All around me was a scene of white. As I strolled around the thicket of trees, my vision remained clouded by the fog. For the last hour, the guttural howls of the foglings hadn’t subsided. However, the sound did seem to be getting farther away as time trickled on.
Every once in a while, I would quickly check up on the status of my party. Since they were given a respite, everyone seemed to look better off than before. Even Zeph who was patrolling with me had regained some of the color on her face. As for myself, I was more or less fine. During my time patrolling, I had been chewing on some jerky to replenish lost energy. My only complaint is that my boots feel a bit too wet for comfort.
When I deemed that we had a sufficient rest, I walked around our makeshift encampment and gathered the group around me.
“We’re leaving soon, does anyone object?” I asked quietly.
The other eight people gave each other quick glances before nodding their heads. Based on their appearance, I’m confident that our entire group has the energy to traverse out of the fog.
“Listen carefully, I’m going tell you all about the plan to get out of here,” I announced to the people huddled closely to me. “We’ll travel in a three by three formation with the civilian in the middle. I’ll take a vanguard position until we start moving away from the foglings. If their howls sound as though they are behind us, I’ll switch to rearguard. Zeph, I want you to be the person opposite to me at all times, so that you can protect the other side of the group in case anything happens.”
For a moment, my party considered the plan before giving their approval. Once we packed up our belongings, the nine of us silently formed up the formation. With the young woman in the center, I stood in front of her, Zeph was behind, and Sekh was to the left of the girl.
Instead of following the dog this time, our path was now determined by the marks that Sekh had imprinted on the ground. I have to thank her after we get out of here. Even in the fog, the marks on the ground were nice and big, making it easy to trace our path back out of the fog. Though there is the possibility that the foglings may move around and enclose our original position in fog as well.
Our journey in the fog continued as it had before. Every time my foot tapped the ground, I could feel the uncomfortable moisture wrapping around my toes, like an obnoxiously chilly worm had hitched a ride in my boots. Frustrated, I tightened my grip on my spear.
Unlike me, the rest of my party was far more terrified of the foglings than foot fungus. Although they had recollected themselves during our respite, the looks of terror had already resurfaced on their faces.
We continued the perilous journey for what felt like an eternity. The ever constant fog and negligible change in the terrain made it feel as though we were just traveling in a circle. The only reason we believed that we were making headway was the trail of marks that Sekh had made.
Along the way, our group encountered the crocodile from before. However, the overgrown lizard was no longer stationary. Now, the scaly mass was patrolling about the marshland, possibly in search of a meal.
Once again, I was presented with the option of just murdering the crocodile, a somewhat dangerous task considering the circumstances. Although I wanted to just hack apart the dumb reptile, I had to consider the safety of my party. As such, we ended up circling around the crocodile for a second time.
The next notable landmark should then be the trail of dried blood that lay somewhere up ahead. But as we journeyed on towards it, the guttural sounds of the foglings had grown even louder than before. To be more accurate, two sources appeared to be nearing while the other maintained a constant volume.
I silently motioned for my companions to halt and used the opportunity to place myself at the front right of our formation, the spot closest to the source of the noise. If I can use the reach on glaive, I should be able to fend off a fogling if it attacks us. However, an attack from two individuals would require back up from my companions, since I’m no longer as ridiculously powered as I once was.
But when I looked back at my party, doubts began to arise. Everyone looked positively horrified. Almost half of our number had closed their eyes in fear, while the rest weren’t much better. A few, including the girl in the middle, had tears silently streaming down their faces. I even heard someone utter a quiet prayer to the goddess Sol.
Left with little choice, I was forced to slow down the pace of the party to avoid the possibility of stragglers. The result was a slow crawl towards our destination. As nerve wracking as our pace was, I doubt that moving faster was possible.
Fortunately, our party was able to barely hold out under the pressure. Our weakest link, the girl in the center, was currently being comforted by Sekh. The sight brought a smile to my face. I really hope that we can exit the fog soon. Not only would I like to deliver the girl to her parents, but I’d also like to clean my boots and give Sekh plenty of hugs.
Fuck, my mind has started wandering. After so long in this damned fog, I’m starting to feel the mental strain just like my companions. Though unlike my companions, I felt far more angry than fearful, like a lion being backed into a corner.
Almost as though it was responding to my emotions, one of the howls grew far more loud than before. One of those damn things was closing in on us now.
Immediately, I raised my hand for my party to stop. After signaling for Zeph to clear the fog with her wind magic, I strolled forward in the direction of the noise. With my spear held at the ready, I prepared for the coming clash.
And suddenly a harsh noise rang out through the air. “Rrrrraaaaaaaaaaa!”
The splitting sound felt as though it would rip through my eardrum. Behind me, I heard screams of pain and horror from my party. But I didn’t have time to calm them down.
From the edge of the mist came a familiar figure. At first, the outline was that of a human shape, but hunched over with long arms and jagged nails. Once it came into view, I saw a 200 cm tall ape-like creature with cruel fangs, a shabby white mane, and dull greyish skin. Then in the blink of an eye, it hurtled towards me with the intent of killing.
Both of its long arms tore through the air, their destination being my armored torso. Behind those arms was the fogling’s open mouth, its razor sharp teeth ready to rip me apart once I was pinned down.
But I was the one who outranged it. With a violent thrust, I slammed the blade of my spear into the fogling’s face. The moment my weapon had impaled itself upon the creature’s ugly visage, I swung my polearm to the ground in a harsh motion. Dragged along with my glaive, the fogling’s head came crashing into the marshy ground, a pained scream ringing out from its throat. Even if the creature had the unusual durability of many monsters, it was quickly silenced when I cleaved its skull in half as it lay helpless on the ground.
As the fogling’s blood seeped into the already wet ground, I made a sudden declaration to the creature’s fellows that still prowled the misty marsh.
“Listen here you shit eating monsters!” I violently yelled into the fog. “That fucker that just attacked me is now dead. So you better enjoy the time you have left, since I’ll be coming for your heads!”
When I looked back at my companions, I was greeted by eight shocked faces. Some stared in disbelief at the dead fogling, some gave me wide eyed looks, and some had pissed their pants.
Perhaps my little declaration to the monsters was overboard. But that’s fine, the contents of my speech were irrelevant. Had I screamed that I wanted Sekh to peg me, I would have still achieved a similar result, with the foglings at least. All I had to do was demonstrate to the foglings that there was a loud and healthy human after they heard the death throes of their compatriot. And because foglings aren’t very brave, this should be enough to dissuade the monsters from attacking us as we continue our journey.
Once we had collected ourselves, my party went back into formation, with me standing as a rearguard now. Shortly after, our group came along the trail of dried blood, our last landmark until we leave this damnable place. We were now more than halfway of the distance from our checkpoint.
Fortunately, our pace had picked up substantially since I slew that fogling. I almost wanted to break out into a run as we came ever closer to our destination.
“I see the exit!” Zeph suddenly screamed.
Without waiting, she unleashed her magic on the fog around us. As the misty air was cleared, our entire group gazed at the sight of plain, unclouded land. Furthermore, one hundred meters in front of us was the place where we had begun our journey, the indents that Sekh made stopping there.
All of us, myself included, ran towards the fog free plains. Above us, the moon was in the shape of a crescent, almost as though it was smiling at the sight of our victory.
“Thank Sol,” a number of of militiamen cried when they made it into the open.
Beside them, the young woman that we pulled out was sobbing hysterically into Seth’s shoulder.
“We’re finally out,” I said to Zeph as we stood under the moonlit sky.
"So we are,” Zeph sighed with an exhausted expression.
Suddenly, a thought popped up in my head. Even though we had been traveling for hours, the promised reinforcements had yet to arrive. Had we waited for them, who knows if we could have found the missing girl in time.
“Excuse me,” the young woman said to our group nervously. “I’m so thankful that you came to save me. I don’t know what I could have done without you all.”
“It’s alright, we were only helping someone who was in danger,” Sekh replied cheerily. “Besides, we still need to take you home to your parents.”
“Th...thank you,” the young girl responded with teary eyes. “I know the way there so let me lead the way.”
“We’ll come along,” one of the militiamen announced.
Thus the nine of us trekked towards the girl’s home. Compared to the fog filled marsh, the road to the farm was a very welcome change of pace.
“How are you feeling?” I asked Zeph as we were on the way to the young woman’s home.
“I’m… fine,” Zeph said while avoiding eye contact.
Ideally Sekh would be the person to help out with this, but the leopard girl is currently occupied with the young lady that we had rescued. So I guess I’m the next best person, mainly because I’m the only other option. I placed my hand on Zeph’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring look when she peered at my face. A risky maneuver for sure, but I think I’m good looking enough to not get reported to the authorities.
“That fog...I don’t ever want to go back,” Zeph sighed while closing her eyes.
“Don’t worry about it,” I assured her. “Once the reinforcing guards come, I’ll join them in removing those monsters. But I have no intention of bringing you along against your will.”
“Thanks,” Zeph replied after a long silence. “Um...I know this is out of the blue, but I’m glad that you were the one leading our party. I don’t know what we could have done without you.”
“I’m glad then,” I said warmly. “But you were an important member as well. If you hadn’t cleared the fog back then, I wouldn’t have been able to kill that fogling so easily.”
In response, Zeph gave a small but satisfied smile.
“Iblis, you’re a bit unusual you know?” Zeph remarked after a while.
“Really, how so?” I asked back.
“You didn’t look scared at all when we were in the fog,” she informed me. “Did you not feel afraid?”
“Nope,” I replied casually. “Not sure why, but I haven’t really felt fear in situations like that.”
“Have you ever felt scared before?” Zeph asked in surprise.
“Absolutely,” I replied. “I don’t want to talk about it though.”
“It must have been bad,” she observed with wide eyes. “I can’t even imagine something worse than what happened today.”
Well I just remembered something that fit the criteria. Let’s hope I don’t ever have to go through that again.
Before long, our group came into sight of a medium sized stretch of farmland. At the edge of the fields was a farmhouse and adjacent barn.
“We’re finally here,” the young girl announced to the group. “Thank you all so much.”
As we neared the farmhouse, I could hear hurried footsteps inside the building. Just like I expected, the parents of the girl burst out the farmhouse and pulled their daughter into a tight hug.
“Thank goodness, I’m so glad,” the mother cried as she embraced her daughter.
“We’ll be off then,” one of the militiamen announced. “Now that everything is fine, we’ll be going home to our own families.”
“Please come back sometime,” the mother said to the watchmen. “I’m sorry for getting upset at you back then. I was just so worried about our daughter.”
“It’s fine,” the militiaman replied. “The only reason we could rescue her was because you had brought those mercenaries along.”
Even so, these men were good people. Despite losing a comrade, they still persisted with their tasks, albeit with some encouragement. At the very least, I hope I can find Markos' body and give him a proper burial.
“Mom, I actually wanted to introduce you to someone,” the young girl said while beaming. “Her name is Sekh and she’s my hero.”
Wait a minute, did I just get completely forgotten? Actually, we all got sidelined, even Zeph who is an actual mage.
“I wasn’t the only one there,” Sekh said nervously while waving her hands. “Everyone here played an important role.”
“Never thought there would be a day that I'm thankful towards sellswords,” the father of the girl said. “But I want to repay all of you for what you did. We’ll happily pay with coin. Would 5 silvers per person be enough? I know it’s not much, but we’re farmers.”
“No please don’t,” Zeph suddenly answered. “There’s no need to pay. I just helped a person in need, that was all.”
“Are you sure?” the man asked in surprise.
“Absolutely,” Zeph replied.
“Yeah, there’s no need to pay us,” I informed the man. “However, would it be alright with you if we could stay the night at your house?”
“Please do,” the man responded. “You can stay for breakfast at least.”
“Sure,” I answered. “But please don’t go overboard with it, you'll make us feel bad.”
The couple and their daughter nodded in response, but I have no faith in their promise. If I’m not careful, they might end up slaughtering a pig just for us.
“I’ll show you to your rooms right away,” the young girl said happily as she led us into her house. “We have a single free room, but the girls can stay in my room if they want.”
Seems like her offer doesn’t extend to me. Maybe Sekh should have been chosen as a hero instead of me. She certainly seems better at it than me.
“It’s fine, me and Iblis will share a room,” Sekh said as she pressed herself on my side.
“Are you two lovers?” the young girl asked as she looked at me and Sekh with curiosity.
“Mhmm,” Sekh replied while nodding happily.
“That’s wonderful,” the girl responded with a bright smile.
Hopefully this girl is sane and doesn’t get any funny ideas about changing my state of existence. Hopefully.
“Zeph, you should stay with us tonight,” Sekh said suddenly. “Don’ worry, we’re just going to sleep, nothing else.”
“If you say so,” Zeph replied suspiciously. “How come you want me to stay with you anyways?”
“It’ll be more fun with more people,” Sekh said cheerily.
In the face of such a strong opponent, Zeph had no choice but to follow along. Before we went to sleep, the three of us quickly cleaned ourselves and removed our soggy footwear. Since we didn’t have hot water, we just had Zeph blow away the grime with warm wind. Not particularly effective, but it worked out. But when I went to the barn to get our bedrolls to use in our barebones room, I noticed that Sekh had silently followed me.
“What’s the matter?” I asked her.
Without speaking, Sekh just came up to me and wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed her face into my chest.
“I... was really scared back there,” Sekh confessed to my torso. “Azel, all I wanted to do was just hold onto you when we were in the fog. I wanted you to wrap your arms around me and tell me that everything would be alright.”
“Sekh, I’m...sorry,” I said while nervously stroking her head. “You know I would have done so if it was possible.”
“I know,” Sekh replied. “That’s why I tried to be brave. Because I knew I had to be strong so that I wouldn’t hold you back.”
“You were really brave,” I cooed to the leopard girl. “Maybe I forgot to tell you, but I couldn’t have done it without you. So you weren’t holding me back, not in the slightest.”
Sekh just sniffled a bit in response and when I reached down at her cheek, I could feel that they were wet with tears.
“Come on,” I said warmly. “Let’s get ready to sleep. I’ll give you all the hugs and kisses that you want.”
Suddenly, Sekh looked up at me, her eyes red and her nose now leaking.
“Hold off on the kisses,” she said to me. “Zeph is going to be in the room with us.”
“My bad, I forgot,” I replied while wiping her face with my shirt.
since I’m longer as ridiculously powered as I once was.
I'm no longer
"I'm longer" - longer
Glad you found some work mate.
Enjoying the story as always, and keen for more.
My actual reason for working is to stack up my resume for school. I've also been slowing down since I cook for my family at home, which I don't have the chance to do in college.
As long as the story keeps getting released I’m happy I’m quite invested in their story now.