Chapter 56

After seeing the hulking monsters, Nat quickly came to the conclusion that her original planned route would not work. Her main problem going forward was that she was very unfamiliar with Lethbridge, and the few times that she had been there were in a car heading down the main roads. Getting one of the canines to bring her out a map, she realized that while they knew what things were, they had no idea on how to read. Apparently, speaking was something that the change had helped, but reading was a bit too hard. It took a few tries, but eventually they came out with a map that was for Lethbridge and its surrounding area. Maybe they grabbed a few too many maps on the journey over. Opening up the map, she took a quick look at the nearby intersection to know where they were. Once she had a solid idea on their location, she started working backwards from her destination.

In the end, the goal was to get to the university. However, that was on the other side of the river valley, and the rivers at this time of year would more than likely be running high and fast. Crossing through the water was the last resort, as that would both be the most time consuming and the most dangerous. Other than going in the waters, there were four bridges that they could use. The two closest were practically beside each other, but one was a foot bridge while the other was a main road. Further up the river was a train bridge, and finally the one farthest north was starting to lead out the north end of the city. The goal was that hopefully one of the first two bridges were functional, as they landed directly beside the university on the other side. Fastest way to get there was a road labeled as Scenic Drive. Probably because the entire roadway overlooked the river valley, giving quite a nice view. Hopefully there was not too many issues going up it, so she decided to head straight to it and hopefully follow it to the bridges. As long as they avoided going up the five, she felt confident they would be safe. There could not be that many of those huge freaks, but there were probably a lot of little ones.

Deciding to go up through the residential, Nat put the map away and led them to the other end of the building. Looking past the corner, she saw nothing but a mostly empty parking lot. There were a couple of cars, but they had most likely been sitting there well before the whole event. Just as she was about to start heading across, a sudden fount of black mist came up in the middle of the desolate parking lot. Holding back, she kept watching as it continued to grow in intensity. Slowly, black ooze started pooling around the base of the mist and widened out, to look as if there was a giant puddle. As she kept watching the puddle of ilk, monsters climbed out as if it was a pit. Goblins swarmed out in the dozens, followed by over a dozen hobs. What followed them was one more monster that they had not seen yet. While not as monstrous as the two throwing a car around, this thing stood out as intimidating. It was tall, ripped, green, and had tusks that grew out from its mouth. The first word that came to her mind was the most glaring and explaining description she could think of. It was an orc. And it looked like it could rip her in half. Most of the monsters ran northwards through the parking lot, but the orc stalked sideways out between the two stores there. Right towards where her planned path was.

Seeing monsters spawn was not a plan she had, but now that she saw, Nat felt a lot more comfortable moving around. Making a note to write down all of her questions surrounding that, she made a call. While the orc went to where they were planning on going, it was just one monster. They had dealt with many along the way and she felt that the pack and her could take it down easily. Making a quick gesture to the four wolves that were with her, they all sprinted across the opening between the building they were behind and the next one over. Thankfully they were not spotted by anything that had appeared ahead. Just as they were about to get to the other building, Nat happened to see what happened with the ooze puddle. As quickly as it came, it continued shooting of black mist until it seemed as if the entire thing evaporated. At a quick glance, it seemed as though it had never been there in the first place.

Crossing around the side of the building, they all saw the orc slowly walking up the path, towards the residential area that Nat had planned to cut through. Seeing no other threats in the area, they all moved towards the orc as quickly as Nat could move quietly. The wolves had no issue with maintaining the speed and stealth, but Nat had difficulties moving as efficiently, especially since she was already carrying the fire axe. However they managed to get up behind the lumbering monster without it noticing. Winding up for a big hit, Nat swung as hard as she could at the monster. It had to be close to seven feet tall, and at that height she had no confidence in hitting the creatures head. Instead, she aimed for the next likely place to do serious damage. The middle of its back. Striking hard, she felt the axe reverberate in her hand as she bit into the orcs back with the sharp tool. Almost as if she had just swung it at a solid stone. The orc let out a grunt of pain, and started to turn. Startled at his movement, Nat looked at where she connected with the axe. It was still embedded into it's back, but probably not even an inch deep. This thing had far tougher skin than the hobs and goblins combined. As it turned, it swung its fist out in an attempt to catch whoever just attacked it.

Barely seeing the fist coming, Nat managed to dodge by the skin of her scalp, as she felt the wind from the monsters fist as it passed by over her crouching form. This attack left the orc wide open though, and the four wolves descended on top of the creature. While they were not as large as the orc, they were close enough for Shadow to be able to latch on and tear at the monsters throat. Nat started to cry out a warning, that it was much stronger and probably would need a bit of hounding and wounding before they could take it down, when she suddenly stopped. Just as easily as with a goblin, Shadow tore the throat out of the orc and quickly backed off. Seeing that his strike was successful, the rest of the pack backed off and nipped at the orc, keeping their distance as it both asphyxiated and bled out. Within a couple second of useless flailing, the orc crashed violently to the ground dead, the axe falling out of its back and laying down over top of it. Slowly, Nat walked up and grabbed the axe, prodding the orc to make sure it was dead. Slowly, black mist started to come off the corpse, relieving Natalie's worries. After checking on all of the wolves to make sure they were fine, they quickly left the area and continued on, vacating the area in case any monsters in the area heard the scuffle.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Corgi, Zmal, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, Ty, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 25 patrons, which I will then open up an official discord for everyone to come and discuss the story in and hang out!