Chapter 59

Rooting Out Evil

Even from outside the range of the pillar that Frank still found himself immersed in, he could feel the movements of monsters around him.

Monsters that as they came closer began to seem to change right before his eyes. Many going from four legs squarely set on the ground, to two.

There were other more subtle changes, the widening of the paws, going from thin aerodynamic paws to flatter more elongated shapes.

Sniff.

Then there was the way they smelled the air, as if every breath they took was somehow able to take in part of your essence before exhaling.

I had defenses.

If pushed to defend myself I could.

Even now, I was forming the structures for how to send spike pillars out in a protective barrier around me. The idea would be to try to impale the different monsters that now surrounded me.

I didn’t think it would do much, maybe if I was lucky some of the mismatched energy would break off and poison the blood of these monsters, eventually enacting my revenge from beyond the grave, but that was a long shot.

No, if attacked, I would try to sink down into the ground again.

The only problem was that my body was already tired from being made into this semi-permanent state. Even now keeping the form was more an act of will than ability. If I dove deeper again, I knew there was a chance I couldn’t come up, as my energy and focus were already depleting.

Even now, I knew that I could only hold this form for a few more heartbeats at best. As my lungs now burned with the want to finally be allowed to breathe once more. My body wished to gain resources from the natural order and not force air, water, and nutrients to be absorbed through alternative measures.

Sizzle.

One of the now bi-pedal creatures steps onto the mound that serves as a base of my energy, letting out a long hiss as their skin is clearly not used to interacting with energy of an opposing vector.

Growl!

Understandably, the moment after the beast gets burned from standing on the non-corrupted ground their body has an immediate reaction, causing them to hiss out violently.

Seeing this Frank knew that exiting now would be seen as a likely hostile act.

While he was more certain than ever that he could take down the burned monster due to its limping movements away, he knew that getting the dozen or so other monsters would be nearly impossible.

Holding his breath, Frank forced his body to stay merged for a moment longer, waiting for a chance to strike. There was an odd sort of tension in the air, as all of the monsters still crept closer.

From his current state, Frank couldn’t see the monsters. Instead, all he could do was roughly approximate their positions and actions based on the barest of impulses.

He could feel the way the monsters would lean one way or another due to the slightest tremors caused by the shifting of bodyweight. Bodyweight that would cause minor deviations in the way their weight was being distributed on their feet.

The whole experience was odd, and yet somehow expected. Yes, expected, as if his newly formed mind and attuned body expected to be able to see and perceive the movement of the world through dirt.

Just as Frank expected to be able to see and experience movement through his currently intense connection to the ground, so too did Frank realize that once he left this pillar. Once he was forced to leave due to his body being tired of maintaining this anomalous state, he knew that once he emerged, he would not be able to perceive the world around him to such a level of detail.

Frank was surrounded.

The pack had apparently taken up positions all around the pillar he was still connected to. There was also a form of communication that was clearly going on, as he could sometimes feel the ripples of movement Frank associated with communication. The shifting of weight due to using hand signals, the loud roars that happened when the beasts walked on positively charged patches of land.

There were so many minor components to the world around him, that Frank could not help but feel his mind overcrowding with thoughts and details.

Tremor.

Off in the distance, Frank could feel the perching of a bird in the branch of a dead tree. There was something odd about the bird, its weight felt off, but how? Was it too heavy? Not heavy enough? Why choose to perch on a dead branch?

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

All of these thoughts and more went through Frank’s mind. He could almost tell that the ground was helping him note anomalies, but they were so abstract that he couldn’t understand why they were anomalies. To Frank everything he was now seeing and experiencing was an anomaly, thus being able to filter out the everything from the unique was seemingly impossible. Even when aided by the memories of the earth, he could not understand the significance of such distinctions.

Instead, all Frank did was note the anomalies and wait.

Tap, tap, tap.

Suddenly the movements of a three pawed creature came. Two strong, one faint point for movement and balance.

The moment the odd cadence of movement was felt by the ground, the earth itself seemed to relax. Then almost as if on reflex, or maybe something due to the shared nature of his current state of being Frank also felt his mind and body relax.

As the clearly wounded creature came forward, the other monsters that had been standing aggressively also relaxed slightly. They were still ready to pounce at a moment’s notice, but they had visibly relaxed. Their weight wasn’t as compressed, showing that they were ready to pounce. Their positioning of their ankles let go of some of the torque that had been building up within them, meaning they were less likely to pounce.

Only after a moment did Frank get a mental image of the wounded creature that was coming towards him. And the creature was in fact wounded, that much was apparent. Just as the third minor paw was on the front right side of the creature, so too did the back right paw move slower and have less weight and range of motion to it. Taking in all of these details, Frank instantly knew that the creature that was now limping towards him was in fact old and walking with a cane.

A monster with a cane? Frank felt his mind wondering as he tried to understand.

With the appearance of the old injured one, the pack that had been spread out now gathered closer to the old leader. Or at least Frank assumed they were a leader, as it was clear that this creature was incapable of taking care of itself alone, and thus relied on the pack for its continued existence.

Frank felt these things, and then somehow instantly accepted them as being true.

Finally, after a long time, the old creature came to just before Frank and his pillar that he was still hiding in, though his body now fought and burned with continued resistance.

Tap.

Before Frank could think of any action to take, he felt a giant tremor being generated by the slightest tapping of a wooden cane on the ground. Yet, that wooden cane was somehow infused with a pulse of earth energy that surged through the pillar and all but ejected Frank from the pillar.

Though, unlike what Frank had expected with a typical blow, Frank was thrown forward. As if the man had sent the pulse of energy through Frank and the pillar and then caused the pillar to randomly change density, which quickly forced Frank to be expelled from the pillar.

Panting.

The moment Frank was forcefully ejected from the pillar, Frank noticed his body fully materialized for the first time in what felt like ages.

Immediately upon his solidification, Frank felt his lungs violently expand and demand oxygen be forced through them. He felt the burning sensations that his body had been warning him about suddenly take hold as his body burned.

The closest equivalent was the time when Frank had tried to hide from Luther Camello, and had hidden in an underground pool. He almost drowned, and worse once he inevitably came to shore, his muscles were so weak from fatigue that he couldn’t even block the punches and strikes that came his way.

This felt like it would be no different, as his body instantly began to collapse as his muscles began to give out on him almost immediately, causing his body to flop on the ground.

Movement.

As soon as Frank collapsed, there was movement. The other pack members all began to surge forward, seeing a clearly passed out prey in front of them.

Yet it was the simple raising of one old and weathered arm that was mostly bare of fur that caused everyone to stop in their tracks.

Seeing the movement by the oldest pack member, all of the other monsters that had been intent to charge forward a moment ago all stood in place anxiously awaiting the elder’s response.

There was a long moment of silence as Frank, fought to at least keep his wobbling head up as he stared off at the old monster.

An old monster that began to change and shrink right in front of his eyes.

To his surprise, the old gnarled face and features of a monster with multiple scars and war wounds began to shrink in on itself. What had been a relatively frail body of a highly muscled creature before slowly withered in on itself, until it looked almost human by comparison.

As the transformation continued, the scars and bare patches of skin remained, but were replaced by older scars that seemed to settle incorrectly over a skull and musculature state that didn’t seem to fit with the wounds received. Also, the bare and gnarled patches of fur that had been present slowly gave way to large liver spots that settled in patches over the old person’s body.

If Frank had thought the creature before him was old before, he especially thought so now. Fortunately, the old man had apparently worn patches of leather that both matched their natural altered form and settled perfectly over their much older humanoid body to preserve their modesty. Though now, he also had other questions, as he wondered how, or rather why the old creature had come out as a monster, only to shift back right before his eyes.

The entire process meant that either he had a hard time walking so much so that he chose to walk in his animalistic form. Or…

Upon realizing the alternate reason, Frank paused as he realized that the old man purposefully came out in a beast form, which was clearly harder to walk in given the bad hip and need to hold a walking stick in a larger cumbersome hand like appendage. For the true reason the old man had made such a grand entrance, making sure to revert back into a human form while Frank weakly fought to regain control over his body, was so that the old man could show that he was a man.

Pausing, Frank then looked at the others around and realized that they too likely had the same condition, that they were shifters. A legend from the past, as they had all been hunted into extinction, at least that is what the records noted as humans had not fought against shifters in generations.

Just how far out of the way was he, that Frank had suddenly come across a pack of shifters.

Then slowly the details he had noticed over the past few days made sense. The markings on the trees, the claw marks high up, showing a constant growth and change to the area, it all made sense.

“Ah, I see that you have the look of recognition on your face.” The old man spoke, his words accented in a way that was hard to place. Only the fact that he spoke with the cadence of someone who worked at their own pace of time allowed Frank to decipher the words that were being spoken.

“You are shifters?” Frank asked, suddenly getting up to his knees.

His body still wobbled, but he managed to gain control over his balance enough to finally stand up straight.

“And you are one of the rarest earth crafters I have ever seen.” The old man responded.

Frank paused at the seeming non sequitur answer, before realizing the implication of his words.

“Wait, you have seen others who can do what I can?” Frank asked.

“No, though I have heard the stories from the ancestors. Stories of people who were able to merge with one of the four great elements and truly achieve mastery.” The old man spoke, his voice deep and thick with memories. His words carried a thick finality to them that Frank could almost taste.

Again, Frank heard the thickly accented words then after a second to process the thought that was being conveyed did he respond.

“Wait, there is only one element that can be gained mastery of?” Frank asked, suddenly wondering if he had somehow missed a major opportunity by focusing on earth related energies. Then he quickly dismissed that thought, as apparently it was either learn how to use earth or be denied all elements.

Given the revelation that it was either earth or nothing, Frank couldn’t help but wonder if there was something greater to all of this, whether there was something larger pushing him forward and directing him towards this one very moment.

Pausing, Frank stared at the old man who clearly seemed to be much more than his old body seemed to imply.

“What do you think?” The old man posed.

Hearing the question, Frank found himself wondering if he could in fact learn a second or maybe even a third elemental force. Then he paused, wondering if he would need to wait to do so first, as he only now had vague insights as to what earth was capable of doing. Or rather, what he was capable of doing with earth energies.

Could he learn more?

Then a more important question, should he learn more?

Frank had almost died; his exhausted body spoke to how dangerous his previous actions had been.

“Wait, great one.” One of the monsters that still stood on two feet changed slightly to speak to the old man. His body going from a large and intimidating war form, to a more natural but still intimidating state of being, with only minor cloths of leather skin to protect his modesty as well. “Should you be telling such secrets to an outsider?”

Cackle.

Hearing the words, the old man just laughed for a moment. Or at least he tried to laugh, though what came out was more of a strained cough mixed with barking laughter over anything.

“Just what do you think we should do with him?” The old wise man asked.

Then without missing a beat, the converted warrior spoke.

“We should kill him.”

Then as if waiting for those exact words, the large vulture like bird who had just been quietly waiting and watching the proceedings below sprung to life, before everything went sideways.