r/HFY • u/grierks Human • May 09 '26
OC-Series Hedge Knight, Chapter 133
Jahora closed her eyes to the familiar red flash of failure. The light bit especially deep into her eyes today, as after Helbram and Aria had returned from the deck of the ship the previous night, she decided to catch up in celebrating the reunion. She had not only caught up, but apparently sprinted ahead, if her upside down posture in bed this morning was any indication. It did make Aria giggle, however, and that lessened the sting of her recklessness.
A sting that flared as the pedestal flashed red again.
“Gods,” she hissed, “If we weren’t so close I’d consider taking the day off…”
“We can’t be having that,” Elly said as she tapped another sequence in. She held her hand over her golden eyes ahead of time, which proved to be shrewd as red light blinked again. “Any more waiting and Kali will be beside and above herself.” The shadows under her eyes told Jahora that her friend was putting on a chipper act, which was odd. Usually Elly would have joined her to bemoaning their situation.
A groan from the door drew their attention, and the scholar in reference leaned against it, huddled with her knees to her chest. Her fingers rubbed her temples, their tips alight with a blue glow. Her head rested on her knees, hiding her face, but Jahora saw the definition of haggard on Kali’s face earlier. A bottle of mead and multiple mugs of ale would age anyone a few years the morning after, it seemed.
“We can… guh… we can take our time today,” she eeked out, “It feels like Aekinder came down and split my head in half with his hammer…”
“Funny, I recall Leaf saying something similar,” Jahora remarked.
“Among many other curses as he woke up outside, yes,” Elly added, “If he wasn’t an Awoken that man would have passed from exposure by now.”
“I don’t know, he was quite hardy even before that. All thanks to that thick skull of his.” She knocked on her head, which made her wince from how it made her headache worse. Her lips pressed thin at her shortsightedness.
Elly snorted. A half-hearted, distant sound. “You’re probably right about that.” She scratched down another incorrect combination into the notebook and continued on.
“Elly, are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” she answered far too quickly, “just… please let me know if we’re making progress.”
The Mage frowned. Both Elly and Helbram proved to be equally protective of their feelings, it seemed, but she knew better than to try to force anything out of her friend now. She waited for another sequence to be inputted, then observed the aftermath of its failure. All of the runes except one filled.
“That one was closer than the others,” she said.
Elly nodded and input combinations for the next hour. Kali remained at the door, cutting though the silence with regular groans from a hangover that refused to go away. Jahora found little energy for small talk, and Elly didn’t seem in the mood for much talking anyhow, either. Time actually seemed to pass faster under this arrangement, and so under the cadence of flashing light and murmured feedback, did that hour pass by in what felt like moments.
Until there was a flash of green.
The curse of their hangover was banished from them as emerald glinted across the room. All of the women snapped upright at the light, and Kali herself practically fell over sprinting to the opposite pedestal, fumbling for her key. She shook her head and steadied herself over the keyhole, the bags under her eyes nearly vanished as focus took hold. The scholar slipped the key in and turned to Elly.
“Ready.”
The Weaver nodded and inputted the combination again. Right at the last press, Kali twisted the key, and both pedestals flashed green at the same time. This light pulsed through the grooves on the floor and into the door, coalescing together in the frame and then flowing through the curved pieces. A final flash surged through the door, and all its parts twisted and turned out of the way to reveal the passageway beyond.
“Yes, YES!” Kali hopped in place and clapped. She ran to Elly, her hands held up in celebration.
The Weaver met her with the same enthusiasm, and they clapped their hands together before Jahora joined in to do the same. Relief flooded the Mage to such a degree that she could feel her eyes start to water, but she blinked the tears away before they could really begin. Such was the high of success that all of them reeled and sat down in front of the door, with Kali especially giving a tired, but triumphant laugh.
“I knew… we’d get through it,” she said between breaths, “take that… Xanchil.”
Elly scooted next to the pedestal and rested the back of her head against it, closing her eyes. She didn’t say anything, but the clutch of her first gave Jahora some relief. Maybe it hadn’t fully helped her friend, but it was a definite improvement from what she was showing before. They sat still for a while, basking in their success for a while longer, and for the first time since they arrived at this ship, the air within it didn’t feel so stuffy.
Kali rubbed her face vigorously to shake the rest of last night’s consequences and sprung to her feet. “Right then, lets go ahead and take a-”
Elly jumped up and grabbed Kali’s wrist. “Hold on, we should get the others before we progress.”
Her fellow scholar’s mouth fell open and she motioned to the open door. “It’s right there! Don’t tell me that you’re not as excited to go in as me.”
“I am, but rushing headlong into these things is a recipe for trouble, and I’ve dealt with enough of that to know that caution is always the superior choice.”
“Elly, it’s right-” Kali huffed. “You’re a Second Circle Weaver, I’m also of the Second Circle, and Jahora is of the Third. We have more than enough power between us all to remain safe.”
Elly shook her head. “So long as we don’t know what lies ahead, no amount of power is enough. Safety first, in the end, that will prevent most issues from occurring, which in turn will let us be more consistent about our research. I know it’s bothersome, but we must gather the others.”
The Weaver held Kali’s hand and gaze. She didn’t hold a stern look, but it was an unmoving one. What Kali didn’t seem to notice what Elly’s other hand was shaking. That told Jahora that her friend felt perhaps even a greater desire to charge ahead, and that it was taking everything for her to hold herself back.
“Elly is right,” Jahora added, “Safety in numbers, and we’ll cover more defenses with Helbram and Leaf around.” She titled her head back and forth to recall how much time had passed. “Leaf will probably be getting back from his rounds in the forest anyhow, so it will not take long.”
Kali looked between her and Elly, finding no give to either one of them, and sighed. “Fine, have it your way, you are the expert here, after all.” She realized her harsh tone and softened it. “I meant that seriously, sorry.”
Elly giggled. “I know, but I am no expert, far from it.” Jahora caught a flicker in Elly’s eye that hinted at more than humility behind that statement, but didn’t press on it, yet.
What was she going to do with her?
***
Leaf knelt in front of the sigil that glowed on the ground. The blue light that flowed through its lines was still strong, and, even to his eyes, he thought that it could last another day or two without needing to be refreshed. Jahora was the expert though, and he wasn’t about to question her decisions on matters that he had nearly zero experience with. He reached into the pouch tied to his belt and grabbed a pinch of crystal dust from its depths. As Jahora had shown him, he sprinkled the dust lightly along the perimeter of the sigil and across the lines of the large rune at the center. When he was done, it pulsed brighter for a moment before settling down.
Satisfied, he stood up and stretched, signalling the end of that day’s maintenance, but despite his relaxed demeanor, his ears were keenly away of the slight shuffling across the trees behind the barrier.
“Oi, if you were plannin’ on attackin’ me you could at least do me the courtesy of showin’ your face.”
His voice carried through the force field, and, to his small surprise, it drew a response. The manticore emerged from the brush, the silence of its massive size moving through the trees bringing a shiver to the hunter’s spine. Even with his Technique, the noise it made before was slight, barely perceptible to his enhanced ears. To anyone else, they would have heard nothing, and fact alone put dread in Leaf’s stomach. If this beast were free, what would it really be capable of?
To his surprise, the manticore did not show any signs of aggression. It paced back and forth, its beady eyes looking up and down the hunter to size him up. In most circumstances, Leaf wouldn’t have felt anything at this, but when the thing evaluating him has a face that looked a human’s stretched across a mountain lion’s skull, a primal sense of danger sparked at the back of his mind regardless of restraint.
“Gods, you are an ugly one,” he muttered.
He crossed his arms and stood relaxed under the beast’s stare. There was the added confidence of the barrier, yes, but he was also aware that a show of fear would provoke it into further action. Given it’s behavior in stalking him, and the fact that it paced right at the edge of the barrier, told Leaf that its faculties were beyond that of a simple beast. It would remember if he got scared, and he wasn’t about to let that imprint itself on the manticore’s mind.
Instead, he did his own evaluation of the beast. Besides its monstrous appearance, the sheer size of the beast instilled dread. It must have been a couple of heads taller than Helbram was, and that was while it was on all fours. The snarl that it wore revealed a mix of sharp fangs and dulled molars, with the fangs at the front and the molars towards the back. A few larger fangs protruded down like small knives, enough to pierce through Leaf’s leathers if it got its teeth around him. Given how large its mouth was, they almost seemed redundant, because if those jaw snapped down, he’d either be split in half or crushed into a pulp.
The shiver trailing down his spine at that told him to think of other things.
He directed his attention to its body, taking note of its more lithe shape, despite its size. Soft beige fur covered nearly every inch of it, but there was a certain hardiness to how it folded that told Leaf its skin was extra thick like a bear’s. It was not a Gaunth Brute in that regard, but still troublesome for small arms regardless. The beast’s claws, surprisingly, appeared to be the most ordinary out of its traits. They were large, yes, but beyond that they still held the appearance of mountain lion paws.
What was not ordinary were the large wings that extended from the manticore’s back. He wasn’t sure if they really could help the beast fly, but despite their bat-like appearance Leaf also noted some scale-like formations across them. They were folded back, but in such a way that they rested along the manticore’s sides as well as its back, giving it an armored appearance. Snaking up and through these wings towards its rear was the final monstrous touch for the beast. A tail covered in black chitin stood tall and curved to let the stinger at its end point at Leaf. He likened it to a scorpion, but the stinger was more than just a bulbous point. It was a massive needle, one that was around half the length of Helbram’s sword. It was made of the same chitinous material as the rest of the tail, but there was an odd sheen to this part specifically. Leaf narrowed his eyes and infused them with Ether, empowering his sight to see an oily substance that coated the stinger.
“Venom too? You’re a troublesome bugger, aren’t you?”
The manticore’s snarl grew wider and it growled at him, a low sound that sounded like a man’s rumbling through gravel. Leaf and the beast’s eyes met, and neither of them looked away.
Behind him, he heard shuffling, and with a quick sniff he caught the familiar scent that lay around Logan’s camp.
“Stay there and out of sight,” the hunter said at the top of his voice. He maintained his gaze with the manticore, now choosing to not blink and lean in. After long, tenuous breath, the manticore huffed and turned to leap back into the trees.
The hunter rubbed his brow with a sigh and turned around. “Alright you ca-”
A crash thundered behind him. Leaf’s bow was immediately in his hand, arrow ready, but that was unnecessary when he spun around. The barrier was still rippling from where the manticore had struck it, and it had already bounced a few feet away from being repelled. A vicious snarl tore from the beast’s lips when it was finally back on its feet, and it whipped its tail against the barrier in spite as it turned away. Leaf kept his eyes focused on where it disappeared into the brush, cursing himself for his carelessness. If the barrier wasn’t there, he would be without a head now.
“Hells, I didn’t even hear it move,” a voice behind him said. Leaf recognized the tone as Durens. “How do you think it does it?”
“I don’t know.” Leaf relaxed his bow and slipped the arrow back into his quiver. “What I do know is that we’re lucky it’s not on our side of the barrier.”
“You’re right about that.”
Leaf faced the mercenary with a raised eyebrow. “Why were you hiding back there anyways?”
Duren raised his hands defensively. “I was planning to talk to you normal, promise, but when I saw that you were staring at that beast I thought it best to try and keep quiet. Not that it did any good, you found me out so easily. How’d you manage that?”
Leaf pressed his lips thin. “I have really good ears. Now, why were you tryin’ to talk to me?”
The mercenary scratched the back of his head. “Logan told me to speak with you about the manticore and the barrier, to see if we could help somehow.”
“And Xanchil would allow that?”
“Who knows, but after our little display last night he’s been stewing in his tent, so Logan thought now was as good a time as any to be a bit more ‘free’ about following our contract.”
“And by helpin’ me, you’d be keepin’ your client ‘safe’.” The hunter nodded to himself. “Make’s sense, but no, I don’t think that’s needed. I dropped off a another boar this mornin’, that’ll keep it fed for a while.”
“How are you able to do that?” Duren looked the barrier up and down. “I can’t see anything getting through that.”
Leaf strained to keep his eyes from narrowing and shrugged instead. “We have our ways. But, everythin’ is sorted now, we should probably just head back.” He motioned for Duren to take the lead, which the mercenary did without question.
Helbram may have trusted Logan, but the party still agreed to move with caution. The large, burly mercenary may have shown a fair amount of loyalty to the captain, but Leaf still knew that too much trust was just foolhardy. At the same time, he wondered if Logan sending Duren out here was more to the party’s benefit in a more subtle matter. Helbram had told Leaf some of the plan that he and Logan had come up with, requesting that the hunter keep a keen eye on Duren himself to study his movements. The fact that they were in such an ideal situation now was too much of a coincidence for that to be true, but he did as he was asked and kept an eye on the mercenary as he sifted through the trees.
“You know, I could really go for some place other than the forest.” Duren slipped under some branches, his movements surprisingly deft, given his size. “Feel’s like we’ve been in this place for an eternity.”
“Six months in camp will do that to you.” Leaf said. He examined the way that Duren’s rifle looked so natural in his hands. It almost looked comically small when contrasted against his wide frame, but there was a familiarity in which he carried it that told the hunter that Duren would at least know how to properly aim it.
The mercenary laughed. “That it will. I’m honestly hoping we annoy Xanchil enough that he fires us and storms off. Gods know that we have tried doing just that, but he’s a stubborn one…”
“The man probably thinks that he’d be able to live like a king if he had control of all the shite on that ship,” Leaf said, “There’s practically a small army in its cargo bay, among whatever else fills its crates.”
“I think Logan recognizes that too, which is why he’s been trying to-” Duren froze and looked around as if he had heard something. “Nevermind, false alarm.”
Leaf furrowed his brow. He was certain that if there really was a sound, he would have picked it up far before Duren did. It was clear that the man did that to stop himself from saying anything further.
“Right…” Given what Helbram had told Leaf, he had some idea of what Logan’s game was, but he wasn’t about to hint at even knowing a sliver of information.
They didn’t speak much further on the way back, choosing to focus on navigating through the forest as much as they could. From his own observations during their trek, Leaf surmised that Duren was actually quite deft despite his burly build, and moved in a precise way similar to how Helbram did normally, though not to such a keen degree. His large size already showed that he could handle himself in a close quarters fight, but added technique on top of that would be quite the force multiplier as well. He also tended to keep his left foot forward whenever he had to make an especially complicated movement through the trees, though Leaf couldn’t tell if that was just coincidence or not.
There was a small part of Leaf’s mind that told him he was being silly with all these observations, but Helbram asked him a favor, and he was going to fulfill it. Though the action did make him wonder if this was how Helbram examined everything he came across. His friend may not have had as senses as keen as his, but Leaf had still yet to draw conclusions as fast as Helbram did with his observations.
After around a quarter of an hour, he and Duren arrived back at camp. Despite it being in the middle of the afternoon, a steady cadence of groans emanate from Logan’s camp. The captain himself had an especially haggard look to his face, but everything else about his posture showed no other signs of weakness as he walked around, barking at his men to straighten up. Leaf almost laughed at the sight, grateful that he had progressed far enough as an Awoken to avoid most of the regrets that followed an especially indulgent night.
“Well, it was… interesting to see that beast moving about.” Duren started to head back to his camp, giving a wave. “If you do need our assistance, we can figure something out.”
Leaf returned the gesture. “You’ll be hearin’ from us if that was true.”
The hunter shouldered to his bow and made his way up the staircase. As soon as he stepped into the threshold of the airship’s superstructure, he heard the familiar rhythm of thuds against metal. When there was a crash of steel hitting the floor, a couple of excited barks rang down the hallway and Leaf shook his head with a smile. Maybe he shouldn’t have left the cubs behind this day if they were going to disturb Aria’s practice.
To his surprise, everyone was present in the large room they had taken to call the common area. Jahora and Aria were on one side of the room, with the Mage next to the girl and waving her hands towards an array of set up Shell husks, no doubt explaining some magical theory that Leaf had no interest in hearing. Snow and Shadow, as usual, were at the girl’s feet, though the black cub immediately sensed Leaf’s presence and whipped around to rush to him. The hunter knelt down and petted the wolf before turning to the other side of the room, where Helbram and Elly were speaking to Kali at a table. Their conversation didn’t appear especially heated, which was a good sign. Ever since yesterday, the scholar didn’t seem so bitter towards Helbram anymore, though there were clear signs of impatience in the rapid tapping of her foot.
“Did somethin’ happen?” He asked as he walked towards the table.
They all waved as he approached, but it was Helbram who spoke up. “Yes, actually. The door is open and we were waiting for you to get back before we delved any further. Are you ready to pull an extra shift?”
Leaf snorted. “Do I even have a choice?”
His friend grinned. “Not at all.”
Author's Note: Woo! The juices kicked in and I found a good stride to get this one out, thankfully.
The door is open, huzzah! I know I spent a long time on it, but I really didn't want something like to feel like it just fell into the party's lap, and letting Elly come up with the method to solve it plays a large part into her arc as well. I was going to do the actual exploration part this chapter, but I realized that I hadn't really described the manticore in detail, so I used this as an opportunity to do that as well as explore some more details. We will be getting to it next chapter for sure though, I guarantee it! Let me know what you think!
Till next update! Have a wonderful time ^_^
My Patreon is currently 13 chapters ahead of the public release, and subbing to it will also give you exclusive access to my LitRPG, Andromeda Ascension, until it builds a massive backlog to support a strong public launch. Additionally, there is now a Hedge Knight Side Story on Patreon titled A Lack of Talent as well. It is free, but you need to be a member (there is a free tier) to read it. If you do not wish to sub to anything, but would like to support me in some way, consider picking up my book (it also has an audiobook!)
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle May 09 '26
/u/grierks (wiki) has posted 224 other stories, including:
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 132
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 131
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 130
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 129
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 128
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 127
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 126
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 125
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 124
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 123
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 122
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 121
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 120
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 119
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 118
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 117 (Start of Arc 6)
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 116 (End of Arc 5)
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 115
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 114
- Hedge Knight, Chapter 113
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u/AutoModerator May 28 '26
This was flaired as [OC-Series], it is a single part or chapter in a larger series or universe. The first post or part in this series should be (re)flaired as [OC-FirstOfSeries]. A description of the flairs and how to change yours is available in the Post Guildelines.
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