Having thrown open the ancient wooden door, he rushed inside like a hurricane and grabbed his warm neck, drowning in a silky mane, enjoying the native smell of his friend. His friend. His Elusive. "Good boy. He came to Andren himself. He didn't disappear. His faithful companion. He also sent help. Why can't people be so reliable. Like you?!" - he whispered tenderly, affectionately sorting through the hairs, tickling behind the ears with a habitual gesture, stroking his head and shoulders. How he missed him. Claude didn't even realize how much he missed him. He didn't know how much time passed as they stood so close to each other. Yes, he didn't care. As if realizing that they needed to be alone, a mercenary with a horse, no one interrupted, even Andren, somehow quietly disappeared, returning to the house. For which Claude was grateful to him. As the mercenary was in no hurry to leave Permit, they still had to stay at Andren's for a couple of days, waiting for Caer to come to his sens
- How touchingly sentimental you are, I fell in love with you even more, - Alita commented on his act. But Claude paid no attention to her words. She did not live like this, she does not understand. Each of them had their own childhood, which gave them memorable lessons. It only depended on them what they took out of them.- He earned his money! - suddenly stood up for Claude Daisyre, to which the man only smiled: "Children."In the meantime, they had already crossed two streets and reached a small house, over the door of which hung a signboard, faded from the sun, depicting a bucking donkey. Which is quite consistent with the name - "Not an obedient donkey" engraved on it. However, despite the funny name, the food here was very good and relatively inexpensive, although the contingent was still the same, but it was time for his companions to learn to defend themselves, although he was not particularly worried about one member of their company. No sooner had they entered the semi-dark
Among the mercenaries, there was such a tradition as "taking an obligation", that is, to perform a service in return for the one rendered to them. Mercenaries did not like to take obligations, and even more so to remain in debt. This event was always fraught with risk, if the mercenary did not fulfill this word, he immediately fell into the list of mercenaries with a bad reputation as a debtor and a dishonest monster hunter, and this was fraught with the fact that orders stopped coming. Therefore, everyone tried to follow the fulfillment of obligations very carefully. Perhaps this was the only moment in the work of the monster slayer when the mercenary was shackled by rules and requirements.- What's the matter? - Rolk suddenly came to life, - after all, you are going to the capital through Vogra, and the Trollgin just sat down near this tract. So, whether you like it or not, you're going to have to face him, but you see, the two of us will quickly deal with him.Claude was in no hurr
- Already pinned down, early bird. - Instead of a greeting, the old man muttered, but moved aside, letting the guest inside. - Well, come on, you've come.Claude did not force himself to be persuaded, deftly slipping past the old man into the room, which turned out to be surprisingly brightly lit by a multitude of candles, framed in skillfully made lamps, clearly coming out from under the owner's hand. The house consisted of two floors, but judging by the bed, table, and pile of clothes, the old man preferred not to use the top floor. However, the bed was not straightened and not even crumpled, as Claude realized, the master did not lie down at all that night.- Dear, Obran, is my order ready? - finally asked Claude, unable to bear the expectation. He was already terribly eager to get his blade, the very one that he had been dreaming of for several years, and which any self-respecting mercenary would wish to possess. It was no joke to have almost the strongest blade, which meant a lot
- Claude, we surround. Shooters, aim better, there may not be a third chance! - Rolk commanded, having intercepted the leadership of their group in this battle. - Caer, don't poke your nose.Claude did not really like the policy of his friend, since the repetition of the strategy did not always lead to a good result, and the guy who remained on the periphery of the battle now played the role of a useless ballast, without wasting even half of his capabilities, but he decided to wait, maybe he was wrong. Meanwhile, the monster, having finally woken up, began to move, huge paws flashed from side to side in an awkward attempt to catch nimble mercenaries, stones were crushed into crumbs under crushing blows, and the men had already almost circled around the slow creature, the rope entangled thick paws with a flexible snake, obediently swaddling him according to the plan.Trollgin froze in surprise, trying to take at least a step, but it was useless, his paws did not obey, but this did not
. The coast... "The coast is it!" Suddenly, a flash of insight came to mind.- Let's push him down! - issued a new strategy Claude. The idea was not the best, but there was something in it. Thoughts frantically swirled in my head, processing various options on how best to do this, and the hands kept on and on throwing stones at the monster, the knives did not cause him any harm, but Claude did not want to lose them in vain. He must find another way out, and Rolk was already beckoning the monster behind him by throwing his darts and constantly keeping the attention of the creature on him, getting closer and closer to the cliff. "Crazy, what is he doing! You can't do it alone!" - the mercenary got angry, outraged by the carelessness of his friend, he did not want to lose people on a mission.- Alita, try to call on the local snakes, let them twist his legs!But they will die!"Would it be better if we died?" the man said irritably, no longer trying to look patient and kind. Everything p
After enduring a few more micro bites, whoever was there, he was not big, Claude noted with satisfaction that his freedom was already close. When the cut on the paw reached twenty centimeters, he dodged, pushing the incised limb with all his strength, which, unable to withstand the load, came off, dousing the mercenary with red-green blood that did not have time to coagulate in the stiffened body. And the man himself, having lost his support with a slight cry, fell down, right towards the small creatures, which turned out to be some kind of modified fish, which he had never seen before. Frantically waving a knife to scare away the predators who were delighted with such a gift, he was confused for a few seconds. A pulse roared in my ears, and as far as the muddy water allowed me to see, there was a trolgin, or what was left of it, small creatures managed to work on it too. But now all their attention turned to Claude, apparently they liked live food more. Raking his arms and legs, he w
- I'm Claude - a free mercenary. In your places aisle. - The man introduced himself, confidently looking at the owner of the house. - I wanted to ask you to stay for this night, with dinner and bed, and of course not for free.The man thoughtfully scratched his chin without taking his eyes off the guest, trying to see in his face only he knows what.- My name is Eli. You can even stay overnight for free. There are rarely guests in our area, especially mercenaries."Nice to meet you," Claude replied politely, bowing his head slightly. Something strained him in this stranger, although he did nothing suspicious, and intuition was already calling and pushing him in the other direction from this house. But he didn’t want to go anywhere, he was very tired, so advising to be on guard himself, he followed Eli.Inside, the house was not very different from hundreds of others he had seen before. The same walls, windows, wooden furniture, household items, only a huge full-length mirror hanging o