"What do you mean, they got killed?" Torren asked.
"I meant what I said! My summons had been wiped."
That, of course, was… weird. No, "impossible" should have been the right word. Lena, Lysa, Torren, and Jorik had been unable to do anything against that small army of level 50 monsters.
Even the boss monster at the quarry had been unable to, albeit there were more summoned creatures back then, and at the same time, if Reidar completed the Sunken Turbine quest, it meant he also defeated the Elite Abyss Lurker, which should have been at least ten levels higher than Reidar's current summoned creatures.
And yet something had been able to.
In the best-case scenario, that was a monster, at least level 70, if not higher. In the worst one, whoever attacked Reidar's creature was the same person targeting Havenwood, which meant whoever he or she was turned out to be a sapient at least at level 70, which explained why he or she was able to herd the monsters toward Havenwood.
Given the situation, with the church targeting Reidar once again, it was likely that the latter was the actual case.
"What do we do, Lena?" Jorik asked.
The silence that followed Reidar's words was heavier than the lake water. Lena's blades remained raised, but the killing intent had bled from her stance, replaced by tension.
"Gone," Lena said, the word flat and hard. "All of them. The ones that attacked us… and the ones you claim were hunting the church."
"They're not a claim. They're a fact." Reidar massaged his temples. "Something out there is strong enough to erase a small army of my creatures in seconds. I bet this thing didn't just stumble upon them."
"If it's not you…" Jorik began, his voice a low rumble. "Then who, or what, has that kind of power? And why attack your summons specifically?"
"To send a message," Reidar said. "This guy wants me to know he is here…"
Reidar watched Lena's shoulders slump, her daggers finally lowering to her sides. Lena sighed.
"Look, I don't trust you one bit," she said. "But I won't gut you here. Not if there's something out there that can wipe your army like that and that can do the same to Havenwood."
She sheathed her blades.
"If it's real, we need Lysa. And we need to get the fuck out of the forest."
Jorik nodded, his grey beard twitching as he scanned the treeline. Torren grunted in agreement. Reidar exhaled, tension easing from his chest.
"Agreed," he said.
"Lysa went after the runner. Last I saw her, she headed north, through the ridge," Lena said.
Reidar's gaze swept across the clearing. The shoreline was empty except for their group. Mara and Aaron weren't there anymore.
"What the…?"
"What?" Lena asked.
"Aaron and Mara. They're gone."
Lena's head snapped around. "Of course they did!" She paused. "Did you see when they left?" She turned to Jorik, who nodded at her question.
"During the argument. They used us as a distraction."
"Why did you say nothing?" Torren asked.
"Did it look like I had the time to tell you they were leaving?"
A cold knot tightened in Reidar's gut. Their timing was too perfect. They left the moment his attention was fully on Lena's group.
"They knew then," Reidar said. "They knew something was coming for my summons. Most likely they knew you were coming. They waited for it to happen, then left. This whole quest was a trap."
But Martin gave him this quest. It wasn't supposed to be a trap. That was the real problem.
"This confirms they are from the church, Lena. We finally got proof." Torren said.
"I don't need you to tell me."
"What do we do?" Jorik asked. "It's clear at this point that the church is the one behind everything. What's worse is that they are not going to simply attack us through the monsters. They are acting in first person now."
Lena's expression was stone. "And we will make them pay." She paused. "Not before we find Lysa, though. She needs to be warned, and I don't want to lose her."
The others nodded. Then she turned towards Reidar.
"Can you lend us mounts?" Lena looked at the dozens of summoned creatures around them. "Your wolves, possibly. We need to move fast."
Reidar gave a curt nod. The Guardian Shade continued pulling more creatures into existence. The clearing now swarmed with his Primal Pack—wolves, bears, and panthers shifting restlessly among the skeletal ranks of his Bone Militias.
Since the Contubernium had been destroyed, he could re-summon them again. Doing so would bring forth level fifty-one sprites, but the low proficiency in the summon rift-sprite contubernium skill meant he could not compound summon them.
This translated into a weaker army compared to when he was at the quarry. But even if that was the case, it was still better to put as many creatures as possible between him and whoever destroyed his horde.
He didn't want to go fight this dude. This wasn't his battle. He just wanted to find Lysa, since a sort of friendship grew between Reidar and the others, despite all that had just happened, and for sure he wasn't one of those that wished people death just because of a misunderstanding.
<One that almost cost my life, though…> Reidar mentally sighed. <We find Lysa and I'm out of here.>
He spent less than a week in Havenwood, and he had been drawn into a conspiracy that caused human deaths. It was simply absurd for him.
"I'll help you find Lysa," Reidar said. "But then I'm leaving." He paused. "Forgive me if I say this, but since coming to Havenwood I have been forced to kill humans, I was accused of being a spy and even attacked because of this, and I want to remind you I was just passing by. This isn't my war, and I have had enough of all of this."
Jorik and Torren exchanged a glance but remained silent. Lena's jaw tightened, her gaze lingering on the spectral knights forming ranks. Those dudes then mounted the Primal Packs that weren't going to be used by them.
In her eyes, Reidar had the fucking cavalry. This guy was going to be unstoppable, and maybe he already was.
For the first time, something like calculation replaced outright hostility in her eyes.
"Understood," she said, though her tone suggested she was already revising strategies. "We move now. Every minute counts."
Reidar gestured, and three massive wolves broke from one of the packs, padding toward them. Lena mounted one without hesitation. Jorik swung onto another with surprising grace for his size, while Torren simply vaulted onto the third, while his Zweihänder almost made him fall to the ground.
"Let's go," Lena said, pointing toward the dense ridge of trees. "Lysa would've tracked the runner already, and if that dude reached whoever destroyed your summons…" She paused. "She leaves marks if she can: scratches on bark and disturbed foliage. Look for them."
Reidar urged his mount forward. The forest swallowed them, the canopy closing overhead like a green tunnel.