Chapter 3-A farmer’s wit

  On the other side of the endless forest, far away from Karry several members of Lawless where

  continuing their search for Zeke with no success. After searching for several minutes, they were

  unable to find any trace of him and decided to continue their search in a different area. Nearly

  thirty minutes after they left a figure slowly and warily climbed down from one of the towering

  trees.

  After carefully inspecting the surroundings to make sure there was no one around the figure

  stealthily made its way into the distance. This figure was precisely Zeke who after erasing his

  tracks as best as he could. He then climbed one of the trees and hid. After dealing with several

  poisonous insects and even a few snakes he managed to hide in the giant branches of the tree. As

  he ran Zeke tried his best to remember the route to the cliff where they had killed the demon

  boar.

  He lost his path a few times and ran into the territory of several savage beasts almost losing his

  life but he eventually managed to find his way there safely. By the time he reached the cliff the

  sun had set and it was now completely dark in the endless forest. From reading the monster index

  Zeke was away that this was the time that a lot of dangerous monsters would leave their dens and

  go hunting.

  With this information in mind coupled with the fact that he was alone he tossed aside the notion

  of lighting a campfire and decided against making one for warmth. There was also the chance

  that a fire might lead the lawless right to his location. Zeke waited for several hours in the bitter

  cold but Karry never arrived. He began to fear the worst had happened, maybe she had been

  captured or perhaps she was already…. He stopped himself from thinking such morbid thoughts

  and decided to continue waiting.

  As he sat there in the dark waiting his stomach suddenly growled with such intensity he thought

  there was a monster next to him. While they were running he and Karry had agreed to leave

  behind their sacks full of the body parts of the demon boar and other creatures so as to increase

  their speed. All their other provisions where inside Karry’s storage sack so he currently had no

  food to eat.

  After hesitating for a while he decided to go gather some food. As a farmer, he had ample

  experience with plants so even in the endless forest he was sure he would be able to find some

  edible and non-poisonous plants or bark to eat. He made his way through the forest quietly

  harvesting any edible plants, he could find.

  He was focused on his task when he suddenly heard the rustling of plants in the distance, his

  heart dropped because he thought it was a savage beast but the rustling was soon followed by

  light and the sound of voices talking. He was about to ignore their words and focus on his task

  when he managed to hear some of what they were saying.

  He didn’t hear everything but he heard things like “damn brats” and “I can’t believe we have to

  waste our time looking”. What truly incited Zeke’s furry was when he heard “I wonder if the

  captain has been able to get anything useful from that little girl” the men laughed as they

  continued their conversation. “I can’t believe they were able to kill that demon boar. We

  struggled for so long to be able to injure it but it managed to escape. I wonder how they killed it”

  the color seemed to fade from the world when Zeke heard these words.

  “Karry” he said to himself. He had no doubt about who these men were talking about. He now

  finally understood why that demon boar was injured prior to them encountering it. He couldn’t

  help but think of what the Lawless might do to Karry. After waiting for so long at the cliff

  without her arriving he thought something might have happened to her but still he hoped for the

  best.

  After a brief moment of contemplation Zeke decided to follow the men back to their camp. He

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  trailed behind at a distance not too far away but not too close either. He would occasionally stop

  and carefully pick some plants, these were not edible though. After several hours, he saw a

  campfire in the distance.

  There were many voices coming from the direction of the fire. After walking a bit closer Zeke

  finally caught sight of Karry. She was tied to a wooden post with bruises all over her face. Even

  from a distance, he could still hear her sharp voice “let me go you fucking creeps. I see your

  mothers never thought you how to treat a lady.”

  She had disdain smeared onto her face as she spoke “Now that I think about it, it makes sense

  why so many men are together in one place. I bet you guys like to play with each other’s things

  huh? hahahaha” her deranged laughter spread far in the in the dark.

  Zeke couldn’t help himself but shake his head. “ahh” he sighed as he thought to himself ‘stupid

  girl they’ve already beat you this much yet you still taunt them. How do you expect them to let

  you live?’ Zeke kept watching as Lanis walked in front of Karry and kicked her a few times. He

  then held up a bloodied sack and spoke “shut your filthy mouth, where is the rest of the demon

  boar”?

  “have you checked your men’s tents? They probably hid the corpse so they could “have fun”

  with it later”

  Lanis stared at her in silence for a couple of seconds. He let out a sigh as he pulled out a knife

  and spoke. “I’ve had enough of this nasty tongue of yours” he stuck his hand into her mouth and

  pulled out her tongue, he was prepared to cut it off.

  Zeke could no longer watch in silence, he came out of the bushes and yelled “stop, don’t hurt

  her.”

  The several members of lawless turned to look at him with shocked expressions.

  “captain that’s him, that’s the other kid that was with her” anger burned in Bryant’s eyes as he

  spoke.

  Lanis turned to Zeke with a deadpan look on his face “where is the rest of the demon boar?”

  “It’s not here but I can take you to it just don’t hurt her.”

  Lanis narrowed his eyes as he continued to size up Zeke. “you have to promise to let us go

  unharmed once you have it. we really didn’t know it was you guys who fought it before.”

  Lanis continued to remain silent. Zeke spoke once more “I mean it we really didn’t know”

  “it doesn’t matter” Lanis finally spoke “whoever takes what belongs to the Lawless has to pay”

  the members of lawless began to cheer and shout in agreement with Lanis’s words. He raised a

  hand to silence them then he continued.

  “take my men to the rest of the corpse. If you behave yourself then I might let you leave

  unharmed. As for her” there was a slight pause before he continued she has to pay for her

  disrespect.”

  “haha you think I’m scared of you losers. Zeke don’t believe a word he says they’re called

  “Lawless” for a reason. He definitely won’t keep his words.”

  ‘I know that you idiot’ Zeke secretly thought to himself ‘just be quiet and let me handle this’

  “Karry, shut up and trust me. I promise we’ll both make it out of here safely.” He gave her a look

  that seemed to say, ‘I have a plan’. Karry might have been a mind reader because she seemed to

  understand his thoughts and simply gave him a bright smile and nodded her head.

  Zeke rubbed his temples in exhaustion and thought ‘if this keeps up I’ll have aged several years

  by the time we leave…if we leave that is.’ He then looked to Lanis and spoke “so do we have a

  deal?”

  As if he hadn’t heard Zeke, Lanis didn’t answer him. Lanis put his knife back in its sheath and

  spoke to his men “several of you follow him and bring back the corpse. Make sure he doesn’t do

  anything unexpected. If he tries something foolish then kill him immediately.”

  “Yes captain” ten men including Bryant got up and followed Zeke as he made his way into the

  distance. “ this many people just to follow me? Just one would be fine you know” Zeke joked

  “shut up and keep walking” Bryant said.

  Zeke led the men far into the woods. They walked for nearly an hour with the members of

  Lawless asking “how much further” every so often. Each time Zeke’s answer would be “almost

  there.”

  After ten more minutes Zeke finally came to a stop. He stuffed his hands into his pocket and

  pulled out one of the plants he picked up on his way to the Lawless’s camp. This was a thin plant

  with several stripes of red and yellow on it known as serpent’s grass. He scanned the

  environment with his eyes until his gaze focused on a specific spot near a large bush.

  “Found it” he revealed a cunning smile on his face as only he was aware of what lay behind that

  bush. He grabbed a small dagger from his belt strap and quickly cut into his palm. “what the hell

  are you doing?” one of the lawless caught sight of his strange actions. “oh, nothing much” Zeke

  replied, “just calling for some help.”

  Zeke hurriedly dripped some blood onto the serpent’s grass then he shoved it into the pocket of

  the closest member of Lawless and turned to run. “hey, get your ass back here” the others were

  about to chase after him when all of a sudden, they heard strange noises coming from the large

  bush.

  “hissssss” the sound echoed as a large snake raised its head and came out of the bush. It was

  nearly ten meters long and two meters wide with a dark red color. This was a blood serpent, it

  was attracted to serpent’s grass, especially one that was stained with blood. It scanned the

  environment until its yellow eyes landed on the man with the serpent’s grass inside his pocket.

  It flicked its scary tongue then immediately lunged at the man. Its speed was so fast he could

  barely react in time. He narrowly avoided its attack as he rolled to the side. He spun around

  quickly and pulled out his sword to defend but before he could unleash any combat skills he

  heard a “waap” as its long tail slammed into his chest. There was a loud crack that followed

  indicating broken bones as he was sent flying almost 5 meters spitting out blood.

  He tried to stand but before he could the blood serpent rushed at him with an open moth

  exposing its sharp fangs. A strong fishy smell assaulted his nostrils but he couldn’t even register

  the stench before the blood serpent swallowed him whole. The only thing that could be heard

  was “nooo” but even that only lasted for seconds before silence returned to the forest. It takes a

  while to describe but all this happened in a matter of seconds. Before his friends could react, he

  was already being digested by the blood serpent.

  “shit, that little bastard tricked us” said one of the lawless. “It’s only a d ranked savage beast

  Three people stay and kill it the rest come with me and help find that little shit.” Bryant

  immediately ordered. The worst part about dealing with the blood serpent was its sneak attacks

  but once you were prepared for it and had the appropriate counter measures it was a lot easier to

  handle.

  Zeke quickly ran through the endless forest. He knew that as a rank d savage beast the blood

  serpent could only keep the lawless busy for a few minutes at best. He looked around as he ran.

  He was searching for other territories of savage beast he had entered as he escaped from the

  lawless on his way to the cliff. He had nearly died when he entered these territories so he

  couldn’t help but to remember where they were. If he had not hidden his smell with the juice

  from an angel root, he would have long been discovered when he entered their territories.

  It didn’t take long before he reached his next location. He reached into his pocket and pulled out

  a dark green flower with a strong smell. This was known as a river lily and it was the favorite

  snack of the dragon wasps. He looked around picked up a few rocks then he climbed up a tree

  and stopped when he saw a large wasp nest that was nearly ten meters in diameter.

  He took out his flask crushed the river lily and put it inside his flask. He closed it and shook the

  flask to make sure the river lily was well mixed with it. after making sure his preparations were

  complete. He grabbed a long vine then threw one of the rocks at the nest. He waited a few

  moments but nothing happened so he repeated the process and threw a few more rocks. This time

  there was a loud “buzzzz” that caught his ear. Zeke immediate held unto the vine and jumped

  down. He didn’t even look behind him to make sure that his plan succeeded.

  As soon as he reached the ground he began to run in the direction he just came from. It didn’t

  take long before he heard the loud curses of some of the Lawless. “hey, what are you guys doing

  I’m right here, why don’t you come get me” he yelled as he ran towards them.

  “you bitch, bring your ass here” Bryant yelled “I’m gonna make you suffer for th..” his words

  got stuck in his throat as he looked behind Zeke. What he saw filled his body with sheer terror.

  They had the bodies of wasp but were a meter long in length. Their bodies were covered in snake

  like scales that were black and yellow in color. They had two dragon like horns protruding from

  their heads, a pointy sword like stinger nearly two feet long and numerous sharp teeth that struck

  fear into a person’s very being. These were c ranked savage beasts known as dragon wasps.

  There were nearly a dozen of them.