As the caravan leaders made their way to investigate the problem, a loud roar was heard.
Everyone in the caravan grew tense and Hilda put a stop to her meditation. She went outside to be greeted with a horde of ravenous creatures.
They had feather like bodies which wrapped around their entire body, walked on all four with their legs claw like and razor sharp while their heads were stark. On their backs they had feathers which allowed them to fly but considering that these were tier one, they were incapable of flight.
They weren't covered by feathers but rather their bare skin was exposed showing a revolting red mass of flesh which ran up to their crane like heads.
They were known as Cromwoods. They were known for causing havoc wherever they went not to mention they would usually travel in groups.
The average tier of such a creature was a tier one but a whole swarm of them could prove problematic. And their diet compromised of cattle and at times humans would fall prey to such creatures.
The one in front of them has silver white feathers proving that it was a tier one. Higher tiers had different colors of feathers.
The surprising thing about them was that they were usually located way deeper into the tropical regions thus finding them here was perplexing.
Regardless, the caravan leaders ordered the rest to take up their formations.
"All right, form three lines of defense. As for the archers, get ready to fire." Lysander said as those instructed got to their tasks.
Orsen asked as he forcefully rose from his resting position. He walked out of his carriage along with Hilda to inspect the situation.
"CAW!!!!!"
The creature let out a deafening cry as they sensed the hostility in the air. As if summoning, more Cromwoods emerged from the foliage and charged at the members of the caravan. The problem wasn't their low tier but their numbers which were overwhelming for the caravan.
The creatures made their advancements as the fore fronts cast down spells to help with the defense. Soon enough, a clash ensued at the frontlines, blood spilt everywhere as the frontiers lost their life along with the Cromwoods.
Hilda and Orsen watched the fiasco play out without the slightest nerve of helping. "We need more frontiers to replace those who have fallen!" Lysander's voice echoed amidst the entire chaos unfolding. The more the battle continued, the dire the chances seemed for the caravan members.
"Everyone, let us ward off the beasts together!" Even more people joined at the clash and the sound of fighting echoed throughout. Cormic who took note of Orsen's presence ordered him to go to the front. He was skeptical of what he was doing when he had left and wanted to assess his standards.
Hilda too decided to help out by replenishing the mana potions directed at the frontiers. The chances of success seemed bleak as at this rate, they lost more and more men. Lysander gritted his teeth as he watched this scenario unfold.
'What an unlucky start for a caravan!' He thought. He had been on numerous voyages and most of them proved successful with few damages but this time, he considered this as his unluckiest caravan voyage. It took a while before things started to look up.
"We can do this!" Numerous voices could be heard as they noticed that they were gaining the upper hand. The Cromwoods definitely had the advantage in terms of numbers but they lacked reasoning and tier ranking. They were many but they were on the first tier thus causing the comeback for the Caravaneers.
The battle waged on till it was late in the day where the remaining Cromwoods realizing that they lacked the advantage fled back into the woods. Everyone remaining were lucky that they had survived but they didn't ignore the fact that they had lost a lot of men and women in the process.
"Despite our exhaustion, we cannot rest here as the fresh stench of blood will draw more creatures!" Lysander said and slowly but surely, people started to make arrangements for moving. Some Cromwoods however had targeted the horses that pulled the carriages meaning that the Caravaneers would have to pull them themselves.
Luckily not all carriages were attacked and there were horses that managed to survive including Orsen's carriage thanks to a spell barrier Hilda had managed to cast ahead of time during the clash. The numbers of the caravan members had nearly been halved from 115 members to now 60 members.
Not tom mention there were those who were injured reducing the number of the combat prowess of the caravan even further down.
This could be stated as a huge hit for the caravan. Most of those who had died were either tier one or those who hadn't awakened yet meaning those in the higher tiers would have to do the demeaning work that those who had perished did.
Cormic's carriage had been one of those that had been unfortunately targeted thus his horses weren't in a good shape. His carriage was noticeable from afar as it was grand in size, comparable to Lysander's and a few other Caravan vice Leaders.
With his power, it was easy to find the replacements for this and they went on with their journey. Quickly time passes and it was already nightfall thus the caravan came to a stop at a cave.
They had been going towards the mountain ranges as they could have a higher chance of warding off creatures with higher numbers not to mention few creatures sought out high altitudes as their habitat.
As they set up camp, the atmosphere was dead silent in comparison to the previous night. The people they had been casually chatting with were now dead or heavily injured. There was a space set up to attend and nurse to the injuries inflicted by the Cromwoods.
At Lysander's tent, there was a gathering of the four caravan vice leaders. There were five initially but one of them was heavily injured in the fight not to mention some of those who were present had experienced some form of injury or exhaustion.
"What were the Cromwoods even doing at a place like this?" One of them asked. To find a creature that would usually reside deep in the tropics suddenly in the plains was baffling. His question however wasn't answered.
There were numerous reasons for a creature to migrate. One was due to the habitat no longer favorable for them, another was predation, search for food or other reasons whatsoever. "Some of the members are requesting to go back to Aurorise."
Another said. He had a scar running across the bridge of his nose, his name was Juskar. He was on the third tier whilst on the second array. Lysander who was on the third tier on the fourth array felt into contemplation as he heard this.
It was understandable to go back and recuperate. Inform the Adventurers Guild to deal with the matter and set another voyage another time. "I think that we should at least take a while to recuperate then make our travels the day after tomorrow." Cormic offered.
It was suicidal to even go anywhere in their current state. Should they even run into another horde, it wouldn't be preposterous to assume that escaping with their lives would be a short of a miracle.
After some negotiations later, they came to a conclusion. That the entirety of the following day would be spent on recuperating while there would be people who would be chosen to go ahead and survey the ranges around them.
The following day, several runes were laid around the camp for safety while several groups were formed. There were a total of four each consisting of five people.
One of them would survey the terrain around them and check for alternate ways off the mountain range, another would go out and check for resources such as food and medicinal herbs to tend to those injured. Another would check the way back and scout whether the option to go back to the kingdom while the last would stand guard and watch over the camp to ensure the safety of the caravan.
*The Following day*
"Alright, here is how we are going to go about this!" Lysander said as he was observed by all in the camp.
"One group will scout the terrain and check for any viable exits, the other check for any resources around us such as medicinal herbs while another will go back to where we fought the Cromwoods and the last will ensure safety of the camp."
"The first and the second group will have a party membership of five while the third will have up to ten people and the last will have twenty people!" He laid put the idea.
There were three vice leaders and the leader of the caravan standing separated from each other. Lysander chose the party to investigate the way back with no one making this decision. Cormic chose to survey the terrain with two people choosing this bringing it to a total of three.
Another vice leader called Rendalin on the third tier whilst on the second array was on searching for herbs with a total of four including Hilda on Orsen's orders while Juskar had more than ten people in his line.
'As expected, people chose the one that involved the least amount of risk.' Orsen thought as he made his way towards Lysander. After a while, three more people joined due to pressure from the group and they set off. Going back was tantamonius to suicide considering that now the place would be swarmed with wild beasts but they had limited options.
After a while, Lysander's group made it back to where they had been attacked. They couldn't blindly rush in but rather they chose to observe from a safe distance away. Their worries had been confirmed as they watched what had become of the road.
Numerous tier two Cromwoods were feasting off the corpses that had been left behind as they tried to survey their surroundings. Seeing this, they knew that heading back would take a while. They couldn't cover up their traces as they feared being ambushed by another wave of Cromwoods.
The tier two Cromwoods were nothing like the tier one Cromwoods. They had fiery red feathers and a bigger stature compared to tier one. They had pronounced beaks and sharp talons and unlike the tier one Cromwoods, their wings on their backs were functional but not fully thus resulting in them making remarkable jumps.
They could cover more ground with these wings making outrunning them off the table. They also seemed to possess a keen eyesight making running away a less viable option. The battlefield was littered with corpses meaning that they weren't leaving any time soon.
What was worse was the possibility of tier three Cromwoods drawn to the site. They possessed the intelligence of a five year old thus they had the possibility tracking them back to the cave. In other words, they couldn't stay at their cave for long and start making plans for moving elsewhere.
'I hope the other parties made better progress than us.' Lysander thought as they made their way back to camp.
*Rendalin's Party*
"Why would you do this?" A faint voice rang out before a body dropped to the ground. The victim had foam coming out of their mouth as their skin turned black. It was evident that they had been poisoned. The earlier figure of five had been chopped down to three.
…
As the group had been making their way through the forest away from where they had come from, they ran into a small group of Ironmaws. Two people had tier one while Hilda and another had tier two while Rendalin had tier three.
Ironmaws had similar features to leopards however their skin was consisted of dull iron metal along with some of their appendages. They had ran into tier one pack with a tier two leader. Rendalin fought off the tier two Iron maw while the rest engaged with the others.
Ironmaws had the endurance of a human and given that there were numerous of them, the situation proved problematic. Regardless, they chose to fight and right as they were about to emerge victorious, an unexpected feat transcended.