Chapter 31: Chapter 30 – Forest Knock Out

Morning dawned and everyone woke up from a good night’s sleep. Rested and ready to face the day. Well, the people back in town do. Our group however is all cranky from sleeping on tree roots all night. They are getting ready to leave only needing a few more minutes. Then a crackle followed by the smell of ozone points out that they are no longer protected by the hut’s enchantment. As the last bits and bobs are gathered, they can hear shouts in the distance. Everyone sighs and heads off at a jog.

The first hour goes by relatively quietly. Mostly running and hiding from mooks. After that things kicked into high gear. Instead of single foes the enemies have grouped together. Whatever it was the increased density forced a fight. Dodging a group of seven humans was the correct choice but it did put them up against a handful of wolfkin.

The only thing going for our group is conveniently voiced as the fight starts, “Guy’s, the targets are there! Keep the fight on the down low and we might be able to get the whole reward for ourselves!” Hearing this Jason and the rest can’t help silently cheering to themselves. Apparently the pup didn’t have enough to pay everyone. While an open hit on the group might attract more people to chase them. With only the people who capture them getting paid the groups are likely to have infighting.

With that revelation in mind everyone goes quiet as the wolfkin charge at them. The line up, ready to take the charge when suddenly Jason and Rosha dart to the sides. Not being the most organized of groups the wolfkin split up instead of just taking out James.

Rosha has it easiest with only one going after her. As it turns to follow her the wolfkin loses all the speed from its charge. Not one to let any advantage go Rosha fires off a quick arrow while running. A loud thunk and the arrow imbeds itself in the left arm. She clicks her tongue. Even aiming at the center of mass she almost missed.

On the other side Jason attracted 3 of the wolfkin. From the chatter it sounds like capturing him is worth more than the others. He can only shake his head. Smacking down that pup masquerading as a leader put a target on his head. Not liking his odds with going off on his own Jason turns back. Bringing his hands up he counter charges. The three mooks coming at him bring their weapons up to block. Jason smiles, instead of using his hands to attack our hero drops to the ground with a leg sweep. A gray wolfkin hops over it though he is off balance. The other two get knocked over and they fall forward. One, a female, goes into a quick roll. She isn’t able to stop and ends up a distance away. The other wolfkin face plants. To the fallen one Jason simply gives a sharp chop to the back of the head knocking it out.

James is on easy mode. If the wolfkin coming at him wasn’t the leader of the group and a bit more competent, it would be over already. The leader has an actual weapon instead of just his claws keeping the two at a standstill. They trade blows back and forth. James blocking and the leader dodging. Then the leader takes a blunt arrow to the head knocking him out. Rosha took a chance and instead of attacking her opponent decided to help. With the leader knocked out it frees James to go and help Jason.

This bit of help though opened up Rosha and she barely dodges a swipe. She snarls at the wolfkin, “Two of you are already finished.” She gives him a smirk as she whips out a dagger. The wolfkin backs up in defense. Then he falls over unconscious. Standing behind him we see James also smirking. He had only started to go help Jason. When the wolfkin looked away, he snuck behind it. Instead of using his whip normally James reversed his grip and gave a solid bash to the back of the skull with the butt of the whip.

With the rest of their team downed, the girl and the gray wolfkin start running away. Jason tackles the gray one who was standing near him. As they wrestle the girl is getting away. At least that is what she hopes. Rosha however crushes that hope and drops her with another blunt arrow to the head. She might not be that good at shooting on the run but give her the chance to aim and she is deadly. Finally James knocks the gray one out as Jason holds him still.

The team is off again. A couple of similar encounters happen though with less enemies. Eventually though it seems the organizers of this hunt have tired of the infighting. Finally after being able to quietly take down so many groups the last one shouted. The rules of reward have changed. Now there is a reward for whoever finds them first when they get captured.

With this change in rewards the group runs into a lot more lone enemies. The first one they tried to avoid. Sadly the rabbitkin while not able to beat them was faster than the group. Instead of going for the capture all he did was stay near them while shouting to the world their location. Not being able to shake him Rosha fires a shot. The arrow is dodged but James follows up with his whip. As the rabbitkin trips Jason goes for another knockout chop.

Things just get harder as more spotters start searching. Eventually after lunch time the group manages to get some breathing room. With that space they decide to go about their escape with more information. That in mind the next spotter isn’t left behind. Everyone agreed that they wouldn’t use torture. However as Jason pointed out, the elf they caught wouldn’t know that. Now looking for somewhere to hide they find a stream. While not that big the brush next to it has grown big. James places the elf on the ground and then Rosha ties him up.