Getting hurled bodily into a wall was a less-than-peaceful way to go. For all that, I died almost instantly; coming back from that particular death, my body partially shattered, my head embedded in my torso like a piton, my toes missing, my poor shoes, my brand new sandals, all of it was quite a nightmare to fix.
Gods above, it was almost as bad as the damage to my clothes. Anna’s gift of clothing, hands down, the most expensive casualty of my fight, was a mess, too.
The funny part about coming back, however, despite the pain caused by my body being disfigured beyond belief, was that once it started to actually fix itself, it started to feel quite agreeable.
My toes tingled and tickled as they popped out of my ruined flesh like suckering vines. I regained awareness blind, ears and head ringing, and it lasted all of a few moments before blissfully ending. My spine flexed before pushing, the disks grinding before letting out nice little pops.
It was the worst kind of good thing, the kind you had absolutely no way to enjoy.
Like always I felt great, absolutely fantastic, considering being thrown head first into a solid stone wall should make me feel quite poorly, but it was very bad timing to have it happen.
The sudden lack of pain was almost euphoric, the suck of fresh… Well, not fresh, but hot, somewhat sooty breath as my eyes snapped open blissfully.
Blissful for the moment, it took me to start orienting myself.
The carnage around me brought me down rather quickly, as the sight of dead people tended to do.
One of the buildings had collapsed, which was quite the feat. Though I supposed that for the monster, that was just an everyday occurrence, what was more worrisome was the mounds of dust that piled around some of the polearms and in the forms of uniforms. There were also bodies, whole and in bits; some bodies were haphazardly hurled around the area, while others were red spots slammed into the paving stones.
All in all, I could see what had to be at least ten bodies.
Quite a few of them were the poles, the best weapon to pin the monster down with.
Wasn’t that just dandy? It had taken out, selectively, the weapon that could, in theory, pin it down long enough for us to win.
It was almost like it had a mind of its own and wasn’t waiting for us to kill it like it was from a storybook for children.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
The feeling of disappointment was short-lived, overtaken by the much more important feeling of fear because I had come here to stop one idiot from dying and released a dear friend into the wild of the fight.
If the disintegrated guards were anything to go by, Selly could be dust right now, or god knows what. She could have fainted again, sleeping forever, so small that I couldn’t find her before she suffocated.
I sat up, head spinning, heart beating like I was sprinting. My body forced itself to my feet, my hands moving like I had my shovel, which had gotten ejected from my body and lay at my feet, where I slammed my tiny toe into it.
Holding back a shout that would have been drowned out by the screeching of the monster and the shout of the [Guard], I did my best to spot the two idiots out of the rapidly moving crowd.
I found Clause fast enough; he was moving in and out of range of the monster, well within killing range of its one arm, his plate giving him away. Selly was downright impossible, though; her tiny form, now black, was too hard to find, my poor eyes unable to pick up on a flash of white less than an inch across from dozens of feet away.
Instead, I focused on my ears, on the shouts that were far deeper than the sound of a buzzing wing. Or at least, one not as distinctive as a clipped one. I found it, just on the edge of my hearing, and I breathed a sigh of relief because the flapping meant she was alive, even if I couldn’t see her.
My poor heart slowed by half the moment I realized both of them were alive. And then it sped back up to, ‘oh gods I need to get back in that fight,’ speed and hissing, I kicked the shovel up, almost fumbled it, let it hit me in the ribs instead of my face as it swung up like I stepped on a rake, grabbed the end.
Sighing at the lack of sandals, I tip-taped my way back toward the fight, my toes tensing on the cobbles.
In my time fighting the creature, it had not used a skill by calling it out loud, but in its haste, it did so now, the remaining [Guards] keeping it on its toes. Despite being outnumbered, however, and by a dozen to one at that, it was doing too good of a job keeping them off of it.
It spoke in hissing shrieks, its skills coming out as hateful curses from its horrid maw. The only reason I could understand them at all was that it was a skill.
It cried out skills the likes of which I hadn’t heard before, skills like [Insurmountable], [Monstrous Blow] and [Aura of Malice], clashed with the skills of line holders, fighters and the not-so-young [Lord]. They clashed, and the monster was winning.
It was a stunning sight but in all the wrong ways.
I moved to close the gap while Clause closed on the monster again and spotted the monster turn to him, a visible grin cracking across the beast's face in a rictus.
It lifted its one arm, and I hurled myself in, pushing past the guards, winding between them where I could, past one of the only poles that was doing its best to pin the thing down on its own and into a range of the monster.
It brought its arm up, intending no doubt to use a skill, and without thinking, I shoved Clause to the side, pointing my blade up while the beast shouted, “[Sundering Blow].”
I raised my blade and sidestepped the blow, its slow telegraphed movement giving ample time for both the monster to realize who I was and for Clause to recover and turn to face me, his face impassive but with a minor look of bewilderment in his eyes.
It seemed neither had expected me to just walk off getting slammed into a wall and while both started to make noises, I focused on the fight at hand.
I was out of death mana; it had disappeared on my return, though the life mana in my body had toped back up. The problem was, however… I didn’t have enough time to imbue a blow right now, not while I had a moment of surprise.
The arm, as it came down, made an obvious point to attack, but I didn’t think without a blow like before, it would do enough damage to make a difference.
So I didn’t go for the arm, and I didn’t go for the death mana. I went to enhance my skills normally by flexing them.
Head, side, or leg.
I went for legs because the bigger they were, the harder they fell, and his legs would just make that more apparent.
I placed my feet and let [True Strike] find a point down on the leg close to the ankle before partially swinging but mostly thrusting down at my target. The blow hit, my blade having enough force to cut bone deep before I pulled back up to shield myself.
And it came up not a moment too late, the monster waving its arm at me reflexively. The haft took it, the errant thought still strong enough to force a protest from my legs as they skid a foot across the ground, bumping into a random [Guard] with a shield.
The monster, having recognized me first, let out a horrid hissing screech that warbled into a hissed “Apostate!”
The word held a terrible weight, the beast tunnel visioning on me again, its presence turning into a thing of hate and wrath.
It was a terrible feeling that rolled off of it like an aura.
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Hells, maybe that was what it was, an [Aura of Hate] or [Monstrous Aura]. Considering how the hulking figure felt to look at. Or maybe it was something more mundane, simply its horrid form and monstrous presence, or the magic in it, pulsing like a poison as it spoke.
It didn’t matter. Not right now.
Maybe not ever.
Clause capitalized on the moment of confusion, cleaving into the corded muscle of its upper arm with the edge of his blade. It must have been a fine blade indeed to cut as it did, guided entirely by human muscle.
Grit and muscle managed to cut a good slice in the creature's arm before he dropped down slightly and thrust the blade up toward the creature's head, the blade cutting through across one of the people's eyes and the forehead, little black orblets like the eyes of a spider also cut before making a swift motion across the scull freeing the blade and letting a curtain of blood flow free down its face.
Three strikes so fast it came before I even finished hearing the creature speak, its voice still on, ‘state.’
Strangely, I could understand what it was, even without words. It was a warrior equivalent to my [Rapid Action], three strikes all blurring together. Something like [Tripple Strike] or [Threefold Strike]. It was a good idea.
So I stole it.
As the monster turned to face Clause, I let out a [Rapid Action], going once again for the leg, missing my prior mark, by landing two hits close enough that it would be hard for the monster to use its leg, even as it started to heal. An inconvenient wound.
It took a halting, shuttering step back, giving the remaining poles a chance to lower their points and protect their fellows.
Or protect them against everything but a spell.
It was far from casting a spell as it was now, but I had no idea how it had killed the other halberdiers.
I could have speculated to myself, but I had an inside source that was more than willing to help, one that was right next to me.
I was not talking about Clause, though the two were certainly related because standing on his shoulder, like a valiant [Crusader] or a very strange mascot, was Selly, her wings buzzing up a storm for no reason in particular.
“Selly, good to see you. Did he hit the halberds with a spell or a skill?”
“Twas not a skill, but something fast. A queer spell for sure, almost none of that waving you do,” she told me, her voice seemingly pitched just right to reach my ears.
Now, that was a useful skill in a fight, especially for someone so small.
“Are you still trying to kill it, Clause?” I asked him.
“Justice demands no less! Beast. Monster. In the name of my father, [Baron] Mynes, I seek your head. MEN! [Press the Attack], and [Execute] this offensive creature!”
A weight settled in the wake of his words, a pressure pressing down on the creature, marking it for everyone in the valley to know its place was at the end of a sword. The command passed me, but I followed it regardless; I wanted this thing dead just as much as he did.
Selly, deciding that it was time to give us a kick in the pants, added, “[Harry] its retreat! [Get Em!],” before cackling like some manner of demented rodent, sword levelled at the monster like she meant to do battle.
The monster backed up, and the pressure of the declaration and the weight of our skills made it reconsider its place in the pecking order.
Four arrows thunked into its neck and shoulder and marked the starting point for an attack, the sound louder than a horn. We charged like a stampede towards it, a shout of fury, that drowned out its shrieking.
It ducked down, the halberds slicing its hunch as its arm flashed out; a whisper of mana that told me skill-enhanced muscle was on display, though it wasn’t coming for me.
It slammed into a shield-wearing man a few feet to my left, who was unceremoniously hurled into four others with the force of a catapult stone, a cry of pain ringing from them while four or five of us punished the half-blind monster, its face bubbling as it regrew into a far more tumours visage. It had the horrid look of roots and nodules, bits of flesh and sinew swelling like tubers into a grotesque mockery of my own purposeful regrowth.
It turned toward my half, its eyes not full of fear but unrepentant hate and disgust, as if we were sickly rodents crawling with maggots.
It pulled out from the pikes, turning and falling into a hunched three-arm charge away to gain distance, its turn flicking ichor on us that stung but not enough for us to stop our pursuit.
We funnelled after it, only for it to wheel back; the turn caught several of the guard's feet as they lost their balance for a moment on the melted paving stones. If I were normal, I would have thought it was fleeing. It wasn’t. It was making a rush back toward the dark magic that still lingered like a miasma in the air.
“It’s trying to cast a spell!” I shouted, alerting the mundane men of the unseen threat, giving chase as those lagging behind started to turn.
Clause turned quite well, his legs letting him pivot back toward the beast as it slowed.
We ran like hell was on our heels, the lordling readying his blade for a strike and me readying myself to hew. I reached within and prepared some death mana.
If I could put myself in his blind spot and Clause held its attention, it could work.
“Selly, can you drag its attention?” I shouted over to her, our words covert despite the near shout it took to carry them.
“Oh, I think I can,” She shouted back, which got Clause to wince.
We rushed in, and I split from Clause, who ran up and did as [Swordsmen] did best, slice things until they were composed of thin strips. I didn’t; I came up in the mending blindspot, hoping it focused on Clause.
Waiting for Clause to run into the monster, whose one arm was raised to the black smog already getting to shaping, the mass moving, I circled, preparing myself for the impending strike.
It was shaping the spell with its one hand, so it had to go. Without the spells, it was just a misshapen, well muscled Gremlin.
I took the death mana floating in my body and began to focus it down, mimicking the feeling I had before, and while doing so, stepping forward, closer to lunging range.
Sweating, eyes twitching, I readied myself, bringing myself to the edge of releasing the spell and waited for [True Strike] to show an opening.
I couldn’t understand what was happening as I did it, sacrificing every iota of attention to ensure I could release the spell thing I was casting at the right time. Hearing fell away as did everything else, even my sight did, my attention turned inward left my vision unfocused.
The thing moved and revealed its hand a moment later, and I struck, forcing myself forward, my shovel singing through the air as the spell snapped out and up its half.
My blade bit into the thing's hand, the spell it was shaping, judging like a serpent.
Clause was down on the other side, the metal breastplate bent in. Selly was hovering next to him. There was a great deal of shouting that snapped back into the background, the [Guard] shouting something, and the Monster and I looked at one another.
The spell shuttered again, and we looked up at the magic.
I had impaled its hand, the tip of my shovel neatly pressed through its bone and out the other side.
The hand that was shaping a spell.
The spell that was using all of the dark mana that was floating above us.
The spell that I was disrupting.
The disrupted spell with a lot of power behind it.
The kind that exploded last time I did that.
“Oh dear-” “Kill you Apost-”
The world exploded; the dispersed magic was less contained than last, still enough to knock me back and on my rear, but not enough to kill or concuss me. The silver linings were important.
It took a bit to recover from the flash and bang, my ears screaming with tinnitus and my eyes flashing with smudgy shapes, but they came back as I blinked away the stars and saw the monster.
It was mobile and moving back toward Clause, burns on his skin, body twitching from what I could only assume was a truly horrible backfire.
I could only hope it was because I did not want the thing to start its way over to Clause, who was on the ground, not dead but certainly in pain from what I had to assume was getting hit real good while I was focused on casting my spell.
My shovel in hand, I wobbled my way in towards him and took my vigil over the wounded man. He was sucking in breaths, his breathing short, but he was breathing, which meant he would probably live.
The monster tilted its head unnaturally, craning its neck to stare at me like the horrific bird it sounded like.
“Eyah- Apostate. Guarding a profaned Human lord. Disgusting,” it hissed.
“You're disgusting; you're giving me gangrene just looking at you,” I told it.
“Going to kill you, apostate. Your existence disrespects my master and the one. Whatever false god you serve, I shall smite you regardless, as I will also do with the retched human refuse and that mongrel lord,” it said, cold words, the longest it had ever properly spoken.
“I serve no one, and I’m not going to let something like you do anything to anyone; your time here is over,” I told it, “I took your arm and hand, and I’m going to take far more than that before I send you to one of the hells when I take your head.”
I spoke as calmly as I could, doing my best not to show weakness, I stood my ground, even though I didn’t think I could fight it. The guards were moving in, but it had been maybe twenty seconds. If the thing moved in, it could probably ignore me.
It was certainly strong enough.
It paced to the side, its body moving in a limp that I didn’t trust. I had hurt it, and it had moved on three limbs instead of two, but it’s healing was quite potent. I took it as a faint, something to get me to move and stood my ground and kept my guard up. I kept my eyes wide, waiting for any sign of movement.
And my wide eyes were the only reason I could spot it early enough to not jump out of my skin.
A shape moved in the corner of my eye, a slinking shape, and reflexively my eyes tracked it.
It was a cat.
It was the cat.
The gargantuan cat that had stalked me.
The monster took my look as an attempt to distract it, continuing its pointless stalk while the cat began to stalk along behind it. It was playful and unconcerned.
The guards spotted it and slowed down, and the [Hunters], who had gotten an extra arrow in the thing at some point, did not fire.
They were all looking, no doubt, and the gargantuan feline.
It walked up behind the thing as it came a little closer, opened its jaw, and broke its wounded leg at the ankle, its jaw-shattering bone with such a force it was audible across the entire clearing.
The whole world seemed to explode at that, the monster jumping away, the cat let it, the guard jumped on its weekness and chased it trying to pin it with their numbers.
The world stopped focusing on the cat, which slipped back toward where it came from. The whole world looked away, except me.
It turned back in the way that felines often would, meeting my eyes.
And then it smiled.
Not like a cat, but like a human, its mouth formed a horrifying grin. It looked monstrous all on its own, though it wasn’t. It lacked the palpable malice of one, which only made it all the worse.
Then it slipped back into the alleys, and it was gone.
And thank every god it was.
It had opened its jaw like a snake, and I wanted no part in whatever that creature was.