Once everyone had their loot safely stowed away in one of the many pockets of their packs, Karl ordered Hawk to find them a good route back to the train tracks. They had a long journey ahead of them, since they had gotten so off track, but they could likely make it to the tracks before dark, which meant they could catch a train in the morning.
At least Karl hoped there was one coming the other way in the morning. He didn’t know how busy that track was, but it should be the route that the daily supply delivery for the Academy took. That one was going the wrong way, but in the worst-case scenario, they could take it to the next town and then switch to go back.
Their rations were still holding out, so Karl wasn’t worried about staying an extra day to wait for the right train, but it would be nice to get back to civilization and get a proper shower.
Maybe they would have the good pumice soap. It didn’t smell as nice as the stuff the Academy had, and normally, he didn’t need it there, but after a few days in the wilderness, he felt like he could use a good scrub and a cup of thick black miner’s coffee.
He could see the squirrel type beasts as they walked through the dense mass of ash trees, just watching the group silently from their perch in the branches, and trying to avoid attracting the attention of the humans. But something told him that there was more here. Something that Hawk couldn’t see from the sky.
The woods just had a feeling like that, as if he was being watched, and Rae agreed, though she hadn’t found the source either.
The others seemed unaware, so it might be a creature with its attention directly on Karl, but it could just be his heightened senses giving him an advance warning of danger.
The beasts couldn’t always explain how they knew that there was a threat. They just sensed it, and now Karl did too. Then, a kilometre from the memory fruit tree, he found the first signs that there was something large enough to threaten them.
There were claw marks on a tree trunk, over a metre above his head.
Anything that could leave claw marks up there was bad news, even if it was something that could fly. Karl would have said, especially if it was something that could fly, but they had Hawk with them to help with flying predators.
He didn’t need to warn the others about the chance to be attacked, the claw marks were enough of a warning, and their progress slowed even further as the group did their best to move in a defensive formation, so they weren’t ambushed.
But there was no sign of whatever made those marks.
At least not for the next twenty minutes, before they saw even more of them, and a few downed trees that spoke of a conflict between two huge creatures that were likely Awakened Rank or higher.
“It looks like the intelligence on the area missed a few things. While they might have just been passing through, most Common Grande Monsters can’t take down an ash tree the size of my torso.” Karl remarked as they passed the destruction.
“Thanks for the reminder.” One of the warriors replied sarcastically.
Unlike Karl, he was at the Common Grade, and he couldn’t take down a tree like that either. At least not without using [Slash] as an axe to hack away at it. The trees they were seeing on the ground had been knocked over by a single brutal impact.
Something that was either massive or moving very fast had hit the tree and broken it off.
Then there were torn up chunks of ground and more signs of combat, including burn marks that had to be from an ability, and some random slice marks on the branches overhead.
“What in the world happened here?” Dana muttered as she looked around, instinctively pulling her Golems closer to her.
One of the other mages moved up to scan the area, touching the broken stumps and making gestures toward the slashes as she moved about.
“My guess is that this was an Elite battle. It’s not fresh, see that bit of moss growing in the broken tree stump? It’s at least a week or two old. The slashes on the tree suggest that it was a warrior type class, and the broken trees say that whatever they were fighting was significantly larger than human sized.
So, they might have cleared this area of the real threats before they reported it to the Academy as a lower risk gathering area for resources.” She suggested.
One of the warriors rolled his eyes at her determination. “And you determined all that by what? Dancing around the area a little?”
She shook her head. “Come over here and bring out your sword. We don’t really have anyone big enough to be the opponent that was fighting here, who could leave claw marks three metres in the air, but follow my lead.”
She placed him where she wanted, then began to reenact the first few moves of a fight scene, stopping to point at marks on the trees as she went.
“Then he was forced back, and there are those slices in the branches. My guess is that he was knocked over and attacked upward at the beast. It matches with the torn up earth right there. Then, a few more attacks, and he sent the beast flying into that tree.” She explained.
“Never underestimate a detective drama nerd when they say that they can recreate a crime scene.” One of the other mages laughed.
Karl smiled and nodded. “I believe she’s right. It matches, and if Thor was bigger, I think that we could see just how close it would be. The creature was likely fighting in a bipedal manner though, a bear or something similar.”
“Yeah, I was happier not knowing that.” The warrior who did the reenactment commented.
“Well, at least now you know what to look for. We’re halfway to the railroad tracks, so just keep moving and stay alert. Once we’re there, we can rest and wait for the train to come.” Karl reminded him.
“The sooner, the better.” The warrior agreed as he got back in line and everyone prepared to move again.
Now they were barely making any progress, as everyone was so nervous, but Karl and Dana kept pushing them forward, preventing them from stopping for every noise in the forest. If there was something the size of whatever broke the trees, Hawk would have seen it, and he was only reporting fun facts about the tree monkeys and other small random creatures he was seeing.
But as they got closer to the tracks, the strange sense of being watched continued to grow, making Karl increasingly nervous, despite the forest seeming otherwise peaceful.
The reason for that eerie feeling became obvious when Hawk finally expanded his search far enough to reach the railroad.
[There are people here. Lots of people in white. They look very angry about something, and they’re just standing around the metal road.]
That didn’t sound good, but they might be the rescue party that had come for the High Priest.
[Stay out of their range, but return to the beast space if they’ve seen you. They might be looking for the beetle, or any other monster in the area. I will call Thor back in as well.] Karl replied.
[I am on my way back. They definitely see me up here, they just can’t reach me.]