CHAPTER 37 - Anew
The strengthened spikes fly at the monsters. They are the same distance as me, but they are not that fast, and being taken by surprise my attack hits one of them where one of its hind legs connects with its abdomen.
It screams due to the pain of the piercing spike which is halfway lodged into its body. However, the worst is yet to come, and the monster should be aware of it too…
It uses its fangs to try and get the thing out, yet an initial poor performance with its snout makes it impossible to take it out. Not even able to do anything else in time the corrosive fluid starts to spread all over the area of impact.
I thought that they might have some kind of resistance to their own attacks, yet far from the truth, they are actually helpless. The cat look-alike beast I hit only gets to trash on the ground for a moment before its leg falls off after the upper part melts.
The damage doesn't stop there though. The substance keeps eating away at the wound, only stopping after taking a big chunk of its stomach with it, killing the one who created it in one go.
Seeing just how deadly those attacks can be I start sweating a bit.
‘Relax, I can just keep dodging as I have been doing till now.’ I try to reassure myself of my ability to dodge before the next rain of needles of death comes my way. Thankfully I have my shield still in place to fend off the ones I feel are too dangerous, yet I still try to give myself a little bit more room to breathe by leaving some more distance between me and the projectiles I dodge.
Just in case.
After the barrage, I repeat the same move, grabbing another one of those giant needles and strengthening it before aiming and returning it back to sender.
This time my target does move, ducking to the side as the spike continues flying on.
Not wasting my time, throw at them a tree trunk from one of the trees that their projectiles corroded. The tree lands behind them, blocking their easiest way to retreat and make distance with me.
‘Now that the tables have turned I won’t let you both get away from me.’ I clear my doubts as I get ready for another round of dodging, a new barrage. A new attack that never comes, and I look closely at them and notice their clear lack of movement.
‘So, they finally ran out of those deadly needles? Did they decide to take a defensive stance?’
The once threatening monsters are now just a couple of terrified puppies caught between a stone and a wall. However, I do not complain about good things happening and start throwing back their spikes at them, obliterating the two of them.
They were agile, and their attacks were deadly, but once both of those options were taken away from them, it was over. Not like they were weak, each one could still probably take more than twenty survivors before going down, but I am neither a normal survivor nor did they try.
Finishing up with them I take a look around… The whole clearing is a mess.
Trees have been destroyed, and holes in the ground have been made by the strong corrosive too. The whole land had already been ravaged by the clash of the fox and bear before my fight against those guys.
The trenches and cracks in the ground from the strong surges of electricity are still there, but they all pale in comparison with how destroyed the spot where the bear stood is. His use of the soil itself, throwing around rocks and dirt, has destroyed the whole landscape.
Taking a look at the fox, I see it lying on the floor, all curled into a ball. Carefully, I approach it and try to get it somewhere safer to treat it and help it heal. However, as I get close, I can discern its shivering body, a sign of its last struggles to stay alive.
Not doubting anymore, I quickly grab it and start running with it in my arms. I have a clear direction, the van I stole from the supermarket at the beginning and that’s been hidden.
I know I have food there, and while there might not be much, I had already stashed some medical supplies there preventively while I was living at the base with Jake and all those people.
‘Fuck! I get annoyed just by remembering it!’’ I calm myself and look for something that will help stop the bleeding of the little guy in the surrounding area.
I spot an RV just a few meters along the road and I force my way into it with a strong kick to the door that breaks it apart. I lay down the fox on top of a table and start looking for a medkit, and soon enough I find one in the bathroom.
First, I bring it to the table where the fox is unconscious. Then, I take the fox to the bathroom and I open the tap hoping for the water to still work.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Initially, it doesn't work, so I look under the sink and spot a big bottle filled with water with a pedal right next to it that works as a pump. I start pressing the makeshift pump as I start cleaning the dirt from the fox wounds.
Most of the wounds are just scratches or burn marks from the friction of the rocks hitting its skin. However, there is one grievous wound, the one where a pointy rock from the bear went through one of its shins.
The wound is deep, I know it because I saw the stone pierced all the way to the other side with its attack, yet I clean it nonetheless and use a nearby towel to dry its fur.
Once the bigger stones, dirt, and any other things that may cause infections later on, I go back to the table. There, I begin by sterilizing a few bandages and using them to get rid of any germs close to the wound.
I use a couple more to stop the bleeding and keep any dust or dirt from getting inside it.
‘Now the only thing that needs to be done is the splint.’ I look around for a suitable piece of wood or similar and with a fast use of my wrist I split a leg from a cabinet. I use some rags I rip from the bed to attach it all together to the fox’s leg just in case, to make sure it doesn't get worse for a while.
After doing my best to patch up the little guy and clean the other scratches all over its body, I pour some water on a bowl and some food into another. Both of them are next to the wounded animal.
Being done with the treatment, I try to search for the keys of the vehicle, but after about fifteen minutes of wasted time, I surrender and leave it as it is. I decide to spend the night in the RV, so I go out to push so that the door ends up blocked by another car.
I barricade the broken door with the only chair that isn’t nailed to the ground and then get back to the bedroom to sleep. All curtains are down and we are in the middle of a local road lost in the middle of a bunch of cars that form one of the many blockages along the street.
There is no better place to go undercovered than this for us at the moment. I am kind of tired too, so I need to make the most of the night while I can.
----------------------------------------
The next morning I wake up to a small ray of sunlight that passes through the cracks of the curtains.
‘I would love to stay in bed for a while, but I should check on the fox.’ I think so as I get up and open the door to the main space of the RV.
I look at the table, and there it is, the small fox is in the same spot where I left it yesterday. Inspecting the little guy I note that some food and water are missing even if right now it is still sleeping.
‘Hmm…’ I would love to move around to recon the area, yet I don’t feel at ease leaving the beast alone in here.
‘Should I take it with me? I wouldn't want it to attack me the moment it wakes up or leave it alone to wake up on its own?’
I look at the wound on its leg and can’t help but get rid of those ideas. If the only thing it could do after waking up was to eat a bit and drink a couple of sips before going back to sleep I don't think it would escape even if it were to wake up again.
‘Let's forget about that and try to get one of these vehicles to work. I need one to get fast to where I left the van with the food and medical supplies.’ I plan on taking all the supplies I hid before and then going to an isolated area for a while.
Launch time arrives and I can finally rest after already solving the problem of the lack of a working vehicle. I found the key of one of the vehicles in the blockage and managed to move another car to make space for it to leave the blocked part of the road on it.
When I get back to the RV the fox has already woken up. It is eating the last bits of food on the plate and only notices me when I close the broken door.
All this time I have been upgrading my stealthy skills such as walking without making a sound and so on, but even so, this little guy should have heard me the moment I opened the door. It just goes to show how much of a bad state it is experiencing.
I slowly approach one of the cabinets and reach out to fill up the food bowl again to let it know it's all good, yet it flinches. Is at that point that I feel again that 6th sense telling me about the danger the beast still represents.
So far the sensation has saved me countless times so I stop myself from getting close to the small fox again. I already came to the understanding that the sensation is out of my control, it just works as some type of alarm that rings in my head the moment I am in danger.
While I am still thinking about how to approach the animal in a peaceful manner I feel a connection reaching out for me from it. It comes from the fox, and it's similar to that thread of energy that the leader of the first orcs I encountered, the one with the sword, used on me after defeating me after their ambush.
I can tell it's similar just by looking, but it's not the same. Both seem to follow the same principle, yet the one from this fox seems to run deeper into my body, I can nearly feel the thread going into my body ever so slowly.
For a second I think about coating all my body with some qi to try and negate any influence the energy may have, yet after some quick thinking I let it inside, anxious to see just what the hell it does.
Its similarities to the one from the orc that I already experienced may have played a part in my decision making though.
A few seconds later I feel the thread of energy stop its movement and stay in place. I am about to examine it with my qi to decipher just what purpose it has when I feel overwhelmed by emotions, emotions I don't have.
The thread functions as some kind of bridge between me and the fox that lets its feelings reach me. I am forced down to my knees due to the shock of getting my head and heart filled with all those feelings that don’t belong to me.
I can still feel some of my fear of the fox attacking me, but all the other emotions belong to the beast. I can feel its fear and confusion, and how stressful this whole situation is for her.
Yes, not only I am able to feel how frustrated the little animal is, but I can even tell some things apart just like how she is a female and the last one of her pack.
It really feels as if we have both just experienced the same things and were going through the consequences of it all together.
‘This is kind of unnerving.’ I can’t help but think.