Apollo's Chronicle by Seraph Wedd (book club reads TXT) 📖

a reverse grip.

He kept on moving closer, his speed not dropping, until their bodies seem to have overlapped. Veronica closed her eyes forcefully. A heavy thud then was heard. Still, she felt no pain. Opening her eyes, all she could see are a pair of eyes as deep as the blue sky, their nose almost touching each other.

His hand is stretched behind her, supporting his body from leaning over. His other hand, that is holding the dagger, was stuck at the ground just to the left behind her. There, a colorful snake was seen, beheaded, with blood flowing like water.

However, since everything was “behind” her, she couldn’t explain the weird behavior of Apollo.

“W-W-What are you doing?!!” She stammered as she shouted with a beet red angry face. Struggling to get away from him, she flailed wildly inside his arms.

“D-Don’t move! I’ll lose my grip!!”

“W-What?! Woah!”

Before even Apollo lost his grip, Veronica lost her balance and started falling backwards. Reflexively, she stretched her hands to pull herself back. What he ended up pulling on was the collar Apollo’s overcoat.

Apollo, despite getting pulled, managed to act properly. He immediately twisted his body and tried to avoid the fall, he also tried to grab her hand to forcefully remove it. His dagger was thrown slightly away in return. At the same moment, Veronica’s feet slipped and she ended up tripping Apollo. The result…

“……”

“… U-Umm…”

They fell down, entangled. Apollo’s arms were posted, supporting his body, by the both sides of her head. His right hand was pressing on the wrist of her left hand, like a restraint. His left knee was placed right between her soft thighs with her skirt slightly flipped up to a risky degree.

Her face was already deep red, up to her ears. Tears started forming on the corner of her hesitating eyes. Her mouth was opening and closing, as if she wanted to say something. Her body was faintly trembling.

From a bystander’s point of view, it will surely look like Apollo is forcing her into submission. And the voice that proved this, was soon heard.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU BEAST?!!”

Julius shouted to the top of his lungs, immediately swinging his lance’s blunt side to Apollo.

Apollo didn’t evade, rather, he couldn’t. If he moved even in the slightest, he is confident that the situation will turn to the worst.

The lance hit his side. Using the impact, he flung himself away from Veronica. It hurts a little but he can bear with it. After a rolling turn, he jumped up and landed on his feet.

“You didn’t hold back did you?” Apollo asked while holding his hurting ribs. Some may have cracked.

“OF COURSE! To think that you are such a wolf, I was… I was!!!” Veronica shouted while covering her body using her hands, slowly backing further away from Apollo.

“… I should have used the blade instead…” Julius mused after listening to her rant. Anger seething in his words.

“I’ll surely die from that.”

“I know. That’s why.”

“Talk about brutal…”

“Where are you going?!”

“… Patrolling. Eat something for breakfast while I’m out.”

After their short exchange, Apollo walked away while minding the pain on his side. Not long after, he was out of their sight.

“Miss Veronica, are you alright?”

Julius immediately asked. His voice showed signs of his anxiety.

“… No harm done…” She bluntly replied, averting her still hot face.

“Is that so… Still, what happened?”

“… Who knows? Try asking him.”

With that short reply, she turned on her heels and walked briskly back to their carriage. Julius just gave a sigh before chasing after her figure.

“Hmm?”

On one corner of his vision, a long and colorful object was seen. It has scales the color of the rainbow, sparkling beautifully even with the smallest spark of light. However, it is as dangerous as how beautiful it is. A “Rainbow Cobra”. It is a monster that stalks its prey before using its extremely potent poison that can eliminate even an elephant in just seconds.

“……”

Julius smiled and walked away. However, he isn’t as good a guy as to explain things to Veronica.

After selecting their menu for breakfast, the two of them ate silently. After half an hour, when the two of them are relaxing with fruits as desserts, Apollo returned.

“You’re back. How did it go?”

Julius immediately asked, treating the commotion that morning as a thing of the past. Apollo just continued towards the carriage and went straight for a bow lying on the side of the box of fruits.

“I encountered a couple of Mongurks while patrolling. I wounded them and sneaked after it when I found over a hundred of them hiding around the open area just a kilometer ahead of us.”

He spoke in a matter of fact manner. Unlike his relaxed demeanor, the content of his report was extremely alarming. Julius immediately paled.

“A Hu-Hu-Hundred?!”

His panic stricken face was worthy of praise. As instead of falling into despair, his expression shown that he was thinking of how to prevent the worst case scenario of getting them wiped out.

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. You can’t even wield your spear properly yet right?”

“… How did you…” He muttered in doubt, however, Apollo cut in through his words.

“When you swing your lance this morning, your aim was slightly off. It was probably aiming for my ribcage but it ended up hitting lower to my side. Thanks to that, a few minutes was all it took to recover.”

Apollo spoke slowly while inspecting the quiver of common iron tipped arrows. In a matter of fact voice. Julius felt awed at his quick insight.

“Prepare to move shortly, I’ll clear the monsters around the area in the meantime.”

He spoke after placing 3 quivers of 40 arrows each on his back. Julius just watched his back in silence.

After entering the forest, he quickly broke into a quick dash. With silenced steps, he weaved his way through the sea of trees. Even with the fog limiting his vision, he can move twice as fast as a moving carriage on top speed.

In just a couple of minutes, he reached a small hill just before the large clearing.

He started observing the mana in the surroundings. The presences of the monsters around became clear.

“… Looks like their number increased…”

Within his range alone, already over tens of dozens of monsters can be felt.

“… There are reinforcements within the surroundings for sure.” He muttered.

Still, no matter how the situation changes, what he need to do still remains the same.

He placed the two quivers in front of him, on the ground. The last quiver was held aloft with his right hand. Using his other hand, he held the bow and posed it in a shooting position.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“… *exhales*…”

When he opened his eyes, at the same moment, he threw the arrows inside it all around him. It all scattered beautifully above his head.

“… Draw, aim, shoot!”

Using mana on his body, he accelerated his actions. To him, the falling arrows almost seems to be staying still in the air. He grabs a nearby arrow and nocked it on the bow.

“*Pshewww*” The sound of air being cut by the arrow resounded.

It flew in a straight line, as if unaffected by gravity. An unaware monster’s head was pierced easily and the arrow continued flying towards other monsters in a straight line. About a dozen was done in in a single shot.

“Next!”

He pulled another arrow and shoot. This time, the arrow’s tip released a faint blue light. Everything along its path was mowed down as if a meteor was passing through.

Explosions resounded not long after. The monsters were startled by it. They became wary of their surroundings in an instant.

The shooting continued without giving the monsters time to regroup or retaliate. A perfect sniping.

Soon, the arrows around him were gone.

After emptying the first two quivers, the monster’s reinforcement of about twice the previous numbers came. It was a mixed group of monsters, mainly composed of Mongurks.

Seeing that they are all lumped together, he didn’t waste his chance.

“… Three for one!”

He tipped the last quiver using his boots, making three arrows fly upwards. He caught them all and simultaneously placed them on the quiver.

After placing his mana, the silver colored metal tip of the arrows turned into a deep blue.

When he released the arrows, they flew at a speed incomparable to his previous shots. The air rumbled as the three arrows made their way to the monster’s location. The moment it made contact, a large explosion occurred.

The shockwave sent the other monsters flying. Even the nearby trees got uprooted. Most importantly, the fog covering the forest was cleared almost instantly.

When the smoke cleared, not a single monster remained unharmed. Using the remnant arrows on his last quiver, he finished them off.

In less than 5 minutes, a swarm of monsters were obliterated, leaving the battle area in a catastrophic state.

“… Looks like the coast’s already clear…”

He muttered before turning around and running back to their camp. After his figure vanished, from within the remaining smoke, beyond Apollo’s expectations, something moved.

Chapter 2 Part 5

When Apollo returned to their camp, what greeted him was a startled and on high alert Julius.

“Be careful! I heard some explosions earlier, maybe a swarm of monsters are rampaging nearby!”

He shouted to Apollo without breaking his attention towards his surroundings. Apollo just scratched his cheeks, wondering what he should say.

“… Is the carriage ready to move?” He said, as if to divert the conversation.

“Yes, of course. It’s not like we have much to carry!”

“Then let’s move. If what you say is true, it’s better to keep on moving.”

Apollo spoke calmly while placing the bow back inside the carriage. There, he saw Veronica curled up in one corner deep inside. She was trembling all over.

“……”

Apollo wanted to comfort her but having no experience doing so, he don’t know what to say. Instead, he just silently headed to the front side of the carriage and, using body reinforcement, he pulled the carriage.

Veronica was startled at the sudden movement of the carriage but after realizing that it was Apollo’s doing, she calmed down a little.

“A-are we leaving…?” She timidly asked.

“… Yeah. Don’t worry, there’s absolutely no danger remaining. I assure you.”

“*sniff* P-promise?”

“… I promise.”

With his words, her trembling stopped. However, her tears would take a bit longer to finish.

The group moved with Apollo on the lead, Veronica inside the carriage, and Julius guarding the back. They moved at a reasonable speed, not fast but not too slow. Soon, they will be reaching the place where the battle occurred. The scent of burnt flesh and wood drifted in the air.

Julius’s wariness went up a level higher. The scenery that was covered by a thick fog was slowly clearing. Then, a minute later, the fog completely clears up, revealing the state of the place they were headed to.

“… What… The hell… Happened…?”

He muttered after seeing the scene in front of them. The forest was full of trees moved down. Some were even burning still. The ground looked as if someone tried setting up several trenches, making it hard to pass through.

Not only that. All around them, countless corpses of different monsters are lying down, scattered.

“… It’s as if a war just occurred here…”

Veronica voiced her opinion. Apollo just continued walking forward, ignoring the reactions of the two.

“…?!”

Suddenly, within Apollo’s range of perception, he noticed a