Chapter 32 Arriving in Derrenhold

Chapter 32 Arriving in Derrenhold
“We should probably set out soon. We’ve already been sitting longer than I would have liked,” Victor said, checking over his equipment. “Only a day or so before we reach Derrenhold.”

At that, the camp burst into life as Xavier and Valessia began to break it down. Echo tried to help, then gave up in favor of sitting on top of Victor’s head and watching. Ten minutes later, they were moving again.

“Echo, you could have helped at least a little,” Xavier said as the drake took his place beside him.

Echo chirped.

“You can’t use that excuse forever. You aren’t a baby anymore.”

Unable to argue back, Echo averted his eyes and looked toward Valessia.

She walked at the front of the group, just ahead of them, still carrying a slight limp, but her eyes told a different story. She kept looking around, taking in all the differences this forest held compared to the one outside Crossreach.

“You can tell we’re heading into a new area. You know how I know?” she asked, glancing back at Victor. “I can see it… well, more like I can feel it.”

“Care to explain?” Victor asked. “Do you mean you can see the magic in the air, or…”

He stopped as his system panel erupted into view.

\[ Town Detected: Derrenhold Near \]  
\[ Quest: Rescue the Village \]  
\[ Reward: 150 XP + Potion of Great Healing \]

“What the fuck! The system just gave me a quest,” Victor said. “It says we’re close, and that they’re in trouble. We need to move. Quick.”

He took off immediately, running past Valessia.

“What do you mean, quest… Victor?” she called, then saw both men leaving her behind. “Damnit, guys… wait for me!”

She sprinted after them and caught up fast despite the limp.

“This is the first quest you’ve gotten from it?”

“Not quite,” Victor said between breaths. “I had one back when it was still being cryptic. It was just ‘Objective: Survive’ No reward either. More like die or survive. This time there’s an actual reward.”

Victor pushed harder the moment the quest appeared, boots striking uneven ground in quick rhythm as branches slapped at his shoulders. Xavier stayed close behind him. Valessia’s limp all but vanished beneath urgency.

Then the sounds of screaming ahead sharpened. Under it came something worse, the repeated crashing of bodies and wood breaking under force.

Victor broke through the last line of trees and stopped just long enough to understand what he was seeing.

Derrenhold sat ahead in a shallow basin, larger than Crossreach but rougher, built for endurance more than beauty. Thick timber walls wrapped around most of the settlement, reinforced with stone at the base, but the real problem stood behind it all. A jagged hill rose over the village, split by a dark opening carved into its face.

The dungeon.

And beasts were pouring out of it.

Some had already reached the outskirts, slamming into barricades and snapping at villagers trying to hold them back with spears and axes. Others came in broken waves down the slope, more chaos than formation.

“Well,” Valessia said, drawing her bow in one smooth motion, “that explains the quest.”

“No time,” Victor said.

He was already moving.

He hit the first beast before it could turn fully toward him, his sword flashing across its neck before his shoulder sent the body tumbling into the dirt. Another came low from the side, all teeth and black fur. Victor stepped around it and cut downward hard enough to drop it in a skid.

A burst of flame streaked overhead.

Valessia’s arrow struck a long-limbed beast climbing onto a wagon and exploded, throwing it backward into two more. A villager beside the wagon seemed to realize they had help and drove his spear into another creature lunging for the barricade.

“Left side!” Xavier shouted.

Victor turned in time to see two beasts break from the main rush and sprint toward a group dragging an injured man clear. Echo shot forward first, slamming into the face of the nearer one and forcing it off line.

Xavier crashed into it a heartbeat later.

He hit like a man heavier than he looked, bond-fed strength riding beneath the blow. The beast went down under him, and Xavier followed with two brutal punches before drawing his blade across its throat.

The second one never reached the villagers. Victor met it head-on and drove his sword straight through its chest, then kicked the body loose.

“Push them away from the center!” he shouted.

The shift had already happened. The villagers felt the pressure break and started fighting forward instead of backward. A broad woman with a wood axe hacked through a beast’s leg and screamed for the others to move. Two older men shoved a cart sideways to close a gap.

The fight scattered fast.

A beast halfway over a barricade. Another clawing at a door while people screamed inside. One lean gray creature already on top of a villager before Victor reached it and drove his sword down through spine and shoulder.

Each time the tide looked ready to thin, another cluster spilled from the dungeon mouth and charged downhill. They lacked coordination, and that was the only reason Derrenhold still stood.

An arrow passed close by Victor’s head and buried itself in a beast charging his blind side.

“Try not to die before we get paid,” Valessia called.

Victor almost laughed, but a heavier creature barreled into him before the sound could come. He caught the impact badly, pain flaring through his ribs. The beast snapped near his face. Victor slammed the pommel of his sword into its skull, staggered it, and opened its throat.

To his right, Xavier had planted himself near a broken stretch of barricade, using the collapsed timber like a funnel. Echo harried anything trying to squeeze through while Xavier met them head-on, punching, shoving, and stabbing at close range with savage efficiency.

“Victor!” Xavier yelled.

Victor turned and saw three larger beasts charging down together. One was broad and low, tusked and thick through the shoulders like some nightmare of a boar. The other two moved like wolves, dense and wrong in the chest.

The first wolf reached him fast. He twisted past its jaws and slashed deep across its ribs. It howled, and Valessia put an arrow through its eye before it could recover.

The second crashed into him a heartbeat later. Victor caught the hit hard enough to rattle his side, then drove his sword up under its chest and shoved until it fell away.

The tusked beast kept coming.

Xavier moved first, slamming into it from the flank with enough force to knock its charge off line. Echo darted across its face, buying another half second. Valessia’s arrow struck behind the shoulder. Victor stepped inside the next swing and drove his blade into the base of its throat.

The creature bucked once, then crashed into the dirt.

What had been desperate defense became pursuit. Villagers moved in pairs and trios, cutting down stragglers before they could circle back toward the wounded or disappear between buildings.

The last beast tried to limp back toward the dungeon slope.

Valessia drew, exhaled, and put an arrow through the back of its skull.

Then it was over. First came heavy breathing. Then groans from the wounded. Then the strange silence of people realizing they had survived something that had already started to feel final.

Victor lowered his sword and looked over the square.

A broad-shouldered man in layered leather and chain stepped forward from near the center of the square. Older. Hard-faced. Blood streaked one sleeve, though it didn’t look like his.

“You three with a guild?” he asked.

Victor nodded once. “Crossreach.”

The man let out a long breath and glanced over the village.

“Then Derrenhold owes Crossreach a debt.”

He turned and gestured toward a long timber building near the center of the settlement, marked by a hanging sign carved with the guild crest.

“Come on,” he said. “You can report inside. Guild hall.”