Hector's breaths came in ragged gasps as he battled the monstrous behemoth that stood before him, its grotesque figure towering at least ten feet tall. They were surrounded by a nightmarish nest, and the walls of this eerie cavern were covered in pulsating, fleshy growths. Hector knew he was at the top of one of the infected buildings.
The humanoid monster, its features warped and twisted, lunged at Hector with horrifying agility. Its limbs contorted and writhed unnaturally as it sought to bring him down. The strands of muscle visible all over the body moving in a real horror show. Hector barely sidestepped the monstrous fist that would have crushed him, his heart pounding in his chest.
With his own weapon, a rusted mace, Hector struck a one handed blow at the creature's wrist, smashing it completely. Dark, ichor-like blood oozed from the wound, but the monster's eyes burned with fury as it pulled back its hand. With a sickening crush the bones realigned themselves and the wrist looked unhurt.
Hector glanced around and saw the bodies of his friends strewn about. Diana’s corpse was lying under the nearby wall, her spine bent at an impossible angle. Frank looked like he was still breathing but was unconscious with centipedes closing in on him.
And it was all Hector’s fault.
When he blocked the first blow he didn’t manage to dodge it had broken his forearm. At the same moment something broke in him. Blood rushed to his ears and all he could hear was the pounding of his heart. The monster pulled back its first preparing to strike again, as Hector watched it in slow motion.
Then he turned and ran.
He couldn't really remember that part but he ran through the fleshy tunnels randomly, picking the way so that he could get as far away as quickly as possible. He must have gotten confused in his panic and circled back. Without realizing it he entered the same chamber and saw the broken bodies of his friends. Just as he came in the monster rushed Mia as she was preparing her next arrow. The creature backhanded her and sent her flying out of the room, there was no way she lived through that.
It was too late to run away, the monster had noticed him. It was a fight for his own survival and he didn't see a way he could win. He couldn't even grab his mace in a two armed grip to try and actually smash something properly. He looked at his left arm, the hand hanging uselessly.
Wait? His Left hand?
Hector's eyes shot open, and he found himself gasping for breath. His body was drenched in cold sweat, and the memories of his vivid nightmare lingered. His heart still raced, and the image of a colossal monster loomed in his mind. He fell back on his cot. At least he didn’t scream.
He had had nightmares before but nothing as vivid as this one. He shuddered at the thought of his dead and dying friends. He could still feel the fear and the shame of it all. He raised his hand to wipe a tear that escaped him from his face. His left hand was no longer there.
Jesus, will this ever end? This torment is worse than actually losing my hand. The fugue and depression left him with nightmares and difficulty with telling them apart from reality. Getting his hand blown off once was tough enough, but dreaming about having it back and then waking up was too similar to losing it again for his taste.
He realized that for the first time in a while he felt something other than sadness, loss or fear. He was pissed. He was pissed at the stupid rune that took his hand. He was pissed at the monserst that made his sacrifice necessary. But most of all he was pissed at himself for wallowing in self pity for so long.
He was going to use that anger. Before he had gotten to this place the best workouts he had were just after he got into a fight with his ex. He would burn all that negative energy and channel it into something useful. He would clear his head with exercise and feel a lot calmer and better afterward. Maybe this would help in his current situation if he trained hard enough.
First step was to figure out how to put the new shield Mia gave him without help.
Hector sat alone in a corner of their hideout, frustration boiling over. Why was everything so damn hard to do one handed. Before him lay the harness of the harness Mia designed for him.
With his remaining hand, he attempted to grasp the shield's straps and secure it to his arm, but the effort was futile. As soon as he tightened one strap another came loose. Sweat formed on his brow as he tried again and again, but the shield remained stubbornly uncooperative. He threw the fucking contraption to the ground and prepared to kick it.
He stopped and took a deep breath, letting the anger wash over him. He needed to use it and not get overwhelmed by it, he reminded himself. He took a couple more studying breaths and once he deemed himself sufficiently calm he came back to the straps. This time he did better. The trick was to on one hand secure one of the straps between his side and elbow while at the same time holding the shield against the ground so that it couldn’t move.
Once he got it on, including the guige, he sighed and started taking it off. He needed this process to take far less time than it currently did. So he started practicing.
After about twenty attempts he felt like he had it down well enough to move to the next step. He grabbed his war pick in his right hand for balance. Then he started using the guige to change the angle of the shield and started… Shadowboxing? No, that was the wrong word. Shadowfighting? Doesn't matter. He imagined attacks coming from different directions and moved his shield to intercept them.
He was painfully slow. Even with his limited experience in shield fighting he realized that he had to be way more precise than before. Otherwise his shield could rotate around his arm. The harness and guige Mia added would help but not compensate completely for his missing hand.
So he trained like he did before. Slowly he came up with movements that let him leverage the strap around his neck to block properly. Then he repeated the movement a couple dozen times before imagining a different attack and coming up with a defense for it. His nightmares made great fuel for his imagination.
“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.“ Hector mumbled to himself as he repeated the same slow movements over and over again. Every couple of repetitions he got just the slightest bit faster.
He remembered a video he saw about shaolin monks in his previous life. The point of it was that when a European says that he has been practicing a martial art for a year he probably means twice a week for an hour. A shaolin monk lived for his training and did very little else and probably got the same amount of training within a month as the european did in years.
Hector didn’t know how many weeks it would be till Mia was healthy again, but he would be ready for it. He was a deep red ember of anger that would not let him stop once he started.
“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Practice makes perfect. Slow is …”
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The evening when Hector started training again Frank came to him with the bad news. He had asked Diana to come but she said it would be better with just him. Frank didn’t know if he agreed, what he did know is that he got stuck with a shit job.
“Hey, Hector, could you stop for a sec?” Frank said, as he approached the training warrior. He was drenched in sweat and looked like he was practicing the same movements the whole day. “Look, I have news for you.”
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“Diana reached level five and she got a skill that won’t help me?” Hector said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Frank rubbed his neck “How did you know?”
“Well you didn’t come running to me the second you came into the hideout and you’re not exactly all smiles now” Hector responded.
“Are you okay man?” Frank asked, raising his eyes to look at Hector.
“Fine? I’m pretty fucking far from fine.” his friend responded with a haunted look in his eye.
“Anything I can do to help?” Frank asked, feeling very inane.
“I will need a sparring partner once I get a hang of it.” Hector said raising his shield “You could help me then. And you actually helped me right now”
“How so?”
“I have one more reason to be pissed, now I have training to get back to” Hector said and turned. Frank knew dismissal when he saw it.
He didn’t know how to feel about the change in Hector. On one hand any shift from his previous state was an improvement. On the other hand Frank hoped his friend could control his anger and not direct it at Mia or Diana.
Another problem to deal with when the time comes. If the time comes he corrected himself mentally.
He went to the fire pit and sat down between Mia and Diana.
“How did it go? Diana told me she got the Barrier spell.” Mia said.
“Surprisingly well, and that kind of worries me, he shouldn’t take this so easily” Frank responded.
“It's survival of the fittest here, he understands that he needs to adapt to survive. And fast.” Diana threw in, breaking her meditation for a moment.
“Mia how are your legs?” Frank said, trying to switch the subject. He really didn’t like thinking about stuff he could do nothing about. Like his Aspect, he still didn’t open his notifications after the last fight, he too was afraid to.
“Still a week before I'm fully healed so I have some more time to practice with my bow. I even got level two in True Shot” Mia responded, some of her old self shining through all the pain and hardship they were under. Frank noticed some of the light he remembered was back in her eyes.
“What should we do with that time Diana? We secured the hideout and got you to level five. Want to hunt some more or should we take it easy?” Frank said, turning to Diana.
“We should scout a bit further and maybe find some more of the weird markings that are on our building.” Diana looked offended at the very idea of taking it easy ”So far the only times we went further was with a direct goal in mind and no time to look around. I want to learn more about the place and see if I can improve my magic from those markings, maybe they have something to do with runes.”
“As long as we dont fight another swarm like last time I'm fine with that.” Frank said.
“Why so serious Frank? No witty response for the whole conversation? That's rare” Mia asked with a smile but he noticed a hint of worry in her body language.
“I’m fine, just a bit tired. A lot going on.” He stretched “In the morning i'm going to be right back to relentlessly mocking your lacking archery skills and your noob level, don’t you worry.”
She had her own problems and he wouldn’t burden her with his. What was he supposed to tell her anyway? Hey Mia, I'm afraid of slowly going insane? I noticed I talk to my daggers and they respond sometimes? I have blackouts and come back to myself covered in blood? Or the scariest part. That he remembered most of the last fight he had with Diana including their conversation afterward. There was joking and there was madness, and the line got blurred for him more and more.
No way he was opening his status any time soon.
The next morning when he woke up Hector was already training with his shield. He and Diana got ready to move out. It was routine by now. He glanced at the black haired woman, he had trouble connecting her cold exterior with how she cried after the last battle. And he couldn't really talk to her about it as it would inevitably lead to other more dangerous subjects.
Well, we will see how it goes.
“Be careful out there guys” Mia said as they walked towards the exit.
“You know me Mia, always am” He responded automatically. How he hoped it was true.
After they went out of their building he asked Diana
“So which way do we go now, Diana-senpai?”
“Just follow me, I came up with a pattern to check out each side of each building and not walk in circles.” She took a piece of rag with a rough map sketched onto it.” Diana said pointing in a direction.
“Damn i love it when you’re this dependable” Frank threw off-handedly and to his surprise noticed Diana blush a little.
“You’ve become very dependable too” She said after clearing her throat.
“Thanks” Frank didn’t really know what to do with this situation, he didn’t mean anything by the comment and he did have too much going on already anyway. He decided to focus on their mission.
As Frank and Diana ventured out into the silent city, they passed the battleground from their last encounter with the centipedes. When Frank cast a glance into the corridor he stopped right in his tracks. It was empty.
“Is it just me or should there be waaay more corpses here?” He asked Diana who looked just as dumbfounded as he felt.
“This makes no sense, you couldn’t place a foot to not step on a dead bug.” She said slowly “How many workers you would need to clean it out in one night, there is not even that much blood.”
Now that she mentioned it, he noticed it too, there was some splatter, and he noticed something weird. “ It doesn't seem dried up? The color is still fresh and the stains look as if they got soaked into the stone? Creepy.”
“Nothing to learn here, let's move on '' Diana said. Frank knew her well enough to notice that their weird find threw her off her game a bit too.
Silently, they moved through the narrow streets, their footsteps echoing. They didn't find a single group of bugs and the shriekers were early silent.
“This silence is making my skin crawl,” Frank whispered.
“Shhh or we will be the only ones making sound for miles” Diana said angrily.
After a couple of hours of walking around and Frank's nerves frying ever more, They found one more set of runes on a building. It was the same set they had found on their home base but somehow it felt even more familiar, as if understanding was just out of reach.
Frank quickly scouted the building, it had a safe room similar to theirs and a fresh water source.
“Curious.”Diana said as Frank reported back to her “But the sample size is still small. Let’s keep searching”
Each day they found more marks and each building contained defensible spots for hideouts and a source of water, and their curiosity grew with each discovery.
One of these rooms struck a chord in Frank's memory. He suddenly recalled its layout, along with the rubble laying in the room, even though he was sure he was never there before. He didn’t tell Diana about that, she knew too much about his problems already.
With each set of symbols they found etched into the walls they began to make more sense. And then they clicked together all at once.
“Shelter and water inside” Frank read “Well we kind of figured that ourselves, useless shit”
“Jesus, think for a second there, it's clearly magic, we can’t read them for days and then they just make sense? The message may be mundane but the way it's delivered is anything but, " Diana said.
Diana was right from that point onward they understood the markings on other buildings, the problem was they all said the same thing. After four days they started encountering the centipedes again just like before. They didn’t find any other messages left for them before Mia’s legs healed.
They did a little celebratory dinner of ribs and water at the fireplace, even Hector joined them for a while. Though Frank couldn’t shake the single thought that kept coming back to him throughout the last couple of days.
Who left those messages, and why?