Blood Shaper - Book 4: Chapter 40

Kay swung his halberd like a felling axe and beheaded the last boar monster he’d been fighting. He glanced around to see if anyone needed help and saw things were well in hand. Eleniah’s suggestion of just going out and leading parties to kill monsters and deal with problems ended up being the best idea for leveling his Leadership Skill quickly. As far as he could tell, it was going even better than she’d thought it would since he was mostly working with mixed teams of Sentinels and Blood Guard. The Blood Guard just did whatever he said, but the Sentinels often chafed at the bit. None of them had actually truly challenged him so far, but there had been some grumbling and pushing back against him that he’d needed to sort out, which was actually a boon. He was getting better at several of the bits of leading that he normally didn’t have to experience this way.

This most recent foray had been at the behest of one of the villages that had been created in the wilderness surrounding Avalon City as his citizens worked at pushing back the wilds and taking control of the region. This particular village was one of several that were “in front” of Avalon City, which was actually west of the city, thus making them some of the easiest and earliest targets for the oncoming army. Kay had no idea if the anti-vampire crusade coming his way was going to treat his citizens poorly or not, so he was planning for them to be raging assholes. Every village between the enemy and Avalon City was being prepared to evacuate, and he was going to order it to happen the instant they got word of the army arriving in the general area of Tumbling Rapids. Even with the road system that was being built to facilitate trade to the west, it was still more than a week’s journey between Tumbling Rapids and Avalon City for a trading caravan moving at a decent pace. An army would take a lot longer, and there would be more than enough time to move anyone in danger safely behind Avalon’s walls.

That was what Kay hoped and prayed, at least, but he was also doing his best to ensure it would go well, which was why they were out killing boar monsters. The monsters hadn’t been too much of a problem for the village and had served as a decent draw for adventurers and combatants early in their careers to come to hunt the younger and weaker boars to build themselves up. There were several larger herds of monsters that roamed the area, and one of them had shifted their normal roaming pattern to be directly in the way of the planned evacuation route. The villagers had been carefully tracking the boars to make sure they didn’t become a problem and had sent for more help when the kink in the plans had come up.

“Thanks for the help, milord.” Their guide, a hunter from the village, walked over, keeping one eye on the smaller fight that was still ongoing. “I hate to kill off a whole herd of them, but I don’t see how you had much of a choice once they refused to move.” He kicked the headless corpse and shook his head, “Real shame. Might be a problem in the future that all this territory got cleared out; no telling what might move in.”

“If something does move in, it shouldn’t be anything that can’t be handled. I just hope nothing takes over this area until after we need to move people through it.”

“Yeah, there is that.” The wiry, elven man who’d introduced himself as Dev squinted at some of the dead monsters, “Guess it just depends on who or what is moving through looking for a place to settle down in the next bit.” He glanced at Kay out of the corner of his eye, “Can’t say too many folks are happy about having to pack up and move back to the city, even if it’s only for a bit. Quite a few of us wanted to come out here to start a new life, and we’ve been doing pretty well at that.”

Kay shrugged and spread his hands, “What would you have me do? I can’t trust an army that refuses to respond to any messages to actually treat anyone with respect when they march through here. I’d rather have unhappy citizens who live through everything than dead ones. We’ll move everyone out when the army comes through, stomp them flat, then move everyone back.”

“And if those folk ransack and pillage our homes?”

“Then it gets fixed. I’m assuming that this army will give up instead of every man fighting to the last, so we’ll wring concessions out of them for invading and then some extra ones for trying to use such a flimsy excuse to attack us. We’ll use those to pay for damages, and if they do all end up dead, I’ll pay for it myself.”

Dev glanced away with a grin, “Well then. Those nice messengers that come by every once in a while with news said something like that, but it’s better to hear it out of the mouth of the man himself, you know?” He paused for a moment to quint-stare at the last remaining boar that was struggling against two of the newer Sentinels on Kay’s temporary team. “You sent messages to those folk that are marching our way, you said?”

“More than one, with no responses. We sent the first few through the people who’re still here from the Shatterplate Order, and then when we got word that an army was being formed, we sent more. Looks like they’re ignoring me and just assuming I’m lying about being a vampire instead of a vampyr.”

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“Hmm. Shame. I’ve met more than one of those crazy fuckers, and they all have something off about them that you just don’t have. Nothing you can do about other people not listening, though.” Dev reached down and hauled one of the corpses off his shoulder. “Should start hauling these back, no sense wasting good meat. I like those Shatterplate folks,” He continued without any pause, “Real bunch of conscientious types. They came through here and some of the other villages and double-checked that we weren’t seeing any hints of those vampyr, and taught a lot of the younger folks good ways to keep an eye out for ‘em. Real good folks. You ever had hooktusk meat?”

“No, I haven’t had the opportunity yet,” Kay replied, chuckling under his breath. He took a moment to Inspect one of the bodies, trying to get into the habit of exercising the Skill now that he could level it above five.

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Hooktusk Boar

Tier III Equivalent Monster

– Boar monsters defined by their hook-like tusks that protrude from both their upper and lower jaws. Opportunistic omnivores like other, non-monster pigs, Hooktusk Boars stretch “opportunistic” as far as it will go, chasing down anything edible they notice ahead of them and using their hooked tusks to drag whatever they’ve found to consume toward their mouths. Generally a nuisance in small numbers, large hordes of them can become incredible threats to nearby settlements. Known for having very tasty meat.

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“It’s good stuff. The meat’s been one of the draws for people to come this way, along with the training people can get by hunting these bastards.” He slapped the pig’s body over his shoulder with one hand, “Been trying to keep an eye on their population so we can keep it stable and use ‘em to develop the village over time, but now this army stuff’s going to get in the way. Thankfully, these idiot pigs know when they’re outnumbered and tend to run, so a whole army’d have to waste time running ‘em down. Only reason they didn’t run from you all today is they can’t tell if somebody’s stronger than them, just if there’s more of them or more of you.” He glanced over his shoulder, “’Course, I think you could have taken ‘em all yourself, milord.”

“Maybe, but then nobody else would get anything out of it.”

“Good attitude! I got an apprentice of my own, can’t be doing everything for the boy, even if he is my grandson. I tell myself: ‘Dev, keep strong. You love that boy, but he has to learn to gut his kills himself, even if it smells bad.’ Boy, does he whine about the smell! We’ll have to try and cook some of these ones we’ve got right now for you before you leave, let you eat some of your own kills, but if you lot won’t have time to stay around, we’ve got some jerky, and sausages that are ready to get that you can take with you.”

Kay shook his head, laughing quietly at the very entertaining switches from topic to topic as they walked back toward the village. Kay collected several of the boar carcasses and floated them with little sleds, which his Blood Guard escort copied. The rest were carried by the Sentinels and Dev.

“Hey, there’s those Shatterplate folks now.” As they made it back to the village, Dev said, “Wonder why they’re back so soon?”

Before Kay had a chance to react, Alice was suddenly in his face. “Kay! There’s been some reports of vampyr problems and possibly an attack to the west!” She shouted. She stopped and looked around at everyone staring at her, “I mean, Lord Kay, sir.”

“To the west?” Kay ignored the faux pas and made a quick and dirty map with some floating blood. “Around where? Too much farther west, and we’re out of Avalon’s territory.”

“We’re roughly…” Alice traced her finger along the mag, and Kay briefly wondered if he would ever be able to make some kind of blood map maker Class, not for the first time. “Here, right? Then it’d be in this area here; we’ve gotten some reports that villages in the area have had experiences that reek of vampyr, and one of them has apparently stopped speaking to anyone.”

“That’s definitely not in Avalon’s territory; those villages pay tribute to Tumbling Rapids.”

“So? The Shatterplate Order is-“

“The Shatterplate Order has agreements to wander around and deal with vampyr basically everywhere. I do not have those kinds of agreements, and Tumbling Rapids has been in a state of flux recently, and three of the four sides that are forming over there aren’t my biggest fans. I don’t think that Avalon can afford a potential political crisis right on the edge of a war.”

“But personally dealing with a vampyr attack could completely change the way everyone’s treating you!” Alice insisted, her fangs flashing as she spoke, “If everyone’s refusing to accept the truth and are insisting you’re a vampyr, then killing some other vampyr and potentially saving any victims will give them a piece of direct evidence that they can’t just wave away!”

Kay gently pushed her back a little as he considered her points. “I-“

“And!” She interrupted him, “I still don’t have the necessary Skills to try and heal anyone if anyone’s been turned and could still be saved! I’ve only got Blood Manipulation at four, and the rest of my team aren’t much better, plus none of us have the healing Classes you do that you said help! There might not be enough time to bring someone all the way back here and make sure they make it.”

“I agree!” Kay grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away with a little more force. “You don’t need to shout; you’re totally right. We’ll set out as soon as I’m done with things here, and the team with me is ready to move.”