The very small silver lining to our current situation is that for the most part we had outrun the Grimm Tide.

  Between the convoy of vehicles and the Horizon, our group was fast enough that only creatures capable of flying or ones with ridiculous stamina had a chance of catching up to us. Of course there were a few Nevermore sighted further back following us thanks to the veritable beacon of negative emotions most of us were no doubt broadcasting, but considering except for me and Leona had lost their homes, most of their possessions, and considering we didn’t have time to evacuate everyone – friends and family…I wasn’t about to blame anyone for being unable to just bottle those up and plaster on a smile like nothing was wrong.

  Besides, the handful of Grimm drawn to the convoy were manageable as long as we stayed ahead of the main group behind us.

  Something that was going to become harder as the trucks began to run out of the Dust needed to fuel them and our speed dropped to a crawl.

  Supplies in general were going to become an issue soon, since in the last scramble to get people evacuated a lot of things had been left behind for one reason or another. Food and fuel were the biggest issues. We simply didn’t have enough of either and had no real way of getting more.

  I heard the sound of the Horizon’s top hatch opening behind me and someone climb up from below.

  “There you are, lass. Been looking all over for ya.” Dann said as he sat down next to me.

  I gave him a look. “If you needed me you could have just called my scroll.” I pointed out.

  He just waved me off. “Bah, sure I could. But then I wouldn’t have an excuse to wander around and check up on people.”

  That made sense I guess. There was only so far you could push people on an empty stomach so we had stopped for a quick mean, but Dann wouldn’t have said he was looking for me if he was just checking up on everyone. Which probably meant something else was up.

  “Well you found me. What can I help you with?”

  The older Huntsman breathed out a sigh. “I don’t really know if you can help, but it’s something we’ve been telling the others on the downlow. Spirits are already down in the dirt, no need to stomp on them if we can help it.” He now had my full attention. “We’ve got a Goliath following us.”

  I frowned at that.

  There were hundreds of different types of Grimm and I was by no means an expert on any of them, but there were a few types that I did remember for one reason or another. Beowolves, because they were the ‘basic cannonfodder’ type werewolf Grimm. Ursas, because they were basically just bear Grimm. And a few others like that – normal animals changed into nightmare monsters.

  From what I remembered, Goliaths were elephant Grimm. Large, tough, and more concerningly smart since they tended to live long enough to actually learn to not just charge headfirst into the first target they found. But I also thought they only traveled in groups. So either I was wrong or this one was different.

  “You’re sure?”

  Dann nodded. “Saw the scroll pic myself. One of the boys hung back to see what beasties were chasing us and sent it ahead. Followed us perfectly even when our route could’ve split, even when it shouldn’t’ve been able to see us over the hills. Wanna know how?”

  I thought about it for a second before coming to an answer I really didn’t like. “It’s following the Nevermore.”

  Dann nodded.

  It was a trick scavenger animals used in the wild to find food. Only now it was a very large creature of darkness using smaller creatures of darkness to hunt down and kill a bunch of refugees for no other reason than destruction.

  “I think we got the worst of both worlds.” Dann commented. “A Goliath old enough to figure out where we went, but young enough to not realise going off on its own can get it killed. ‘Course we don’t really have a good way to bring it down, but it doesn’t know that.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “So what are we going to do about it?”

  “Do about it? Probably not much.” Dann said, running a hand through his hair. “Unless we get a whole lot luckier than we’ve been lately we’ll just have to try drawing it off at some point.”

  I gave him a look. “Didn’t you just say you didn’t have a good way to bring it down?”

  “Aye, but at this rate it either gets some of us or all of us. And I’m not about to let that happen if I have a choice. Most of us Huntsmen feel the same.”

  Meaning most of them were planning on sacrificing themselves to try and get the civilians away even if it wasn’t guaranteed they’d be able to reach safety. I felt another bout of rage towards Raven that she not only instigated this whole disaster, but was free to run away while objectively better people were preparing to pay the price for it.

  I sighed. This was going to put such a target on my back if the wrong people found out about it.

  “Okay then.” I said, standing up and patting myself down. “How far out is the Goliath?”

  -o-

  Not far as it turned out.

  Once I managed to talk not only Dann, but also half the adults riding in the Horizon, down that I wasn’t going to sacrifice myself or something along those lines – I managed to wring out some more details.

  The Goliath was only a few miles away from us and would be visible soon if nothing was done. I had a suspicion that I could spot it sooner if I had the Azure Horizon simply fly higher, but that had the risk of attracting the Nevermore and possibly damaging the ship. It wasn’t likely, but no one wanted to risk missing one in the dark. Not when it was currently the main transport for most of the children and elderly.

  It wasn’t necessary though, not when I could just create a platform in the air out of magic.

  Sure, it revealed I had something more going on to everyone that couldn’t be explained away as a Semblance, not when I had implied that’s what my Tracing was and standing in mid-air had nothing to do with that, but compared with what I was about to do…well, it was hardly going to add too many questions after this.

  One magic circle rotated lazily below me while I finished drawing out the other. By this point I had plenty of practice so once I was done all I had to do was wait for the giant Grimm to lumber into sight.

  And giant was an understatement.

  Even from so far away I could tell the thing was massive, easily standing over the nearby trees. Meaning this Grimm was somewhere over eighty feet tall. I could understand why the Huntsmen with us weren’t confident about killing something like that. They would have to rely on close quarters combat to hurt the thing at all since bullets would essentially be needle pricks, which naturally meant being too slow or even momentarily unlucky would result in being crushed by its feet or armored trunk.

  Of course I wasn’t planning on stabbing it either.

  “Nova Blast!” I intoned as the spell circle for my bombardment spell activated.

  Maybe the Goliath realised something was amiss, maybe it thought it had nothing to fear from the bright yellow death beam. Whatever the case, it was no longer an issue as my spell vaporised its head and a good portion of its body.

  That was one problem dealt with – maybe two even, I thought vindictively as I watched the lingering Nevermore scatter in several directions and cheers broke out in the refugee convoy below me. Something that made me look down at the ground with mild dread.

  Now I just had to tackle the next one.

  -o-

  It was official, Leona was a saint.

  I had expected to need to field a bunch of questions about what I just did and how when I rejoined everyone. But in the time it had taken me to run out of ways to distract myself and lower myself back down to ground level, Leona had already fielded a lot of them with some stern variations of ‘it’s not your business’ and reminding them that we were all out in the wilderness fleeing from the Grimm with better things to do standing around questioning me.

  The reminder of what was after us got everyone moving quickly enough. Because while yes, the townspeople had just watched me kill a massive Grimm with one attack…they also saw me standing around preparing that attack for over ten minutes. They were smart enough to realise what I had just done wouldn’t save them against a horde when Leona confirmed I couldn’t fire that particular attack much faster than the first time.

  …both she and I carefully didn’t remind them that I was capable of carpet bombing entire areas with my more standard attacks.

  “Now I just have to hide in here until we reach Vale.” I mused as I watched the scenery pass by from the cockpit of the Horizon.

  “You would be climbing the walls out of boredom within hours, Mistress.” Leona commented as she joined me. Which, fair. If I was actually flying I could sit behind the controls for hours without complaint, but since the autopilot was more than capable of handling the slow speed we were traveling at there was nothing for me to do. I would absolutely go crazy from boredom very quickly.

  “Let me at least pretend.”

  She gave me an indulgent smile and said nothing. Smartass.

  “Okay, how are things looking? Are we going to make it to the city?”

  “Now that the Grimm aren’t chasing us the drivers decided to move forward using a ‘low power mode’. According to them it will make us slower but should allow every vehicle to reach the main city without needing to find more Dust. Unfortunately that means we’re likely to run out of food a day before we make it, but that’s something we can either supplement with more hunting or just accept.” Leona reported calmly.

  “And how are the refugees?” I asked with a sense of dread. “It’s been a bit, are they demanding answers or worse – signs of hero worship anywhere?”

  Leona sighed. “Would being recognized for saving them really be such a bad thing? But to answer your question, they are talking about it but I don’t think most of the civilians understand how significant killing a creature of that size by yourself is from the other things Huntsmen are capable of. The Huntsmen themselves are respecting your wishes but I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to confront you before we reach the city.”

  That made sense I suppose.

  A farmer or storekeeper wouldn’t really need to know what it took to kill certain types of Grimm because they theoretically should never be in that situation. What I did was impressive to them, yes. But they didn’t really get it.

  As for the recognition…

  After the Varden I could confidently say I didn’t want to be held up as a hero by anyone. The expectations, both by others and myself, had sucked and ended up ruining a lot of potential friendships before they really got going. I now fully understood why Kisuke and Yoruichi had preferred to hide out in their candy shop even after they cleared their names.

  It was much better to let others get the recognition so they could live their lives how they wanted.

  Hopefully I’d be able to foist most of that on Sean and Dann while I either got a small reward I could put towards getting the devices I wanted built, or something that would make traveling between kingdoms a bit easier. Just a small, well-deserved reward without a lot of fanfare. Was that too much to ask for?