Chapter Eight - Feeble

Clair kept the group for another hour, pushing them to tell stories about themselves, and give facts, likes, wants, hopes, and everything that the professor presumably believed would make the camp closer together. Said students were reluctant to share personal details with each other, the stress of what was happening made them even more clam shelled.

“Okay ya’ll, now that everyone knows each other I think we should move on to the next activity. We originally planned a hike up toward a waterfall, but circumstances have removed that option from us. Instead, we’re going to be-”

“Why are we doing this, why aren’t we packing up and trying to get back home!?” A bulky woman with a hard face and angry scowl shouted at Clair. Jaricko inwardly cheered her on, since she was voicing what many seemed to be thinking. The group wanted answers and solutions, and Clair was trying to take their mind off of it.

Clair let out a heavy sigh, her former cheer forgotten and discarded. She took off her glasses and rubbed her shirt against the lens. Jaricko idly noticed that it was the same shirt she had worn yesterday. The teenager had no room to speak since he was still wearing the same sweatshirt and jeans too.

“I’m going to be brutally honest with you all. Getting back to the city is going to be at least a week-long hike, and that’s for me and my assistants. Most of you have no experience backpacking or surviving in the wilderness. If we have to carry you along then we’d add another week at minimum to the journey,” The small professor rubbed the back of her neck with an orange, rust-colored, stained hand.

“You all saw that monster. Something is going on and I have no clue how to deal with it. I doubt that those spiders are the only thing that has changed in these mountains,” she shook her head, “We’re trapped here until further notice.”

“You have guns! Why don’t you send a scouting party to go get help?” The same woman questioned. Jaricko racked his brain trying to remember her name. He cursed his ineptitude.

The counselors gave each other uneasy looks. They fidgetted and looked at Clair. The professor glanced away. Jaricko could interpret that she had talked about this conversation before with her assistants.

“I’m not going to stop anyone, but I’m going to strongly warn against it. I tried to follow the road back but the vegetation got too thick for me to pass through. I was attacked by the spiders and had to run for my life,” she shuddered, “we’ll find another way.”

The students murmured to each other at her words. Jaricko studied her, watching for anything that would give away that she was lying. He couldn’t notice any uncommon actions, to all senses she appeared like a bewildered and overwhelmed individual.

The muscular woman emerged from the crowd and spoke to Clair.

“Give me a gun,” She demanded. Clair immediately shook her head. The student scowled at her. “Why?” She asked.

“I’m not letting teenagers carry guns, especially right now,” Clair replied, derision heavy in her tone.

“But you’ll let those six have them?” The woman scowled at the professor and gestured to the counselors. Each one had a hunting rifle slung over their shoulders. They displayed varying expressions at her words. A few of them appeared apprehensive.

“I trust them. I’ve worked with each and know them personally. They’ve all taken the courses required to be out here, while you haven’t,” Clair rebutted. Jaricko could tell the professor was getting frustrated with the student’s questions.

“That doesn’t mean shit, I’ve been shooting since I was five, I-”

“It doesn’t matter,” Clair stated, her tone low and eyes lidded. “You’re not getting a gun. End of story. I’m not your mother who you can argue with all day.” She ended her sentence with a clap of her hands. The motion was crisp and rang out through the air.

“You are all free to do what you want. In lue of recent events, I will be posting a chore list earlier than expected. You would have been doing this anyways, so I expect all campers to participate. Meet with your group leader if you have any questions,” she declared and then walked off toward one of the cabins. She entered the building and slammed the door behind her.

Angry glares landed on the woman who had been arguing with the professor. The declaration of mandatory chores was automatically associated with her. Jaricko couldn’t help but feel irritated too. He had taken for granted that there was food for him to eat this morning and numerous other things. He imagined the chore list would involve helping out around the camp to make sure it was running smoothly.

“We need to hurry before we’re interrupted again,” Jaricko told the other two. The trio quickly collected their supplies, forgoing the medical kit in favor of getting out of the camp. No one seemed to notice their plan, and Jaricko hoped it would remain that way. He didn’t want to be the one others placed their hopes on for getting out of the mountains.

He had seen how Clair had endured the weight of their expectations, and Jaricko knew he would handle it worse.

Clair’s startling statement about the two-week trip for the inexperienced had felt like a punch to the gut. They’d need food, shelter, and a myriad of other supplies to make the trek, not even accounting for the hostile creatures roaming the forest.

Bite-size chunks, Jaricko. Find out what this system can do first and experiment with the attributes. If Body works like you think it does, you can cut down that trip to days. Maybe.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Jaricko shook his head and tossed the end of a stick into the still-present fire. He made his way into the cabin and gathered a few supplies, namely a small knife and a cheap gas station lighter. He traded out his sneakers for a pair of hiking boots and joined Jack on the porch of the cabin.

The man had looked around the campsite and found a few old and deteriorating bundles of clothes that had probably been left behind by previous trips. He had torn them to strips and bunched them in his pocket. He also carried one of the metal rods, which he had used the prior night to stab at the forest spider.

Timothy joined them, carrying a small bowl of viscous liquid, and gestured to the back of the cabin. He asked for one of the shirts that Jack had repurposed. He grabbed a nearby stick of moderate size, about three feet long, and wrapped the cloth around the head.

He dumped the liquid onto the head of the stick and gestured for Jaricko’s lighter. The teenager sparked the device and waved it under the makeshift torch. It came alive with a woosh and a blast of heat. Jaricko stepped back reflexively.

“What was that?” Jaricko asked, gesturing towards the bowl. Timothy looked away and fiddled with a zipper on his jacket.

“I snagged one of the lanterns and took some of the oil out,” He admitted hesitantly. Jaricko let out a guffaw.

“You scoundrel! Good idea though, I hadn’t even thought about that.” Jaricko complimented the mousey boy and Jack grunted in approval. Timothy blushed and handed the torch to Jaricko.

“Here, you’re the closest to filling up one of your attributes with essence. The quicker we find out how they work, the better,” Timothy urged Jaricko to take the makeshift weapon. The teenager hesitantly held the middle of the flaming staff. He gulped and kept the heat away from his face. A trickle of nervous sweat dripped down his face.

“Let us go,” Jack urged them onwards. He accepted the lead and walked straight towards the treeline directly from the back of their cabin. Jaricko glanced around, seeing if anyone was watching them. From the angle they were at, no one could notice them, which caused Jaricko to sigh in relief.

Jack stopped where the vegetation had grown into a knee-high barrier. The large man appeared to falter for a moment, but only just. He took a dominating step into the brush, waited for a second, and then took another. His head swiveled around, constantly scanning his surroundings.

Jaricko followed right behind, torch held at the ready. Timothy, who could be considered the most vulnerable in this situation, stuck close.

The teenager could feel his heart pounding in his ears. The cacophony of the forest was a mixture of strange bird cries, along with the rustle of leaves on trees. Once the trio fully stepped out from the camp, the noise was much more apparent. He couldn’t help twitching at every unfamiliar sound. Timothy stepped on a stick and Jaricko nearly yelped in fright.

The trees had grown larger since the arrival of the second moon. While they had been towering before, now they were truly giants. Their wide boughs blocked large portions of sunlight from streaming down. Shadows flicked to and fro, caused by the light of the torch.

Jaricko felt as if he had entered the depths of an ancient forest that hadn’t been touched by humanity in eons. While he was terrified of its contents, he was also immensely curious. What lurked out there? Was there magic yet to be discovered? How game-like had the world become? Were there treasures, dungeons, and relics?

He grinned, an equal measure of apprehension and excitement.

The feeling instantly descended to fear when Jack raised his hand and signaled for them to stop. The once boisterous and eerie surroundings had fallen to a still silence. Jaricko’s breath came out in ragged gasps, he could feel a cold sweat developing on his back, soaking his shirt.

“On guard, there’s something out there-” Jack started to say but was interrupted by a screeching hiss. It sounded like the whistling of a teapot and Jaricko reacted by waving his torch in the direction of the noise. He caught Timothy dodging out of the way, and inwardly he cursed himself for his carelessness. Now was not the time to lose his head.

He took a breath and studied the creature that stepped out of the woods.

It looked extremely similar to the Juvenile Mountain Forest Arachnid [Tier 0] but was slightly bigger. Its brown hairy legs waved threateningly in the air and it took a swift step forward. Its black beady eyes studied the trio with animalistic intelligence, seeing them as nothing more than a meal. Its heavy abdomen dragged against the grass, leaving a crushed trail of grass behind.

Jaricko summoned his courage and stepped forward. The arachnid bent back from the flickering fire, and let out a warning shriek. It seemed almost disappointed that its prey hadn’t cowered before it. The teenager displayed an ugly scowl and clenched the flaming stick in his hands.

You bastard, not like we’re just going to lay here and die. No easy meals here.

He took another step closer and lunged out. He tried not to think about the fact he was dueling with a monster thrice his size. Jaricko wouldn’t have been surprised if the beast was big enough to carry Jack on its back, and then some.

Jaricko grinned slightly as he drove the arachnid further away. He accumulated confidence with each swing of the torch, and he made bolder moves. He faltered when he heard a scream from behind. He turned back and saw another spider emerging from the woodwork. It pounced toward Timothy with its piercing claws, but the boy was pushed out of the way by Jack. The swift warrior stabbed the leg, which had impaled itself into the forest floor, and pulled outwards. The small hook on the end of the fire poker ripped out bits of green flesh from the gaps of the black chitinous shell.

Jaricko saw movement in the corner of his eyes and dropped to the floor, narrowingly missing the strike of the first spider. It had attempted to capitalize on his inattention to inflict what would have been a fatal blow. The teenager cursed under his breath and pushed himself up.

Luckily the torch was still alight, the flames and oil still burned with an orange-red brilliance.

The spider attacked again, but this time Jaricko wasn’t nearly as quick to dodge. The curved claw of the monster tore into his flesh and left a gaping gash in his pectoral muscles. He screamed in agony and dropped the torch. He writhed on the ground, his body felt like it was on fire. His nerves shot signal after signal, trying to tell him that he had taken serious damage.

For some reason, the spider seemed to consider Jaricko dealt with and moved to assail Jack and Timothy. The two young adults had put their backs to each other, their faces grim.

Jaricko clenched his teeth, trying to fight through his pulsating wound. He summoned the [Pocket Watch] in a sparkle of purple energy. The small timepiece was in the form of its namesake and fell into Jaricko’s left hand.

The entire right part of his chest had been torn out, leaving him little ability to move his right arm. He bit his lip, drawing blood, and used his left hand to try to turn the knob. Tears flooded his eyes but after a second of running his clumsy fingers against the smooth purple metal, he felt the drain of energy from his core. He could feel his Capacity slowly being drawn from.

He twisted the knob as far as he could, almost to his limit. He looked at Jack and Timothy as they were slowly stabbed and shredded. He let out a shuddering breath and activated the fae.