Roads and yards, shops and office buildings were flashing by.
“Huff, puff,” heavy sighs escaped my chest with wheezes and groans. An army of red, chitinous creatures has been chasing me non-stop for a quarter of an hour. If not for my companion, who knocked down and devoured flying fiends on the go, then the insects would have arranged an evening feast long ago.
At first, I thought that getting rid of insects pursue would be easy, because they weren't very fast. However, these bastards were damn clingy: it was the third time already when we lost them, but our pursuers still managed to catch up. It must be the damn liquid that this insect sprayed over me. Is it some kind of pheromone?
On the fourth time, I took off my soiled clothes and threw them into the bushes nearby; then quickly immersed myself in a nearby deep puddle with dirty, cold water, and rubbed the face with wet sand, trying to scrape off a feeling of squeamishness and disgust; also washed the shield and my club. My companion also agreed to take a quick dip. As long as the monsters weren't around, he behaved like a playful young pet.
“I hope that now they'll be left behind, right?” I grumbled and, without waiting for the insects to appear, rushed on, whipped by the cold evening winds. During the run, the backpack unpleasantly rubbed the sides, but I had to endure it for now. I definitely won’t leave it: all my loot from the past days lay there.
The streets were practically empty: a couple of times we met single altered ones, but my faithful companion did not leave me a chance to kill them.
Soon we were at the entrance to the city park. Tall pines slowly swayed behind a black iron fence and white walls. Between the trunks, after the rain, a dense gray mist swirled and enveloped the surroundings.
Stopping next to a huge arch-entrance, I leaned my hand on a white stone and looked around. Behind there was a small square and a fountain with a fish statue.
For another minute, the evening silence was broken only by my, and the dog's hoarse breathing, as well as the occasional bird chirping. It seemed that our disguise worked; but alas... from around the corner of the distant houses, a living avalanche rushed in our direction. And, over the already chilled body, a wave of sticky fear swept through.
“How are you so stubborn?! At least let me catch my breath!”
Insects, meanwhile, occupied majority of the horizon, cordoning off the entrance to the park with a dense living wall. And... froze? The horde of insects, standing in a semicircle, froze in their places, as if they met with an invisible barrier.
“Screeee,” one of the largest specimens, shrieked loudly. Leaning on the body of a smaller insect, it jerked its front pair of legs and fiddled menacingly with the mandibles.
“Ha,” I smiled. However, the indecisiveness of the army of overgrown insects alarmed me greatly. It was also necessary to check whether this invisible barrier was reliable at all.
I picked up a stone the size of a fist and, aiming at the furiously screeching red head, threw it. The curved projectile hits it in the upper chest! The monster sprawled on the ground, collapsing on its back. Its brethren fussed and helped it get up.
«Weird, are they really standing still? Should I just gouge all the asphalt here and throw stones at them?»
But apparently, my plan was not destined to come to fruition - there were movements in the cockroach ranks. The first row bent over, sank down on the bellies, and the insects behind crawled up on them, directing the part of the body opposite to the head in my direction.
Intuitively, I now understood what they were going to do and felt worried. Not wanting to drown in their excrements and not waiting for a volley of biological artillery, we rushed deeper into the park.
These bastard insects remained in their positions, waiting for us.
“Yes, wait here! While we quickly slip through this square and get out on the other side.” I cheerfully and confidently said it aloud, but my instincts screamed to get out of here immediately. Surely, the insects are very afraid of the creatures hiding here. We need to stay alert - it is unknown what kind of monsters we might have to deal with.
Fifty meters from the entrance arch, the fog thickened so much that I could see almost nothing, only the tops of the trees and the slowly turning Ferris wheel. A thick layer of colorful moss crunched underfoot. And where's the paving stone pathway?
Leaning down, I tore out a whole layer of this dry "carpet", but instead of a stone path, there was still the same dense fog under it. No matter what I did: waved my arms, blown on it, nothing could brush this thick haze away.
“No. We won't go any further,” I put the moss back in place and moved away. “Doggie, back!”
Turning around, we headed for the ill-fated exit from the park. “Better to come up with some way to deal with an army of insects than to fall into the dreamscape of this pine seed again. After all, we can sit behind concrete walls until the morning, maybe then something will change."
I walked slowly at first, but then started to get nervous and accelerated, and then I broke into a full-fledged run. WHERE? WHERE? IS THIS! DAMNED! ARCH?! Panic quickly seized me, for a second, the thought flashed that I had been transported from the city somewhere far away into the wilderness. Made me recall the childhood horror I experienced when I once got lost in the forest and wandered among the fir trees and birches for about six hours, until I accidentally came out onto a country road.
«Calm down, calm down!»
The dog's wet nose poked into my hand, after which I felt a little better. There was not even a hint of fear in my companion's eyes, which gave me a bit of the much-needed cheerfulness and calmness. Lightly patting my smooth-skinned friend between the ears, I began to think about how to get out of this situation.
The first thing that came to my mind was to climb a tree and look around. Having chosen the nearest tall pine, I threw off my backpack and, like a koala, began to climb the rough trunk, skinning my bare stomach. However, no matter how high I climbed, I couldn't see anything. The fog seemed to block my vision all the time.
It turned out to be more difficult trying to get down from the tree, and I hardly reached the ground, miraculously not breaking my neck. The dog, rejoicing at my return, began to non-stop lick my face with his hot and nasty tongue.
«Damn, I'm freezing.»
Now, more than ever, I wanted to quickly return Aqen's blessing and no longer feel this infuriating cold. Hmm, how can I warm up... Oh, right! This can be arranged.
I took out a wrapped in a plastic bag box of matches from my backpack. Despite the recent downpour, the moss underfoot was surprisingly dry. Having collected several sheets, I laid them at the foot of a pine tree.
Striking a match, I brought the flame to the brittle mossy veins. The fire touched the dry moss a couple of times, but it did not want to flare up! Illuminating the place with the flame of the second match, I noticed strange small porous mushrooms on the surface of the moss. In the thinnest stream, they released clouds of fog into the air.
“So that's where all this haze came from!” Angrily, I tossed the spore-covered sheet away.
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With no other good ideas in mind, thoughts of beating the crap out of this pine cone with my club were prevalent.
«Really, Alexander, you just need to go to the center of the park and destroy this damned creature!»
“Yes, yes, sure! Oh, by the way, a rather pathetic attempt.” I replied to an alien inner voice. “After all, even a fool understands that a wooden pine cannot be broken with a stick, one will need a hand-held electric saw, which I just took with me!”
«Wait, electric saw?» I slapped my cheeks several times. That helped! And now, having cleared my mind of extraneous influence, I can go to the creature with peace of mind!
“Oh, what a wonderful evening!” Inhaling the cold air with a full chest, with a smile from ear to ear and whistling a song, I turned to the left and quickly walked, deftly skirting the thin camps of young pines.
My companion inseparably followed me.
«Isn't he kinda strange? And why did I so begin to trust this moving mountain of muscle and teeth so quickly? Because he helped me a couple of times? I believe I could have done as much even without him! How much exp did he steal from me?! And the loot??? After all, these monsters could drop a huge reward! I'm sure he's only pretending to be nice. I need to keep a close eye on him; I feel that this mean mongrel is planning to devour me at once, as soon as I let my guard down.»
«That's true!»
As soon as the rides and the Ferris wheel appeared on the horizon, the accursed creature growled. Yes, stop in place, let me beat the crap out of you! I will not allow you to cause harm to the blessed seed so easily, I meant to me!
Raising the club overhead, I smashed it down on the back of the unsuspecting beast. Smash, wail, blood.
“Hey, what are you doing?” I was lying on the ground; it was damn hard to breathe because of the huge dog who decided to jump on my chest. Hearing my voice, the dog reluctantly got off, kicking me with its hind legs. Groaning, I got up and touched my pained cheek, then saw blood on my palm. “Why'd you freak out, friend?”
The dog in turn growled and shook his head. I looked around: on the mossy carpet, bleeding, lay short, humpbacked creatures with long arms, and huge swollen bellies. Some have fractured skulls; others have been gnawed and chewed. The belly of one of the monsters was torn open, and next to it lay a ball the size of a bowling ball.
“Status!”
Name: Alexander Zakharov
Level: 3
Death’s adept (class progress 21%)
Experience bar: 296/1170
[https://sun9-82.userapi.com/impg/k68fdhvXKt4q2pzX_tEywsjYjXVgqYdLoPlhIQ/wa-s6IpW4No.jpg?size=510x419&quality=96&sign=c6cc17ad4afa4c666c5977e51bbadca9&type=album]
[https://sun9-48.userapi.com/impg/PNTkOe9IcV2xrSRRgN8IdnDyJF07i6sdc0Oqaw/G6n54HwWtCM.jpg?size=506x126&quality=96&sign=b087c3e4fd8c3086bec7406571a6bec0&type=album]
I can't remember what happened, and who attacked us - everything happened lightning fast! Feels like my head is about to explode into pieces. The last thing I remember is the incoming attack on my Companion. Damn you, wooden pine cone!
My mental resistance doubled, meaning this time it tinkered with my head pretty hard, and I haven’t even seen the creature itself yet! And why am I out of mana???
I rubbed my chilled body with my hands; after all, Aqen's blessing is still restricted, and the cold was already seeping deep into my bones. If I don't find a way out before nightfall, or if I don't lift this curse, then by morning I'll freeze to death.
«Therefore, I can’t sit still - I had to do something. The Ferris wheel was still visible through the fog, so it might be a good idea to go there.»
Haha, I smirked at such a pathetic manipulation attempt. That's what pumped up resistance means! I hear "my" inner voice; I even want to comply, but now I can resist. And so, we're going the other way.
The hardest part after making the decision was getting the Dog to take a break from a late dinner. It devoured the warm, bleeding meat greedily. At my persuasion attempts and tries to disrupt his meal, the dog growled and howled.
“Sure, eat to your heart's content!” I reached into my backpack and took out a bottle of water and sandwiches. Apparently, after that long hustle, the bread completely crumbled, so I had to eat sausage with cheese in a bite with handfuls of crumbs.
After we both finished our meals, we finally moved on. An alien voice told me where to go, and I, satisfied with my ingenuity, did the opposite. We still walked, and walked, and walked through the fog, and under our feet, like a snow crust, the moss crunched with every step.
An hour passed, and in the end, we came upon a clearing with already dead altered monsters again. A nasty laugh echoed in my head.
“Bastard! I will find and burn you alive,” from the inflamed fury coming out from inside, I completely forgot about the cold.
In response to this, the “inner” voice chuckled softly, and my mind got filled with a heap of unrelated pictures, sounds and smells. Only the freezing chill remained, which prevented me from completely breaking down under alien will.
“Come... here...” I croaked. My faithful comrade quickly ran up to my hunched figure. In the hot, fanged mouth, I put my hand and jerked sharply. Serrated incisors ripped my palm with ease.
My pained cry disrupted the evening silence, and with it the mental attack stopped.
Sitting on my knees, I gathered together pieces of my scattered thoughts and feelings. After this attack, my resistance to mental attacks became «0.4». I felt that a little more and this creature would completely lose the ability to attack me, and also, the haze around became more transparent for me or something. Or that might be just the coming darkness that misled me.
A hot, soft tongue slid over my bleeding wound, and the throbbing pain subsided. Even the blood stopped oozing from the slobbered palm. What a wonderful ability!
“Thanks buddy, I'm better now. Time for us to move.” I abruptly got to my feet, only to land on my back on the mossy ground. “What ...?”
A dark, slimy tentacle coiled my ankle, and huge, turquoise-colored eyes glared out of the mist. Nearby, the dog barked loudly and rushed straight at the monster, but the creature seemed to be waiting for this. Immediately, five tentacles shot out of a thick layer of moss, and effortlessly swaddled my mighty companion. The dog, groaning and squealing, resisted for about five seconds; then his head fell to the side, and his body went limp lifelessly.
With both my hands I grabbed the buckler and brought down the blow with its thin edge on the tentacle. It was now my turn to scream: the monster tightened its grip on my leg, and broke it with a crunch.
A creature of two human heights finally stepped out of the depths of the fog into a clearing. It was extremely slow and had an incredibly swollen head, which took up almost half of its entire size. With each step or movement of the tentacle, the creature spread in different directions. A long-layered mantle covered the monster. It was from under her those six tentacles whipped out: four thick, powerful, and two thin, maneuverable. Exactly how such a creature was moving, I could not see.
With bitterness and pain, I looked at my friend. The octopus, using only a couple of tentacles, dragged him under its slimy cloak. The monster's next victim must be me. The released tentacles headed in my direction, tightly swaddling my arms, legs, and torso. Large suckers greedily dug into my skin. The last thin tentacle coiled around my neck; I was suffocating, and the creature pulled me to itself. Before my consciousness faded, I saw a mouth hidden under the robe, full of small teeth - a final goodbye to the altered world!
***
I snapped out of a pleasant nonexistence state.
«Alive!»
Under the bright light of the full moon and the dimmer lighting from the children's attractions, in front of me stood a gigantic, two-story house-sized pine cone. I don’t know why, but the first thing I came up with was the SpongeBob house.
Spiny vines with poisonous scarlet closed buds have already sprouted from the upper pointed part. The lower part of the pine cone, like that of the previous creature I saw, is covered with numerous identical wooden scales. And the creepers-roots: they were countless, as well as the monsters surrounding the monstrous creature. There were both monsters with one-star, sub-elites, even a few ordinary people and beasts were present. All living beings were in some kind of trance. The strongest emotions were expressed on the faces of people. Blissful, relaxed, happy, but completely exhausted faces. The cheeks were sunken, the arms thin, as if hanging along the same thin body, lifeless lashes; almost no one had hair left on their heads.
«But, why am I conscious?»
A wooden tube stuck out of my chest, just like the others had. I could not give an answer to this question.
The mana in my status was still at zero, so even the time that had passed while unconscious was impossible to assess. Close at hand, I felt movement and, closing my eyes, I relaxed all my muscles. A thin tentacle slid up to the solar plexus and checked the root. Apparently considering that everything is in order, the octopus left.
For a while I still maintained the feigned position of a sleeper, and then cautiously opened my eyes, looking around. I had to get out of here as quickly as possible.
For now, we were in the very center of the park, under the open night sky. The city park could not boast of a large number of rides, but to be honest, even after the apocalypse they looked pretty good. Some of the carousels were still running, filling the neighborhood with stupid squeaky melodies and songs. What surprised me the most was the slowly moving Ferris wheel. When I was a child, this was the main attraction of the park. Although the colossus was freshly painted, the terrible creaking and clunking betrayed the ancient age of the structure with giblets.
No sooner had the thought of salvation crossed my mind than a thick bolt of lightning struck the center of the huge pine cone. A dozen nourishing vines and scales burst into orange fire. All monsters, people and beasts let out a single painful cry, and a formidable command resounded inside:
“CHILDREN OF MINE! TEAR OUR ENEMIES APART!”