Chapter 78 A Roar Echos
As the caravan moved through the silent forest, an eerie silence was all that accompanied the escorts.
There was barely any sound present currently, only the sound of people walking, the wheels of the carriages turning, and the animals that were pulling the carriages.
It was creepy and everybody was a bit on the edge thanks to that. They had previously never come across something like this and the deafening silence from the forest was making them stress a bit.
The silence, the knowledge that there were powerful monsters lurking inside, and the darkness that prevented them from seeing further around them made them stressed.
As the caravan continued further, even the leader of the caravan was a bit worried.
He had taken this route many times ever since he started the caravan, and not even once was the forest like this.
The forest at night was creepy and dangerous, that much was certain, but this was a completely different level. The mere presence of the forest made him sweat and worry about what might happen.
"Don\'t worry, everything will be alright." A voice suddenly said behind the leader as he looked back and nodded, his worry disappearing almost instantly.
He was in the carriage in which Lyle had previously sensed people in, and it was obvious that whoever was inside, he was a person that the leader seemed to respect quite a bit.
Suddenly, a roar echoed through the forest.
The animals that were pulling the carriages suddenly stopped, their legs shaking in fear.
The people that were escorting the caravan also stopped and were pale thanks to the roar.
The Silver Knights fared no better and had solemn expressions on their faces as they stared at the direction of the roar.
It came from the left, but they were able to sense that whatever made the sound, was quite far away from them and should not be a problem.
"That, what kind of monster is that?" One of the long-range combatants that was on the roof of the carriage together with Lyle and Adam asked in shock as he gulped and stared in fear.
Lyle was also worried.
The roar was enough to stop everyone and do something like this, making him a hundred percent certain that his previous guess was correct, there was a Golden Core monster present in the forest.
Adam\'s face was pale and he gulped upon hearing the roar. Since he and Lyle had previously spoken, he knew that there was a chance of a Golden Core monster being present in the forest, and this roar had pretty much made them know that that was true.
With such a powerful monster present, Adam knew that if they were to be attacked, none would survive.
He and Lyle would have to do their best to escape the area in order to survive, but even that was not certain as the forest was full of powerful monsters that could kill both of them with relative ease.
They were both mere low-grade Bronze Knights after all, and if a high-grade Bronze Core monster was to appear, they would be in a world of trouble, not to mention any Silver Core monsters appearing.
The two of them would barely have any time to even respond to such a monster before being ripped apart by it.
Lyle calmed himself down and took a deep breath. He knew that the monster was quite far away, but there was always the chance of the monster sensing them and moving toward the caravan.
This route was always one of the most dangerous routes to get to Orsvald. When traveling from Linston, there were multiple routes one could take, but they all took much longer compared to this one.
There were only a handful of caravans that took this route thanks to how dangerous it was, but those that did were large and confident, always having enough money to hire a bunch of powerful people as escorts, just like now.
Usually, 2 Silver Knights were enough for a caravan to pass through this area. The caravan leader had taken 3 Silver Knights with him because he doubted that 2 would be enough any more thanks to the system arriving and monsters becoming more powerful.
He didn\'t want to risk things, so he spent more in order to be certain that nothing would go wrong with the trip, but even so, nobody would have suspected that a Golden Core monster had suddenly appeared here.
As the caravan started moving again, they came upon a horrifying sight about 30 minutes later.
Broken parts of carriages littered the road in front of them while bits of flesh and bones could be seen with them. The road was darker in one area thanks to all the blood that was spilled on the ground.
The adventurers and mercenaries clenched their weapons as the Bronze Knights accompanied by one of the Silver Knights went ahead. They inspected what seemed to have been a battlefield not too long ago before moving some things away from the caravan.
That would usually have been done by the other adventurers, but since the situation was so tense and dangerous, the Bronze Knights took it upon themselves to do it.
Accompanied by a Silver Knight, they were certain that no monster would be able to sneak up on them, thus they calmly did their job and moved the things out of the way so that the caravan could pass through safely.
Still, the situation was bad. For a caravan to try to pass through here, they needed to have sufficient strength, this one was either led by an arrogant person that didn\'t take enough men with him, or they had come across incredibly powerful monsters that were able to destroy them.
Everybody hoped that it wasn\'t the latter, since that would mean that they were definitely not safe either.
Even with three Silver Knights present, everybody knew that if a peak Silver Core monster was to appear, or a Golden Core one, they had no chance of winning and could only run away in hope of surviving.
The caravan slowly moved, making sure to be quiet and not draw attention to itself. Nobody dared even to speak right now.
The escorts all clenched their weapons and made a formation, while the Bronze Knights stood in 14:05
front of them. The two Silver Knights were at the very front, while the mage was at the back, ready to Suddenly, the caravan stopped as the sounds of footsteps started echoing inside the forest.
Trees from tens of meters away from them started shaking and some even fell down on the ground.
The escorts all clenched their weapons and made a formation, while the Bronze Knights stood in front of them. The two Silver Knights were at the very front, while the mage was at the back, ready to chant a spell and attack whatever monster was approaching them.
The mage was sweating. She could sense that the monster that was coming at them was the one that had made the roar that everyone hear about an hour ago. She knew that they could not hope to defeat such a monster, but still, she steeled herself and got ready for a battle.
Running away was not an option for her or the other two Silver Knights as she knew that if a Golden Core monster was present, powerful Silver Core monsters would be found as well. Against such power, even she and her two teammates were useless and wouldn\'t be able to survive in the forest by themselves.
As she thought of that, the forest had movement.
Monsters suddenly started charging toward them. There were wolves, tigers, apes, and all kinds of different monsters coming out of the forest. The adventurers immediately tensed up after seeing all of the monsters.
Amongst them, they could spot 5 Silver Core monsters, a number that was enough to completely annihilate them since the tiger was a mid-grade Silver Core monster. It focused mainly on stealth and was weaker in a melee fight compared to other monsters of its own rank thanks to his ability which was mainly used for stealth, but it was still a powerful monster that could defeat any except for the mage.
As the monsters neared, the long-range combatants were just about to attack before the mage suddenly stopped them.
"Stop, take a good look, they\'re not coming to attack us, they\'re merely running away."
Her words were true as the monsters simply ran past the caravan, none of them attacking a single member of the caravan. The men were confused before their faces paled as the footsteps they heard before got nearer.
The trees parted and fell as a huge figure came into view.
The monster was walking on four legs, and yet it was still about 3 meters tall.
Blue flames could be seen coming out from some parts of its body and mouth as the monster stared at the caravan.
The thick fur of the monster made it almost impervious to any weapons and its claws could tear through even the toughest walls with ease. Its jaw was powerful enough to crush rocks and turn them into dust while the blue flames could actually freeze anything they touched.
[ Infernal Bear ]
Hi guys, sorry for the low update rate lately, I\'m going to the hospital tonight and staying over, then having a surgery in the morning, it\'s a small one and it should not stop me from writing, but we will see.
TheReign