Chapter 398: Roadside Trouble

Something had happened on the road ahead.

Sage had barely taken three steps toward the front of the caravan when another shout rang through the mountain pass, followed by the frightened cries of horses and the unmistakable sound of steel leaving scabbards.

The narrow road had become a mess almost immediately.

Merchants climbed from wagons to see what was happening, drivers fought to calm their animals, and the mercenaries protecting the caravan rushed forward without any real formation.

Sage moved past two stopped wagons and finally saw the cause. Several large beasts had emerged from the woodland where the road curved around the base of the rocky slope.

They resembled wolves at first glance, which probably explained why one of the mercenaries near the front was already shouting for everyone to remain calm, but Sage immediately noticed the differences.

The creatures were nearly twice the size of ordinary wolves, with dark grey hides covered by irregular stone-like plates.

Their forelegs were thicker than their hind legs, their claws dug shallow grooves into the packed road, and faint lines of brown mana pulsed beneath the armor covering their shoulders.

There were nine visible on the road, with more movement between the trees.

"Stonehide Wolves!" one of the caravan guards shouted as he raised his shield. "Nothing we can’t handle! Front line with me! Archers take the ones near the trees!"

Sage’s expression changed immediately. "Those aren’t Stonehide Wolves."

The warning came too late. Three mercenaries charged before anyone could stop them, clearly expecting the beasts to fight like the common monster they thought they recognized.

The nearest creature lowered its body and slammed both forelegs into the ground. Earth mana surged through the road, and a ridge of stone erupted upward beneath the first mercenary.

The man barely raised his shield before the impact launched him backward into another fighter, sending both crashing across the dirt.

At the same moment, two beasts rushed the remaining mercenary from opposite sides.

He managed to slash one across the shoulder, but his blade scraped across the armored hide instead of cutting through it.

The second creature struck him hard enough to throw him against a wagon wheel.

That was when the confidence at the front of the caravan disappeared.

Sage’s eyes sharpened as the System information appeared within his vision.

He didn’t need much time to understand the mistake. "They’re Ironback Direwolves, not Stonehide Wolves. C-Rank monsters. The plating around the shoulders and spine is much harder than the rest of the body, and they can manipulate earth mana through their forelegs."

He raised his voice enough for the mercenaries around him to hear. "Stop hitting the armor. Aim for the throat, abdomen and inside of the legs. Don’t bunch together when they stamp the ground, and get those wagons farther apart before they trap you between them."

The mercenary captain turned sharply toward Sage. He was an older man with a scar running from his cheek toward his jaw, and despite the confusion around them, he understood immediately that Sage knew more than whoever had made the first identification. "How many?"

"At least twelve. Probably more inside the trees."

"Can you tell where?"

Sage activated the Aetheric Insight Eyes. Mana currents became visible throughout the pass, and the living creatures hiding beneath the trees stood out almost immediately. "Fourteen altogether. Nine on the road, five in the woodland to our left. Three of those five are moving around us."

The captain didn’t waste time asking how Sage knew. He spun toward his men and began repeating the instructions while Sage looked back toward the caravan.

Mina had already climbed down, and the excited expression she sometimes wore before a fight was completely absent.

She had grown enough to understand that this wasn’t training.

People could die if they handled the situation badly.

Boren stepped out behind her, adjusted the weapon at his side and looked toward the wounded mercenary being dragged away from the front.

Sage pointed toward Mina before she could ask. "Stay near the wagons. Protect the civilians and deal with anything that breaks through. Don’t chase monsters into the forest."

Mina nodded. "I know."

"And listen when Boren tells you to move."

Her face immediately changed. "Why does he get to tell me what to do?"

"Because I’m older, wiser and extremely experienced," Boren answered.

Mina looked him up and down. "You’re Boren."

"That was unnecessarily cruel."

Sage almost smiled, but movement among the trees drew his attention back toward the fight.

Two of the hidden Direwolves were already circling toward the middle of the caravan. He pointed them out to Boren, who stopped joking instantly.

That small change was easy to miss if someone only knew him from the Guild Hall. Boren complained about work, loved food too much and could turn practically any discussion into an argument about expenses, but he had survived long before the Adventurer Guild became safe and organized.

There was a reason Sage trusted him enough to help establish the Kingdom Headquarters.

The first hidden Direwolf burst through the undergrowth moments later and landed beside a merchant wagon. People screamed and scattered, but Boren was already moving.

He stepped between the monster and a merchant who had fallen beside the wheel, drew his weapon and waited until the Direwolf lunged.

Instead of striking the armored head, Boren shifted sideways at the last moment and drove his attack beneath the beast’s front leg.

The monster stumbled with a howl, and Mina came from the opposite side before it recovered.

Her strike landed across the exposed throat exactly where Sage had instructed, opening a deep wound. She immediately backed away rather than remaining within reach of its claws.

"Again!" Boren shouted. "Don’t stand there admiring it!"

"I wasn’t!"

"You were thinking about it!"

The Direwolf tried to rise, but Mina moved in once more and finished it before jumping back. The second beast appeared farther down the caravan and found three mercenaries waiting for it because Boren had already shouted a warning.

For the next several minutes the narrow pass became chaotic, but it was no longer uncontrolled.

The mercenary captain reorganized his men into smaller groups rather than allowing them to surround individual monsters, archers targeted exposed areas instead of wasting arrows against the armored backs, and wounded fighters were pulled behind the wagons where several merchants helped stop the bleeding.

At the front, Sage watched two Ironback Direwolves rush him simultaneously.

After everything he had encountered inside the Vault, the sight almost felt strange.

Months earlier, a pair of C-Rank monsters would have demanded his complete attention. Now Sage merely raised one hand. Mana gathered around him so quickly that several nearby mercenaries turned in surprise, and two compressed wind blades formed before his palm.

They crossed the distance instantly. The first Direwolf attempted to lower its armored head, but Sage deliberately curved the spell beneath its guard.

One blade passed across the throat while the second struck the other beast through the front leg, severing muscle and sending it tumbling across the road.

Sage finished it with another spell before it could stand.

The mercenary captain stared for half a second.

"Mage?"

"Yes."

"What rank?"

Sage looked toward another group of Direwolves entering the road. "Does it matter right now?"

The captain barked a laugh despite himself.

"Fair enough."

The remaining monsters began losing ground quickly. Once their abilities and weaknesses were understood, the Ironback Direwolves were still dangerous but no longer mysterious.

That difference mattered more than raw strength. The mercenaries stopped panicking every time stone erupted from the ground because they knew what caused it.

They learned to watch the beasts’ forelegs for the brief buildup of earth mana and separate before the attack landed.

When a Direwolf tried using its armored body to break through the defensive line, the fighters gave ground instead of striking uselessly at its back and attacked from the sides.

Sage couldn’t help thinking about the conversation from the previous day. This was exactly the problem the Guild’s classification system had been designed to solve.

The caravan guards weren’t weak. Several were competent fighters, and their captain clearly had years of experience.

They had simply been given the wrong information and nearly paid for it immediately. If this had been Evergreen, a registered C-Rank monster pack would have come with identification records, known abilities, physical weaknesses and recommended combat strength.

Here, one man had looked at a monster with stone armor, called it a Stonehide Wolf, and everyone had trusted him.

A roar suddenly rolled through the pass.

Every surviving Ironback Direwolf reacted at once.

Sage turned toward the forest as something much larger pushed between the trees. The creature that emerged stood nearly as tall as a horse at the shoulder, and thick black stone covered almost its entire back.

One side of its muzzle was scarred, while a jagged ridge of mineral growth rose from its skull. The smaller Direwolves immediately pulled away from the mercenaries and began gathering around it.

The System identified it before anyone else could speak.

[Ironback Direwolf Alpha — B-Rank Monster]

The mercenary captain’s expression hardened.

"That’s not good."

Sage stepped past him. "Keep the others away from me."

The captain grabbed his arm before immediately releasing it when he felt the mana gathering around Sage. "You’re fighting that alone?"

"It’ll be faster."

The Alpha charged before the man could argue. Each step cracked the packed earth beneath its paws, and when it slammed both forelegs down, several stone spikes erupted toward Sage in a line.

Sage didn’t retreat. A wind current formed beneath his feet and carried him sideways, letting the spikes tear through empty ground.

He raised both hands as he moved, drawing mana into a layered magic circle that appeared in front of him. The Alpha turned surprisingly quickly and launched itself forward with its jaws open.

Sage released the spell.

A concentrated blast of wind struck the monster from below rather than meeting its armored front.

The force lifted the enormous beast completely off the road and threw it sideways into the rocky slope.

Stone shattered around its body. Before it could recover, Sage closed his fingers and the wind surrounding the creature compressed violently, pinning it against the rock.

The Alpha roared and tried forcing itself upright, earth mana gathering around its forelegs, but Sage had already begun another spell.

Several mercenaries stopped fighting long enough to stare.

A narrow lance of compressed air formed above Sage’s hand. He aimed at the exposed portion beneath the Alpha’s jaw and released it.

The spell punched through cleanly.

The massive Direwolf went still.

Without their Alpha, the remaining monsters broke almost immediately. Two were killed while attempting to flee, while the others disappeared into the forest before the mercenaries could pursue them.

Sage ordered everyone to let them go.

Chasing wounded monsters through unfamiliar woodland was exactly how a successful defense became a collection of unnecessary casualties.

The pass gradually fell quiet.

Several people had been injured, including the three mercenaries from the first charge, but nobody had died.

Mina had blood across one sleeve that Sage quickly confirmed wasn’t hers, while Boren was complaining that a Direwolf had torn the side of his traveling coat.

He was already trying to classify the replacement as a Guild expense.

Merchants gathered around the dead monsters while the mercenary captain approached Sage with a very different expression from the one he had worn earlier.

Orwin came with him, staring first at the dead Alpha and then at Sage.

"You knew exactly what those things were," Orwin said slowly. "You knew their rank, their abilities, where they were hiding... even their weaknesses."

Sage could already see where this was going.

Orwin’s eyes narrowed. His gaze moved toward Mina, then Boren, and finally returned to Sage as something from their conversation around the fire clearly clicked into place.

"Wait..." The merchant stared at Sage.

"You’re the Adventurer Guildmaster."