Chapter 5: “Former” Griffin Knights

Hog …… Hog? Did I hear you right?

Jace cursed the fuck out of him in his native tongue and turned around to feel around for any weapons that had been dropped by jackals or other soldiers, and eventually just picked up the bone-splitting blade that the little jackal had been holding earlier.

But the knife was too short to block or stab, and the one in the jackal’s hand seemed to be a battle axe made by orcs, with an axe head bigger than his own head, would he not be chopped in two on the spot by swinging it over?

“Grid! Hurry up and look this way, damn it!” Jace yelled as there was a rustle of movement behind him, not knowing if it was Grid or whoever had scurried to the side.

Jace grabbed him by the beard and asked, “Look at that, how does this hit, huh? How does this hit?!”

Greed grabbed Jace’s collar and whispered, “Can’t put up a fight, or should we run?”

“Can you outrun a jackal if you run? Where is your honor?!”

“Life is gone still honor an ass ah! But you’re right …… to run, and you can’t run away.”

Jace looked around, many of the militia had also fought until they were exhausted, the guards had fought until they could barely stand, and one that tried to escape into the forest had been speared into a distant tree ……

He gritted his teeth as he watched the huge jackal come this way, the guard who had been fending him off earlier was already on the ground and not moving.

Grid lifted his axe and removed his blindfold, fully revealing the long scar that stretched from his forehead to his mouth.

He pressed his voice and said, “Maybe we can fuck him up.”

“There’s nothing else to do.” Jess agreed.

“It’s worth dying with you, pink-skinned man!”

“Not necessarily dead yet, spell it out.”

The jackal leader’s steps grew faster and faster, spinning his axe in his hand as he ran wildly towards the two men, the dwarf and the human jumped out of the way to either side at the same time, Hogg’s axe slashed against the wagon railing sending the body shaking for a moment, one of the wheels was shaken off with a loud thud, the wagon fell backwards diagonally with a shock, and the sacks of grain tipped over and fell off.

Hogg turned toward Jace swung the axe, Jace held up a grain bag was Hogg from the center of the sharp split wheat spilled all over the ground, this blow even with the grain bag cushioning also shocked the Jace body numb, this monster than the human strength do not know how much!

Just as Hogg was about to slash down a second blow, he suddenly shook all over and turned back to try to scratch something, he spun around in place only to see that Grid was gripping the axe in his hand, the blade of the axe had embedded itself into the armor on Hogg’s back, and in the light of the burning torches, the blood oozing out seemed to be as bright as red ink!

“Can you kill him now?”

Jace muttered to himself, picked up the cleaver that fell on the ground, staggered to the top, toward the other side of the back waist ruthlessly stabbed in …… but I did not expect the tip of the cleaver is not sharp enough, their own strength is not in the haste to make enough, this stab in the other side of the leather waist protector after stabbing, surprisingly, by the slippery, wet, hard animal hair slipped away quite a lot, just chipped open a layer of skin, did not penetrate into the flesh at all! A layer of skin, did not penetrate into the flesh at all!

Hogg ate the pain and turned back to kick Jace out of the way, swinging his whole body around to throw Grid back and forth for a moment, his other hand slamming around to grab Grid’s braid of hair in one swift motion!

“Ouch!”

With a strangled yelp Grid was ripped off with one hand and the axe in his hand came off with it, the movement of Hogg became a little strange as the axe cleaved into his back, but it was still fast enough and powerful enough.

He grabbed Grid and lifted him into mid-air, his other hand going for the axe he’d tossed aside, and Grid bit down on his claw, letting out a low growl of pain but still not letting go.

Jace rubbed the kick in his stomach, gritted his teeth and slipped over to the two-handed felling axe, picked it up, gripped it tightly in both hands, and boosted it a bit to yell with all the strength he had left to slice into the back of Hogg’s leg, a slash that failed to break his back leg and only chiseled a bloody gash in his leg bone.

Hogg fell to the ground with a grunt, and Gerrard was able to get out of the way.

“Kill him while he’s down!” Jace threw his axe at Grid, who roared something in Dwarven to catch it in the air and take a hard chop in the air, but he didn’t want Hogg to raise his head and slam into his chest, sending him flying straight into the wagon right on top of it, mumbling a few times and not knowing what his mind didn’t seem to be working any more, and getting up several times in a row to slip and fall back down again because of the rain and the mud.

Hogg somehow managed to get up and pick up the dwarven weapons again, dual wielding a large and a small axe, and limped this way.

Now, Jace’s originally magnificent face froze in a flash, this time he really gave his life away for a silver coin.

He grabbed the long stick of one of the militiamen at hand and tried a blocking stance, before him Hogg shifted his axe but suddenly turned into a sheep in a puff of smoke!

Goat-changing?

Looking to the far side of the road, he saw that in the pouring rain, a man in purple robes was riding a white horse and holding his staff high as he came this way.

Is it Gandalf …… or An …… Antonidas?

As the mage came closer, he got a good look at the other man, and it turned out to be Marin!

He shouted an incantation, and the crystal tip of his staff gradually emitted an arcane glare as he recited the spell, illuminating the road and the woods on either side.

The jackals who were still fighting were so illuminated, looking into the center to find that their leader had turned into a sheep lying on the side of the road and chewing grass, they panicked, and many of them even covered their eyes and retreated into the forest.

Marin said in a loud voice, “The morphing spell won’t last long, Mr. Jace Sesso! A few minutes, or even a few dozen seconds …… The Jackal is highly resistant to my offensive magic, and I won’t be able to handle him once the spell fails.”

“Then we need to get out of here faster, there may be other jackals coming this way.” Jace said, suddenly remembering the guard who had been knocked down by the jackal leader, peeling off his helmet, the man was still breathing.

“Master Marin, take him!”

Hearing Jace’s shouts, Marin jumped off his horse and looked at the guard’s bloody face, waved his hand and pointed to the east and said, “Get him on his horse, you guys hurry up and head east, you’ll run into the guard post soon, I’ll be coming that way.”

“Grid! We need to move fast!” Jace yelled towards the still slightly dazed dwarf, while calling out for a few men and the guards who could still move to join him in removing the wounded soldier’s armor and sending him to his horse.

Those still able to move took the wounded and trailed off with Marin’s bright magic, and the jackals, with their leader turned into a sheep, didn’t have the courage to fight their way to catch up, and the group traveled at a fast pace for ten minutes to see the post’s torches before slowly easing down.

The militiamen who couldn’t make the journey sat paralyzed by the railing, and Jace tilted his head back, puffing out his chest and taking a deep breath before he felt like he’d finally gotten over this reprieve.

The rain crackled on his forehead, slowly calming him down a bit.

The sentries coming from the post took hold of Marin’s white horse and cried out for men to come and help along with the carrying and tending of the wounded, and Marin, who had been idle for a few moments, looked at them and said to Jess, “I’m going to help these lads, and you’d better get out of here quick, too; there are still wolves out in the forest.”

Jess asked, “How did you know we were in danger?”

Marin said, “I don’t know, I was just going to look for you. After asking the guards who recruited you your name, one of the workers said that you went to the western wilderness, and I thought that you were going to go to Moon Creek Town to find work, so I was going to rush to persuade you to come back. I don’t want to miss out on such a helper, it’s just that, I didn’t expect a jackal attack, so it’s just too much of a coincidence that this happened to be a favor to you.”

Jace said, “I don’t know how to thank you, Maestro. So, you are going to hire me?”

Marin nodded and said, “When you get well remember to come to the mage district to see me to discuss your treatment, same place as always, Mr. Sesso. I still hope you don’t hide your thoughts about the Red Dragon.”

“I see.” Jace hadn’t expected Marin to see that he was still hiding something, but he wasn’t about to make peace with that so quickly regarding the Demon’s Soul, and still had to come up with a plausible explanation.

The mage faded into the rain, and the dwarf slumped to the ground and said quietly, “I can’t hold the axe anymore, Jace.”

“We’re safe.” Jace looked out into the dark forest but still didn’t dare drop his guard, yet he was almost too tired to keep his eyes open.

“I mean I can’t hold the axe, dammit!” Grid cursed, and Jace snapped his eyes over at the sound of his voice, realizing that up until now Grid’s hands had been shaking.

Thinking about the chaotic fight that had just taken place, Jace did remember the axe coming out of Grid’s hand several times, and several times falling into harm’s way as a result.

But that didn’t stop him from thinking that Grid was a good warrior, after all, he and these saved soldiers might not have had a chance to survive if it wasn’t for the dwarf.

The dwarf slurred, “The human priest in Southsea Town told me that the goddamned bats those trolls raised hurt my brain with their venom, and that I might not be able to fly in the sky for the rest of my life. Gothrum was right, I’ll never ride a griffin again, I’ll never throw a warhammer again, I’m a wreck, Jace.”

Listening to the dwarf’s words, Jace remembered the first time the two had met in Southsea Town, when Grid had been as motionless as a sack on the surface of the sea.

It wasn’t too long ago that the Hillsbrad Hills had been the scene of a sea battle between the Orcs and the Alliance, and from time to time messy floating objects came close to the shore, so the people on the docks didn’t even recognize it as a living person, thinking it was some kind of soaked cargo or something.

At that time, he was waiting near the docks for the ships carrying the refugees to dock, and was just in time to see that bulge up a bit, gurgling out a cloud of bubbles, when he realized that those stray twine-like things were dwarven hair braids!

Jace decisively jumped into the water and dragged Grider to shore, only to be surprised when the guy punched and kicked him, followed by a frantic cry.

Though Grid explained it away afterward as a fight to the death because he thought he’d run into a shark and cried because he thought he was going to die, it wasn’t until now that Jace finally realized what had really happened that day.

The rain fell harder and harder, and Grid’s full head of disheveled hair clung to his scalp as he stared listlessly into the distance at the fire, silent for a long time.

“That mage just now is willing to take me on as an apprentice.” Jace said, “Many of those scholars in the mage district have mastered herbalism, do you think it’s possible to cure the poison you’re suffering from?”

“Too late, brother.” Grid said woodenly, “The toxicity passed a long time ago, what’s making me an invalid now is the aftermath left by the poison, it’s permanent and impossible to fix.”

“But I thank you, Jess. You saved my life twice and thought to help me heal.”

Jess said, “You saved my life too.”

“It’s perfectly ordinary for a dwarf to save the life of a human, and extraordinary for it to be the other way around.” Grid grunted and said, “Besides, a true Brute Hammer Warrior would never let himself or his brother die at the hands of a dog that walks on two legs.”

“Or a dog that will chase people with an axe.”

“Ha…… cough! Cough!”