Chapter 26
Getting up felt like fighting against the weight of the world as Danny lifted himself from where he had been lying. Early that night, he had used Aspen’s parting gift to heal his injured arm. Even thinking about pulling the arrow from his flesh made him flinch. He rubbed his eyes free of moisture and crustiness. Danny had neither succeeded in staying up through the night nor getting any meaningful rest. Thoughts of meeting Mario and stepping in to save him from his beating invaded his mind. I should have just left it alone. Worse images of brutal torture flashed by as Danny imagined what sort of pain he must be going through now. They had only met momentarily, truly they were barely even acquaintances, but Danny couldn’t help but feel like he had let someone down. That pattern of thinking was useless. Ruminating on failure was a thing that the old Danny did. The current Danny focused on one step forward at a time. One thing was certain, the Brotherhood needed to be stopped. He wasn’t sure if that would help him with his task of finding a Pylon, he wasn’t even sure what a Pylon was, or if he would become closer to forming his own Faction, but they were a tyrannical menace. This time, Danny wouldn’t suffer any bullies. Plans of revenge fueled his morning training session.
He started with Qi exercises, working on his capacity and regeneration. After that, Danny ran through his staff forms and practiced using Qi manipulation to cut wood for a fire. Normally, Danny would begin with a session of cultivation, but the still-hot embers of anger within him had prevented him from falling into a meditative state. Now that he had worked off some of that negativity, Danny was ready. Like before, it was excruciating. The feeling of absorbing Qi into his physical body was akin to injecting molten lead into his veins. At least, Danny was pretty sure this was what shooting up a syringe of super-heated metal would feel like, and he would fight anyone who disagreed. The agony made the session feel like hours to the point that Danny was certain the entire day must have passed by. He was both relieved and disappointed to see that the sun hadn’t moved at all in the sky. When he first started cultivating, it felt like huffing and puffing after a long run. Eventually, that feeling became less severe until he hardly even noticed it. He hoped that this would prove similar.
Danny wiped the sweat from his face with his robes. All of his supplies had been left behind when he fled from the Brotherhood ambush. The first task that needed tending was finding food. In a new section of the forest, Danny would have to find new rabbit runs. Except the snares had been abandoned as well. With that plan out the window, Danny tried to think of a way to find sustenance. Indy interrupted Danny’s planning. The fox limped along with an animal in its mouth. For a moment, Danny was grateful. There was food around here! Then, he was confused. How could this crippled fox catch something? Finally, surprise as Danny realized it wasn’t an animal at all. [Infant Wyrmling Carcass]. A baby monster. He wasn’t an expert, but Danny was pretty sure that mama monsters would get pretty angry when they saw that their child had been not only kidnapped but eaten too.
“Indy, where’d you get that buddy?” The fox’s tail wagged excitedly back and forth. With a flick of its head, it tossed the corpse at Danny. The creature rolled to a stop at his feet. It looked like a lizard. Scaly, massive eyes with slitted pupils and the disproportionately large head of a child. The thing might look cute if it wasn’t for the bloody teeth marks around its neck. The fox stared at Danny expectantly. “No,” Danny said when he realized what the fox intended. “Uh-uh, I am not eating that.” Indy’s head cocked to the side and his tail swished in the grass. An adult monster may have been one thing. But a baby? Danny had some standards. He kicked it back over to the fox. The orange hunter looked uncertain. His hunger quickly won out and the fox slunk away into the undergrowth with its prize.
Danny’s grumbling stomach announced its disdain with his sense of morality. A pang of longing almost made Danny consider chasing Indy, but he figured there had to be other options. Right? With the demands of his stomach serving as motivation, Danny started to search the area. His first thought had been berries, fruit, or edible plants. That line had yielded nothing. He thought about trying to catch small woodland animals, but without any snares, it would be difficult. He hadn’t ever hunted before. Trapping, supplemented by Aspen’s seemingly bottomless well of supplies, had sufficed during the Tutorial. Danny had a couple of tricks up his sleeve and was confident that his Qi-based attacks would be as good as any bow and arrow or firearm.
Thinking of firearms made him wonder what was left of pre-Integration Earth. Were there empty skyscrapers in the big cities? Were there people out there armed with guns and tanks and airplanes? Was there even a government left? Those kinds of things made him feel lost and overwhelmed, so Danny refocused on the task at hand.
A blast of energy tore through a nearby bush. Danny had heard a rustle and seized the opportunity to secure a meal. When he investigated his quarry, Danny found a squirrel. A headless one. Okay, Danny thought, take it down a notch. Blowing the head off the squirrel had made for a painless death, but if he hit one in the body, there wouldn’t be much left to eat. It was a testament to how far Danny had come. At the start of the Tutorial, he couldn’t do anything with his QI, didn't even have any. Now, he could explode the heads of small rodents with his mind. On second thought, that wasn’t exactly the celebration-worthy achievement that Danny had originally thought, but it was progress.
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Upon return, Danny used the wood he had gathered to build a small fire and roast his catch. Skinning squirrels was similar enough to skinning rabbits that he didn’t have much trouble. Danny ate his squirrel and was quite proud of himself. He thought about offering some to Ash, but then she walked past with a trio of squirrels, held by the tails, in her mouth. Suddenly his accomplishment seemed meager. As he chowed down on his now-not-so-great-tasting squirrel, Danny thought about what to do next.
He definitely wanted to save Mario. Putting an end to the Brotherhood in general was on his to-do list as well. The problem was how. Danny could waltz up to whatever camp the biker gang had erected and throw himself to certain doom, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything. He needed something game-changing. Danny thought back to the Wyrmling. A plan began to take shape.
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The Wyrmling nest had been a piece of cake. The monsters were in the mid-twenties in Level. The Wyrmling Warrior, the boss monster, had been Level 30. A spear had been the reward. The head was fashioned out of some kind of bone, but never chipped or got scratched no matter what Danny struck it with. Feathers were tied onto the end and it looked like an enlarged version of the one that the Wyrmling Warrior had used. It was somewhat similar to a staff, so Danny decided to hold onto it. The real prize was the 30 Wyrmlings that now stood at attention in front of Danny. He finally had some success in monster taming! The process wasn’t perfect, however.
Blank eyes stared back at him. The Wyrmlings would follow his commands to the letter, but they lacked that spark of life in their eyes. Even the Wyrmling Warrior was a husk of its former self. On top of that, he had only gotten one ability from the lot of them, [Pack Tactics], which allowed for the command of the Wyrmlings. They acted like robots. Fortunately, they retained some amount of reasoning, so Danny could say “find food” or “get some wood” and they would carry out the task effectively. Too complex orders would result in them trying the same thing over and over again to no avail or simply ignoring the command. Adding in the healing element from his newly replaced Necklace of Rejuvenation had led to the monsters surviving Purify, but he had yet to replicate another Ash. There was something he was still missing. Maybe Ash was just that special. There was still much that Danny did not know. At least he had something that could turn the tables on the Brotherhood: an army. Complete with the Wyrmling Warrior acting as his general.
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The swelling in Mario’s right eye made it hard to see. Tightly tied rope burned his wrists. His arms were uncomfortably tied around a tall log that had been raised in the certain of the Brotherhood camp. Members of said group would spit as they walked past him or offer a kick to his side. The “guests” who enjoyed the “protection” of the Brotherhood would try to keep from staring as they hurried by, heads down. They tore his jacket from his body before securing him to the pole. Chris said it was “too good for a traitor.” He’d had that jacket for ten years. The memory of his arrival still burned in his chest. The humiliation of it all haunted him.
Mario had come-to while being carried by Wreck, one of the bigger guys in the Brotherhood. Wreck was the competent type. He was also obedient and quiet, traits that Chris valued. A throbbing headache greeted him as he awoke. He tried to kick or squirm, but he found his arms and legs both fastened. Mario resigned himself to being hauled like a sack of potatoes back to the place that he had fled from. When they arrived, Wreck dumped him at the feet of Chris.
Lying in the dirt like that made his blood run hot. It was set to boiling whenever Chris smirked at him and spoke, “Problem with you is you think you’re smarter than everyone, Walter.” How dare you speak to me like I’m beneath you, Mario thought. Chris continued, “I let you off easy, considering all the shit you pulled, for old time’s sake. You know me, sentimental and all. But I won’t make that same mistake again. I’ll make an example out of you like I should’ve the second I heard you were planning a power grab.” Chris waved to one of the men beside him and said something Mario couldn’t make out. That’s when they had taken him to the newest addition to the Brotherhood base. They called it the “Cross” although it was little more than an oversized stick. Considering Chris thought himself the second coming, Mario thought it was right up his alley.
Mario’s meditating on his misery was interrupted by a boot to the ribs. He coughed a spatter of blood. One of the men who had been on the ambush squad knelt down next to Mario. “That was for Bigg’s you piece of shit.” Biggs must have been the archer who his fireball had hit. Mario remained silent with his head hung as a mixture of drool and blood dripped from his chin. Getting no response the man tsked and then rose from the ground, but not before slapping Mario across the face on the right side. Right on his swollen eye. A pained yelp broke Mario’s defiant silence. The Brotherhood member smiled in cruel victory as he walked away.
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Finally, the forest gave way to an open stretch of grass. Not far off from the treeline was a chaotic assortment of tents. So that’s the Brotherhood camp, Danny thought, I guess Ash is actually pretty good at this whole tracking thing. He had assumed she would be, since she was a wolf and all. Is that stereotyping? Distracting thoughts aside, Danny was anxious. His first run-in with the Brotherhood had not ended on a high note, and now he was deep in enemy territory. He looked behind him at the battalion of Wyrmlings that he had ordered to follow at a distance. This time will be different.
Danny stepped out of the trees. It had been the first time since the Integration that he had not been in some variation of forest. He had grown used to roaming about the woods. The sunlight, unbroken by branches and leaves, beat down on his face. The clear blue sky stretched on forever. Danny’s head smacked into the ground and all he could see was the tiny insects that crawled among the grass. He tried to call out, but he sputtered as he got a mouthful of dirt. Suddenly, he was flipped around. Someone dressed in a dirt and sweat-stained grey sweatshirt and pants pinned his arms and legs.
“Are you stupid? What do you think you’re doing?” The stranger asked.