Chapter 461: The Golden Boy Draws His Sword

By late afternoon, Rowan had stopped pretending they were following a single trail.

Rowan crouched beside a churned patch of mud and studied it for nearly a minute before rising.

"We shouldn’t continue northwest from here," he said, keeping his voice low as he pointed between two densely wooded ridges. "Too many trails are converging ahead. We’ll circle west, find higher ground and see whether they’re crossing the same area or merely overlapping."

Lucan rested one hand on his sword hilt while examining the forest. After watching Mina stop an Ashback Wolf with her shield earlier, he had spent considerably less time joking about Greyfen.

"When the man who can apparently read mud starts avoiding a direction, I’ve decided to respect the mud," Lucan remarked, though his eyes remained on the trees rather than Rowan.

Mina grinned at him. "You’re learning."

Lucan gave her a wounded look. "Mina, I was educated by some of the finest tutors House Auremont could purchase. Please don’t speak as though I’ve only recently discovered thought."

Rowan’s expression hardened. "Multiple groups."

Iris looked toward the trees. "How many?"

"I don’t know yet," Rowan replied as he climbed onto a broad root and listened. "Enough that I don’t want us standing here when they meet."

They moved quickly toward a rocky rise ahead, but the forest gave them less time than Rowan wanted. A pair of Greyfang Jackals burst from the undergrowth first, racing past without even looking at the group. Three Razorhide Deer followed seconds later, one bleeding heavily from its hindquarters.

Mina instinctively shifted her shield, but Rowan caught her arm and shook his head. "Don’t attack anything that isn’t attacking us. They’re fleeing."

A roar rolled through the forest and the fleeing animals scattered, then everything became chaos.

An Ironhide Boar smashed through a young tree to their right, followed by another twice its size. Ashback Wolves appeared farther downhill. Several long-limbed creatures with black claws came from the opposite direction, driven from cover by whatever had sent the wolves running.

None belonged together, yet fear had compressed them into the same stretch of forest until territorial instinct finally overwhelmed panic.

The first boar saw the group and charged.

"Mina, take it!" Sage ordered as he moved toward the center. "Iris, control the left! Rowan, watch our rear! Lucan...."

"I see them," Lucan replied, and his sword was already leaving its sheath.

Three black-clawed beasts came down the slope toward Iris.

Lucan intercepted them.

The change in him was immediate.

The young noble who complained about mud, wore clothes worth more than some houses and treated being the Capital’s first Adventurer as a personal achievement simply disappeared. Lucan lowered his center of gravity, his golden hair falling partly across his eyes as pale mana flowed along his sword.

The first creature lunged for his throat. He shifted half a step rather than retreating, let its claws pass his shoulder and drove his blade through the softer flesh beneath its jaw.

He didn’t pause to admire the kill.

The second beast came from his left. Lucan pulled his sword free, rotated with the motion and cut through its extended foreleg before it could land. When the creature collapsed, he stepped inside its reach and thrust directly through the eye.

The third hesitated but Lucan didn’t, he crossed the distance first.

A second wave reached them.

Mina met an Ironhide Boar head-on, although this time she didn’t simply stop it. She angled her shield at the final moment, mana surging through her legs as she redirected the charge past her body.

The boar stumbled, and Mina slammed her shield into the side of its skull with enough force to send it crashing through a bush. Rowan shouted a warning from behind her, and she ducked as an Ashback Wolf sailed over her head. Rowan’s blade opened its belly before it landed.

Iris raised both hands. The ground beneath four approaching wolves softened instantly, swallowing their legs almost to the knee. Before they could pull free, water ripped from a nearby stream in several narrow ribbons and wrapped around their bodies.

Iris clenched one hand, and the water tightened violently. "They’re restrained!" she called, already turning toward another threat rather than wasting mana finishing helpless targets.

Then Rowan shouted, "Right!"

Sage turned.

A massive Ironhide Boar had come through the trees from an angle hidden by the slope. It wasn’t charging Sage.

It was heading directly for Iris. Iris had both hands extended toward the wolves she was restraining. She released the spell and tried to turn, but the boar was already too close.

Lucan moved first.

He crossed between them and shoved Iris sideways.

The boar’s tusk caught him across the ribs.

Lucan twisted enough to avoid being impaled, but the impact still lifted him from the ground and threw him several yards. He struck a tree hard enough to shake leaves from its branches.

"Lucan!" Mina shouted, her expression changing instantly.

The boar tried to turn toward him.

Lucan was already forcing himself upright.

Blood ran down the right side of his coat where the tusk had torn through fabric and flesh. His face tightened when he straightened, but his grip on the sword remained steady. The humor was completely gone from his eyes.

"Don’t worry about me," Lucan ordered as Mina started toward him. He glanced once at Iris, confirmed she was standing, then focused on the boar. "Kill what’s in front of you."

The boar charged again.

Lucan stepped forward. Golden mana surged along his sword, brighter than before, while a second current moved through his legs. Sage recognized the structure of a refined Knight technique immediately. Lucan waited until the final instant, then moved diagonally past the tusks with such precise timing that the boar missed him by inches.

His sword flashed once. A deep cut appeared behind the monster’s front leg.

Lucan turned before the boar completed its momentum and struck again at exactly the same place. The second slash went deeper. When the creature staggered, Lucan drove his blade through the opening and into its chest.

The boar collapsed.

Lucan pulled his sword free, took one breath and immediately looked around for the next threat.

Eventually the last surviving monsters broke away.

Rowan didn’t pursue them.

"Enough," he called, breathing heavily as he watched the trees. "Let them run."

Silence returned gradually as bodies covered the slope.

Iris immediately crossed toward Lucan. "Sit down."

Lucan looked at the blood along his side and attempted a smile. "I appreciate your concern, Iris, but I’ve suffered worse."

Iris pointed toward a rock. "Sit down before I use Earth Magic to make you."

Lucan considered her expression and sat.

Mina approached while Iris opened the field medical supplies. She stared at Lucan for an unusually long time, then looked at the dead Ironhide Boar, then back at him.

Lucan noticed. "What?"

Mina narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "You’re actually useful."

Lucan looked personally wounded.

"Actually useful?" Lucan repeated, placing one hand against his chest until the movement pulled at his injury and made him wince. "Mina, I have been trained in swordsmanship since I was six years old."

Mina folded her arms. "You mostly talk about money."

"Because I have money," Lucan replied indignantly. "That doesn’t mean I spent my childhood rolling around on it."

Rowan cleaned his sword nearby and glanced toward them. "You probably tried."

Lucan turned toward him. "Once. I was eight. It was considerably less comfortable than expected."

Even Iris laughed at that while pressing a folded cloth against Lucan’s wound.

For Sage, that instinct mattered almost as much as everything Lucan had shown today.

Sage looked toward the torn coat and bloodied bandage as Iris finished wrapping his side. "You can still move?"

Lucan rose carefully, tested his weight and gave Sage a small nod. "Yes. It hurts, but nothing feels broken. I’ll survive."

Mina adjusted her shield and looked up at him. "Good. I haven’t decided you’re useful enough to die yet."

Lucan stared at her. "Your concern is overwhelming."

Mina grinned.

Rowan had already moved away from the bodies.

He crouched near the edge of the battlefield where several different sets of tracks entered the clearing. After studying them, he looked north.

Sage recognized the expression.

"What now?" Sage asked.

Rowan pointed toward the churned earth. "Wolves came from northeast. Boars from north. The black-claws came from northwest."

Iris finished packing the medical supplies. "Different territories."

"Very different," Rowan replied. "But they all converged here because they were moving away from the same general area."

Lucan rested his sword against his shoulder, his earlier humor fading again. "Then we’re getting close."

Rowan looked into the trees ahead.

"Yes," he said, his expression grim. "Close enough that whatever frightened them is starting to push entire territories on top of each other."

For the first time since entering Greyfen, nobody looked south.

Every eye turned north.