A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 177: The Shadows - Part 2

"Good," Dominus said, his grin widening. "I imagine Arthur would cut me down on the spot for this, but ah, I suppose he will have to wait until I'm dead… With that said, I think I am done here. It would be better for me to return to my isolation sooner. Especially with this foul stench in the air."

"Got it. Good luck, master," Beam said, his determination renewed.

"Indeed," Dominus said, before vanishing into thin air.

Beam glanced around, wondering if he could finally track his master's movements, or if he could at least tell where he was going. But in that instant, Dominus' presence had completely vanished. He was far faster than anything that Beam could conceive of. Fitting for the strongest warrior in the land.

He clenched his fist as he acknowledged that strength. "And master is getting even stronger too… I have to speed up," he told himself.

With a deep breath, he tidied up the fire, making sure there were no loose scraps of flesh that monsters would feast on. Then he left it behind, resolving to take care of the bones later, once the fire had cooled.

Now he was in front of his pile of monsters once more – a mighty pile at that – and he needed to find somewhere to put them, a nice location to set up and watch, where he could easily deal with any enemies that approached.
read-on-MVLeMpYr

"The further away I am from the lower forest, the better," he said to himself. If the pile of monster meat was capable of attracting monsters as he hoped it would be, then pulling them away from the village and the villagers was the natural conclusion. But he wondered just where to put them. A clearing would be ideal… Somewhere where he could watch over the proceedings from high up.

With those conditions in mind, a place popped into his head. He nodded to himself, and began moving his corpses there.

It was early evening by the time he'd managed to achieve that. The distance he had to move the monster corpses was far from reasonable. He'd wanted to give up several times as he did it, with the progress being so arduous. But he repeatedly told himself that the further away from the village, the better it was, so no matter where he went, he would have to carry them a distance.

And now, he was in that clearing that he'd thought about earlier. A clearing with a tall cliff face at his back – a cliff face that, to his knowledge, no one had a chance of climbing up. That narrowed down the areas he had to keep a lookout on, making his job ever so slightly easier.

With his pile in place in the centre of the clearing, he gave it one last glance, before choosing a particularly large tree to climb, so that he might view all the happenings from up high.

A good distance above ground now, he sat with his back against the thick trunk of the tree and his legs crossed on a thick branch. He'd gone to work with his sword a little, hacking some of the smaller branches away to make his job easier.

With what he'd cut off, he put it in front of him, making a sort of camouflage shield that he hoped would further hide him, whilst still allowing him to see down himself.

He waited thirty minutes like that, sitting with the utmost stillness. Only when his stomach growled did he realize he hadn't eaten in quite a while. With how busy things had been, the need for food had completely slipped his mind. But even knowing that, he didn't make any immediate plans to solve that problem, for fear that any sudden moves would disturb the perfect plan that he had set in place.

The sky was completely dark by now, and only by the light of a half-moon was the clearing lit, albeit dimly. Yet even that dim light was more than enough for Beam. He cast his eyes to the stars as he waited, his breath misting in front of him as the cold winter's night began to draw in.

Branches ruffling and sticks breaking alerted him to movement from below.

Instantly, he was alert, his heart pounding, his adrenaline spiking. Something was approaching – and something heavy.

His hand went to his sword as he waited.

A moment later, a party of three Konbreakers stepped into the clearing. They moved slowly and cautiously, as though sensing that there was danger in the air.

Their beaks were half open, and they'd continually hold them up, like a dog sniffing the air. Beam supposed that was indeed what they were doing. Though to him, it appeared that they lacked a nose; he supposed they could at least taste what was in the air.

And continuing to taste the air was exactly what they did, as the three creatures eagerly following the scent of the corpse pile. Their eyes must have been poor, for only when they were a few steps away did they appear to see it properly. They gave out caws of excitement before quickly diving in, grabbing the nearest of corpses with their vice-like claws and immediately beginning to eat.

It was only when he saw just how quickly the Konbreakers were plunging into their food did Beam begin to feel a bit of alarm. He realized he probably should have been closer to the ground if he wanted to deal with the enemy quickly every time they arrived. Now he had several branches to leap down – it was going to be almost impossible to remain hidden.

Swiftly, Beam slid down and hung off the branch he was on, merely grasping it with his hands for a few seconds, before he lined up a drop with the branch beneath him. It was a fair distance, but Beam confidently let go and landed subtly, his natural talent for balancing more than evident.