Bound Evil

“Alex! Incoming!” Emily shouted no longer interested in remaining quiet.

For his part, the man reacted with almost no hesitation, diving into a roll and tucking his limbs under himself.

The club narrowly missed the back of his skull as it swung overhead. More elves burst out of the nearby bushes, springing their ambush with excitement in their black soulless eyes.

Emily turned to the nearest elf and dove at it, blade raised, the thing didn’t expect her to make such a hasty move so its chest became a temporary pincushion for Emily as she plunged her blade between the creature’s ribcage.

It didn’t die immediately but Emily took a step back a wave of lifeforce rushed from the creature and slammed into her.

Not expecting the sudden windfall Emily hesitated on the battlefield. A nearby elf was only too ready to take advantage of this and threw a rock connecting directly with her temple.

Emily yelped as red splattered against the nearby bushes. Shaking herself she pushed back her blurry vision as the sounds of fighting echoed in her ears. Her eyes refocused just in time to see a club coming for her knee.

More reacting than anything else, Emily pulled her leg up and the weapon cracked against her ankle instead.

The pain was sharp running up to her knee but it cleared the haze. Dropping her full weight down onto the now-injured leg she grabbed the creature by the throat and hoisted it towards her, biting into its neck.

The moment she pulled, something even stranger happened. The life force she’d felt earlier came again, this time though it was far more potent, crashing into her like waves. Causing Emily to drain the creature in mere moments, far faster than she’d even managed before.

Her dopamine-saturated mind could only come up with one conclusion. Her title was synergizing with her natural abilities to create a far more potent effect.

With little time to think, her eyes searched the treeline for the rock thrower. Spotting it hanging on a branch up above she leveled her palm with the little fuck and fired a bolt of blood.

The thing's eyes widened and it tried to dodge but Emily made a scooping motion with her hand and the projectile changed direction in midair, connecting with the center of the creature's forehead.

It died instantaneously, and as it did so, another wave of lifeforce rushed at Emily. She was prepared this time and checking her reserves she felt herself get back about half the amount she’d used on the bullet itself.

Excited but unwilling to celebrate yet, her eyes roam the small ambush site for more threats. Alex stood nearby his body taunt and ready, but near his feet, four elves squirmed still alive.

Both of them looked around and when their eyes met he was the first to speak.

“That's all seven, next time we’re going with my plan. Even if we can overpower them, walking into an ambush does not sit right with me.”

Emily shrugged as she moved toward the elves Alex had purposefully incapacitated for her.

“Yeah-yeah, it worked, didn’t it? Oh, and you’ll never guess what I figured out. My title is working even better than I thought. Killing them seemed to release at least half of what I’d get from draining them.”

Alex’s face didn’t contain any hint of discomfort rather he carried a thoughtful look.

“Do you need to kill them yourself?” looking down at the two reaming elves she hadn’t gotten to yet.

Emily blinked in surprise.

When they had left the keep Emily had made sure to remind Alex about her need to hunt if they were going to be safe. And they weren’t even traveling for a full three hours before Alex had spotted this ambush.

The whole reason for them to even have walked into this mess was for Emily to hunt herself some life force. That’s why Alex had avoided going for the kills, but his question was intriguing. She hadn’t told him what the Life Conduit skill did exactly, only given him a rough outline, and yet he seemed to put the pieces together himself.

Emily made a sour face but nodded for him to go on.

Alex didn’t hesitate to plunge his dagger into the gremlin-like body.

Emily's breath caught in her throat as another burst of heat rushed toward her causing her eyes to flutter.

Alex was watching her so he didn’t need her to confirm it. She got some of the escaping energy.

Emily still got more from using her powers directly but this would allow her to regain her power much faster. She dealt with the last elf in this manner.

Once Emily was done she healed her minor wounds and checked her reserves. Right now she had about six blood bolts to her name. Emily also needed to test the range at which she could gather the energy but as long as there were enemies nearby, she would never truly run out of vitality.

Alex was glancing up amongst the trees by the time Emily had finished.

“Right let's keep moving, we’re still more than half a day's travel out from the hunting grounds so we’ll make sure to stop now and then so that you are full by the time we get there.”

Emily nodded, deciding not to correct him on the ‘full’ part.

As they traveled along the road they encountered two more such ambushes. Both of which they got the jump on. Emily still preferred her method of approach but she had to give Alex credit, they managed to kill at least half of the teams of elves before they even knew they were under attack.

Emily was getting much better at moving stealthily through the trees and she was convinced it was because of the Explorer title working in the background.

Emily noticed that as she moved along a path she had never seen before, her eye picked up details about their surroundings. It wasn’t like she suddenly knew which mushrooms to harvest or what trees were the best for firewood. Instead, Emily noticed that she could remember certain markers such as distance, it gave her a very rough idea of how far they had traveled so far. She wasn’t sure but if Alex stopped guiding them and they had to move off the road, she felt she would at least be able to guide them back in the general direction of the keep.

In the grand scheme of things they were not important details but they stuck in her memory and built on each other.

For example, she noticed Alex avoided one particular berry bush that looked similar to the others nearby. On closer inspection, Emily got a different feel from this bush and committed it to memory. Its thorns were slightly shorter and Emily was ninety-nine percent sure it was poisonous

As Emily finished dealing with the third pack of elves she checked her reserves once more and discovered she had around twenty-one blood bolts in her. Emily was brimming with power, she hadn't had this much since she got to this world and it gave her a much-needed moral boost when she thought of their destination.

It wasn’t long until Alex paused near the edge of the road. The patch of woods he now stared into looked no different from anywhere else, but his grim face was all Emily needed to know they were on the right track.

“We’re leaving the road, the rest of the journey will be off the path, keep your eyes on the air as well they have been known to leap great distances.”

Emily’s brows rose as her mind conjured the image of a horse-sized wolf tiptoeing through the trees. What kind of messed up creatures were these, they were starting to sound more like hellhounds than large mutts.

For good luck, Emily crouched down and tapped the road twice, giving it a farewell wink as she and Alex plunged into the woods.

After about an hour of tense travel, Emily began to relax her shoulders. The sounds of the forest remained unchanged, still alive with the rustling of animals. She spotted a small white rabbit with tiny, adorable horns waddling through the snow. This struck her as odd as this was supposed to be a hunting ground, wasn’t it?

Turning to Alex she lowered her voice to a whisper.

“Hey, are you sure they gave us the right location? Why am I seeing so many animals around here?” as Emily said this she pointed to the rabbit.

Alex glanced over at the creature as he played with the hilt of his dagger.

“Rime wolves don’t hunt small game like that, that little guy is a snack at best for them. No, they hunt Tamerac which probably settled in the area.”

“Tamerac?”

Alex looked back.

"You know, four legs, massive bodies covered in thick fur, trunks that could crush bones in an instant, and tusks strong enough to tear through ancient trees."

Emily took another look around the area, was he talking about mammoths?

A twig snapped behind them and Emily's head whipped about in search of threats, only to find that same rabbit gnawing on a stick with a smattering of leaves.

If the little thing wasn’t so cute she would have punted it across the grove. Turning back to Alex she saw they had reached a larger open area where the trees gave way to open fields of glittering snow.

Patches of yellow grass pushed up through the frost just about everywhere and it was here Emily saw the massive beasts roaming the icy plains. Their herd was humongous as they spread out across the slanted hillscape that ran off into the woods.

There must have been hundreds of them and each was colossal. Dwarfing elephants back on earth by at least a full couple of meters. Their exterior was similar to that of a mammoth with the only notable exception being a heaving-looking set of scales protruding at all their weak points. The heavy fur was a course white and Emily wouldn’t be surprised if more scale lay beneath the surface.

By the looks of things, the Tamerac stayed together in loose circles, only the largest of them wandering off to graze on the plentiful vegetation.

The whole scene was breathtaking; Emily could just make out calves wandering near their mothers at the heart of the herd.

Alex suddenly yanked Emily by the collar of her cloak pulling her down not a moment too soon. The shifting weather allowed a bleached light to filter through the clouds as a cacophony of howls tore through the fields.

The Rime wolves poured out of the treeline, their numbers no less than fifty. Emily had only gotten glimpses of the beasts in passing but now their large forms were on full display. Comparing them to horses didn’t do them justice as their large forms were far bulkier. Fangs as long as Emily’s entire hand filled their gums as saiva frothed near the corners.

Everything about them spoke of primal savagery; their furs, in shades of gray and white, draped over taut muscles that flexed with power as they closed in on the outermost Tamerac.

The most interesting detail that set these creatures apart from wolves back on earth was the two cord-like appendages that produced from their shoulder blades like two thick whips. While they ran the foreign limbs sat to flush with their bodies, but the moment they stopped they rose as though readying themself to strike.

With perfect teamwork, the Rime wolves separate two strong Tamerac from the heard encircling them and nipping at any weaknesses they could find

Even more impressive was that the Tamerac did not falter. Its trunk was a devastating weapon and even though its size was great, its speed turned all of its limbs into battering rams.

It was while all this happened that Emily and Alex waited patiently for the storm to pass. But at this time one of the nearby fights got too close. One of the wolves backed in their direction. It looked like it had a limp from an old injury, but as looked for a way to rejoin the fight it scented the air and its head turned toward their hiding place.

Lowering its head it broke off from the pack and began to pad toward them.

“Fuck, retreat!.” Alex hissed as he pulled Emily back the way they’d come.

“I thought you said they didn't hunt small game!” Emily shouted as she took off after him.