Chapter 26: Chapter 26 – A Boundless Appetite

 

The guard captain groaned heavily. There were hundreds, if not thousands of goblins outside Steepbell, and hundreds of orcs.

"Form up!" He yelled. The adventurers looked like they had just been given a death sentence.

"There's still time! We can make a run for the town of Fairgate!" One of the adventurers said, and it looked like most of the others agreed with him. "Let the elves have this place for all I care!" He ran off, with a fair amount of men behind him. The guard captain growled.

"The other gate is already under siege." A guard said. "It was the first one under siege. It seems like there are two groups of monsters around Steepbell. We aren't going anywhere."

"But-but-but..." A few adventurers had stayed behind, in the hopes that there was actually some hope to save their town. The ones that stuck around, including town guards, had families here. The adventurers were mostly rabble now. The good ones had already moved on to higher leveled areas, or applied to move east through the elvish Guild Master.

"You guys had your hands out greedily to accept the money of those people from out west, and now look what it brought us." The captain slammed his mace into the head of a goblin that made it over the wall.

"You fight, or you die. The ones you betrayed already know what you did. They took their kin into the most heavily fortified area of the town, and closed the gates over an hour ago. We are on our own."

 

* * *

 

"Here. I brought it so you won't starve until after I kill those goblins and orcs." Baris threw down some salted meats, and lightened his bag. The wolf pack watched him run off, but did not chase him down. The pack took large pieces into their mouth, while saving over half of it.

They picked it up and took it back to their den, where their mates waited, and their pups starved. They didn't care that it was black bear meat, which was the meat of a carnivore.

Meat was meat when you're starving to death.

Baris continued to run, and kill any goblin he came across. He picked up each manna pebble, which now numbered well into a hundred or more.

"Bloody hell." Baris groaned. "I just leveled up again! I know this is a good thing, but I can't rest yet! With these lousy buggers out here in the forest, I'm a sitting duck!"

He looked at the night sky, and growled. It wouldn't be necessary to do it like this if the hunters were doing their jobs. Hunting, scouting, foraging. Those were important jobs when the lands around were so wild and untamed.

He took another swing at a goblin that stepped into his path, and readied himself. Though the goblins were still weak, he noticed that some had bones woven into their skin, or strapped on with leather.

They were outfitting themselves, so he was either getting closer to the dungeon, or closer to a nest. Either way, it would be a battle.

 

* * *

 

"No more scouting parties. Better hurry, or there will be more headed to Noobville and Steepbell. I hope Steepbell is doing alright. They have higher and thicker walls, so they should be fine." He grimaced a bit. "First Aid. Still getting complacent. You would think that I would know better." That was the fifth time he's had to cast the novice healing spell.

"Where is that damned nest?!" He said angrily, and approached the fairy grove. What met his eyes made them twitch as he grit his teeth. The grove was decimated, and the water polluted with blood. Off to one side of the lake was a village, walls make with the trees that once provided food for the fairies.

"It's only been a few days. Nuella. Can I burn this place?" He said angrily.

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'Yes.' There was no hesitation, and no concern for what he wanted to do. They had destroyed a near perfect natural habitat, and it made him burn with rage.

"Flames." For the first time, he was able to form the apprentice level spell, but still at the high cost of fifty manna per cast. Baris took out a small handful of manna crystals, and began to ignite the new wooden walls that encircled the village.

When half a dozen manna crystals were drained to fuel this fire, he smiled.

'Killed a dungeon goblin, received 100 xp.' Those messages started to flow into his status as a few dozen goblins began to wake up from their meat fed stupor. The flames put them to sleep not long after.

"That made me feel a lot better."

 

* * *

 

"A fortified entrance." Baris groaned. "Makes me wish I brought the hammer, and not the axe." He said quietly. He heard a soft chuckle behind him.

"Then be glad I brought it with me." Alea stood behind him, a familiar sack on her back. He frowned slightly.

"I asked Nuella to send someone to take that back to Noobville." He said quietly. "Not that I couldn't use it now. I'm through most of my rations already. Those wolves were starving as the goblins killed and ate everything they could." She smiled a little.

"I saw what you did, as did my mare, through Nuella. When I returned with your sack, she gave me the hammer, and said you would need both the meat, and the hammer." She frowned slightly. "Never thought I would see this place in this condition."

"They didn't give me much choice." Baris said. "They consumed everything they could, and destroyed what they couldn't. It irritated me as it's a familiar practice."

"Oh?" Alea said, probing a little. "That entrance. Not going to be easy."

"No problem now that you brought the hammer." Baris sat down and absorbed a few more manna crystals. "Need any?" She shook her head. "As to what I meant, I come from a place where the people consume the natural world around them, with little to no concept of preservation. The public face is that lands have a 'preserved' label on them, but loggers go in and clear cut everything, then pay a nominal fine." He growled.

"Clear cut? Is that what it sounds like?"

"Cut down every single tree until the land is cleared, and harvest it all. It's given a fancy term, like biomass, but that neglects a sustainable forest practice." He sighed sadly. "I once saw a vast swathe of land completely harvested, from sapling to ancient tree, with no concept of anything other then the money they would make." She watched his face, and saw no signs of any lies. "They say it's better, and they can plant quick growing spruce, or pine, but those trees take thirty years to grow up, and in the meantime, they bring in a bug that eats those quick growing trees." She saw the sadness.

"It was your home." She said simply.

"Yeah." He sighed again. "It was. Until they ruined it with machines and saws. Didn't look like home the last time I looked. So I had no reason to stay. Now, I see it all again." Baris growled, picked up his hammer, and started to run.

Alea watched as goblins went flying, logs were destroyed like they were hollow, and the rest get engulfed in flames, and wind gusts to increase the heat.

All cast by one angry human who could now fight back against those that harmed his new home.

"He has to be your agent, Nuella. There is no other possible explanation." Alea whispered. An agent sent to judge, and punish the sinners that caused their world to go out of balance.

His appetite for judging the sinners seemed to be just as great as her appetite for her mare. Boundless.

 

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