The World of Tactics

Chapter Six II: Afternoon Stream Chase

"Humans were just a weak monster within a race and came from the same origin. In the long-forgotten past, there was no such thing as humans. The only reason why humans came into being was because of an extremely strong, unique monster that existed long ago. Almost comparable to the gods in power.

Soon, even the world began to reject such a monstrosity. Through the power of almost infinite evolution, the unique monster feels that the soul cores are redundant and decides to use its last breath to turn all the monster's soul cores into a crest. However, not all monsters were compatible with the crest and the crest system was rejected. Some supreme monsters even directly reject such a change. Even those that were slightly stronger than the weakest could easily reject such a change.

And soon, millenniums of years came. I went through the flow of time and the changes that it has brought along with the impact it has on this world. Many of the weakest monsters have been brought to the greatest height ever since. Those monsters that had crested soon gradually evolved closer and closer to that great being. Because of that, humans were the most compatible with the crest and such that the land was soon enveloped by them.

The predecessors of humans were just humanoid monsters covered in thick long furs. Even with the changes of time, humans were able to easily adapt to nature and slowly kingdoms were built out of the ground. With each passing generation, the average lifespan increases over time. It used to be a lifespan of ten and slowly becomes twenty, thirty, forty, and now one hundred. Those with a lifespan that was already a hundred soon became thousands. With enough time, they could live as long as a dragon.

Time has proven that the being was right and it is time for the dragon races to adapt to the crest system." Once said by an ancient dragon that existed ages ago.

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He went into map mode and judged the distance and how many turns it would take for the hobgoblins to get near them. Then he moved on to his distance and found out that he was barely able to move next to Lawrence, who was the first to finish gearing up and was the first to walk toward him. He was quite glad that the distance was just four squares away. He should be able to talk to Lawrence. Likewise, the hobgoblin will take at least two turns to reach them, and by the third turn.

By then, they should be able to cross the stream and escape the battle through the flashing yellow squares. With the plan set in mind, he started the battle while summoning Goon Three. He was not willing to summon Goon out because of the higher levels and stats difference. Even so, Goon Three should be able to provide at least one turn. If possible, Goon Three should be able to provide one additional turn for them.

It was [Player's Turn] first, and he moved Goon Three closer to Lawrence and the others. Afterward, he [Talk] to Lawrence and ended his turn. [Ally's Turn] came about and Lawrence made sure to move before shouting out commands to the three. Just the word 'hobgoblin' was uttered and the other three's faces turned deadly pale and one by one moved to cross the stream. What he did take note of was that moving through water cost two movements. That was why they were at the last stretch of the stream but were not able to move through. In a simpler term, they were able to get into the water but were not able to get more than halfway through the stream.

On the first turn for [Enemy's Turn], he could see from the top of the map that the hobgoblin was rushing out of the bushes and trees. The figure of the hobgoblin was just as tall as a human, with a fit body with popping muscles, and a huge iron ax. No wonder Lawrence and the others were quite scared. The hobgoblin was also quite scary-looking.

Since it was [Player's Turn] again, he opted to move to the shallower part of the stream rather than the deeper part because he knew that he could not swim with the other four. [Ally's Turn] came quickly and Lawrence was the one that was able to leave the stream first to touch back on the other side of the land. While the other three lagged by just one square of the stream. Meanwhile, he still needed to cross the stream. This was getting worse since he was the one that had the slowest movement. Right now, he hopes that Goon Three can divert the hobgoblin by just one additional turn.

Then return to [Enemy's Turn]. The hobgoblin came just within the outer range of where the four were previously at. His heart tightened since he was the only one that had not crossed the stream as of yet. Goon Three was also within the hobgoblin's attack range. He gritted his teeth and waited patiently for the [Enemy's Turn] to end. The moment that it was [Player's Turn], he did not hesitate to move Goon Three next to the hobgoblin. This should buy at least one turn because Goon Three was two squares away from the hobgoblin.

He tried to remain calm and started touching the first square of the stream. The part where he is currently in the stream was just two squares apart. By the next turn, he would be able to move closer to the yellow glowing squares at the edge of the map. It was now [Ally's Turn], as the first one to get out of the stream. Lawrence did not hesitate to flee from the map. It was a smart choice and he would have done the same thing. The three were also quite close to the yellow squares too.

The [Enemy's Turn] came quickly. Luckily or functionally, the hobgoblin targets Goon Three and leaves Goon Three hanging with one health point. Sadly, Goon Three just leveled up with the experience. He did add one more point to the defense, just because. But, it had done a good job of enduring one hit from a boss-like existence like the hobgoblin. He could only wave goodbye to Goon Three. He moves Goon Three to the four squares away from the stream. Meanwhile, he was able to move out of the stream and two more squares afterward. The yellow squares are just three or so squares away.

Within [Ally's Turn], everyone was able to safely exit the battle and they disappeared into thin air. Now it was just him alone with the enemy. It was too bad that Goon Three died and also dissipated like water vapors, gone. [Enemy's Turn] and the hobgoblin did target Goon Three. Goon Three sacrifice did a great job in buying two turns for him. And [Player's Turn] came around, he swiftly touched on top of one of the squares and escaped from the map.

The only thing that he saw was the world wrapping him up like misty fog. Before he knew it, he was facing back into the real world where true time starts moving. Looking behind, the whole place seemed to be cut off by a fine line of fog. He did hear the sound of the stream continuing from the left side and behind. After that, he found no one was waiting for him. He did not despair, he looked at the small imprints on the ground and began to follow those heavy steps.

While kept running and running. Looking at the ground, looking for clues, the feeling of exhaustion, it finally dawned on him that he would not be able to find the four. He felt lost and scared. The thought that came to his mind was that he had been abandoned. How could he survive? Will he survive? He was abandoned and the thoughts ran back to him again and again. Then, he suddenly trips through the poking tree roots. He fell heavily on the ground, face-palmed.

His nose was bleeding, he was tired from running, and despair finally set in his mind. He knew that something was wrong and that the journey to the capital's barracks would be a lot more dangerous. But, he never thought that it would have been this dangerous. Even on the first day, he had almost died. The second day was extreme and he was fatigued. No water pouch like the other soldiers and silent treatment from them. On the third day, he thought that they were better off, well-off than before. However, a hobgoblin and disaster stuck like wildfire.

He laid down for a few moments, gasping for breath, but the sounds of goblins from far back did not let him have any good time to rest. The reason why a battle did not between might be due to the long distance between him and the goblins. For now, he did not want to get caught up with any more goblins, because he did not have the stamina to fight them off nor was he able to focus on making any sort of plans.

The chase of the goblins continued until nighttime came around. His eyes have been twitching and he has hurt himself many times now. He had to munch on some dried meat along with some herb batch to recover his health. He was healing just right, but he was starting to get numbed by the pain generated from getting cuts from thorn bushes and sharp plants.

His clothing had also started to have large holes and huge rips. Sometimes a part of the clothing got stuck on something and he had to personally tear or undress that part of clothing. He knew that he was creating tracks for the hobgoblins, but as long as he was one step further. They will not be able to initiate a battle that would slow him down. He did not want that.

The moon and stars are the only sources that are providing him with light and it is getting harder to navigate. At first, he was following the trails of the four, but after a long time. Despair sets in and he does not have any sort of hope. The only hope that he could have at the moment was to get as far away from the group of goblins as possible. So, he continues straight ahead without fail.

However, he had lost all hope when he began to see the gridlines appearing. He knows that he can not avoid the goblins anymore. He had lost all hope now. The thing that he had most fair of was the hobgoblin. He can not outcompete with movements, numbers, and stats. Tears gathered around his eyes and they began to fall. He can not move out of his square and that means that he can not escape.

He looked at his hand. It was filled with grime, dirt, sweat, and blood. He clenched his own hands and wiped away his tears and snots. If he is going to die, he would at least shove a lasting wound on the enemy first.

This time, on the [Select Units] tab. He decided to take Goon out with him. In the [Inventory] tab, he gives all three wooden clubs to Goon's item slot and equips Goon with the best wooden club. Not only that, he gave himself three stacks of herb batches into his item slot, while Goon got one stack of herb batches along with four remaining herb batches. Both of their item slots are even out now. He did not bother checking the [Skills] tab because he knew for sure that both of them did not have any sort of skills.

Moving on to the [Conditions] tab, he had only seen the [Route] option. He believes that it is because his current stamina is so low right now. Then he moved on to the [Map] tab. Even if he is going to die, he at least has some hope that he will be up against only one goblin. That was for the best, but reality betrayed him. The map was not that big, to begin with, and some parts do have trees that were obstructing movements. The trees have to be destroyed first before being able to access the square that the trees were on.

The most important thing was the number of enemies that he would be facing. He had counted up, it had amounted to eight red dots. But, something does not add up. He no longer sees the big red dot that has a crest on top. He rubs his eyes with his dirty hand just to make sure that his eyes had blinded him because of his subconsciousness that was trying to erase any hopeless visual representation that could potentially destroy his mentality. With a look again, it was not there.

He could not help but mutter over and over again, "Not there... It's not there... It was not there anymore..." And the tears of joy were way beyond anything that he had felt.

The mood that he had today has gone through extreme highs and lows. He begins to fill back up with hopes now. Another thought came to him. He can survive this, he can do it, there is nothing that is stopping him now. He will survive.