Midnight arrived, and with it a surge of energy. What once felt like a terrifying transformation, was now a welcomed blessing. I felt like a demon hound on a chain, eager to cut loose, itching to tear the place apart.
Despite the urge to rush in and murder them on sight, we took a minute to form a plan. Before going, Ivy passed around clay potions, and I gulped down two of the concoctions. The first went into effect immediately, and I felt my eyes itch and water as if I was suffering from allergies. Darya had the same reaction.
Ivy pulled my hands down. “Don’t rub them, it’ll get better soon.”
And she was right. Within seconds, the irritation vanished, and I could see clearly. It had turned my world aglow in a golden hue, allowing my vision to not only cut through the darkness, but also the fog.
I stood tall, cracked my neck from side to side. “Let’s do this.”
“Be careful,” Darya said.
I walked down the road in the direction of the carriage. With my horns glowing like embers, there was no chance of sneaking around. I went straight for the front door holding my bolstered Bronze Wands.
With a powerful kick, I sent the door crashing to the floor. The noise tore through the silent village. Dogs barked in response. Inside, two figures bolted to their feet from their beds, but they weren’t Karl or his family. I instantly recognized the faces of the two goons that shadowed the tax collector, Drefar. But where was he? And where were the Raiders?
The goons were fully dressed and armored just like Bob said, holding swords. They must have slept with their hands on their weapons. They were expecting this, which didn’t surprise me at all.
They rushed at me, shouting. I thumbed the wands in their direction. At less than a second to power up, the wail of the wands was brief and shrieking. Two bolts burst out with dark red hues. The impacts sent them flying to the back of the room, slamming them against the back wall. Their swords clattered to the floor.
The flashes of light from my wands nearly blinded my enhanced sight. Afterimages moved in my vision. One goon was out cold, but the second was getting up with his sight settled on the sword lying close by.
I don’t think so.
The air rushed past me as I [Leaped] forward at neck-breaking speed. With a resounding bang, I kneed him in the chest with every bit of my weight and force of [Leap.] I felt the impact travel up my leg and body. He crumpled to the ground in an unnatural pose, very much dead.
An instant later, something strange happened. Wisps of black smoke, like plastic burning burst out from the battered corpse. They flew right at me and enveloped my being.
An intense feeling of ecstasy filled my mind. Time seemed to stop, and I shuddered as the powerful emotion flowed down from my head to the tips of my toes. At the same time, a searing pain burned the front of my right forearm. The first of the strange symbols lit up for a brief moment in molten light, and grew dim. I left to ponder the meaning of it for another time.
Just as quickly as it came, the bliss vanished. It left an emptiness, a desperate hunger for more. I turned my attention to the other goon. In an instant, his neck cracked in my hands. Another bout of euphoria hit me like a truck, and another symbol lit up.
I wanted more.
I rushed outside to find Drefar and his two Raiders. They were right where I wanted them to be -- out in the open in the center of the road. [Keen Eye] had a new reading on the Raiders now. Both were down from ‘Red’ to a mere ‘Green.’
While Drefar wore his official attire which didn’t look like it would do much in a fight, the two Raiders were decked out in armor from head to toe. Their tabards showed a black eagle on red. They wore black cloaks over their shoulders, polished plate armor, sheathed swords and daggers at the hilt. Their gray horns protruded through the helmets. The two stood motionless with their hands on the pomels of their sheathed swords.
Drefar eyed the hut, as if waiting for his two goons to exit and attack me.
“They won’t be coming out,” I said.
His lip raised up in a scowl. “No matter, I needed better help anyway.”
“You won’t need it soon.”
With a sneer, he pointed toward the gallows, and the two loops of rope. “Those are for you and your bitch.”
“He was just an old man, and had nothing to do with it. Why’d you hang him?”
“Me? No, no, no. This is all your fault. An example needed to be set, and after we hang you, and that little bitch, we’ll burn this village to the-”
An arrow whistled through the air. Drefar’s head jerked forward and he crashed to the ground, face down into the dirt. The two Raiders turned to look down at the body, now with an arrow protruding up like a tulip from the back of the head.
I snorted in surprise. “Ha!”
What a fool.
Maybe don’t stand still in the middle of the road without a helmet while a sniper is in the area? Unfortunately, killing him didn’t change anything -- not like he was the dangerous one out of three, having changed from ‘Green’ to ‘Gray’ compared to my current stats. It felt like a waste to have used the lightning resistance potion that Ivy gave me -- unless these two Raiders used similar magic.
The power crystals in my bronze wands took on a dim glow again, signaling that they were off their cooldowns and ready for use. The two Raiders spared a quick glance between each other before pulling out their swords. I raised my wands up and thumbed the power crystals.
“You’re a dead man now,” one said in a stern voice before rushing forward.
His charge took me by surprise. One instance he ducked, and the next he was up in my face with a blazing sword coming at my head.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
A split second shift to the side made the difference between living and being skewered through the head. I felt the searing fire of the blade come close to the eye slit of my helmet.
I stepped back and the blade sliced diagonally down. It nicked my shoulder, clanged against my breastplate, sending sparks and embers flying. Bolts from my wands flew out, hitting nothing but air.
The other Ranger’s attack came from the side. I didn’t have time to react. It connected against the side of my forearm as I raised to block it. All I felt was a sting, yet something changed about the strength of my right hand’s grip.
What the hell?
They weren’t even close. How did they reach me so fast? Their attacks had to be magical, just like my [Leap] skill. Warm blood streamed down my arm. Panic grew, desperation crept in. One thought ran through my mind.
Kill, or be killed.
I backed up, but they were right on me in an instant, attacking. I managed to dodge their every slice and thrust as if they were too slow. These had to be normal attacks, as opposed to what they cut me with from the start. I had a hunch that once their magical attacks were off cooldown and I’d be in trouble again.
Arrows flew in, clattering against their armor without any effect, yet it distracted them. To make room, I leapt past them down the road as far as I could, landing some fifty yards away. At that distance, fog and darkness separated us, however I could still see them.
They turned in my direction, but didn’t pursue. Probably because they couldn’t see me through the fog. I used that to my advantage. My wands came off their cooldown and I fired them both. One bolt missed, but the second connected solid, sending the man flying.
While he slowly clambered back to his feet, the other seemed to panic. An ethereal looking shield appeared before them, placed to give them cover from my shots. They advanced in my direction, and the shield floated ahead of them.
Wanting to test its strength, I fired again. Both shots exploded against the shield, shattering its ethereal form. The explosion knocked them back, but they didn’t fall. Another shield came up in its place.
The two brought out several potions and quaffed them in turn. Instantly, [Keen Eye] shifted their colors up to ‘White.’ Still, I had the advantage of range and mobility, as long as I didn’t allow them to get close, I could continue pummeling them with my wands from afar until they quit. What’s more, could they even see me?
They moved faster than before, but I didn’t need to face them on the ground. So, I [Leapt] to the roof of a closest hut that looked solid enough to support my weight. The roof groaned, and I almost lost my footing on the thatch, but held on thanks to the chimney.
Maybe they heard me, or maybe their potions allowed them to see at night. Their heads turned in my direction.
“Coward!” one shouted.
In response, I blasted their protective shield to smithereens again, and they didn’t put up another. Maybe the cooldown on it was too long? They were vulnerable without it.
“Come up and say that to my-”
And they did. From my left, a blade sliced across the top of my left arm, shredding the side of my poncho, drawing blood and pain. In a panic, I let go of the chimney, sliding down the roof. A second attack sliced high above me. I tumbled down the thatch. Before crashing to the ground I [Leaped] down the road away from them.
Fuck that was close.
What kind of a range did they have on their magical attacks? And it even allowed them to get up on the roof in an instant? This was turning out to be trickier than I thought.
The cut on my left arm was shallow and long. However, the wound on my right forearm looked deep and nasty. The strike had gone right through the scales down to my stronger bones. Ugly as the bony protrusions made me look, but that evolution might have saved my arm.
Using what Ivy had given me, I slapped globs of green goop right on top of the wounds. The pain and sight of the wounds didn’t bother me much. Was it still the high of the bliss I had felt, or maybe the adrenaline rush? Normal Kevin would have been seeking the closest EMT van to get patched up and fast. However, this monster-Kevin didn’t care even though some muscles in my arm were messed up, and my right hand felt weak.
The two jumped down from the roof, running with a new shield at the front. It was time to finish this. With their magical attacks on cooldown, it was my turn to attack. I switched my ring to the other hand, put away one wand, and grabbed my sword from my back. Timing had to be perfect for what I had in mind.
I ran straight for them. In seconds, my wand was ready, my [Leap] was too. I thumbed the wand, and [Leapt] high up in the air aiming to land on top of one of them.
I felt a momentary weightless feeling at the apex of my leap, the cool breeze, and then the pull of gravity. The bastard below didn’t flinch or move, but took a wide stance, sword aimed up at me.
They moved the shield to protect him, but now a single shot was enough to blast it apart. He looked up at me, flames dancing down his sword. His form drew closer as I fell, gaining momentum like a wrecking ball.
Midair, I let my wand go, grabbed my sword with both hands. Right before impact, I targeted the tip of his sword with [Telekinesis] and pushed it aside. A moment of surprise was probably the last thought that went through his head. That and my sword with over hundreds of pounds of weight behind it. My cleave didn’t cut through, but the major dent made it clear that his skull was crushed.
A moment of euphoria followed his demise. It fueled my every reckless strike against the other Ranger. I pressed on, hitting harder, faster. In response, his parries grew frantic as he continued to retreat. Bloodthirst occupied my mind, and my body moved as if on its own. He had skill with the sword, but lacked in power and speed compared to me. I managed to smack his blade out of his hand. In his retreat, he tripped, fell on his ass.
Scooting back, he begged. “No, don’t. Spare me, please.”
Sword raised high, I towered over him. I looked past to see the gallows down the road behind him, with the village chief hanging from a rope. He was Darya’s and Amelia’s father, which meant something, but did I care about him personally? I hardly knew him. Yet, anger rose up inside me over what they had done.
“I don’t think so,” I said, and was surprised by my own emotionless voice.
***
The containment shield opened with a hiss as steam escaped. It took a moment for the subject lying on the assembly table to come into focus. Jellified goop of blue and red nearly covered the entire table from edge to edge, starting to drip over the side.
Milu grumbled out loud, the veil of tentacles under her giant eyeball rumbling in frustration. The binding agent had gone awry. Again. Or maybe it was something else? It didn’t make sense to her. It should have worked!
Sure, there were some differences from the previous successful experiment, the one still running about outside. But none should have mattered. Perhaps if she could capture him she’d be able to figure out why it had succeeded where others continued to fail. She activated a lever, dumping the mess out the chute straight into the swamp.
Turning aside, she searched through the endless green screen, scanning, pausing, and analyzing. Nothing jumped out at her, nothing of significant difference to cause this constant disarray.
To soothe her frustration, she reached for another cookie only to find the tray completely empty, only crumbs remaining. This was an experimental batch, made by adding ground carapace of Zar’cha. It gave the cookies that extra crunch that she loved.
This jogged her memory, her eye shooting wide open in excitement. “But of course!” She muttered out loud to herself. “That must be it!”
She recalled throwing in something on a whim. But what was it? Hurriedly, she checked her notes on the previous subject, but was unable to fully decipher them -- her documentation skill had always been severely lacking. It did remind her about the danger of what she had done.
A horrible thought occurred to her. She needed to warn her experiment, she needed to- .. or, and she thought long and hard about it -- she needed to make some cookies.
She decided on the cookies. Afterall, it was fifty-fifty if he’d die, or become like a god. Also, it wasn’t her problem, and the cookies weren’t going to eat themselves.