Chapter 20: Something Stupid

Heedless of shouted warnings and admonishment I struck a good old fashioned candle of beef tallow and ran out of the cave as fast as I could, crouching below a swipe and casting Waxen Splash with my overburn trait, I felt the drain on my lifeforce but burnt through half the candle and sent a jet of flaming fat behind and above me. I heard the enraged screech as the creatures were hit by the vicious attack and then I had my first experience with a Shadelock's barb, the attack dealt 12 points of damage to my 32 hitpoints, the Runic coat's defence rating reduced that to 8 and then reduced the remaining damage by 20 percent, I was hoping the reduction would be applied first but this was better than nothing. The damage ended up around 6 and I activated my coat's ability to reduce damage by 5 and restore one hitpoint. All of this happened faster than the blink of an eye, time seemed to freeze and I was able to activate or take the hit, I saw the incoming damage before I felt the ripping agony of it. Part of me wondered how it was possible, the other part accepted it and activated the ability, demonic energy slowed the creature's attack and instead of punching a hole in my arm the claw only broke skin, sliced a thin line from wrist to elbow and a single backwards-facing barb snapped off in the wound and began pumping demon-enhanced poison or bacteria into my flesh. There was a single, hideous moment where I could feel the poison, the flesh around the wound felt like hot, broken glass was being packed into it until it would burst but then the secondary effect of the armour's enchantment kicked in and pushed the barb back out as the line closed up and my flesh rejected injury.

Time returned to normal and I continued to run, the third creature lunged at me from the riverbank, ruined wings twitching spasmodically in an attempt to attain now unreachable flight but its two remaining legs were fast enough, I raised my hand and used Selene's bracer to blast the thing with Psychokinetic Ram. "Telekinesis skill levelled up to one" The Shadelock must have been vulnerable to whatever kind of damage telekinesis did because it crumpled right away, legs cracking and folding every wrong way they could. The feedback i got informed me this had been 20 damage and the creature was now defeated, I received 6 experience, tried to be excited but just had to keep moving, knowing the other bugs would be right behind me, I grabbed my twisted candle, lit it with a cantrip and then dropped it again as the candle rapidly burnt down, building up to detonate the mana within as long as I kept concentrating, if I'd held onto the candle the direct contact would have given me a real boost to it's damage but I wasn't keen on a suicide attack.

Luna and Victoria bought me another precious second, opening fire on the Shadelocks from behind and getting them to stop for a moment, unsure whether to pursue fleeing prey or defend themselves. In that moment of indecision I dived for the river and the candle detonated directly under the horrible demon-tainted bugs. Shrapnel was blasted through their horrible bodies from below and apparently the blast actually lifted the closest one off of the ground. I didn't see that happen however; I hadn't been able to get far enough from the shockwave and my dive had turned into a much more uncontrolled flight. That wasn't great to start with, then I hit the water and the impact knocked the wind out of me. I saw the sun shining above me, seeming so far away as it disappeared behind a cloud of red. "You are bleeding, 3 points of damage, you have been stunned by force wave."

I was bleeding, 31 hitpoints had been my total before the bomb-candle went off, now I had 17, I moved my arms, forced myself to swim and more blood poured out. "You are bleeding, 2 points of damage."

I kept swimming, and a shape brushed past me in the water, then another. "All this butchered meat and the fish ignore it, but I get one little shrapnel wound and suddenly i'm the dinner bell." I thought bitterly. Then a crushing pain in my arm and I screamed, bubbles pouring out of my mouth as first one then another set of teeth clamped onto my arm, the coat stopped any damage numbers from joining in with the insistent chorus of bleed. Even though those bites wouldn't kill me though, the pressure through the material made it very clear what would happen if the fish found exposed flesh, it was also painful, very painful. Another fish bit my leg and the travelling trousers I'd been provided gave no such protection, "One point of damage from Carnivorous River-Fish" The water wasn't crystal clear but the area hadn't had enough heavy rain to muddy the waters so I could see the ugly little bastards circling me, I had no ability to cast spells underwater so I kept on swimming for the surface, trying my best not to scream out more precious air as blood just kept leaving me behind.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I broke surface and staggered out of the water, ripping fang-mawed fish from my body and hurling them to the rocks, The two sisters called out and ran over, concern on their faces while I just kept throwing the little monsters back into the water, getting their needle-like teeth out of me anyway I could, Luna and Victoria joined me and began spiking the fish with knives while I tried to ram a piece of jagged chitin through the one on my leg.

I don't really remember staggering over to sit down and using my newest cantrip to patch my wounds, I vaguely remember Victoria trying to get my attention while Luna patched me up with bandages and I sealed over each and every wound with wax, watching numbly as the wax took on the appearance of skin, slightly waxy, a bit too shiny perhaps but it looked mostly like skin and it stopped the bleeding pretty quickly.

"That was stupid alright" Luna remarked when we were done, wiping her look of concern away and replacing it with her cocky self-assurance. "Come on Jack, let's get you away from the river for now. Take some time to recover ok."

I never knew how cold a man could be in such warm weather, blood loss left me unable to recover from the chill of the river and I sat shivering by a hastily built fire, slowly the worst of the pain left me and after a couple hours of light rest and conversation with my travelling companions I was up to travel again. Hp 22/32.

Better than nothing I supposed. Much better than my old life, the kind of recovery adventurers were capable of was incredible. If I didn't get in any more fights, I'd be fully recovered in a couple days as healing seemed to slow down after the initial burst.

When I was a bit more calm we discussed the outcome of my actions, the Shadelocks were dead, Luna and Victoria had received a third of the experience. That was why I had only gotten 6 experience per kill. The system recognised that we could not have won the fight the way we did by ourselves, it was a team effort and we were rewarded as such.

"I'm ready to go" I stood up, we snuffed out the fire, buried it in dirt and then returned to the river bank. Victoria had received a level up of her own, another 6 hitpoints brought her up to level 4 and 26 hit points. It turned out there was a party menu, a tab I could toggle on or off. I set it to on and immediately saw my team was unhurt, It really sunk in then, I'd done something selfless, thrown myself into harms way to protect my friends and been successful in my efforts. I actually felt quite proud of myself for it.

We set off again, Luna pushing my trolley for once while I carried a lit candle in each hand, I intended to dump all my mana and incinerate whatever came our way, not wanting to deal with any more demonic shit.

We hadn't been moving for long when we all saw a figure above the trees, I tensed up, vividly reliving the memory of teeth, claws and that menacing barb being pushed from my flesh before its terrible work could be done to me.

The figure swooped low and the glare of the sun did not obscure her. "There she is again, flying overhead, leaving her Master alone and vulnerable. Let's go and kill him, then we'll figure out what to do about her if we have to."

Merrilax had only taken off a few hundred yards away, in the forest just a few dozen metres off of the river. So we had our target and it was time to earn my little candle-maker's cottage.