over without even slowing down.

  “I was going to call them ‘Malus Men,’ but then I felt guilty about the fact that some of their worst members are actually women.”

  And yes, I had changed my stance on that issue. Shoot me.

  “An… interesting name,” Karim said slowly, making it clear he didn’t think the name was interesting or intelligent. “But I had noticed the fact that you seem to be able to sense them, and they seem to be able to find you.”

  “It seemed like those howlers were onto my scent. What are you suggesting?” And seriously dude, get to the point, I thought. We’re running almost full tilt here.

  Breena was in danger, so I was jogging as fast as I could.

  I should have gone for her sooner, I started to think, then hushed that anxious thought.

  “My point is that we won’t be able to evade contact when we rescue your friend,” Karim continued. “At best we will be in a position to land the first blow. But as soon as the monsters detect you in the vicinity, they will shout their name for you and come for us, or you, en masse.”

  “Fair point. Avalon, what is the ETA for our most likely contact?”

  “Contact imminent in twenty minutes. Possible contacts consist of 25 Ilklings, 10 Wretches, five Mongrels, and two unclassified Horde beings.”

  Weylin faltered a step.

  “Mongrels? And five of them?” His face became grim. “This could be very dangerous.”

  “Explain,” I said in spite of my desire to save my breath. “How do the Mongrels make up for the smaller numbers of other Horde?”

  There was less than a fourth of the number of Wretches we had battled before, and I had killed nearly a dozen Ilklings by myself, barehanded, back when I only had one Rise to my name. If the Mongrels were that much of a difference-maker, I needed to know.

/>   “They might not,” Eadric grunted as he kept up with us. “Mongrels range in strength from a grown human’s to a being on their first couple of Rises. They’re the first type of Horde that can get stronger on their own.”

  “You mean they can Rise, too?” I asked, concerned.

  “Sentients Rise,” Eadric answered with a shook of his head. “Monsters Descend.”