The caravan stayed a distance behind Fane while he surveyed the path ahead.
The plan was to descend the mountain and continue through the forest below. However, there had been two incidents last night in the cave. Someone was after them. He couldn't dismiss the possibility for an ambush in the woods, but it couldn't be avoided.
Sadly, this was a bottleneck point in the route. If it were anywhere else, they could take another path, but there was no alternative here. They had to continue forward.
Fane took one more glance at the caravan behind himself. He had explained the danger to the people and urged them to remain vigilant for this next stretch of the journey, but there wasn't much any of them could do. These were mere common folk after all. They had pitchforks and simple knives- decent makeshift weapons, but no training or experience in combat. Like before, they had to rely on him for protection.
Fane gave the signal to continue forward.
As they descended the mountain, the surroundings became more verdant. The occasional bushes and wildgrass had begun to push through the soil, yet the trees remained bare. Up until now, the sunlight had provided a comforting warmth as the caravan came down the mountain path, but it was soon blotted out by the increasing density of branches overhead.
They were in the forest now.
This wasn't the first time he had been here. Fane had used this trail twice before in other evacuation missions, so he at least had some familiarity with his current surroundings, but something felt different. This forest resided in the valley between two neighboring mountains. It was the only convenient path South. Going around the lesser of the two mountains would add a hundred kilometers of travel at least, extending travel time for a caravan like this by a week or two.
This path had been walked by hundreds or perhaps even thousands of travelers in recent times. It was popular enough that Kelliora used to send guards to protect travelers from beasts and bandits, but that was no longer the case.
The wars against Kelliora had grown in recent weeks, requiring the Empire to recall most of its troops for more serious matters. Many places once-guarded were now left defenseless. Crime and chaos now consumed Kelliora from within while wars gnawed at the country's borders. Even this place might have become a hellscape unsuitable for civilian life.
A cold wind swept through the forest, setting bare branches to sway overhead. Their shadows danced erratically across the forest floor, resembling the scuttling of spiders. An eerie symphony of creaking trunks filled the air as if the forest itself were welcoming its visitors in.
The group walked for hours along that forest trail until Fane's AI suddenly alerted him.
// ţ̶͒ḥ̴̕ȓ̴̞ę̷̉a̴̩͝t̶̨̋
Fane stopped in his tracks upon hearing the AI's inhuman whisper. Something dangerous was close by.
As if on queue, a woman's cackle echoed throughout the forest. Fane raised his rifle and turned sharply, his eyes scanning the surroundings in an attempt to locate the source. Yet, despite his efforts, he was unable to pinpoint her location. Unnatural laughter cascaded around him with incredible volume. It seemingly came from everywhere all at once.
Tense anticipation swelled in Fane's heart, a feeling shared by the civilians who instinctively drew closer to him for protection. They were still afraid of him, but that fear paled in comparison to that of the unknown threat looming nearby. In this moment, Fane found himself reluctantly accepted as their protector. It was a strange sensation, but he didn't have time to dwell on the thought.
The laughter stopped abruptly, producing an ominous silence. Everyone held their breath, too anxious to move a single step.
In the next moment, a woman from the caravan shrieked as her feet were pulled out from under her. Something snake-like had wrapped around her ankle and was now dragging her away. She desperately grasped onto the side of a nearby wagon, but she didn't have enough strength to maintain her grip. After only a brief moment, she slipped. She could only claw at the ground as the massive tentacle pulled her away.
The eerie voice broke out into maniacal laughter somehow even more disturbing than before, as if it delighted in the victim's distress.
Diving after the woman, Fane just barely caught onto her wrist. However, he failed to anchor himself. The enemy was incredibly powerful, enough so that it had no problem dragging the weight of two people through the woods as it retracted.
Both Fane and the woman were swiftly pulled across the forest floor until the tentacle rounded a sharp corner and snapped against itself like a whip. The woman lurched like a rag doll, her body twisting horrifically under the sudden force, and Fane was thrown off in another direction.
The woman died instantly, the violent action breaking her in numerous places all at once. The maniacal laughter only continued, as if this outcome was all but guaranteed from the beginning.
Fane tumbled across the ground, his momentum abruptly halting when his back slammed against a tree. The impact jarred him and left him dazed, knocking the air out of him.
A pain gradually surfaced in his ribs, rapidly growing to a searing sensation in several places throughout his torso. He couldn't tell how many ribs were broken or what their fragments might have punctured, but he could tell it was serious. A red icon flashed quietly in his helmet as he gasped for air that wouldn't enter his lungs.
His armor's [ Emergency Medical Nano Operator Swarm ] deployed, causing an icy wave to rush through his veins. The EMNOS system rushed to repair his battered body in an attempt to save his life, but it came with severe side effects which could prove fatal if it were to activate at a bad time... but there was no choice. He wouldn't survive unless it deployed now.
A sinking feeling pulled at his gut as the sounds around him instantly became muffled. His mind slowed, feeling as if he were sinking down into a lake of somebstrange and viscous substance. Not only that, but everything grew hazy almost as soon as he realized the EMNOS deployed. Darkness quickly encroached on the edges of his vision, blotting out everything except what was centered in his vision.
The maniacal laughter grew distorted as he tried to focus the last few moments of his vision on the monstrous tentacle. He watched it slither further and further away, retracting back into whatever wretched hole it came from while the woman's mangled corpse dragged limply across the forest floor behind it.
In his delirium, Fane tried to reach his hand out as if he could somehow grasp the lost civilian and bring her back. But his body barely responded to his commands. His arm only raised a short distance, remaining in the air for a few short seconds before falling along with his consciousness.