The two companions walked through the city for a while before coming to its outskirts. As the number of houses got fewer and fewer; Quinn could make out the forest coming into view, along with a gathering of about 20 people standing in the road up ahead. They all wore different varieties of leather clothing and held different weapons in their hands.
They were adventurers. People tasked with dealing with any internal problems the kingdom of Roa experiences while the other Warriors were fighting in the war.
Roa was a country filled with beast-like creatures and monsters. Some of these monsters caused problems for other citizens who weren't fighters and it was the job of the adventurers to help mitigate these monsters.
Quinn and Helga walked towards the gathering of adventurers and towards a man who seemed to be the leader of the party. He wore a white top and brown leather trousers with silver armor plating covering up his more vulnerable areas. He looked up from cleaning his sword at seeing Helga and got up from the stone he sat on.
"Helga, we were wondering where you went to," he said
"Sorry Sal, I ran into someone that wanted to come along to the hunt" Helga replied. She moved out of the way and allowed Sal to see Quinn behind her.
"Isn't that the Lord of the city Helga?"
Sal's declaration caused whispers to break out within the crowds. Some pointing at him while talking, while others simply looked at him wearily.
One of the adventurers, a huge green goblin with a round nose and a head of white hair, scoffed loudly "And what exactly does he think he can do in there?" He lifted his club and placed it on his shoulder, he then looked at Quinn, "This isn't a social outing, my Lord. I think you should stay back here"
Quinn walked closer to the goblin and looked up towards his face "And who do you think you are to tell me what I can or can't do?"
"My name is Drew, and I'm simply trying to- OOf!"
The goblin doubled over and fell onto his knees while clutching his stomach. Quinn drew his hand back then looked down at the face of the goblin. "I'll let you off this time with just a warning." He grabbed the goblin by the hair and brought his face closer
< [Blood Lust] had been activated >
"But don't think I'll ever let you talk to me like that again. Are we clear?"
The goblin nodded quickly and Quinn dropped him back to the ground. He turned to walk back to Helga and asked how they were going to be fighting the beast.
"W-Well, that's up to Sal actually, so you should ask him" she stammered out. The noise in the clearing had also died down and people were all listening in to hear from the leader.
"Ahem. Well, our plan is going to mainly center around drawing the beast out of the cave it resides in. The boar is very territorial so we're going to have to be careful as we go in." He then separated the adventurers into four groups of five each. Quinn was placed in the group Helga was to lead. "Helga, your group is going to be our Vanguard. You'll wait outside the cave for the beast to emerge and then attack it head-on"
"Yes sir"
"Drew, you'll be the backup and cleanup crew. There are other beasts in the forest, so we need you to hold them off for us, especially when they realize the boar is no longer around."
"Yes...sir" Drew answered after he picked himself off the ground.
He then turned to the other two groups and assigned the first group as the bait. They would be the ones to go into the cave and draw the beast out.
The members of the last group were made up solely of supporters; they were tasked with carrying the extra weapons and armor for the other three groups, as well as acting as the standby medics.
"Okay then, be careful everyone. And may our gods help us"
The hunting party then began their trek into the forest. Drew and his group formed a perimeter around the other groups, clearing the occasional bear, demon-wolf o,r giant snake they came across.
Within the perimeter, Helga wondered what exactly Quinn was doing with the hunting group. Since she had been living in this city, she had never known the city Lord to care about any of the citizens. She had even heard that the city Lord was a weak man whose only saving grace was how lucky he was. He didn't seem like a weak man a few minutes ago.
"Are you going to tell me what's on your mind, or are you just going to keep staring at me?" Quinn asked while still facing forward.
Helga quickly looked away, but Quinn could see some red mixed in with the green on her cheeks.
"I-I'm sorry", she said "I was just lost in my thoughts"
"It's fine, but I would still like to know what's on your mind"
Helga was quiet for a while, contemplating whether to tell him or not. Finally, she decided to.
"I was just wondering why you're here. I mean, you're a city Lord, You do not need the money. So what exactly are you hoping to achieve?"
"Hmmm, Quinn placed his hand on his chin and the other one across his chest "Would you believe me if I told you I came here for you?"
"W-what!?"
Quinn chuckled at her reaction. He then placed his hand back in his pocket. "Don't worry, it's nothing like that. I came here for myself. There's something I had to do here and I felt the best way to do it would be by joining your party" He finally looked at her "Is that an acceptable reason?"
Helga cleared her throat and tried to get her composure back "Y-Yes I suppose. I'm sorry for prying"
"It's fine, there no harm don-"
"Okay people, look alive. We're here!!" Sal's voice cut him off and echoed through the group.
They had entered a clearing in the forest. There was a large cave in the center of the clearing that was at least four times Quinn's size in height alone. It led into the side of a large hill behind it and was darker than any place Quinn had ever seen before.
The adventurers began putting on their armor and equipping their weapons. Helga instructed her group to move into formation and they all moved to places where they would be harder to spot. It was obvious they focused more on surprise attacks.
Drew and his group formed a perimeter around the clearing, and the third group who were the bait began warming up. They wore lighter clothing to allow for free movement and were made up mostly of female orcs who were smaller than the males, and male and female humans.
The supporters were to stick around with Drew's group since they were the furthest from the fighting.
Quinn was instructed to climb into a tree and stay out of sight until the signal was given. He watched as the runners were given yellow gems that glowed. His memories supplied that the gems were a magic construct used in place of fire in this land. They were plentiful and cheap so could be used by almost everyone.
The runners placed the gems in a cloth - to hide their light till they were needed - took up their weapons, and ran.
Back in the clearing, everyone held their breath as they waited, no sound could be heard except for the occasional howl of a demon-wolf or hiss of a giant snake, which was quickly dealt with by Drew and his group. Quinn could practically taste the tension in the air...
And then, there was a whistle...
"Incoming!!!" Sal shouted.
The bait group run out of the cave like bats out of hell. They charged straight towards the Vanguard group. And hot on their tail, was a beast...
"Damn..." someone whispered beside Quinn. And Quinn simply had no other choice but to agree to that...
'Something is seriously wrong with this place...'