Bondrewd was somewhat frustrated, there was that voice again, quickly looking around and finding no intruders, the man listened to his sense of danger. In the long time he had been living on level 5 of the abyss it had sharpened oh so much, but nothing, absolutely nothing.
"Could it be a hallucination? I should ask Audita for advice, see if she screwed up my transfer." The man listened carefully again, but all he could hear was birdsong, insects chirping and the sound of the wind.
Leaving the voices in his head alone, the man rested his gaze on the corpse of the bandit leader.
"Well, you don't need it anymore, so..."
The man searched the corpse, but found nothing useful except a rusty half-axe with a scabbard and seven copper coins. Bondrewd looked at the sword and thought for a moment. It was simple, without any frills, rusty in places from time and lack of care. "Lord of Dawn" took the sword in his hand and made a sharp swing, the blade pierced the air and the leaves around him flew up in a small cloud.
"I think I should keep it after all, my blade fighting skills may be weak, but an armed man inspires respect, and skills can and should be honed."
Leaving the corpse behind, the man walked towards the camp. To Bondrud's surprise scavengers had already arrived at the scene of the battle, through the bushes the man saw a low figure with dirty grey hair and yellow eyes leaning over the corpse of the bald bandit, it looked more like a monkey. The man drew his sword from its sheath and headed towards the monster, to his surprise, the monster, noticing the threat did not fiercely defend its prey, but instantly decided to retreat. And literally in 3 leaps disappeared from sight.
"Maybe it's for the best." Said Bondrud and started searching the camp for anything useful. Luck was not on his side, but only a couple of dozen coppers and a small half-empty bag of cereal were found in the camp. The man did not even look at the weapons of the hapless robbers.
"Yeah mm... Killing the leader was a mistake, I was going to interrogate him about the caches, but the jerk jumped in front of my hand, sadly :("
The time was approaching night, Bondrewd turned to the system, it gave him the exact time of 23.33. It was too late to go further, and the man decided to wait for the night in the camp, even given his extremely powerful stamina and strength, he still need to sleep and eat, no matter how unfortunate it was.
After adding wood to the fire and finding a kettle in the bandits' belongings, the man put some grits on the stove and threw in a few tasty pieces of bear meat and its fat. Stirring the brew with a spoon, the man realised how tired he had been during the day, though he didn't understand why, in the abyss he would have been full of energy for at least another twenty-four hours, perhaps because of the transition, not every day you get to another world after all.
The Lord of Dawn decided to mark the camp with the simplest signal traps, quickly made on his knees from the small arsenal the bandits possessed. Quickly, the man took the cauldron off the fire, the brew smelling good. Bondrud was satisfied with his meal and ate it all. Leaning back against a tree, Lord of Dawn looked up at the starry sky and listened to his surroundings.
"Could I have thought that I would find myself in another world and instead of scientific research in my favourite laboratory I would be wandering in the forest." The man's mind was filled with a stream of absolutely different thoughts, and thinking about everything that had happened during the day the man did not notice how he fell asleep.
...
Somewhere at the junction of worlds, in a distant space.
Audita watched Bondrewd sleeping. The girl herself did not notice how her anger and irritation were replaced by a quiet joy. He hadn't abandoned her and was moving towards fulfilling his purpose.
"Maybe he's not that bad..." The girl wanted to finish the sentence, but memories of his terrifying aura and even more terrifying actions came into her head. "No, definitely not."
The expression on Audita's face became deliberately serious, even though while he was determined to complete the task, one must not forget that he was still a bloodthirsty monster. But she should be helping him, how? Taking another careful look in the mirror, she smiled. An opportunity had been found.
Bondrewd could not say for sure whether he had dreamed before, usually he slept without dreams to maximise his rest, but this time was an exception. He dreamed of this very camp and a hand, a woman's hand, dragging him somewhere in the thicket. He did not resist and quickly made his way through the bushes. At last he came to a small area with no trees except one, a huge, massive oak. He had seen it before, on his way to the camp. And though his vision was blurred and his ears were plugged with a pound of cotton wool, he heard the voice of his companion.
"Here," said the girl, and pointed to the roots of a mighty tree. Bondrewd did not quite understand the context of what was said, but he had a guess. The man wanted to get closer to the oak tree, but through the veil of sleep he heard a shout.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"
And he woke up, and just in time someone or something was approaching the camp. 'Many, perhaps ten or more.' Intuition did not fail the man, from different directions hitting the set traps a grey figure, the same as that primate in the camp, was heading towards the centre of the camp. In the light of the fire the man could clearly see the intruders, their flat muzzles were studded with scattered teeth, and their eyes glowed with a dull yellow light, one of the creatures ignoring the fire came close to Bondrud with a quick jerk, a long tongue stuck out of its mouth and...
"The Lord of Dawn" did not wait for the man to continue, and with a sharp blow, slashed the creature between the eyes. A cry of pain drowned out all the forest sounds, and the remaining creatures synchronously turned their heads towards the man and his dead colleague. Bondrewd did not wait for their reaction and drew his sword and lunged towards them. The first of the nearest creatures was cut down by him in a counter-jump. The grey's head was instantly separated from its body and rolled into the grass in an impressive zigzag in the air. The beast rushed to the attack.
The grey freak attacked the man from the side and was simply broken in half by Bondrewd's foot, at the same time the man struck the other grey with his sword on the skull, the beast's head shattered, splattering the muddy brain fluid around it. "Lord of Dawn" somersaulted away from the leaping grey that had flown up behind him, and as he fell another grey clawed at his arm, a slight pain spreading through his body.
Gathering his wits, Bondrewd, with all his might, struck the offender, who was hanging on his arm, against a tree. The blow was so strong that the trunk of the small tree cracked, and the body of the attacker collapsed and became more like a rag doll, but the beast did not unclench its teeth.
There was no time to unhook the carcass from the body, Lord of Dawn was already swinging away from the charging grey freak, and he caught the moment and stabbed it through the heart with a quick jab. Two more greys synchronously jumped at Bondrewd from the bushes and were immediately sent flying back by a blow of his hand with the carcass of his fellow hanging on it, and already 3 carcasses with a crunch flew somewhere into the ravine.
There were not so many opponents left, and Bondrud was about to finish, but from behind another bush came another freak. Anyone could recognise him as the master of the pack. The creature was twice as tall as its brethren, and its skin was of a dirty milky colour, and it looked more like a gorilla in build; the claws on its paws inspired respect by their length and frightened or amused by their disproportion. A head with small horns and a dirty brown mane crowned the picture.
For the first time during the evening the man's sense of danger made itself felt, and the creature raised its muzzle to the sky and gave a deafening shriek, which sent all its fellows to the ground, blood pouring from their ears.
Bondrewd was partially protected by his helmet, but his eyes blurred slightly and his body began to tremble. The beast did not hesitate to take advantage of his advantage and swung at the man, breaking the distance in 3 leaps and making a strike.
It didn't even reach Bondrud's body well enough for the creature's desire, but the man was completely bewildered as the air currents, almost invisible to the eye, mirrored the creature's impact and swept towards the man's body. The impact was strong enough to throw Lord of Dawn back, but at the same time not strong enough to pierce the man's armour.
- Marvellous. - Excitement rose in Bondrud's voice. The man got up from the ground and prepared for an interesting fight, while the beast stood on its hind legs and wanted to shriek again.
"So I let you," said Bondrewd and lined up from "Shaker" 3 needles entered in the chest of the beast and he lost his balance and collapsed on his back, as if undercut.
"Kind of boring."
The rest of the creatures showed no signs of life. The man slowly approached the enemy and drew his sword to strike. The blade sliced through the air and travelled towards the creature's throat and... stopped.
"HELPSDS." The creature hissed horribly.
"And the evening is getting darker." Bondrewd remarked to himself.