Chapter 239: Into the Deep Forest

They would have made excuses, found reasons to be busy, suddenly remembered urgent tasks elsewhere.

One of them would have claimed a sudden stomach ache, another would have remembered an important family matter, a third would have insisted their bowstring needed replacing and they couldn’t possibly shoot without a proper one.

Or they would have complained about hand pains and explained in great detail why hands were critical for shooting: the grip, the draw, the release... y’know... the steady aim that required healthy fingers and wrists.

They would have produced a dozen reasons, each one more creative than the last, all designed to avoid stepping into that part of the forest.

The forest was dangerous enough on its edges, but the deep parts?

Where Yuimons and Horned Olfs roamed? That was death territory.

The narration from Seren alone was enough to make seasoned hunters hesitate.

Creatures that could crush a man with a single blow, beasts that moved like shadows and struck without warning.

They weren’t ready to die for a training exercise. No amount of practice was worth their lives.

But with the Baron coming? That changed everything.

They had seen what Darion could do. They had heard the stories, witnessed the battles, felt the ground shake under the weight of his undead army.

They had seen him walk through danger like it was nothing, and had seen him command creatures that would make anyone else run in terror.

If he was coming, they felt safe. They felt like they had a chance. They felt like they would survive.

They were very rest assured that none of them would die.

The Baron wouldn’t let that happen.

So they gathered their bows, checked their arrows, and waited with a nervous energy that was half excitement and half fear.

They were going into the deep forest with the Baron. It was the kind of story they would tell for the rest of their lives.

Their children would hear about it. Their grandchildren too. They would sit around fires and say: "I once hunted with Baron Darion of Percvale." And everyone would listen and be like:

"Woahh!"

———

They entered the forest.

The treeline swallowed them quickly, the morning light fading into a dim, green-filtered gloom.

The archers had trained in the courtyard and on rooftops, had practiced their shots against stationary targets and moving ones.

They had even trained in the forest before, with two knights as escorts, on a hunt that had turned out to be one of the most successful since Darion became Baron.

That hunt had been different though. That had been on the edges, where the creatures were manageable, where the danger was real but not overwhelming.

This was the deep forest!

A place where many dangerous creatures lay. Very dangerous, where the average human would die, even the strongest combat human.

How was a human supposed to go against a Yuimon? A single Yuimon could crush a man with one blow, its armored body impervious to most weapons.

And twelve Yuimons at once? That was not a fight. That was annihilation. They would tear through a group of trained soldiers like they were nothing, their circular mouths grinding through bone and armor alike.

The fight would end so quickly that the victims wouldn’t even have time to scream.

Darion knew this better than anyone. He had faced Yuimons, and had barely survived with his undead army at full strength.

He had seen what they could do, and had felt the ground shake under their weight. He had no illusions about what would happen if the archers encountered something like that without him.

So he hung back from the group as they entered the treeline.

The archers moved forward in a loose formation, their bows ready, their eyes scanning the trees. Seren led them, her steps confident, her voice low as she gave instructions.

Darion stayed behind, his eyes on the shadows between the trees.

He reached into his inventory and quietly summoned the Slitherer and the original wolf. He gave no announcement or explanation, the undeads just appeared beside him, their green eyes glowing in the dim light.

The Slitherer’s armored body coiled slightly, its circular mouth opening and closing. The wolf stood still, its massive frame tense, its nose twitching.

The archers noticed. A few of them stopped walking, their eyes widening at the sudden appearance of the creatures.

One of them said something under their breath, a low mutter that might have been a prayer or a curse.

Another archer gripped his bow tighter, his knuckles white. They had seen Darion summon before, but seeing the Slitherer (a weird creature they hadn’t seen before) up close was something else entirely.

Seren turned and looked at the two creatures, then at Darion.

Her expression said she was used to this. She had been close to Darion of recent, and had seen him summon countless times. The sight of a half-flesh snake and an undead wolf no longer fazed her.

Darion told the Slitherer and the wolf to range ahead and to the sides, to react immediately to any threat.

They moved off into the trees without sound, their bodies disappearing into the shadows. The archers watched them go, their eyes tracking the movement of the creatures through the underbrush.

They spent a moment adjusting to the fact that they were now in a forest with a half-flesh tracking snake and an undead wolf somewhere in the trees around them.

Darion just walked forward. They followed.

The group settled into a rhythm. The forest was dense but manageable this close to the edge.

The trees were thick, their branches intertwining overhead, blocking out most of the sunlight. The ground was soft with years of fallen leaves, the air cool and damp.

The archers moved carefully, their eyes scanning the trees, their ears straining for any sound.

Darion walked at the back, his mind turning. He thought about what new creatures they could possibly meet.

The forest was full of things he hadn’t seen yet, creatures that lurked in the deepest shadows, waiting for prey.

The Slitherer and the wolf moved somewhere unseen, their presence a constant reassurance through the binding. Everything felt under control.

Then the wolf’s presence through the binding shifted. Not alarm exactly, but the specific change that meant something nearby was alive and large and had noticed them.

Darion stopped walking...