Rexus ~ Chapter 4

  Sorry for the delay, I didn't write these as cleanly as I normally do, so re-writes are taking a little longer.

“While I am thankful for all the assistance in getting out of town so swiftly, I do hope that you aren't going to be trying anything foolish today.” Jaxon looked around the grim faces of his guild members, noting that they didn’t look like they would be reasonable. Jaxon prepared to fight them, no! He prepared to destroy them.

“Men! Retreat!” The people backed away from Jaxon, spears still leveled at his heart. When they were a dozen paces away, they turned and marched off. One yelled back to him. “You’d better stay gone!”

“Stay gone? Did he mean stay away? Why are they so nervous? Is there a monster around here or something?” Jaxon looked around the area with interest. If there was a monster around, it might have a unique bone structure! Maybe he’d take a look around before heading off on his ambiguously phrased quest. Jaxon turned in a circle and tried to pick the best direction. Nothing looked good, so he decided to leave it up to luck. Jaxon spun around, throwing his hand out and pointing as he came to a stop. That way it is!

Jaxon started skipping into the forest, kicking hard to add as much height to his skipping as possible. This burned through three points of stamina per skip, but also propelled him a meter and a half each bounce. He’d say that it was more efficient than walking, but sadly it simply wasn’t true. Walking didn’t drain stamina; on the other hand it didn’t increase his jump skill at all either. For him, it is far more important is to increase his skills then it was to be conservative about stamina! Not only that, but with over five hundred points of stamina - not to mention his regeneration rate - Jaxon could keep this up for hours.

Monsters, monsters, monsters. Where would they be hiding in the forest? If this were reality, they would have either run away from the gigantic blast coming from the town the other day, or they would have been lured in to face whatever was making the noise. Jaxon had explored this area fairly well with his team, and until they got into Wolfman lands they had very few issues. Actually, as long as Jaxon didn’t see any bears, he did not think there was anything around here that could give him significant trouble. Then again, if his sense of direction was correct, continuing along this path would put him in range of the Wolfman Scouts. Should he turn? Should he take a different route?

*Crack*!

Oh? Something trying to sneak up on him? Drat… Jaxon’s perception was too low to see what was going on in the dense underbrush. It was unfortunate, since Jaxon would going to charge into the thorny bushes that lined the road if he wanted to find what was making the noise. That could leave him vulnerable, put him in a bad position, or possibly drop him directly into an ambush. Ah well, no help for it. Jaxon decided he just needed to man up and dive headfirst into trouble. He skipped into the thick brush, leaving the beaten path behind. The quiet sounds that Jaxon had been hearing became far louder as whatever it was… ran away? Well, now Jaxon needed to follow.

The Monk trailed the disturbance for a few minutes, the sounds ahead of him becoming more frantic by the second. It was strange that this much noise was being made, Jaxon really thought that something living in the forest would have better stealth capabilities. He was on guard, but was still startled by bursting through the underbrush and into a clearing at full skipping speed. He ground to a halt as he noticed a ball of fur sprinting toward a group of… Wolfmen? 

“Whoops, it seems I’ve stumbled into something I shouldn’t have.” Jaxon prepared to turn and run for help, especially seeing that dozens of claws and a few actual weapons were leveled at him. Snarling words were passed between the leader and…

“Puppies!” Jaxon joyfully called as he flipped around and charged the group, reaching out an excited hand to pet the adorable little ball of floof. Jaxon pulled back his fingers as a massive paw ripped through the air where his appendage was moving. “Now that I think about it… puppies. That… that isn’t a thing, is it?”

Jaxon looked around at the different forms, realizing what was actually going on, why it had been so easy to dodge the attack from the defending Wolfman. His face firmed up as he saw the sorry state of those around him. These weren’t combatants. If anything, these were refugees running from the armies rolling through their lands. This group was entirely women and children, or whatever the proper nomenclature was for their race.

There was tension showing in the faces around him, and they were obviously expecting him to attack. Sad. Jaxon raised his hands, palm up, and they tensed further. Hmm. Perhaps they thought Jaxon was a Mage. How do dogs show that they don’t want to fight without showing submission…? Ah yes. Jaxon dropped his hands and raised his chin, showing his bare neck. The group in front of him relaxed incrementally, and Jaxon received a notification.

Skill gained: Wolfman Language (Spoken/body) (1/10). You have learned the bare-bone basics of the Wolfman language! As this is a basic racial language skill, there are only ten levels available, unlike the typical ranking. Skill points cannot be devoted to this skill, it must be increased through study and practice.

Title gained: Linguist. By intuiting the body language of Wolfmen during a chance encounter and not through study, you have learned how to ascertain body language and speech patterns! +20% speed in learning all spoken or body languages.

That was a nice little bonus. It would also help with his profession if Jaxon could see which Wolfmen were showing signs of fatigue or back pain. It would be even easier if they could just tell him! Now… it seems the Wolfmen were edging away from him. Right, Jaxon supposed that he had been standing there smiling and staring at a tribe of noncombatants for almost a full minute.  He had been too deeply invested in looking over all of his notifications and thinking about their implications and uses.

Enunciating clearly and loudly, Jaxon stepped away from them. “I am Jaxon! I am so sorry to have scared you! Jaxon go now! You go be safe! Raise many adorable puppies! Bye-bye now!”

There was snarling and vaguely threatening motions, but nothing came after him as Jaxon backed away. He was betting that the Wolfmen were wondering whether to pursue him, perhaps concerned that Jaxon was simply running off to gather reinforcements. Nonetheless, as he walked away he was left alone. Jaxon soon returned to skipping, crashing through the forest in an attempt to find the beaten path once more. He was definitely lost though, and paused in his movements to try and get his bearings. As he did so, an arrow slammed into a tree Jaxon should have been passing, sending bark and slivers of wood flying from the impact site.

Luck +1.

Well, that was beneficial at least. Seven more of those and Jaxon would become twice as lucky as a normal person! What was actually concerning to him at this point was not the fact that an arrow hit the tree he should have been passing by; what worried him was that it did not come from the direction of the Wolfman but from deeper in the forest.

An archer popped into existence about ten feet in front of him, holding up his hands. “Whoa, so sorry about that! All I saw was a brown something hopping through the forest! I really thought you were a deer, promise, dude!”

Jaxon looked down at his brown robe, thinking about what the archer was saying. The explanation made sense, so he smiled at the archer; who took a step back after seeing the radiant crescent. “Not an issue, bow-using new friend! Just out for a hunt?”

“Wow, that’s… that’s some smile you have there… friend. No, I’m actually looking for my party. They split off from the armies after finding some Wolfman tracks in the area. I told them not to bother, but, here we are lost and separated in the woods. They really want the bounty for hunting down the Beastmen.” The archer was smiling for real now, but Jaxon could feel his own expression slipping. The puppies!

“I don’t suppose you would turn around and leave if I asked you to do so?” Jaxon’s voice came out sounding much harsher than he had been hoping for. The Monk was nearly positive that some intimidation must have leaked through, because the man frowned and vanished. “Darn my low perception! He could be right in front of him and I’d never be able to tell! No, no, no! This is bad!” 

Jaxon fretfully pulled at his hair. No real choice here! He turned around and began crashing through the forest as fast as he could move, his extraordinary dexterity allowing him to avoid tree limbs, roots, and catch his balance anytime he should have fallen. Jaxon returned to the Wolfman in record time, arriving just as first blood was drawn by human adventurers.