CHAPTER 13: Responding Rage
The shouts broke the attention of the front liners, and some turned to see what was happening while others moved a little too much out of position, but the result was immediate. The goblins were now in control of the fight. They forced their way in as stone axes tore their skin and muscles, shields pushed them around, and clubs threatened to snap their bones.
Adam hit the wall he had jumped at and dropped. The machete in the left hand pierced the head of one assassin, driving straight through its brain. The sledgehammer in his right hand pounded downward, the top of the hammer’s head cracking the skull of the other assassin while Brittney drove her machete into its chest.
He saw Brandon’s body torn through. Heat pulsed within him. The river began to boil. There was no thought of anchoring, no reaching for the coolness. There was only rage.
Adam looked down at the shaking body of Brandon where his insides were coming out. Brittney grabbed him and sobbed. Abbey was yelling for Ed to help her, who had frozen while staring at the scene pale as a ghost, as she put her hands on Brandon.
Then Adam looked at the mess that was now the front line. Only seconds had passed and the group had gone from no wounds to red blood everywhere. His own shoulder and back were streaming red.
He roared and his vision turned as red as the blood that flowed. He roared again and accepted the fury. The boiling river pulled him in and he didn’t resist. His ears pounded with blood. There were shouts and calls around him, but he heard none of it. Everything was red, and amidst it, all he heard was his own voice, a little older and a lot firmer. CONQUER, it yelled. So he did.
Without thought or concern he jumped upwards and then kicked off the wall, pushing himself to the front of his group. The goblins had frozen at his roars, so no new damage had been done to his friends. Adam didn’t bother landing. He simply tackled the first goblin he reached, grabbing its huge head in his hand and slamming it into the ground. Standing up he roared again. The pause of the goblins was very short this time, but they still instinctually backed away.
Adam swung the sledgehammer around and around. From his back to the front and then over his head he swung in continual motion. The force of it didn’t even slow when he made contact with them. The angrier he had become, the stronger his swings were. Goblin heads exploded, arms were ripped off, bodied flung away. When one area was cleared, Adam would leap to another.
The goblins tried to get away from him, they tried to run. Adam wasn’t aware of his own fighters following behind him taking out any that didn’t immediately die to him. All Adam knew was the heat, river, and blood. Blood that flowed all over him. Blood that coated him. Blood that roared through his river. The whole world was blood. The whole world should be blood.
“Adam!” a voice shouted.
The river had stopped boiling. Coolness was trying to slow it but failing. Adam lifted his hammer once more to make the world bleed.
“ADAM!” the voice shouted again.
A splash of cold hit his mind. The river slowed enough for the real Adam to pull himself out of it. He couldn’t remember what had happened. Fatigue hit him. The red pulled from his eyes, and he looked around.
Adam was standing with his hammer raised. Goblin bodies were everywhere, all on the ground, and they weren’t whole. Pieces and pieces were scattered and pulped. Gore and guts were flung everywhere, covering it in blue blood. In front of him, instead of goblins waiting for his hammer to fall, was his own group. He had turned on the group he was trying to protect. His breath was heaving, and steam was coming off his skin. Skin that was exposed throughout his body as his poncho and pants were in scraps. Blood coated him everywhere, steaming as it was super-heated from inside him.
Fear showed on the faces in front of him, as well as a resignation to death. Lucas was the closest, holding his hammer in a wide two-handed grip to try and catch Adam’s downward swing. Brittney was next to him, as if the goblin shield she held would stop him. Everyone else was standing several steps back, spears and machetes raised, with Lamar pointing at arrow at his chest.
A quick glance showed him all of this. A gory landscape with way more than 24 goblin corpses, his friends trying to protect themselves from him. This was a war zone, and he had become the enemy of all.
Adam reached inside himself. He grasped the coolness and then he plunged it into the river with force. The cool and heat didn’t co-exist. The heat was instantly gone and the river froze, unable to flow. With that freeze came the end of his ability to control his body.
“Damn!” he hissed, then collapsed, dropping straight into the piles of guts and blood. While the sensation made him want to vomit, he was more concerned about how attractive the blood smelled to him. He could smell it all, the goblin blood, his friends’ blood, and his own blood, as if he was walking past a gourmet restaurant. Maybe I’m becoming a vampire, he wondered. Is that a class?
"Is he back?” Brittney asked.
“He seemed suddenly lucid,” said Carlos.
“That was so damn scary!” muttered Joseph.
“I never want to go against the boss,” Tom’s voice whimpered, sounding hoarse.
Lucas just grunted and lowered his hammer.
“Is he safe to move?” asked Nick.
“He needs healing, I can see tons of blood coming out of him,” said Andrea.
“Who is going to get him? He’s filthy and practically naked,” said Randall.
“I don’t mind the naked,” said Alissa, “but that gore is a bit too much.”
“He saved our lives,” added Lamar.
“He almost ended our lives,” commented Randall.
Lucas grunted again and then walked forward. He picked up Adams arms and dragged him out of the gore, not because he couldn’t carry him, but he didn’t want the filth to get on him either. The sledgehammer was grabbed by Brittney.
Once Adam was out of the gore Abbey and Ed came forward and started using their heal spells on him. Adam felt them wash over him, slowly closing cuts and soothing bruises.
“His eyes are still open. I think he is conscious,” said Abbey.
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Nick got close to his face, looking him over. “Hey, Adam. Can you hear me?”
Adam tried to speak but was unable to even control his air and vocal cords. Instead, what came out was an undulating moan.
“Yeah, I’ll take that as alive. I’m just concerned about you not moving.”
“We’ve got to hurry,” spoke Lucas. “The goblins stopped coming after Adam had slaughtered so many, but they are still watching us. With him down we need to get out of here before they see us as easier targets.”
“He should be healed enough to move. The bleeding has stopped, but I don’t know what is preventing him from moving. I’m pretty sure I can’t help with that,” said Abbey.
“Someone give me a poncho,” Lucas demanded. Ed pulled a spare one out of his equipment bag. Once it was on, Lucas lifted Adam onto his shoulders. Everyone scrambled to get what they could of their gear and then the group hurried back to their own warehouse.
***
Several bottles of water were dumped onto Adam. Spare cloth was rubbed against him in an attempt to get the blood off. He was propped against a turned over metal drum. Abbey and Alissa had taken charge of trying to get him presentable.
“Still can’t move?” asked Abbey.
“Un,” grunted Adam, which was an improvement. At least he could control his eyes now and wiggle his head, giving him hope this was temporary.
“We need to bring some water tanks here next time, to clean our gear and clothes…and the boss. The school has a hose on the side. We could try to use it without being noticed,” suggested Carlos, while eating a sandwich.
Adam was surprised that they could eat after everything they had gone through. He figured there should be PTSD going on. The attack they had just survived, having an ally turn on them, and Brandon being cut open, those things should have all caused mental trauma. Yet there were clearly some signs, like the nervous way everyone’s eyes kept flicking to the doors, windows, and shadows. Brandon had survived thanks to the immediate healing, but he was shirtless and pale, and he kept looking at his stomach and shivering.
As everyone continued to chat quietly, and the girls wiped him off, he turned his own attention inside. He could still feel the river frozen. What had been coolness was now super cold, holding him still. It wasn’t just in his head but throughout his body. The heat that originated from his heart was being smothered even though he doubted it would get snuffed out.
His consciousness skated along the body and through the river, winding its way along his limbs and back toward its origin in his heart. He then followed the cords of cold up his neck and towards his head. The cold didn’t come from his brain. There was something else there, as if it existed in the same space but a different reality. He tried breathing some heat into the cold, but nothing changed. Next was drawing the heat from his heart upwards, but it became clear that the cold had firm control over it. Finally, he just tried pulling the cold, holding himself above the neck. He imaged grabbing the tendrils of cold in his neck and pulling them back into his head.
That seemed to do the trick. While the tendrils were too cold to actually pull, he was sure he would rip something intangible inside himself if he pulled too hard, the imagined grip seems to bring warmth to the cold slowly, until it dissolved from frozen to the usual coolness. That also allowed the tendrils to soften and fade, until the coolness was only in his head and the heat was once more pulsing gently in his heart.
A large breath surprised the girls. It also surprised him but was encouraging. Expanding his lungs and ribs to breath intentionally was the first muscle control he had regained. Experimentally he tried lifting his arm. He was able to bring his hand up, but it was exhausting, and he felt a weakness in his muscles.
Turning to Abbey he asked, “Is everyone else ok?”
She frowned at him, “Everyone else? Well, Brandon was quite traumatized, and Brittney feels guilty for it but physically everyone except you are healed. We aren’t sure how to help you.”
“I think…” Adam paused not sure what he thought, “I disabled my body so I wouldn’t attack you guys.”
“You did that on purpose?” Curiosity had taken her mood. “Are you able to undo it? How is that possible?”
“Not sure to any of those questions, but I think I undid it, which is how I can talk now. But I am extremely weak and moving is quite difficult. It’ll take some time before the heat builds back up in my body.”
“I guess that is why you are mumbling and slurring your words?” Alissa asked.
“Yeah, probably. It is taking a lot of will to control my muscles.”
The rest of the group had heard him speaking and they were quiet and paying attention now.
“Are you going to recover, boss?” Tom asked.
“Probably, but I don’t know when. I’m definitely not coming back out until I recover. When I came to I saw waaaay more than 24 goblin corpses.”
“Yeah, there were over 70 killed by the time you stopped. Fortunately, they were in such disarray that we were able to farm experience from them safely. We would have been dead without you taking out those assassins and then freezing them all with your yelling,” Lamar explained, then realized something. “What a minute. What do you mean by ‘come to’?”
“I blanked out after I saw Brandon stabbed,” said Adam. Brandon winced at the reminder, making Adam feel bad. “I got so full of rage that I jumped to try and protect them and then I was facing Lucas. To keep my mindless body from hurting you guys I somehow cut off my body from moving just in case I didn’t have control.”
“Thanks for that,” grumbled Lucas.
“Yeah boss, you were a right terror and my heart almost stopped when I saw you turn your scary face on us,” Tom shivered.
“What I’ve been wondering is how you guys aren’t more scared by everything we went through. We were overwhelmed, injured, and almost killed, but you guys seem like you are just casually chatting.”
“He says we’, as if the boss wouldn’t have been able to walk right out of there without issues if it weren’t for the rest of us,” Tom said sarcastically.
The real answer was from Carlos. “I didn’t know you before, but for some reason there is calming presence coming from you. It’s like it keeps me grounded and able to move forward. Obviously it isn’t all encompassing since Brandon and Brittney at least will need therapy. Oddly, just before you collapsed the presence felt stronger, more tangible.”
“Yeah boss. I’m sure we all feel it. Just hanging out with you makes it feel like things are alright,” said Tom. “Anyway, what do we do now?”
“I need to get washed off. Carlos’s hose idea is probably a good idea. There is a change of clothes in my bag, which I’ll need help putting on,” Adam said with embarrassment. “Then I’ll need help getting home. Are you guys going to be ok without me?”
“Well, quite frankly,” started Tom, “Brittany and Brandon won’t be. I figured I’d bring them to my house. While I’m an asshole, my sisters will probably love helping and comforting them. I’ll say they got jumped and didn’t want to be alone. My sisters will eat it up.”
Brandon didn’t respond to it all, just stared at the ground, but Brittney spoke up. “I’ve already texted our moms. It’ll be fine. Friday nights have always been bad with Brandon’s dad, so his mom often sends him to my house.”
“We’ll stay at Andreas’s house. It’s easy to be ignored with so many girls around,” Alissa indicated her and Abbey.
“I’ll leave it to your new harem to get you hosed and dressed,” Nick said thinking he was being sly, but none of the girls rose to it. “Then I’ll take you home. We can tell your parents it was an accident while paint balling. That will explain any left-over blue blood. A shot to the neck could result in a stinger.” He shrugged.
“Alright. Thanks guys. I need my rest, so I guess we’ll wait before talking about doing this more. Seeing you guys hurt isn’t worth it,” Adam said. Abbey put a hand on his slightly less dirty shoulder and gave him a sympathetic smile. Adam also noticed that there was still a drone buzzing above, which killed his mood just a bit.
***
“Hello, mister and misses Clemens.”
“Good evening, Nick. It’s been a while since you’ve been over. Did you want some dinner?” Adam’s mom offered.
“That would be great. Adam and I were paint balling with some friends, and he got hit in the neck. It’s just a stinger but he’s feeling a bit weak, so I wanted to make sure he got home alright.”
“Such a good friend. Adam, are you ok?”
Adam slumped into his dinner chair as soon as he got to it. He was now able to walk on his own, but it felt like he was carrying a heavy weight, pulling him to the ground. Nick had been helping support him when they came in. He had to fight to keep from falling.
“I’ll be fine mom. I just want to eat, shower, and sleep,” he responded.
“Are you sure you are ok?” she asked again.
“Yes, mom. Just tired and weak.”
“Ok, let me know if you think we need to get you to a doctor. Not that any are available.”
“I will.”
“Good. Nick, I will have my husband drive you home after dinner. Make sure to let your parents know.”
“Yes, Mrs. Clemens.”
Name: Nick Morris [6]
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: Scout [0]
Body [6]
Strength: 16
Agility: 20
Vitality: 13
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 5
Skill Points: 0
Skills:
Light Steps: Sound related to movement reduced by 5%.