Worlds' Strongest

by Simon Archer

  I turned again, and next to the huntress was the large horse from before. I jumped back and opened my mouth to say something when she cut me off.

  “Get on,” she urged. “Your friend’s directly south of here. Go that way, and you’ll find her.”

  “Um… I appreciate that. I’ve just never ridden a horse before. I don’t know how.”

  “You’ll never make it without him.” Her voice was so certain that I wasn’t going to question her.

  I nodded, swallowing hard as I stepped up to the side of the animal. Not really sure how to get on, I put my hands on its back and jumped up, barely managing to swing my leg over the side of it.

  “Just hang onto the rope, and you’ll be fine,” the huntress said. I picked up the rope around the animal’s neck and gripped it tight. Just before I could say something, I looked back to see her slap the horse’s ass.

  The animal took off, and I was immediately thankful that I was holding the rope because otherwise, I was sure I’d have flown off. As it galloped through the woods, I leaned forward to keep from falling off, making sure my legs were tight around its sides. I flinched every time we came close to a tree, but the animal managed to dodge every obstacle without me having to guide it.

  I was almost sure the only reason this worked was that the horse wasn’t real. Or, maybe it was real, but it was somehow connected to the huntress. I had a lot of questions that I wished I’d been able to ask her, but none of them were my concern at that moment. It took a few minutes to manage to sit on the horse without feeling like I was going to fall off any second, but finally, I felt like I had at least a passable grasp on it.

  I just had to make it to Elle.

  11

  I rode as fast as the horse could go until I thought I heard something and stopped. Looking around, I realized the road was nowhere to be seen. I’d followed the direction the huntress pointed me in, and now I had no idea where I was. I could hear aggressive sounds of growling coming from further through the trees, however, and that was enough of a lead to follow.

  Elle and I had stuck to the path, so I hadn’t seen this area before. Through the trees, I could see the base of some kind of small cliff a couple of stories tall and a glimpse of movement beneath it.

  I swung my leg over and hopped off the horse to get a closer look. I wanted to make sure I’d found Elle before I came charging into a pack of dangerous animals. Wherever she was, my plan was to come in with the horse, get her out of whatever trouble she was in, and ride off until we were safe.

  That was my plan.

  But the second my hand left the side of the horse, he vanished. I turned quickly and stepped where he had been as though I could bring the animal back.

  “No, no, no… Shit!” I hissed under my breath.

  Another growl echoed in my ears, followed by an unmistakable shout. I turned back to the movement at the base of the short cliff and ran a bit closer. Up against the base of the wall was Elle, surrounded by what looked like four wolves. I’d never exactly seen a wolf up close, but even so, I was pretty sure these were larger than wolves back home. Their backs came up to the middle of Elle’s chest, and that was with them crouching.

  “Shit,” I muttered as I ducked behind a tree. She had her staff outstretched to keep the animals as far away from her as possible. Still, even with her experience, she looked scared.

  A sense of realization hit me. I thought she seemed angry at me before when she swiped at me with the dagger, but the expression on her face was a lot closer to this look of fear than anything else. A knot formed in my stomach, both at understanding how I’d made her feel and not knowing how to fix things now.

  There was no way that I could physically fight off these oversized wolves. Logically, I knew that. Worst-case scenario, I might manage to sink my sword into one of them if it was distracted, but I’d almost immediately be torn apart by one of its friends, leaving Elle without any help.

  One of the animals lunged at her. She pushed the back end of the staff out to block it, switching her grip to hold the weapon from the center. The wolf on the other side immediately rushed to grab the other end of the staff.

  Panic began to set in. I ran a little closer, careful not to expose myself until I had a plan. My first thought was just throwing a stick to distract the wolves while she got away, but I didn’t have much faith in that idea. I had to come up with something better.

  That’s when my eyes landed on a tree closer to Elle and the wolves. It had a section that was missing bark, but it didn’t look like the tree I’d seen earlier. The wood within that tree had been bright, but this one was dull, streaked with black and brown. I looked closer, and there were places where the bark almost seemed separated from the rest of the wood on the tree. I was almost sure that it was rotten. The tree was thinner than some of the others, so between that and the blight, I was almost sure I could knock it over. I wasn’t positive the sudden crash would be enough to scare the beasts off, but at the very least, it would be a distraction.

  I waited for one of the wolves to growl again so my footsteps would be covered by the sound and ran over to the tree. As soon as I did, I saw Elle’s face shift as her eyes followed me. I wanted to tell her not to worry about me and focus on the wild animals that wanted to tear her apart, but the wolves did that for me.

  Another one grabbed the other end of her staff and tried to jerk it from her hands. I held my breath as her fingers started to slip, but she just barely managed to keep her grip.

  I started to press against the trunk of the tree, and to my surprise, it gave almost no resistance. The base began to crack at my feet. I turned to the side to use my shoulder when something caught my attention.

  This wasn’t the only rotten tree in the area. They weren’t all compromised, of course, but quite a few were. Another much larger one was a few feet closer. The odds were that one would be too thick to knock over as easily, but it gave me an idea.

  I didn’t have much time. I marked the trees that looked as easy to knock over as the one before me and set off, stopping when I was about in line with the wall of the cliff Elle was at. The trick was that I had to angle everything so Elle wouldn’t be hit.

  I pressed against the trunk of that tree. It was stronger than the first, but if I put all my weight on it, it didn’t stand a chance. In a second, the tree gave a loud crack, quickly drawing the attention of the animals as the trunk started falling toward them.

  Without waiting to see what the wolves did, I ran back over to the first tree and finished knocking it over, angling that one so it would fall against the cliff. Hopefully, the impact would break it in half. As I ran to the third tree, the first finally hit the ground. No time to stop to examine the result just yet. I pushed the third tree, a different direction this time. When it cracked, it fell toward the larger tree.

  The second tree crashed against the cliff, and I heard it snap. I looked over to make sure it didn’t hit Elle as I ran to a fourth tree a little further back. The wolves had jumped out of the way. While three of them still focused on Elle, the trees had created a barrier, even if it was only a foot tall.

  One of them, however, was watching me.

  I couldn’t let that stop me. I pushed the fourth tree in the direction of the large one. Just like the third, it crashed into the side. The large tree started to tilt, but I wasn’t sure I could push it over myself. However, there was another tree just three feet from me. I rushed to that one and pushed on it as well. It was thicker than the others I’d knocked over so far, and my hope was it would be enough to knock the main tree over, and that would be enough to scare off the wolves.

  That tree shifted under my weight, but it didn’t give way immediately like the other ones had. I turned to put my shoulder into it. As I did, I noticed the wolf carefully making its way through the trees toward me, trying to figure out if I was dinner or a threat. After a second, it made up its mind and broke into a run in my direction.

  I had to fight my instincts to run. With
one more shove, the tree finally cracked. It started to fall slowly, but as it did, I realized I screwed up the angle. It was going to hit another tree before it hit the one I was aiming for. I ran for the other side of the tree, hoping the commotion would distract the wolf.

  The tree I pushed crashed into another one close to my target, then both of them fell in the direction of the larger tree. Luckily, the first had caught on the branches of the second, so it followed that one’s arc as it fell. Both trees then fell into the larger rotten one, and that was more than enough to send it toppling. All five went tumbling for the ground.

  “Elle!” I shouted as they fell toward her. None of them should hit her unless they cracked, but I wasn’t sure that wouldn’t happen. I ran toward the cliff, forgetting for a second that there were four wolves around.

  The wolves saw the tree falling. Of course, they were smart enough to get out of the way, so they scattered, whimpering as they ran. One of them wasn’t quite fast enough, and one of the smaller trees fell directly on its back.

  In the midst of the crash, Elle crouched down, covering her head with her hands and pressing back into the wall to stay away from the debris. One of the shorter trees missed catching on the edge of the cliff and fell, but it looked like the thinnest part of the branches were all that reached her.

  As soon as I got there, I climbed over the dead trees to the space where she was. Standing on the largest tree trunk, I grabbed the shorter tree and lifted it, so the branches were out of her way.

  “Ren?” She looked up at me in pure surprise.

  “Come on,” I nodded at her to get out of the tree wreckage. I couldn’t hold up a dead tree for very long. She pulled her staff out from under one of the trees and climbed out from the trees. As soon as she did, I dropped it and jumped down, looking around.

  “Ren-?”

  “We should get out of here before the wolves come back,” I said quickly.

  “I’d bet almost anything they’re halfway across the country by now.” Elle laughed like it was no big deal. She walked past me and headed for the tree that had landed on a wolf.

  “Elle!” I whispered, half afraid the animal would throw off the tree, jump up, and lunge at us. “What are you-?”

  “It’s okay,” she said, kneeling next to the animal. “He’s definitely not a threat anymore. I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t in pain.”

  “What?” I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Just trust me.” She looked up at me and rolled her eyes as she stood to strap the quarterstaff to her back. “You probably don’t want to think about it.”

  “Oh… Kay?” I rubbed the back of my neck, a little confused. “Um, are you okay?”

  “Me? Yeah.” She sighed. “I’ll be fine. It was about to be a lot worse. Where did you come from?”

  I turned to gesture back in the direction I came from. “I knew you were in trouble, so-”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What?” I turned back to face her. Her expression was suspicious and challenging. “I mean… Oh, wait. Elle, do you really still think I’m some kind of, what, an assassin from another universe? That I’m taking advantage of you?”

  “No, no, no.” She rubbed her forehead. “I guess not. You wouldn’t have put yourself in danger like that. Unless you’re just really bad at your job.”

  I scoffed and shook my head as she laughed.

  “Ren, how did you know I was in trouble?”

  “I met the huntress we saw in the woods,” I explained. “She said she had a vision… I had to come to find you.”

  Elle was silent for a moment before nodding slowly.

  “I don’t know what happened,” I admitted. “Earlier, with the dagger, I have no idea-”

  “I believe you,” she sighed. “I do. I just… have a lot of questions.”

  “Honestly, I do too,” I admitted.

  There was a pause as I could tell she was contemplating something in her head.

  “Elle,” I said, “I’m sorry I scared you.”

  She looked into my eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry too. I should have let you try to explain yourself before, well, pulling a knife on you.”

  I actually laughed at the nearly trivial way she phrased that.

  “That was a bit of an overreaction,” I noted with a wry grin.

  “Shut up,” Elle rolled her eyes but smiled. “If we want any of our questions answered, we need to get to August.

  A slight smile pulled at the edge of my lips, comforted by the thought that I didn’t have to do this alone. I still didn’t have to wait until I was Platinum Class, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt to let this guy train me and try to understand a little more about my apparent invincibility.

  I looked around at the seemingly endless mess of trees. “Um… I’m not sure which way is-?”

  Elle’s laughter cut me off. “Come on.”

  She patted my shoulder and set off in the direction I thought I came from. Or not. I quickly followed. Now that we were safe, and I didn’t have to worry, my thoughts drifted back to the huntress. There were so many questions I wanted to ask her. I hoped we would run into her on the way out of the woods.

  “Ren?” Elle said after a few minutes. “How did you know that would work?”

  “Hm?”

  “Knocking one tree into the other so that it fell in the right place? How did you know that would work?”

  “Oh. The trees all seemed rotten, but I thought that one needed an extra push.”

  “Right, but one falling into the other?”

  I thought for a second, then chuckled. I couldn’t wait to introduce her to the concept of dominos, or pool. “Physics.”

  “Is that something you can teach me about?”

  “Of course.”

  12

  After a few more hours of what felt like endless wandering, we finally arrived at the town of Grave. It was late, and the whole village looked as though it was asleep; we’d lost a lot of time due to the backtracking and fighting off rabid wolves and hunters.

  Unlike the houses in Eon, these all seemed to be entirely wooden. It made sense since this town was only a mile from the forest we’d traveled through, not to mention there was another forest just to the east of the village. Grave was also significantly larger than Eon.

  As Elle explained it, a major difference between the two towns was their general focus. In Eon, people’s concern was their own advancement. They wanted to expand their family’s name and influence with little concern for how their lives affected their neighbors. The center of the town hosted a few market stalls and a place for the head of the town to conduct business, and the rest of the village was land and houses.

  Grave, on the other hand, focused more on its community. Higher class citizens had nice houses, but none of them were as extravagant as the ones in Eon. The center of the town hosted stores and shops, taverns, inns, even restaurants.

  “We used to come here all the time,” Elle grinned as we reached the edge of the town, “to visit, to shop, to eat. We’d stay with August and spend a few days seeing everything. When I was little, I always wanted to move here.”

  I blinked, smiling to myself at how simple that all was. It was sweet.

  “Why did you guys stop coming?” I asked.

  “We just never came back after mom died,” she muttered. She took a deep breath as we walked past a building with large windows, smiling widely. I looked in the windows and realized it was one of the restaurants. It was closed for the night, but the smells still lingered in the air. Rich, unique, salty smells met us as we walked by. I almost had to stop and smell it myself. It reminded me of food my mom made when I was little.

  “Is August going to be awake this late?” I asked, glancing around. Despite it being night, the village wasn’t as calm as it initially looked. Almost all the lights in the inn were on, a group of young teenage girls giggled on a porch down the road, and there was a myriad of noises coming from sev
eral buildings.

  “Ren, it’s not that late,” she laughed.

  “What do you mean? It’s night?”

  “The sun is set for almost fourteen hours a day. Do you always sleep that long?”

  “I- Well, no, I guess not.” It was still hard to tell what time it was without a watch or anything, but she had a point. Among my friends, I was known for working well into the night.

  “There’s a lot to do after the sun goes down,” Elle chuckled, looking at me from the corner of her eye.

  “Well, when you put it like that…” I laughed and nodded, raising my eyebrows. The way she phrased it made it sound exciting.

  I followed Elle through the town. Unlike Eon, I didn’t seem to garner attention, which was comforting. It was either because this place was naturally busier than Eon or because I now looked like a relatively normal person in this world.

  Elle’s eyes seemed to linger on a specific building as we walked, but we passed it without her saying a word.

  “What’s in there?” I nodded at the one-story building. It was wide and had a few different doors around the sides, with a couple of them propped open a crack. I thought I saw smoke coming out of the door closest to us. If there was smoking in the building, it seemed odd that there weren’t any windows.

  “It’s a bar.” She looked at me with an almost mischievous smile. “My dad used to tell me stories about it. I always wanted to go…”

  “It doesn’t look like a bar,” I squinted as I looked back at it. It seemed fairly quiet, especially compared to the other bars in the area. There wasn’t a sign or even an obvious front door.

  “It’s meant to be more private than others. Dad always said it was a place where people did business that they didn’t want others to know about.”

  “Really?” It just looked like a gross old building.

  “I mean, maybe I’m remembering it being cooler than it actually is,” she chuckled.