The Archer of Beast Woods

by Kanata Yanagino

  Mary had once told me, “The greatest trap one can fall into when trying to do something good is to make the mistake of thinking that because you are acting with a good goal in mind, you are bound to get results.” Even if you decide to do something good, the people around you won’t lend you their help unconditionally, nor will the gods bless you with protection. Results come only by setting a reasonable goal and using appropriate methods to achieve it. And so, Mary had told me, the most important thing is to be practical and realistic. I took advice from everything Gus had taught me about money and regularly consulted with Menel, Bee, Tonio, Reystov, Anna, and the elders of villages all over, all of whom were very familiar with this world and its customs.

  And together, we moved things forward. We went all over Beast Woods, back and forth, and as the winter transitioned into spring, I started to get the feeling that I was seeing more smiles in the villages. I felt as if there were now slightly fewer people who had no idea what tomorrow would even bring, who would wear gloomy or expressionless faces, or who would lose it completely and go off the rails. Perhaps that was what triggered the memory of something that Gus had once lectured me on.

  — If you want something done, you don’t have to use magic. You just buy the tools you need or hire some people. Reshaping the terrain is a powerful piece of magic, but if you’ve got money, you can just hire laborers and workmen to do construction for you instead. Make no mistake, the ability to earn money and make it work for you is just as important as magic!

  “Yeah...” I finally understood what Gus had been getting at—and he was right. Even when he said something that made you twist your head, Gus’s lessons were always right. Making people smile and giving them hope... It felt like magic greater than magic itself.

  ◆

  Under a canopy set up in a vacant lot I’d rented from one of the villages, I was giving Pale Moon an inspection, checking that the neck of the blade and the metal collar were in good shape. As I idly wondered whether summer might start to make itself felt soon, a gruff voice called out to catch my attention. I looked up as Reystov came over.

  “Pip’s party’s not come back,” he said. “They were the ones searching the west.”

  Pip... If I remembered correctly, he was a young lad who’d come from some farm. He’d been in a party with two other men, Harvey and Brennan. “How long have they been gone?”

  “They said they’d take ten days at the longest. They’re over by two already. And those guys have skills.” He was obviously implying that something must have happened for them to be this late.

  “All right. We’ll go out and search for them.” I thought for a moment about who should go. It was possible that there had been some kind of accident, or they’d been attacked by wild beasts. But there was also the remote possibility that Pip’s party had been spotted by the demons’ lookouts. In which case, we’d need party members with combat skills. Also, to be absolutely sure we could follow their trail, we’d need a hunter or ranger skilled in tracking.

  “Me, Menel, and you are definites. Also, whichever two parties you think are most skilled at forest exploration, I’d like to merge those into our search party as well. Are you okay with that?”

  Reystov nodded to say he was happy with my suggestion. “I’ll get everyone together right away.”

  Our party members gathered quickly in the village square. I explained the situation to them simply. I could talk about the details once we were on the move.

  “Pip and the others are two days past their return date. We’re going to go searching for them, but there’s a possibility that there’s been more than just an accident. They may have been spotted by the demons’ lookouts. If that turns out to be the case, we may also end up in a battle against demons.” When I said that, I noticed everyone’s faces visibly tense up.

  “It’ll get a bit more peaceful around here if we take them out.” Menel nodded in response.

  It wasn’t a certainty that there’d be demons—it might just have been a simple accident that had befallen them—but the tension in the air was palpable as we all got ready and headed out.

  ◆

  “Hey, uh.” Menel called to me as we were walking. We had followed the trail of Pip’s party and were just about to enter where they had been planning to search. “I gotta... thank you.”

  We were hanging back from the group. Ahead of us, Reystov and the other adventurers were deep in discussion about the trampled leaves dotted about the forest floor.

  “Umm... For what?”

  “A bunch of stuff.” Menel’s jade eyes weren’t looking at me. In fact, he was practically facing the other way as he talked. “Without you, I would’ve hit rock bottom. And now I’m living for something good, and that’s ’cause of you. So... Uh... Yeah.” He paused awkwardly for a moment, trying to get the words out. “Thanks, brother," he said, still looking in the other direction.

  I felt something warm filling my chest. “I’m the one who should thank you. Thanks for helping me out when I was so ignorant about the world.” I smiled and nodded at him. “But...”

  “What?”

  “Say it again while looking at me.”

  “Feck off!” He stormed away, still refusing to look me in the eye or even turn his face towards me. The other adventurers collectively ooh’ed in our direction.

  The search for Pip’s party continued.

  It took several days before we found their bodies.

  ◆

  Several days after we left the village in search of Pip’s party, the dense greenery of the forest which had been around us for so long disappeared, and a blue sky came into view. What lay ahead of us after we exited the forest of green was a valley of craggy rocks. Beyond the valley was more forest, and beyond that, I could see a reddish-brown mountain range: the Rust Mountains. It was probably safe to assume this valley had been created by a flow of water pouring down the mountainside. The flow had either changed or dried up, and only the valley and rocks had been left behind. The valley wasn’t that deep, but it ran for a good distance, and where the riverbed must once have been, there were a lot of round stones lying around.

  Pip and the others had been scattered around that area. It looked like the kind of mess left behind after a young child’s playtime—as if a child had gotten their hands on something insubstantial, like a paper doll, and clumsily pulled it apart, ripped it into many randomly sized pieces, thrown them everywhere, and then moved on to something else.

  Menel and the others chased away the birds and other animals that had gathered around. Crows took off, their black wings flapping noisily, and other carrion feeders large and small darted away in all directions.

  “Look at this.” Menel’s eyes stopped on some tracks. They were the footprints of a beast, stained with blood, each about as large as the shield I had over my back... “Extremely large. What kind of beast is this?” Menel asked, and the other adventurers also gathered around and stared hard at the tracks.

  “Hm... Not sure.”

  “It’s big. Bigger than a manticore.”

  “A wild creature living in the valley? Or...”

  Was the demons’ stronghold somewhere deep in this valley? I got that far in my thinking when one of the adventurers said in a chipper voice, “Well, they got to fight a monster. Good way to go. I’ll bet Pip, Harvey, and Brennan are pretty damn satisfied with that, and kicking themselves, too.”

  “Yeah. Bet they’re saying, ‘How awesome would it have been if we could have killed that?!’”

  “They died good deaths. Adventurers’ deaths!”

  “O gods of good virtue, please grant their souls repose!”

  “Have a last drink on me, lads,” one of the adventurers said, and took a bottle out of his inside pocket and poured its contents over the scattered body parts. I did my part too, using the blessing Divine Torch to make extra sure that their corpses wouldn’t turn undead. Menel and a number of the others talked and kept an eye over the area while Reystov went aroun
d the bodies collecting clippings of hair, which were often kept as mementos.

  “Hmm?” Reystov sounded confused. “There’s only two heads. They’ve been damaged so badly it’s hard to tell, but...”

  I looked around. Now that he’d mentioned it, I was kind of getting the feeling there should have been more here. “Probably just got eaten, right?”

  “Plausible.”

  “No... wait,” Menel said, raising his voice. He’d noticed something. I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw that there was a sword, a shield, and gauntlets scattered on the ground along a line that seemed to be heading into the valley.

  “Did he... run away shedding his equipment?”

  “Why into the valley?”

  “If it blocked him from going into the forest, he probably wouldn’t have had another choice.”

  “Good point.” We all nodded to each other and went down into the valley to check.

  ◆

  We walked down into the valley.

  Helmet, breastplate...

  After following the trail of dropped items that far, something suddenly occurred to me, and it seemed to have occurred to Menel and Reystov at the same time. “That’s weird...” I muttered. Menel and Reystov both nodded in agreement.

  “Yeah. This is strange.”

  “What’s strange?” one of the others asked.

  “The ground in this valley is pretty bad...”

  There were loose rocks scattered everywhere. It certainly wasn’t suited to sprinting. And as for useful obstacles to hide behind, there was only the occasional large boulder; the view we had down the valley was actually pretty clear.

  Let’s assume that the large, unknown beast had been preoccupied with slaughtering the other two people. Even if that was the case—in a place like this, over this distance, there was no way a human could get away from a beast of that size.

  I gasped. I’d seen it now, but far too late. As if to prove my fears correct, placed on the top of a large boulder in the middle of the path ahead was a decomposing human head.

  “It’s a trap! Retreat—” I had barely started to speak before my words were drowned out by a deafeningly loud roar that echoed through the valley. It was coming from the forest we’d just left. No, they were coming from the forest, towards us. Several beasts—a giant, two-headed serpent, a huge deer with bloodshot eyes, a wildcat that could have been mistaken for a leopard... Everywhere I looked, there were beasts, beasts, beasts. Every one of them was spewing miasma from its body. Someone gasped out a terrified scream.

  “Don’t panic!”

  “Keep calm! Wall of shields!”

  The adventurers who had shields all stepped forward and lined up in a row, protecting each other, and Reystov and I stood on either side to protect the line. Now that we’d fallen for the trap, we’d just have to push through it.

  No sweat, I told myself. We should be able to deal with guys like these.

  The beasts and their miasma closed in.

  Right... That gas was poisonous. I quickly used a number of spells and blessings, and cast Vitality and Anti-Poison on everyone. From the looks of it, Menel had also called to the fairies and given everyone some protections of his own.

  “You have my gratitude.”

  “Thanks, guys!”

  “Real help!” They shouted their thanks one after another.

  “Here we go. Those brutes think they caught us in a trap. We better remind them who’s the hunter, and who’s the prey.” It was rare to hear banter like that from Reystov.

  I could feel Menel calling to the fairies and readying his bow behind me. The other adventurers were also holding their weapons and shields up and trying to steady their breathing. The group of monsters approached slowly, slowly, as if to strike terror into us.

  Still holding up my shield, I took some stones from a bag hanging from my belt, then pulled out my sling. I put a stone inside and spun it around with one hand, faster and faster—

  “Now! Fire!” The distance carefully judged, Reystov shouted the command and arrows flew, inflicting serious wounds on several of the beasts. I let my stone fly as well, blowing off one of the beasts’ heads. The attack set the rest off, and they charged. Even as they did, more arrows were fired, and I smashed two more heads with my stones.

  “Braaace!!”

  Everyone bellowed in unison. We dropped our center of gravity, ducked behind our shields, and prepared for impact.

  That was the moment an enormous shadow was cast over our heads.

  The winged shadow effortlessly leaped over our frontal defense, attempting to attack from the rear. I wanted to go deal with it, but I told myself no. I had to keep the beasts from advancing.

  “Menel!” I continued facing forward and shouted out the name of the person I trusted the most. I want you to buy us time somehow—

  “Gahackk—”

  I heard a sound like... a slab of meat being punched.

  I couldn’t bear not knowing. I turned to see.

  As if he were nothing, Menel, the person I trusted more than any other, had been smacked by the giant beast and sent flying.

  ◆

  The beast was enormous.

  Extending upwards from the soles of its feet, which were as big as shields, were great, thick legs that looked like barbed wire had been twisted and coiled together. The typical farmhouses I saw in the poor villages around here were far tinier than this monster, even if it curled itself up as small as possible. Even the wyvern would have looked slimly built next to this thing. Standing in front of its lion-like body felt overwhelming, like standing directly in front of a towering cliff face.

  The beast had three heads: a goat, a lion, and a demidragon. Each of those heads was filled with contempt, ridicule, and malice for everything smaller than itself. It was a chimera—an extremely savage, dangerous beast created by crossing other beasts in a blasphemous ritual.

  “Oh—”

  It looked like Menel had called to the earth elementals in an attempt to protect himself and those of us behind him. The wall of stone and earth jutting out of the ground, a huge chunk taken out of it by the chimera’s elephantine front foot, was proof.

  Menel’s body slammed against a sheer wall of rock.

  The chimera looked at him—

  “Stop—”

  —and, with a gloating grin—

  “Stop!”

  —from its demidragon head—

  “Nooooo!!”

  —it breathed fire.

  Menel’s body flailed within the flames, burning. He was going to die—he was dying before my eyes—

  I heard something snap inside my head.

  “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

  My boiling blood dyed my vision red. I’d never felt this much anger, even when the wyvern attacked the city. Filled with that boiling emotion, I incanted the Word of Lightning.

  “Tonit—”

  At that instant, there was a heavy impact on my shield.

  Oh, right, the beasts... were charging...

  The Word... died in my throat...

  Misfire. Backfire.

  Those fragmented thoughts flashed through my head, and not an instant later, the lightning I’d failed to activate ran through me. I shook. My body convulsed. I collapsed.

  Wh-What was I doing? Why was I being so pathetic? I had to fight. I had to protect everyone. Why was I letting myself get destroyed—

  As I fell to the ground and my vision clouded, I saw the other adventurers trying to somehow endure. Reystov was fighting for his life, swinging his sword fiercely, but I doubted he would last long.

  A despair colder than arctic ice washed over me and extinguished the flames of my anger. Why? What did I get wrong? I’d been doing pretty good, hadn’t I? Where—Where did I go—

  A serpent head closed in on me while I lay on the ground. It opened its mouth to swallow me whole. It lunged at me, and I—no, my body, trained by Blood... drew Overeater as if by instinct.

  Slash. The
serpent’s head flew off. Crimson thorns shot through the air. My wounds disappeared. Life force filled me. I roared, even louder than before.

  Everything began to fade, began to grow cold. All thought disappeared from my mind. Everything emptied to white, until only the positional relationships of me and the beasts occupied my head.

  A slaughter began.

  ◆

  Fangs came from the right. I slashed.

  Claws swung at my left leg. I let them hit me, then slashed. The pain was excruciating.

  I slashed. My wounds healed. The excruciating pain was gone.

  I slashed the next foe. Deep red thorns filled the air.

  I punched with my shield and slashed. Let them stab me and slashed. Let them bite me and slashed. Held them close and slashed.

  Slashed. Slashed. Slashed.

  Thorns. Thorns. My vision bled red.

  I roared.

  It was shameful, blind desperation. My trained muscles, my polished technique, my fortified spirit—none of that was there. I was just leaving everything to the abilities of my demonblade, and slashing and cutting my way through without any strategy or grace. It was an incredibly, hopelessly pitiful, embarrassing, and saddening battle. I felt like I’d failed them all. I felt pathetic.

  I slashed and cut the beasts down like a madman, tears spilling from my eyes. Drenched in blood and guts, I’d lost count of how many I’d slain so far. But I had to kill more. More. More—

  “Stop! That’s enough!” A voice shook my eardrums. Someone had forced my arms behind my back.

  It was Reystov.

  “Huh—Ah—”

  I realized that nothing was moving. The chimera had run off somewhere. The area around me was a literal sea of blood and guts. Reystov and the other adventurers weren’t uninjured, either—