In a remote little town, Barrett carried a small tin of dye and a few willow-wood combs, crunching across the cobblestone road dusted with faint traces of snow as he headed for the outskirts beyond the city walls. EeDechi was waiting for him there.
The two adventurers had been on the road for dozens of days, and three-quarters of winter had already slipped away. The howling blizzards had finally died down. Merchants who had been holed up in their homes now pushed open windows sealed by snow, swept the drifts from their doorsteps, and began doing business again in the cold season.
At a general store, Barrett sold off some of the spoils from his recent monster hunts—furs, fangs, bones, and magic sacs. In exchange he bought two pairs of sturdy cowhide boots lined with soft fleece, three maps, and the tin of golden hair dye now gripped in his hand.
The boots were a necessity; after weeks of hard travel, the soles on his old pair were worn down to the heels. The dye, though, had been Barrett's idea. Turning EeDechi's eye-catching black hair golden would help her blend in much better.
After following the narrow path to meet her, the pair crouched in the empty countryside and got to work on the disguise. Barrett mixed the dye with water, soaked a comb, and began working the golden color through EeDechi's hair.
He had been a wanted man himself once, so even if his dyeing skills were a little rusty, they were good enough. Once the dye had set, he picked up the long-handled wooden comb again and brushed her hair straight upward, reshaping her whole style.
EeDechi lifted a small mirror and studied her new look.
In the glass, her once sleek, jet-black short hair was now a vivid, blazing gold. The dye must have contained some stiffening agent, because every strand stood bolt upright like a burning golden torch, with only a single slender lock falling across her forehead.
"I look like… a Super Saiyan?" EeDechi said, turning her head this way and that in front of the mirror.
"How about it? Looks pretty badass, right?" Barrett said, clearly pleased with his handiwork. Even though he had no idea what "Super Saiyan" meant, it was obvious that after the hairstyle change, EeDechi's appearance had transformed quite a bit at first glance.
"Fine, this'll do," EeDechi replied. She wasn't the type to care much about her appearance anyway. She tossed the mirror back to Barrett. The pair packed up their things, checked the map once more to confirm their heading, and set off toward a forest.
They would skirt along the edge of the woods, circle around Nightwhisper Town on the map, and travel in the direction of the Slane Theocracy.
...
The winter forest was eerily quiet. Black branches snapped under the weight of snow lay tangled across the ground. On the still-unmelted snow, two chaotic sets of footprints stretched deep into the woods—but they didn't belong to EeDechi and Barrett.
"These prints are still fresh," Barrett said, crouching down to examine them closely. "Judging by the size and the tread pattern, it's one man and one woman."
"Why are their steps so all over the place?" EeDechi asked, puzzled. The two lines of footprints looked like a column of lost ants crawling haphazardly over the ground.
"The people who made these prints are probably fellow adventurers," Barrett guessed. "They're working together—one in front and one behind—scouting all directions as they walk."
Barrett stood up and gazed into the depths of the forest. "There might be something serious in there."
Under normal circumstances, Barrett might have followed the tracks to investigate and see if he could score some easy loot. But right now he wasn't in the mood.
The two of them veered away from the footprints and continued along the forest's outer edge. After crossing a frozen river, they soon noticed traces of human work that nature could never have made.
The bark had been stripped from several trees and crudely carved with marks, as if hacked into the trunks with a stone blade. Half-buried beneath the snow was an abandoned trap made of grass rope and branches.
"There's a gnoll tribe in the forest," Barrett said. "They probably migrated here from the wasteland to overwinter."
The two adventurers hacked through fallen tree trunks and dense branches with their machetes and pressed on. The woods gradually thinned out. In the distance stretched open plains and low rolling hills. Even farther away they could see scattered farmhouses and wooden cottages dotting the landscape.
As the pair reached the border between forest and plain, the dull thunder of hooves pounding frozen ground rolled toward them. Dozens of knights came galloping like a winding black line. Behind the cavalry surged a ragged line of militiamen armed with spears, swords, and shields, charging in a messy formation.
"Have we been spotted?" EeDechi asked, suddenly tense. The Sorcerer Kingdom's bounty was still active in this region. Was she really going to have to carve a bloody path through all these human knights?
"That doesn't make sense," Barrett said, glancing at EeDechi's spiky golden hair. "My name isn't on the wanted poster. How could they possibly recognize you?"
EeDechi pulled her wool scarf up to cover the lower half of her face. Behind them in the forest came a sudden rustling, followed by the sharp crack of branches snapping underfoot.
The two adventurers spun around. A pack of gnolls burst through the snow-laden thicket and charged straight at them. At a quick count there were nearly a hundred of the creatures.
The gnolls had hyena-like heads set on human-sized bodies. Thick, deep-brown manes like those of warhorses ran down their backs, and their fur was covered in dark spots.
They wielded stone axes, wooden shields, and spears, wearing crude armor made of animal hides, and came on with unstoppable momentum.
"Gnoll and humans teaming up to hunt me down?" EeDechi was speechless. "World peace at last, huh."
A small squad of fully armed knights had already galloped close. Their leader shouted something loudly, as if ordering the pair to get out of the way.
"I get it," Barrett said, the realization hitting him. "We've walked straight into the local militia's raid on the gnoll tribe. Or more like, the gnolls are trying to use us as cover to smash into the cavalry."
In the distance the knights drew their longswords, shouting battle cries about avenging the innocent dead, and formed up for the charge. The shabbily equipped militiamen bunched into a ragged line, spears jutting out like lonely branches as they advanced shoulder-to-shoulder behind their round shields.
The snarls of the gnolls behind them grew louder. Whoosh—a short arrow whistled past EeDechi's ear. Several gnolls clutching hardwood clubs charged straight at them, baring gleaming white fangs in savage, beastly grins that belonged only to their kind. It looked like they had made up their minds to grab these two travelers and turn them into living meat shields.
Barrett shook his head and said, "If gnolls had just a little more brain capacity, they'd realize that anyone bold enough to trek the wilderness on foot in the dead of winter is best left alone."
"Give me a heavy hammer," EeDechi told Barrett. "I don't want blood on my hands." To keep her cover intact she couldn't use her signature giant sword.
Barrett casually pulled out a half-man-tall armor-crushing hammer infused with adamantite and handed it over. The heavy weapon was made to crack open the skulls of enemies in full plate; against gnolls wearing nothing but hides and wooden shields, it was total overkill.
He himself drew a square shield reinforced with thick iron plates and metal edging from his spatial ring and charged straight into the gnolls' attack.
The shield blocked several nasty short arrows. A hulking gnoll brute, confident in its size and strength, swung its club and crashed into Barrett. It never expected to be slammed flat on its back as Barrett drove forward, his right-hand longsword slicing clean through its throat in the same motion.
Using the shield as his anchor, Barrett charged deep into the heart of the gnoll horde. It looked like he had made a huge mistake—completely surrounded on all sides, with more than a dozen gnolls wielding blades and axes closing in from every direction.
Barrett tossed aside his shield and drew the two-handed sword he knew best. The blade was nearly as tall as he was, its edge shining with deadly frost. He triggered a Martial Art, spinning the sword into a giant windmill, like the Grim Reaper's scythe sweeping through every living thing around him.
In the distance, several blood-soaked knights had just finished their own fights. Watching the scene inside the gnoll horde, they froze in shock.
What stunned them most wasn't Barrett. It was a cold, ruthless-looking man with hair blazing like golden fire and a light-gray scarf covering his face. Arrows and spells fired by distant gnoll shamans and poachers couldn't scratch the man at all.
Though the man wasn't especially tall or broad, he wielded a half-man-tall armor-crushing hammer like a tyrannical king from the old legends who always led the charge. He tore through the battlefield as if it were empty, charging in and out at will. Wherever the hammer fell, gnolls broke and fled in panic. Even the biggest gnoll chieftain was smashed into the air by one blow, then crashed down and flattened several more of its own kind.
A knight in full silver plate sat frozen on his horse, staring at the two warriors carving through the gnolls like one-man armies. He didn't even remember to raise his sword.
Another knight rode up, flipped up his blood-spattered visor, and asked, "My lord, are these the adventurers you hired? You really only paid a hundred gold coins? They're insane…"
His voice was shaking. "We're… not even needed here. Taking out the gnoll tribe is completely handled by just these two."
The knight called "my lord" took off his helmet and held it against his chest. His face was weathered, with silver streaks running through his light-brown curls.
Confusion filled the lord's eyes as well. "They're not the adventurers I hired. I hired a ranger skilled with fire magic and a half-elf priestess girl. These two warriors… I have no idea where they came from. Thank the gods they're on our side—humanity's side."
Deep in the distant forest, a roaring pillar of flame suddenly shot skyward, scattering a flock of black birds. The lord pointed at the blaze. "Those are the adventurers I actually hired. I told them to sneak-attack the gnoll's main camp."
BANG! The towering flames suddenly shrank, as if a giant foot had stomped them flat. Pine trees toppled and snapped one after another. Thunderous footsteps rumbled straight toward the battlefield.
The knight's face turned pale. He asked the lord, "Do you remember? There's a rumor that says a stone golem sleeps in the forest. Do you think your adventurers have... awakened it?"