Chapter 605: Tilgarth
Chapter 605: Tilgarth
"Evan! To the right!" Patric shouted after spotting a body-length boar charging at Liam from the side while he was already holding off another large boar.
"Yes!"
Evan responded and immediately intercepted the boar, locking himself in an intense battle.
Patric shifted his position while engaging another boar, forming a triangle with each corner defended by him, Evan, and Liam.
At the centre stood Shreya and Natalie, continuously firing magic attacks.
Junni moved freely inside the formation, creating angles to fire her arrows, while Waisal took on the role of an assassin, distracting the incoming beasts.
3 April
This was the day, and 8 days had already passed since the caravan had begun its journey.
They were at the 250-kilometre mark... still 150 kilometres away, meaning they had travelled only around 100 kilometres over the last 6 days.
And it was all because of the continuous waves of beast attacks, followed by the wolves’ assault.
They wouldn’t even travel for an hour before coming to a halt because a flank had been attacked, or the vanguard found themselves surrounded, or the entire caravan was attacked all at once by various beasts.
And the already strenuous journey had become brutal.
Out of the 150 combatants, 15 were dead, 10 were seriously injured, 20 moderately injured, and many more had light injuries, including Patric’s group members and Evan.
Out of the 35 carriages and wagons, 2 beast-corpse-carrying wagons had been looted by beasts, 6 empty carriages were filled with new heaps of beast corpses, 2 empty carriages were destroyed, and another 2 were filled to the brim with injured people.
The City Lord’s son was even forced to shift the beast materials to overload a few wagons because no more empty carriages could be spared to carry the injured.
Even his own carriage had been repurposed.
He had allowed his own personal carriage—the 36th carriage—to be used for the critically injured to keep their condition stable, while he himself rode his special horse with a blue mane.
The horse had a whitened body and a blue mane, and from its lean build, it was obvious it had been bred for speed. And the only reason someone as noble as the City Lord’s son had left his carriage to ride it was so he could flee easily if things went south.
*pic*
This was also the reason Patric’s group once again joined hands with Evan to ease their burden.
Even Shreya didn’t say anything—that was how desperate the situation had become.
And it was indeed desperate because most people looked like they were about to collapse from exhaustion. They hadn’t had a proper hour of sleep because the beasts wouldn’t leave them alone even at night.
All their consumables had been exhausted, and most of the people were running on fumes.
Somehow, over the next 2 days, they reached the point where Tilgarth was only 100 kilometres away. It was then that people sighed in relief.
Because just like when they had started their journey from Varthi, where there had been almost no beast activity within a 100-kilometre radius of the city, they hoped things would be the same around Tilgarth.
They were wrong.
It wasn’t until they were within 50 to 70 kilometres of the city that the beast encounters finally stopped, and that too because a 100-man army from Tilgarth had come to check the caravan after it was delayed more than a few days beyond the schedule.
By now, 20 people were dead, more than 50 were seriously injured, and almost everyone had moderate injuries that required healing potions, which they had already consumed.
Even Leo and Lily had made themselves look injured. Lily had countless scratches and bruises across her body, along with muddy clothes that made it obvious she had rolled on the ground multiple times. As for Leo, he simply let the beasts bite chunks of flesh and skin off his body, making him qualify as a severely injured individual.
Just to receive those injuries, Leo had to suppress his body’s natural regeneration to an exceptional degree, deactivate all his traits, and even consciously loosen his skin so the beasts could leave bite marks.
Otherwise, with his Low 5-star body, no matter what anyone tried, nobody was capable of leaving even a splinter on him.
"Sob... Master, please be alright... sob..." Natalie cried her eyes out beside Leo while bandaging the bleeding wounds on his legs.
Leo could literally not tell whether Lily was crying genuinely or simply acting.
"Tsk!"
Leo heard a sharp click of the tongue beside him. Turning his head, he saw Shreya wrapping bandages around the wound on her abdomen.
Due to Liam being overwhelmed, a beast had broken through the formation and attacked Shreya, leaving a massive bite wound across her abdomen that had sunk several inches into her flesh.
There was also a thick bandage wrapped around her right arm—the same arm she had used to block the bear beast’s first attack. It had nearly cost her that arm, just like the few amputees sitting in the next carriage, but thankfully Liam had returned in time to tackle the beast away.
But the most jarring part was the deep cut across her cheek caused by the bear’s claw.
"These are going to leave scars..." she muttered in frustration while applying a tonic to the cut on her cheek.
She seemed to be trying her best to act tough in front of Leo, so he wouldn’t see her as weak, nor let someone as loud-mouthed as Evan take advantage of the situation to taunt her even more.
But Leo could clearly hear the edge of sadness in her voice.
"A girl’s life would be destroyed if her face carried such a gruesome scar. Even if she never showed it, it would eat her alive from the inside."
Leo recalled Lily’s words from the time the Nord Birel man had used his soul-damaging dagger to injure Miho.
But it wasn’t just the scar on her cheek. There would also be scars across her abdomen and on the arm that had nearly been amputated.
Leo was sure she would even hesitate to love someone openly, fearing the day she would have to reveal a body covered in scars to that person.
Even Lily seemed to be observing Shreya’s condition while tending to Leo. She had clearly said she wouldn’t allow any innocent to be affected because of their actions.
I will heal her when we complete our mission, she thought. By then, hiding their identities would be meaningless.
Leo and Lily were simply concerned about Patric’s party because they had come to Tilgarth due to Leo and Lily’s interference. So whatever happened to the party was their responsibility.
As for the others, they were supposed to be here regardless of whether Leo and Lily had done anything.
So, it was their fate.
With that, their trip finally came to an end after 10 days as the tall city gates of Tilgarth came in view.
17:41, 5 April 500 AA