Fergus is having a large payday soon, or at least he better have. The dwarves that gave him the package were incredibly rude, and sent the usual barrage of insults dwarves reserve for elves his way. Loading the shipment on the armored carriage was easy enough, and the large bull-like creatures that pull it are deceptively quick. Fergus may favor plants over animals as an elf, but he can appreciate the human taming abilities as of now. His party that protects this caravan consists of two brothers who use long spears and teamwork to keep things at bay, a currently depressed priest, a runaway noble from Rila who combines fencing skills with magic, and lizard-kin assassin from gods know where, who also happens to be their sole female teammate. Fergus himself wields a bow like many elves, but he can see the reason why Malencia is buying a large shipment of guns when he is forced to shoot at his enemies in the dark.


    "Fergus! Six coming from ahead!" Fergus shoots a few arrows ahead of them, just because their bulls charge through the enemies doesn''t mean they can afford for them to slow down, not now.


    "Good callout!" The screams of the creatures seem to intensify as their wicked bodies become visible under the lantern-light of the carriage. It''s night outside, and the creature''s oily carapace becomes visible under the faint light as the carriage rushes past. Claws of some metallic substance, and it chitters in the dark if their rear is correct. Walks-the-moon, or Walks as she''s called by her teammates, has always had good night vision, and currently her skills are best put to use spotting for her team.


    "Jules! Blast our pursuers! Aim to distance them! How are the Bretti brothers?" Jules nods, and lazily throws a fireball behind them. These creatures are certainly dangerous, but their affinity for the dark leaves them easily hurt by bright light. The fireball doesn''t even need to hit for the shrieking to intensify and the things chasing them to back off in fear. Bram and Beluscie Brettie wipe the sweat from their brows, they had been posted in the back of the carriage and the endless tide of creatures finally seem to relent, they accomplished what an entire squad of spearmen wouldn''t have been able to accomplish by holding those things back.


    "We''re good! No wounds here, so it looks like Father De Vries will have it easy!" De Vries is their priest who for safety reasons is located within the carriage with the guns, he''s not the greatest combatant, but his excellent healing capabilities are combined with the generally slippery man to make an annoying threat on the battlefield none would want to deal with.


    "Good! Let''s try to keep it that way!" Hope begins to bubble within Fergus, as the unnatural dark that plagued their last encounter begins to lift. They exit from the trees, and see the moons shining above them. There''s plenty of light thanks to the moons, and that forest should not have been as dark as it was.


    Their environment shifts from a dark forest to flat terrain, hope melts off their faces as they get to see their foes thanks to the immense light, crude imitations of flesh charge at their wagon, aiming for their steeds. Fergus and Jules attack the incoming creatures, needing to keep them away from their lifeline. If the bulls fall, they will be stranded here. At first, it seems that the Bretti brothers and Walks won''t be of much use here, until the brothers leap from the back of the caravan unto the bulls, and begin using the bulls as a new defensive platform. Their faith in whoever tamed the creatures is great, but the bulls have still built up wounds from disgusting things.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    "Walks! Get De Vries over here! We need those bulls in top condition!" Walks-the-moon throws a hasty mock-salute, before doing some impressive acrobatic stunt to enter the moving carriage.


    Walks enters the carriage, and sees the depressed priest watching out of the window. There isn''t much to see there other than ugly looking creatures getting shot in the face by the people on top of the carriage. De Vries doesn''t seem like he sees them, even while looking at them.


    "What have we done to cause this?" De Vries looks saddened by the state of the world.


    "The gods work in mysterious ways, now get topside, you bum. Fergus needs you to save our ride out of here." Walks knows they don''t have time for an existential when their existence is actively being threatened by things that will probably eat them at the very least.


    "It wasn''t the gods..." De Vries keeps muttering, but doesn''t waste time as he climbs out of the carriage towards the bulls, the Bretti brothers are doing an admirable job deterring the flesh-creatures, as it seems that they somehow have a better survival instinct than the night-creatures. De Vries mutters some more as he heals the bulls, who find a road to charge over, the poor cows have been charging non-stop for a while now, but it seems they will have to go on for a while longer.


    Fergus was now seeing why that odd-looking employer gave them so many stamina potions, the bulls are in an endless sprint and the party can''t afford to slow down, so that means no sleep either. It wasn''t this bad on the trip over here, but there were certainly signs. Up ahead is the most visible sign, and the predicted greatest obstacle. The terrain itself here is made of flesh, not completely unlike the skinless creatures of the plains, but certainly similar. The grass has a red veiny texture, while the trees here... have skin.


    The entire party gets ready for the next onslaught, only for it not to come. Their treck through the flesh-ridden forest is only interrupted by a light from the distance, no, a glow. It''s right on track from their exit, and there they see mutated animals throwing themselves at a group of demons, who are cackling maniacally as they burn everything around them. Neither party seems interested in the caravan. They are left completely stumped as they see the lights of civilization in the distance.


    "Gods... someone... anyone... what the fuck is happening?" Fergus collapses on the top of the carriage clutching at his heart. Caravan duty is usually the most boring part of any adventurer''s job, and his team had to plough through at least four different forces capable of causing serious damage to a city alone, the only reason they made it through was the sheer inexperience half of those monsters had with organized resistance, and the other half was too busy killing each other.


    *CHUNK*


    A massive bolt coming from the city pins what appears to be a mutated bear to the ground, it was surprisingly silent while charging at the carriage. On the wall Fergus sees his salvation in the form of their employer, a massive mermaid wielding something far too large to be a crossbow. She''s been around on the occasion dealing with the latent incursions of creatures, and the local taverns have started placing bets related to her. The most popular of bets is usually started by the more depressed alcoholics, a bet on whether the monster incursion will win or Malencia''s monster will.


    Fergus isn''t a betting man, but if he was, he knows where he would put his money.