Chapter 1227 Chapter 1227 Packed to the Brim
"I can finish the story if you want March, you've told me before," offered Burgandy.
March shook her head and said, "No. It's my story and I will end it. I am not so much hurt by it… as I am sad about what it means. I didn't exactly go into the details, but Alex and Alice were my friends. Sometimes I would feel like a third wheel of course, or their mother… but they were good people. Still are probably, I once again, I don't mean to imply their dead or anything…
"But sometimes I wonder if that would almost be better. I'll get to that part later I suppose. It's… perhaps it's really rude of me to think it would be better. They just ended up so resigned after the mission. Anyway, my point was that… they mean a lot to me those two. I never cared for the adventuring profession all that much. It just seemed like the most convenient way to become strong.
"I still don't know if staying an adventurer for the rest of my life is what I want, but I at least feel as though I'm doing good work. It doesn't exactly take much to keep me content but I no longer feel just 'content' with my duties these days. So there is that. Alas, I'm letting my thoughts wander. Perhaps I can convince you what I truly mean as I go… perhaps not. I have never been the best with words."
*She seems fine with words to me? Is the translation magic helping her out or something?*
[No idea? Perhaps she's just being overly humble?]
Kat shrugged mentally as March continued with her story. "The cave they were operating out of was about three and a half days out by horse. Not something we had, so it was going to be quite a journey. We loaded up our camping gear as usual and set out. I carried all of my own provisions, plus a few extras, while Alex and Alice split the rest evenly. Not the fairest system perhaps but well… strength training," March said with a shrug. "So that was no problem.
"Then we set off. I could've probably made it in less then three days if I was pushing myself… but we needed to stay fresh in case of wolf attacks, and we were all still Rank 1. So we got to walking. It took us five days to reach the spot in question, but didn't encounter any problems on the road. Which was lucky, because this really was one of the first missions we were all taking out in anything approaching the wilds. We didn't even set up a watch schedule.
"A mistake, but not one we paid for, or even realised we'd made. Sure I had some advice from my parents… but I hadn't paid as much attention to the extra stuff honestly. Not sure if it would've helped here. I really did try to talk them out of it. Anyway, we made it to the marker on the road we'd been looking for. It was a rather obvious painted red line on a tree. Then we just had to follow the arrows for a bit.
"Took us… about two hours I want to say? From there we were downwind, luckily, of the cave and up on a bit of a hill a good distance away. Didn't see any wolves around, so we weren't too worried. That was probably a mistake as well. Anyway, after a bit of debate, it was decided that we'd sneak into the cave while the sun was in the sky,"
March sighed once again. "So before we get into that, let me go over our equipment. For a weapon I had a decent hammer. Not perfectly balanced, not the sturdiest… but damn heavy and good at it's job. Especially for Rank 1. As for armour? I had horribly bulky steel armour that hindered my movement massively. It was poor quality, but it did protect me well. Much harder to fight in… but I wanted to use it, in part, for strength training. It was a shit suit of armour, probably not worth the price I paid for it if I'm being honest…
"But it is certainly the reason everyone lived through the encounter. I likely would've survived myself. I could've run at any time, and perhaps, if circumstances were different I would've. I like to imagine I'm not such a coward, that I wouldn't run, that I'd fight to the end… but I was younger back then. Much less disciplined, and in the face of true death? Who can say what I'd have done.
"Alex, and Alice on the other hand, both had swords. Alex had this bastard sword, one and half hands, and much too big for the guy. Insisted on it though, and I didn't know enough about weapons to know just how poorly suited to it he was. Another mistake added to the pile I guess. Alice on the other hand, she had a rapier. Not because she favoured the weapon, but because the others were too heavy for her.
"Now, I don't begrudge her that. Training for speed instead of strength isn't my path, but it is one I know to be valid… but not if you refuse to train up your strength at all and your weapon is low quality. Damn thing snapped like a twig in the fight. We'll get to that… but needless to say I was disappointed with it, and the smith we bought it from might've had a freak accident where a nearby tree fell on his house. Odd that.
March shook her head, "Getting sidetracked again. Armour… right as for armour they barely had any. It was just some leather stuff that looked nice. I'm still not sure how bad it truly was, but the same blacksmith who sold us the sword sold us the armour, and he was no leatherworker. So I wonder why he had it at all. Once again, tree on house. Weird that all the branches were missing…"
"So we entered, one at a time with myself in the lead. Probably should've had a shield. Doubt it would've helped us. As we shuffled deeper into the cave we did spot some sleeping wolves, down in the back of the cavern all curled up together. I don't know what we were thinking when we imagined being able to sneak up on them, but that was the plan.
"A damn beast ambushed us from behind. We didn't notice it, but the cave mouth had a little outcropping at the top and there was a wolf up there waiting for us. It jumped down on Alex and I wasn't fast enough to stop it. If that wolf was smarter, or a human Alex would've died right then and there. Powerful jaws went down on Alex's shoulder crushing it to bits, moments before I obliterated the things head.
"Now, I don't blame Alex for this next part… but he screamed, like the hells themselves were spewing forth demons set to punish him. Err… no offence Kat,"
Kat shrugged, "None taken,"
"Right, so he was screaming, which obviously woke up the other wolves. Alice was frozen with fear and coated with wolf blood, and brains. Not in the right mind to find a pack of wolves, not even half asleep ones still getting up. I was a bit better. I charged straight into the fray, slamming my hammer down on the one closest to me. I tore through those wolves the best I could, but not all of them went after me. There was six of them, and four came for me. I took them out quickly only taking minimal damage in the process, mostly just scrapes on my armour.
"Then I had to go help Alice. She was panicking, wildly waving her sword back and forth but it was keeping the two and bay for the moment. I charged them from behind. Got the first one as it was turning around, and grabbed the second one by the throat as it was going for my own. I slammed that bastard into the ground.
"At some point during the battle, I'd started to use my Steam Engine technique. Steam was pouring out of my armour, was face was red and my blood was burning. I almost felt ready for anything, when I heard a whimper coming from Alex. We needed to get him to the healers, or at least someone to bandage the wound. Lest he lose the arm,"
"Perhaps it was lucky we'd left out packs behind before we entered, perhaps it would've been better to have some rope to strap him down. Didn't matter, the poor guy passed out from the pain or blood loss not long after. Alice ripped up her undershirt and wrapped it around the wound as best she could… stopped the bleeding for the moment.
"I was getting ready to pick him up… when I heard howling. It was coming from all around us. I sprinted to the cave entrance, and my fears were confirmed. We only got a few wolves that had been back at their base sleeping. Now we had to face the rest of the pack," March bit out, eyes darkly shining.
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