With his mind still pondering as to what had gotten into the minds of those crows that attacked them earlier, Griswold wondered as to what that strange mana had been about. When he had knocked his crows out rather than killing them, he could feel how a peculiar energy seemingly left their bodies, leaving them in a confused state. While that may have also been due to the fact that he had literally smacked them out of the air with his fists, Griswold believed that it had most likely been due to a mix of both. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too long before something would pop up that would allow him to piece this together to whatever was going on around here, as he hated it when nature got put up to do someone else’s dirty work. Especially creatures that were normally not violent and really did not stand much of a chance against a human. Sitting down on a nearby fence, he just kept waiting.

As time went by, it did not take an overly long time before Griswold noticed something out of the corner of his eyes. Drawn there due to the faintest hint of mana, it seemed as if it had disappeared almost as soon as it came, leading him to question whether it had even been there in the first place. Normally his senses were among the things he trusted most, because they hadn’t sent him into the wrong direction yet so far, and most likely never would. Being among those things he had honed through rigorous training ever since he was a child, through struggle and through strife, he often doubted that there were those who had better senses than him, though they might be out there. It just meant that he hadn’t met them yet, which by itself was grounds enough for the elven mage to keep wanting to improve them when and where he could.

Strangely, when he looked to where this probable bit of mana may or may not have appeared, it seemed that several of the scarecrows had changed position. And perhaps it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but he could have sworn that there were somehow more of them now. Beginning to think about what Jun had said about how scary or “cool” it might have been for these things to actually be coming to life, the black swordsman hopped down from the fence and wandered over to the nearest one. Believing that if there were truly anything there, his body would warn him to the danger, he started putting his hand into it and feeling around. Still feeling nothing but clothing, the wooden frame and the straw that had been put between the two to give the thing more body, he turned his attention to the mercenary.

“Something’s not quite right… check the other scarecrows, make sure none of them are actually somehow weaponized.”

When he said weaponized, he did not mean they had turned into some explosive or something along those lines, clearly implying that one of these new ones might very well be a golem of some kind. Though it would be quite hard to believe since he could not sense any actual mana or motion from them whatsoever, the most likely thing to have happened here was the fact that they were just being played by someone around the farm somewhere. But again, that would mean that there would have been some kind of mana signature to sense and track, which there simply wasn’t at this time. For now, the only thing they could really do was to make sure none of these scarecrows would end up taking them off-guard and attacking them at the worst time imaginable. Once that had been resolved, they could move on from there.

637

Interestingly enough, it seemed that neither he nor Jun were able to find anything that was wrong with these scarecrows, which was by itself more bothersome to him than it would have been if they actually found something there. It implied that there was something off with his senses, that he was picking up on things that seemed to not be there at all. While that still would not go on to explain why these things had switched places from where they had originally stood, he had to factor in the idea that they might be getting tricked. That this was all part of some elaborate scheme aimed to pester people that came to look into the notice that had been posted by the farmer. But this was more than just some kind of joke to be played upon the farmer, as it was now being played on a magic knight and a mercenary, meaning all of this would cost the guy some money.

Still looking around to figure out if maybe they had missed the signs of some kind of mechanism that made all of these things move from some further away position, he still couldn’t shake the idea that he had sensed something. But he had to put that thought away for the time being, as he could now actually sense something similar to the birds. Believing it might be the same thing he had only managed to scan a glance of for a fraction of a second, it did not take long before whatever it was revealed itself.

“You’re right, we should have a chat with the farmer to see what is going on. In fact, why don’t you go ahead and learn all that you can while I deal with these real quick.”

Believing it to be wise to send someone to go and protect the farmer and at the same time figure out exactly what the man knew about the situation he and his farm had been thrown into, and because he would rather be the one who handled the encroaching wolves. Knowing the limits of his physical strength quite well, as well as being aware of the flanking methods they applied when trying to bring down a foe, Griswold was the best fit when it came to fighting these animals and making sure they would survive the encounter. While he did not doubt Jun in terms of capabilities, he had seen how he had dispatched the crows earlier, and would rather see to the continued survival of these animals if at all possible. Due to the fact that the wolves lingered in the tall vegetation of the fields for a while, it would have given Jun plenty of time to make his way over to the front door to enter the building and begin searching for the missing farmer.

Regardless of whether he would stay or do as Griswold had asked of him, the black swordsman would unclasp the harness from the front, causing it to fall down from his back and to the floor along with the two sheathed blades attached to it. Doing the same to his cloak to allow for easier maneuvering and making sure the wolves would not end up ripping the thing to shreds, he made his way over to the nearest wolf. Even with his widened focus, his speed was quite far beyond that of the wolves, allowing him to strike a knuckled blow to the skull of his first target. Slamming it into the soil quite hard, his extrasensory abilities took note of a second wolf lunging at him from the side. Realizing these were classic wolf moves where one would draw attention so another could go for the throat of the occupied prey, Griswold angled his body and let the beast move past him. Using the momentum of its leap as he grabbed the beast with both hands, he twirled on his feet and threw the wolf back into the field.

Tossing it into a crow that had been apparently crouching in the tall vegetation, it might have been taken out, though it caused the others that seemed to have been watching closely to take to the skies. Following the behavior of these animals, it was quite clear that there was something controlling them, causing some to partake in some very activities. That said, it was quite clear that it know all about how wolves acted in the wild, what with making use of their flanking methods perfectly. Clearly sensing the same kind of mana in the wolves he had assaulted as he had felt within the birds earlier, he was slowly but surely getting a better idea as to what all of this was. Because by now, even a complete idiot would have been able to tell that whatever was going on, the creatures at least were under some form of control. Smacking an attacking bird of the sky with the back of his hand as it approached, he hoped Jun would fare better and might get some information.






Birb: 2/10
Doge: 2/6

Regardless of the reason, if there were some things Griswold hated, it were people who acted like they owned every form of natural life in an area just because they purchased the rights to the soil. Another thing he hated was when something took control of the wildlife and made them do horrible things, putting themselves at risk so whatever culprit could just sit back and wait while remaining completely unharmed. It wasn’t too long ago that Griswold had encountered a fairly similar situation, when the town of Hage had been under threat by wolves that were getting increasingly close to their farmland while driven to acts of aggression out of sheer hunger and malnourishment. When he looked closer into the matter, it turned out that this was all due to some artifact called the Bloodstone, which was located inside of a cave deeper in the forest. An artifact that allowed a werewolf that dwelled there control over other forms of lupine life.

Wolves, Wargs, even other werewolves were all under the control of the “top dog”, which created some incredibly dangerous situation near Hage, which was not something Griswold could condone, for obvious reasons. Believing the lives of peasants were generally hard enough without some kind of influence caused by sentient monsters, it was something that had been punished accordingly. At the time, he had taken down various Wargs with his bare hands, and it was quite well known that the average Warg was a lot more ferocious than the grey wolves one encountered in these parts, controlled or not. In a sense, it filled him with the kind of confidence he needed to take these beasts out without the use of magic, or having to pull a weapon and risk either accidentally killing or maiming them for the rest of their days.

With a swift kick, Griswold knocked a wolf several meters through the air before it fell into the dirt, slapping down several more crows that came flocking to him in an attempt at tearing into his face with their talons. And while Griswold might not have been in the business of having the most mana of anyone around, there was one thing that could not be denied, this being the fact that he had what was likely one of the densest mana skins in the entire country. So if some wolf or crow, or rather the person controlling them believed that they were going to get through that with tooth or claw, they had another thing coming. Becoming somewhat aggressive in his approach as he was done fighting controlled puppets, the black swordsman began tapping into his true speed, the thing he generally kept hidden as he did not need to move at high speeds constantly.

If he let it out in short bursts, it would always keep enemies guessing as to what he could do, at how fast he could truly go, which was no different with these animals. Clearly catching them off guard, he punched the nearest wolf a fair distance across the field, followed by another pair of their temporary avian allies. In a way it was quite funny how this person controlling these animals believed that these were the kinds of creatures one would consider using against a trained magic knight in this fashion. Had it been him, he would have taken his loss and tried again elsewhere, which just went to show that whoever was behind this had different motives that Griswold either did not understand yet, or showed that this individual was just plain stupid. Tenaciously stupid. Though that gave him an idea, or rather, a hunch as to something he might be able to attempt.

“Whoever you are, I imagine that if you can control these animals, you’ll be able to see and hear what is transpiring here. So hear me when I say that when I find you, you will answer for the suffering you’ve caused them, several times over.”

As things were, it made sense to believe that this person would be able to figure out what was being said by Griswold. After all, he had to control these animals into doing their bidding, which meant they had to be able to at the very least hear or see some of what was going on. Otherwise, it seemed like it would be rather difficult to pull this whole thing of, or so he assumed. Watching as the remaining animals were just stand around for a bit, almost as if the one controlling them was thinking over the things he had just heard, it was not long before what animals he had left at his disposal were just thrown at the magic knight. Realizing that this person had understood him entirely well, it meant that they did not care for threats or anything else Griswold had to say to him.

Pulling out all of the stops, the elf used his flat hands just slap the birds hard enough to make them go down, with the wolf leaping at him and getting struck straight in the sternum with Griswold’s open palm, what animals remained had all been systematically taken down. The fun part about it was how it proved to him that all of the training he had gone through to prepare himself for the great obstacle had paid off to some extent. Still, whether it would be anywhere near enough to deal with the whole Aamon situation, that remained to be seen. Scuffing as he spat on the ground, he began doing what he believed to be the right thing, which was to wait for Jun to finish up inside of the building so they could go about the information he had obtained. But while he waited, Griswold began collecting all of the beaten crows from the area.

Putting them into the same spot he had put all of the other crows, giving them the time they needed to rise from under their stupor and make their way up into the wild blue yonder. If he left them where they were, there was a good chance one of the wolves was going to just gobble them up off of the ground and snack on them while they were woozy from the beating. Only going as far as moving two of the wolves by hand, he made sure to grapple their head in a way that wouldn’t allow them to bite him, all while moving them a bit further from the farm, as well as the birds. As long as everyone remained inside and waited for the wolves to leave on their own accord, everything was going to work out just fine.

1113 (2594)

Birb: Completed
Doge: Completed

[EXIT]