I'm pretty sure it had to be at least mid afternoon, perhaps even evening, by the time I finally reached the forest boundary, breaking open and consuming the energy from several more of the wooden wolf constructs along the way. The more I used my telekinesis, the more comfortable I felt with it. I even figured out and practiced teleportation and putting up barriers, dodging with teleportation and allowing a few to smack into shields or try in vain to chew on me once I got confident enough to try a personal barrier, which is what I call the protection the characters in the anime used that made them seem so durable. I've begun working to keep up a personal barrier without having to focus too much on it, out of boredom mostly, but it'll probably be a while before I can actually keep it up all the time like they do in the show.
More surprising than the wolf constructs, perhaps, was the myriad of mythical creatures that I knocked unconscious along the way. I don't know how rare they are around here, exactly, but killing them wouldn't really benefit me anyway so I left them alone for the most part. I may have knocked out a few manticores, or something similar, in self defense and perhaps I took some time to examine some of them, mainly that awesome giant scorpion tail, while they were unconscious. But I didn't really hurt them, no real point in messing up the ecosystem of the actual animals living here, it wouldn't even be amusing. The constructs, on the other hand, were hardly something worth the consideration of preserving and I enjoyed every one that I ripped apart and ate.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I reached the edge of the forest but it seems that civilization must be pretty close after all, I could 'see' a road at least. I continued on past the edge of the forest, towards the road with a chuckle, "I picked the right direction after all, guess I must be psychic." I joked to myself.
I traveled down the road for a bit, which took me away from the forest and into a nice countryside looking area. There was still plenty of trees and such along the path, but not like the dense wilderness from before. I paused in my stride as something stepped off of the path ahead. "Hold there, friend!" A small colorful horse called out to me in a masculine voice. What is this, a movie about medieval times? Also, more importantly, is that a tiny talking horse? A blue tiny talking horse?
"Holding." I chuckled, going along with it for now despite my mind-boggling disbelief. "What can I do for you, tiny horse?"
"I'm a pony." The fellow corrected, furrowing his brow. He likely noticed the lack of any sort of pack or valuables on my person. "Anyways, you need to pay a toll to use this road, you see." He began giving me a rather cliche spiel.
"And let me guess, if I don't then your 'hidden' friends will come out and attack me." I responded, air quoting the word hidden, picking them out with my senses. "They may as well come out now then. I have nothing of value, after all." I laughed, feeling as though I had landed in a situation straight out of a video game. "But I warn you, if you try to kill me then I won't be very happy. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
"I'm sure you must have something worthwhile." The bandit pony said with some hope, obviously wanting to at least make some kind of a profit, as his friends stepped out from their hiding spots as well. I noticed two armed with swords while three had taken to the air, hovering there with nothing more than a crossbow and dagger each. "It really does seem to be the middle ages." I muttered to myself, though I was confused to note that the ones with crossbows actually looked a lot like Griffins. One of the other small horses seemed to have a horn jutting out of his forehead.
"Not really. What's the deal with the, ah.." I tapped my forehead for emphasis, pointing to the brown one with the horn.
"What, never seen a unicorn before?" The horned bandit spat before his horn glowed, causing a rather visible telekinetic aura to unsheathe his sword and point it at me. "Or do you have something against unicorns?"
"Never seen one." I answered honestly, "But I really wouldn't have imagined a unicorn looking like that." I chuckled
"Like what, exactly?" He asked, looking a bit angrier.
"I don't know, I imagined like.. A majestic creature with a snow white coat or something." I said thoughtfully, bringing a hand up to cup my chin "not a small turd with a smaller swirly turd sticking out of it."
The guy immediately rushed me, of course, swiping with the sword. Left, right, diagonal, I dodged them all, still smiling like he wasn't trying to hack me to pieces. "Was it something I said?" I asked with a laugh of honest amusement over his reaction, dancing around his sword. I noticed one of the griffons aiming for my back and visualized appearing behind the unicorn just as they took the shot, while the unicorn lunged forwards while sweeping his sword in a wide arc.
THWACK!
The bolt struck true with a meaty thump. Though the griffon's victorious grin, I don't know how that works with a beak, quickly turned to a look of horror as the unicorn slowly looked down at the crossbow bolt embedded in his side. He coughed up blood once, one of his front legs giving out and leaving him in a kneeling position while his sword fell to the ground. Standing behind the unicorn, I looked down at him. "Well, that looks pretty bad doesn't it?" I asked, oddly calm as I observed the creature that could be dying. "Maybe someone should do something about that, get him to a hospital or something?" I offered them an out, as their companion lay wheezing. He wasn't dead yet, and it didn't seem like it hit anything vital, so maybe they could still save him.
I jumped back as two of the griffins, one of which being the one that took the shot, came down to scoop up their partner and whisk him away. Perhaps to get him healed, maybe to eat him, I couldn't really say for sure. I'm an esper, not an alien mind reader. "So far you have one guy down and I haven't even done anything yet." I commented, loud enough for the remainder to hear. "Are you sure you want to keep going? You could just point me to the closest town and walk away, rather than make me kill you all."
The last griffin decided to try and shoot me while I was talking and they all watched in shock as I pivoted backwards on my left foot, allowing the bolt to fly past me and embed itself into the dirt. "Maybe I need to scare you all, too. Like those wolves." I continued, almost conversationally, getting angry now. "Then maybe you'd take the smart option and leave me alone instead of spitting on my mercy." I quickly appeared above the griffin, landing an ax kick between the wings and sending it to the ground, where I appeared and caught it by the neck. "I could kill each and every one of you in the time it takes you to blink." I threw the griffon at one of the other little horses, sending them both to the ground in a tangle of limbs. "But I also don't really want to kill sapient creatures if I don't have to."
"So I'll give you one last chance." I grabbed the one who had first spoken to me and brought him in close with my telekinesis, careful not to exert any actual pressure on him. "How far to the nearest town? Tell me that and walk away peacefully, I'll let you all go." I cracked my knuckles, opening my eyes to reveal the empty sockets, appearing as shadowy voids to the terrified creature. "Otherwise I'm going to tear you all apart and perhaps think about dragging what's left to the authorities for someone to bury."
"H-hoofmere! The nearest town is Hoofmere, just down this road in the direction you were already going! It's about a half-day's trot from here!" The small horse babbled, tears trailing down his muzzle and fear shining in his eyes. "Good, thank you tiny horse." I set him down and patted his head like I would a dog. "I hope you've learned a valuable lesson from all of this."
"R-robbery is bad?" He tried, nervously.
"Don't fuck with me."