Dao 4 Chapter 6 (Patreon)

After traveling most of the morning, Dar was starting to become tired from constantly using his mana to power the cart forward.

The runes that Lilith had placed on his body worked well at restoring his strength, but his mind was growing weary from the constant focus.

“We are stopping here.” Dar pulled the cart to a stop near a quiet forest, where a bit of snow was falling lightly, dusting the tree tops like a giant sprinkling flour.

“Hmm?” Tami roused herself. “Let me go tell the others first. Then I’m going to go scout.”

Dar nodded. He didn’t feel up to arguing with her, and Tami was an incredible scout. He sucked her into his inner world, and a moment later he felt Cherry push. He opened up, letting all of them out.

“Burr.” Neko grabbed her arms, not loving the change in temperature. “Inner world is much more comfortable.”

“Quiet.” Amber chided her. “Dar here was doing lots of work.” She had a basket with a cloth wrapping something that smelled good to Dar.

“What’s that?” He asked, picking at the cloth covering.

“Fresh bread.” Amber smiled. “That little dao oven you made works wonders, and we are well stocked to feed you through this journey.” She glanced around at the cart. “Maybe make something a little more comfortable to use to eat?”

Dar nodded, dropping the wall of the cart and drawing lava up to make a table and benches.

Before he dismissed the heat, it had melted a large circle in the snow.

“There we go.” It was cool to the touch and he sat down, dragging Amber over with the basket. “Tami, take something before you head out.” Dar tore off a chunk of the loaf, a little fragrant steam wafting out before it quickly disappeared in the cold air.

“Thank you.” Tami took the offering and Amber fished out a piece of jerky for her. “I’ll be back shortly.” The deer demon turned and bolted with long loping strides that cleared the snow with every step of her gait.

“So, did you two make up?” Cherry asked as she tore off her own bread.

Dar took a loaf that was underneath the first, feeling ravenous and slathered one end with some honey. The honey they’d recently acquired from Kindrake, and as he bit into it, it coated his mouth in amazing sweetness. “There was no making up to do. But we talked.”

“Mmhmm.” Cherry made a knowing murmur. “Good for you. Tami is a lovely, and her heritage will be helpful as we pass through towns.”

“Because people recognize her family?” Dar asked, putting his hands on his forehead and miming the antlers.

“Precisely.” Cherry put some butter on a piece of bread and bit into it with a big smile.

Tami came back quickly, rushing out of the woods with a panicked look on her face. “Dar. Behind me.”

There was the crackle of timber behind her as a tree broke and something shifted deep in the woods.

Dar was on his feet in an instant, his impossibly dark ax in his hand immediately. “What is it?”

Tami zipped past him to the area where the girls were eating. “Don’t know. Big.”

A giant half ape half bear looking creature covered in a heap of white fur pushed between two trees, bending them as they cracked. The thing had to be twenty feet tall, with a face that would scare even its mother.

“Alright, we can handle this.” Dar swung his ax, feeling itchy to chop something up.

He could have just tried to melt the beast with his dao, but he needed to move a little.

Besides its passage through the trees, the giant yeti was silent. The snow seemed to be dampening the large steps, and the beast didn’t growl or try to assert any dominance. But the predatory nature of it was clear; fangs sticking out of its lips.

“Need any help?” Cherry asked, still seated and eating her bread.

“No.” Dar stopped playing with his ax and charged.

The yeti swung its arm with the power of a runaway train.

Dar ducked low, drawing his ax low before swinging up with all the power he could muster.

His black ax tore through the beast's arm with supernatural sharpness.

Finally the creature made some noise. It cried out as it stumbled back, clutching the stump as its eyes glowed a fiery red that was at complete odds with the cold environment around them.

“Oh come on. This is where you say ‘it’s only a flesh wound’ and keep trying to bite my ankles.” Dar teased the beast.

From the look of it, it wasn’t intelligent. So it didn’t rank up with monsters or demons. But it wasn’t stupid. It still had natural battle instincts. It charged again, only to juke right at the last moment.

But Dar had waited, not making a move yet. He pivoted with the beast, bringing up the shaft to block the Yeti’s attack and bringing its one good hand within reach. He grabbed it’s hand and leaned back, swinging the giant creature off its feet and into the air as he spun around.

The monster howled in surprise as Dar rounded his swing and slammed it back to the ground, stunning it long enough for him to finish with a clean kill, removing its head.

Checking to make sure there were no more surprises, Dar drew the monster into his inner world. “That wasn’t so bad.” He turned back to his companions.

“Not so bad he says.” Tami mimed. “That thing would have taken out a small host of soldiers.”

“Well. I bet I could take out a lot more. It didn’t even use dao.”

“Next time can we try?” Amber asked, looking up from her bread as if the battle hadn’t particularly interested her.

“Knock yourselves out. I hope there aren’t that many more of them.”

Tami shook her head. “Either way, I think I found a road on the other side of these woods.”

“Really?” Dar perked up. “A village already?”

The girls all looked at each other strangely. “Dar, you’ve been traveling at the speed of a running horse for half a day. We’ve crossed a considerable distance in a short amount of time, not to mention, we crossed the river without a delay.” Tami explained. “This was far beyond my expectations for how quickly we’d travel.”

Dar paused, looking back the direction they came and the path that his little cart had plowed through the snow. “Okay, so we keep going then? Where’s this road?” Dar was feeling reinvigorated at the idea of a village to see.

He pulled the cart toward them, noting the extra friction with the increasing snow.

He added a few small dao characters of heat on the front of the cart to help it glide through the snow easier, and then a few more along the walls, just to make it warm.

Pausing, he considered their new trek and added a dao character for hard on the front as he shaped it to handle the snow better. “Neko, can you put some characters for sharp along the edge of the wedge?”

“Can do.” The leopard demon jumped up and flicked her finger, creating a claw made of mana before scratching easily into the hardened iron.

Dar decided to shape the thing a little more in the fashion of a small locomotive, or at least, what he was used to.

“What is that?”

“A locomotive. The big wedge at the front reminded me of it, so I decided to play with it a little if we are going to use it for the trip.” Dar loved to tinker.

“That will be a tight fit through the forest.” Tami pointed out.

“We’ll go slow. It sounds like we are already making record time, so we should be fine.”

Tami shrugged. “Whatever you say. This way. I’ll show you through the forest to the road."

***

With the sharp wedge at the front, Dar’s little locomotive tore through the underbrush as he dodged the trees. It felt a little like playing a video game as he bobbed and weaved through the trees. 

“This is it. This is the road.” Tami looked quite proud while Neko was disoriented and dizzy in her arms. The deer demon had been holding her up.

Dar scooted onto the road that appeared to run nearly perfectly east and west. Dar turned east. He plowed through the snow, following the worn dirt path he could just barely make out under it. “We’ll just keep on going until we hit a village I guess.”

Tami was looking behind them at the dirt road. “Looks like the path was well used up until the first snowfall, so there are likely people along it.”

Dar pushed on faster, doing his best to follow the road through the forest. “What kind of people do you think would live out here?”

“Well, hunters and harvesters if they are out here in the woods. The road doesn’t seem wide enough for it to be a logging community.” Tami observed.

Neko wiggled out of Tami’s arms and clung to the side as she held on for dear life. “People. Where are the people? Can we stop soon?”

“Not yet. We aren’t at a village yet.” Dar shook his head and focused back on the road in front of him, only for Neko to jump on his head.

“No, Dar. People. Ahead.” She squashed his brow down with her breasts and blocked his vision.

“Neko. Get off. I can’t see.” Dar pushed the cat girl off only to see the village coming up quickly ahead of him.

He pulled back on the vehicle immediately.

It was a several ton piece of iron and stone, and he hadn’t thought about making brakes for it. And the people in the street ahead of him were not getting out of the way quickly enough.

The locomotive groaned as he tried to stop it by the frame, and the whole thing roared as he came to a stop at the edge of the village.

The few people outside their homes screamed and ran for cover. “Monsters!”

“Whoops?” Dar scratched the back of his head.

“That was awfully loud.” Tami covered her ears. “They probably thought you were some sort of monster.”

Neko didn’t hesitate, hopping out and landing in the snow. “HELLO.” She shouted with cupped hands.

Despite the cheer she added into her voice, the villagers seemed wary. But a few did peek out of their homes.

Dar knew they saw him exit, but they were clearly nervous.

“Excuse me.” Dar stepped closer to a house that had its door open a crack and an eye peeking out. “Do you know-“ The door slammed in his face, but he wasn’t about to stop. “Do you know who is in charge here? We are passing through.”

There was murmuring behind the door before someone spoke up. “Five houses down and across the street. Big wreath on the door.”

“Thank you. I apologize for the noise I made coming in.” Dar waved for his two companions to follow.

Nobody would be stealing his locomotive anytime soon. It was heavy enough that a normal person would probably need a horse to get it moving.

Trudging through the snow, Dar didn’t use his dao to melt it. He was already a stranger, and he didn’t want to show all his cards right away.

The house he’d been directed to was obvious, with a large wreath of pine branches and cones.

Stepping up, Dar knocked on the door. “Hello. We just arrived in town and would like to find a place to stay the night.”

There was a shuffling behind the door and a man with a half head of gray hair appeared as he opened the door just enough to show his face. “I thought someone was screaming monsters?”

“That might have been me. I can explain.” Dar did his best charming smile and held up his hands.

“I’d love to hear that explanation.” His eyes went past Dar to Neko and then Tami, his eyes lingering on her horns. “Come in. I’m letting all of the heat out of my house.”

Dar waved for the two girls to follow him as he slipped in.

The man’s house was small. It was a single story, and they stepped right into the kitchen where a woman had been knitting but scooted out of the way for their group to sit at the table.

“I’m Martin and that’s my wife, Mel. We help lead the village.” Martin was stocky and had the scars of experience in hunting covering his arms.

“I’m Dar, and this is Neko and Tami.” Dar introduced their group as he sat down on one of the chairs.

Tami and Neko stayed standing behind him..

“I couldn’t help but notice how quickly the village screamed for monsters and hid. Do you have trouble in this area?” Dar followed up.

Martin picked at a large scar on his arm in a familiar nervous tick. “Always have monsters. This winter is particularly bad. As if the snow wasn’t bad enough, big hair monsters moved into the forest.”

“About three men tall, white fur, kind of like a bear, but with big human hands?” Dar asked.

“Met them then?” Martin raised a brow and looked Dar and his companions over. “You’re big, but I don’t think you could take them alone.”

Dar only grinned. “You’d be surprised what I’ve hunted. I lead a large village down along the Bell River. We’ve found ourselves fighting off devils for the last year.”

Martin’s face became hard in an instant. “I hope you didn’t bring trouble this way with you.”

Dar thought about telling him that he’d killed them, but he wasn’t sure the hunter would believe him. “No, the devil threat is finally past us. I’m on my way to Frost’s Fang.”

The hunter shook his head in disbelief, seeming to think the statement was closer to a death wish. “Don’t know why you want to see them.” His eyes wandered to the two demons behind Dar before he shrugged. “But that’s your business. You said you were looking for a place to stay the night?”

Dar nodded, already having an idea of what the man was going to ask of him. “It would be a hell of a lot more comfortable than the snow.”

“If you really killed one of those monsters, maybe you stick around long enough to take out a few more? I think we could scrounge up a suitable reward.” Martin looked over to his wife who nodded in confirmation.

“What do you say girls, would you be up to hunting a few monsters?” Dar leaned back and looked at the two.

Martin and his wife hadn’t even blinked when they saw the two demons with him, so they were clearly okay with the ancient race. But if they had a powerful demon in town, he didn’t think they’d be asking for his help.

“Neko hunt.” The cat girl grinned. “But maids will want to hunt too.”

“There are more of you?” Martin asked. “Are they waiting out in the cold?”

“They come and go.” Dar waved away his concern. “I have two maids that like to think of themselves as my shadows.”

The hunter and leader of the village eyed Dar skeptically. “You have two little shadow maids that want to fight monsters?” Then he looked again at the two demons and a look of understanding passed on this face.

He seemed to be assuming that the maids were of the ancient races as well, and that made it easier to explain anyway. “I think you’ve guessed it.”

“I feel like we would have heard of a village like that.” Martin rubbed at his chin.

“Bellhaven became troubled this fall. We are a relatively new village with a high population of ancient races.” Dar grimaced.

Martin mirrored his expression. “That doesn’t sound good, neither does a visit to The White after that. You do know, the roads only get harder to travel the further north you go.”

Dar shrugged. “We do what we have to. Besides, we can travel quickly. If you can give us a warm, dry place to stay, I am happy to help you with some of your monster trouble.”

The hunter nodded clearly more concerned with ridding his village of monster than anything else. “There’s an inn down the street. It doesn’t exactly see many people this time of year, so they won’t mind offering a room for your troubles. I’ll see what else we can pull together as an award.”

“How about you just let us have the carcasses and give us some better directions for our trip?” Dar needed those more than anything the village was likely to offer them.

Martin spit in his hand, seeming pleased with his side of the arrangement. “Deal.”

Dar shook his hand, trying not to grimace at the wetness.