Ponds of Sansretour Marsh, glimmering under the great blue sky. Mountains stood on both sides, surrounding the sanctuary belonging to the wilderness. Beasts basked in the kiss of the gentle breeze. A fawn was drinking from a pond, but all of a sudden, it looked around cautiously, its ears twitching.
A sound. A quiet sound. And yet enough to break the silence of this haven. The fawn crouched and turned around to escape.
Two muscular witchers with two swords on their backs walked across the soft earth, closing onto the river shores.
Twelve shorter silhouettes carefully followed them, never stepping off the trails they left behind. Despite there being fourteen of them, there were only a couple lines of footprints.
The children stared around, anxious and curious. "Are we there yet?"
"Calm down, Lemur." Felix took his sunglasses off and gave his student a warning look. "Your job is to look after these kids. Keep quiet and don't let them run off on their own."
"Yes, sir!"
Felix grinned, a hint of resignation flashing in his eyes. If Carl hadn't killed all the nekkers around Novigrad, I wouldn't have to open a portal to Toussaint just to train these kids. And I even had to ask Roy for help just in case.
***
A tiny grey speck appeared in the sky, and it closed the distance at a blistering speed. Eventually, Roy saw a fat laughing kookaburra with a brown head flying toward them. It circled overhead, laughing loudly as if trying to say hi.
Roy's lips curled, and he turned around. The boys noticed a cryptic smirk tugging at his lips.
"Your quarry is here, and more than one."
The kookaburra guided them about two hundred yards east. Eventually, they tensed up and quietly moved from the cattails to the willow tree.
A black, rotten log slept in the marsh. Around it were three bizarre, hideous humanoid monsters, walking aimlessly. They wore not an inch of fabric, their greenish-black skin gleaming under the sun. Their limbs were covered in scales, and webs filled the cracks between their fingers and toes.
Sharp nails extended from the end of their fingertips like knives, and their teeth were as sharp as broken glass. Their eyes were bulging and white, not unlike cataracts.
A boy with a bowl cut looked horrified. His teeth were chattering, and his body was quivering. "I-Is that…"
"Quiet. Don't alert them." Roy cast a sign on the boy, calming him down. "Carl, preparations."
"Yes, sir!" The boy nodded. He then whipped out a dose of Thunderbolt, his companions staring at him curiously.
The boy gulped down his decoction, and black veins popped on his face. A reddish hue took over his face, and his breathing turned ragged. His fists were balled, his eyes filled with determination.
Half of the kids were envious, while the other half looked respectful.
***
"Sir, are drowners what dead humans become?" a green-eyed boy asked.
"No. They're far more terrifying than that. Drowners live near bodies of water and move in groups. They will attack anything that comes remotely near them." Felix curled his fingers up and put on a fierce expression. There was a growl in his voice when he spoke, sending chills down the children's spines. "These monsters will drag their prey into the water and drown them before they tear them into tiny, digestible chunks. Then they'll eat them like snacks."
The kids gulped. Most people went their whole lives never even seeing a drowner once, and these kids were already experiencing something so nightmare-inducing.
"What if they spot us?"
Felix shot Carl a look, and the boy explained, "All of you have just started training. If you run into a drowner, run."
Carl spoke in a whisper. "But remember, drowners can move as fast as an adult on land. They have fangs and talons, and they aren't scared of pain. Immune to most poisons and won't bleed even when wounded. They have shit for brains, so don't even try talking to them. They'll turn you into lunch given half a chance. But they have weak eyesight. If you're about twelve yards away from a drowner, it'll still lose sight of you. Even in daylight. And they're scared of fire. Once you learn Igni…"
The kids nodded.
"Theory without practical work is only half the fight. You'll see how a drowner fights real soon." Roy smiled gently. "It's a newbie killer, so watch out. But first, let's see how many of these we're dealing with."
Roy grabbed a rotten piece of wood and shot it in the drowners' direction. It fell into the water, and the drowners stared at it for a moment before they pounced on it. At the same time, bubbles appeared on the surface of the marsh. Two more drowners broke out of the water and ran around like headless chickens. But their eyesight was so bad they couldn't even see the humans standing about twenty yards away from them.
"Five, maybe more." Roy and Felix exchanged a look. With them around to protect the kids, their safety should be no problem.
"Carl, you deal with the ones on the left."
"Leave them to me." The boy held his sword.
"Monti, Acamuthorm, Claude, Charname, you guys deal with the ones in the center. Use what you've learned in your training. You passed your pre-Trial—pissed your pants doing so, but that's not the point—so this should be no problem for you."
The reserve apprentice took a deep breath and nodded. They too held their swords.
"And you guys are taking down the one on the right."
"I-It's a little too fast, sir. It hasn't been a month since we came." The new recruits were pale as bone. Their voices were breaking, and all of them almost cried. The oldest of them was only nine, and these monsters were a nightmare to them. It took them everything just to stay around.
"You know, just think of them as the bullies who kicked you down before. Now you guys can take them down. Seven to one. Nothing to be worried about. You've grown a lot lately. Gained a dozen pounds. You can take on that bastard. Or are you too chicken to even fight back?"
Felix's pep talk worked. The boys regained some color. They did run into a lot of bullies during their days of wandering. Fights were part and parcel of that life, though most of the time, they were nothing but punching bags.
"Alright. The drowner's my enemy. The drowner's my enemy."
"It's that bastard who called me names… That bastard who called me names…"
The newbies muttered and held their practice swords so tightly their joints paled. They tried to assume a stance, but there were still flaws from their lack of training. These practice swords were more like bats to them.
"I'm going in." Carl pursed his lips. Even after facing and killing more than fifty drowners before, he still took these enemies seriously. Carl clumsily made a Quen sign and covered himself with a shield.
And then he stood up. "Come get me, shit-for-brains!"
The drowners turned around and pounced at him like panthers attacking their prey.
Carl unsheathed his blade and swung it around. With one hand holding the blade, Carl slowly approached the drowners on the left, ignoring everything else on the right. Orders were orders, and he trusted that the veteran witchers would deal with any emergency.
Carl's friends tailed behind him, holding their swords tightly. Their attention was focused solely on the two drowners in the middle.
The other kids stared at one another. Eventually, the tallest one shouted mommy for some reason before he charged straight in.
Carl approached his targets and shoved Aard into their faces. An air current slammed into the head of the one on his left, and it fell back down. One left.
The one before him was about his size. It opened its maw and tried to tear Carl apart. The rancid stench coming from its mouth almost made Carl hurl, but he held it in. The boy thrust his sword up like it was a spear. A white flash zipped through the air, and Carl's blade charged into the drowner's brain.
The blade was buried deep within the monster's head, but Carl pulled it back out with ease. First one down. Carl remained calm. He placed all his weight into his right foot and swung his blade from left to right.
The drowner got back up just in time.
To die.
Carl's blade sliced through its neck, and the drowner fell. It spasmed and wriggled, but death would claim it soon enough. Carl stepped on its belly, holding his sword up high.
***
The two drowners fell back down screaming and shouting. Roy pulled his hand back and shook his head. "Your target is here."
He moved away and let the apprentices enter the battlefield. Two of them took the vanguard position, while the others were in the rear guard. It was a dangerous battle, especially for Monti and the apprentices. This was their first true battle against a monster, and their fear made them throw all their training out the window.
They kept swinging their swords around randomly in hopes to get a lucky strike, but nothing. Luck didn't stand with them. All they managed to do was graze the monster's torso and legs.
The monsters pounced, their claws extended. Screeches and shouts filled the air, greed contorting their faces.
Acamuthorm and Claude froze in fear, and the monsters pinned them to the ground. Their blades had flown away and were buried in the ground, and their backs were covered in soil.
The monsters clawed away at their armor. They failed to hurt the boys, but the boys couldn’t break free of them either. These monsters were far too heavy for them to handle.
Ever so slowly, the drowners got closer to the boys, their teeth grinding together. Rancid drool fell on the boys' faces, horror filling their eyes.
Acamuthorm and Claude tried to stop the drowners with their arms, but that barely did anything. For the first time in their lives, they felt death breathing down their necks.
Just when they thought they were done for, Monti and Charname brought their blades down onto the drowners' necks and clung onto them like little boa constrictors. It took a lot of effort, but they managed to break the drowners' grip on their friends.
The boys gulped for air and backed away like terrified puppies, but then a thunderous roar boomed, "Don't retreat! Attack!"
And the boys calmed down. Eventually, they recollected themselves and searched for the drowners' weaknesses. They retrieved their blades and got back up, and by instinct, the boys assumed a stance. Two flashes of silver arced through the air and sliced the drowners' eyes.
***
"Hm?" Roy turned his attention to the deeper parts of the marsh. There, something else stirred. Something that made his medallion hum.
Violent ripples spread across the marsh, and a creature broke through the mud's surface. An ancient hag with spikes on its back. Its skin had patches of green and red on it, its teeth were broken, and it had talons for nails. And it had a face not even a mother could love.
"We have a water hag here. Sorry, but no drop-ins allowed for this class." Roy's face fell.
Something zipped through the air, and the water hag froze. A crimson patch of blood bloomed on its forehead. It let out a scream as it teetered backward.
The water hag turned into mud and tried to escape, but Roy teleported to it right away. Crimson tentacles appeared from behind him and charged right at the water hag. They pulled it up into the air, and Roy swung his blade through the air.
It sliced the water hag's neck like it was butter, and only a headless corpse remained. The water hag's head rolled over to his feet.
'Water hag killed. EXP +180. Level 10 Witcher (580/8500).'
***
The last drowner was surrounded by the seven new recruits. Its jaw dropped, and it turned its head around, trying to decide which kid to attack first.
The children were observing it as well. There was fear and anxiety in their eyes, but they tried to unsheathe their blades nonetheless. Oddly enough, unsheathing their blades was a simple thing to do before the battle, but now they couldn't do it no matter what. It felt like their blades were stuck in their sheaths, and all of them were shivering like it was negative twenty degrees.
Even a grown man would lose his mind when he was met with a drowner, let alone children. They were petrified, and their fingers were trembling.
"Save me!"
The first boy to attack the drowner broke down the fastest, and he ran. His friends backed off slowly, using their practice blades as mere crutches.
The drowner's eyes shone, and it leapt on the boy who ran away first, easily catching up to him. Children were a lot slower than drowners, after all. Then it pounced on the child like he was a chick, and the boy fell face first to the ground.
"Mommy!"
An air current slammed into the drowner. It tumbled back and was stunned for a few moments.
"Stop shivering and attack!" Felix stood by the boy. He gave the child the sternest stare he could muster and slit his neck with his hand.
Takuma thought the witcher was even more terrifying, so he mustered his courage and approached the drowner.
He tried to attack, but all he managed was a weak hit, and then he became the next victim. The drowner pounced at him, but Felix sent it flying with another blast of Aard.
This became a cycle. Two minutes later, all the kids had been attacked by the drowner, and all were bruised and covered in soil. Their fear slowly faded after the drowner attacked them. Now they had made up their mind to attack the monster instead.
They gnashed their teeth and growled like wolves. Then one of the children hollered, and all of them went in for the kill. They hugged the drowners like koalas hugging an eucalyptus tree, and their sheer weight was enough to make the drowner fall.
It fell backward, but still it tried to break free. The drowner kicked the soil and breathed heavily, but that was the last thing it did. Felix's barrage of Aards had destroyed its innards, and finally, the boy who ran away first became the one who ended its life.
Felix shot him a warning look, and the boy—with trembling hands—buried his blade in the drowner's eyes.
The moment it died, the drowner actually smiled a little.
And the children let it go. They plopped down on the ground, retching away. They were covered in sweat and mud, their tears streaming down their cheeks, but they were excited. And they were also shuddering.
Eventually, the realization of what they did dawned on them.
"We did it! We killed that bastard!"
"Congratulations on your first blood, chickens." Felix smiled. "A bit of a rocky start, but you did it. Barely. Now do you get it? The moment you buckle, you die. But if you work together, you can still bring this thing down."
"W-We get it…"
"Can we go home now? I need to shower. My clothes are dirty."
"I'm starving."
The kids rubbed their bruises and pleaded with Felix.
"No." Felix turned his attention to the other side of the battlefield. There was a pile of monster corpses beside him, and he was teaching the apprentices how to loot them for spoils. "This is far from over. We have a few more things to teach. Now come with me. We're playing a game." He whipped his short sword out and swung it around as he cut open the drowner's belly.
And then the children were exposed to the insides of a dead drowner. The steaming hot, disgusting, rancid insides.
They puked.
"The more you puke now, the more you can eat later."
***
The next few days would become a bizarre adventure for the children.
***
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