He shifted to his coatl form and the winds sang. The abrupt upgrade to his Wind Manipulation pressed in against him, and TJ could taste that this ambush was different from all those before. The coyote pelt still curing on his backpack was not the only canine around. Three pukwudgies mounted on massive, five foot-tall coyotes carried not spears but lances, at least seven feet long. While they weren’t so imposing as a human-sized one would be, they were tipped with stone heads that dripped a black liquid.
“Poisoned!” TJ warned, and Stanton gave two pops of his gun as his only answer. TJ couldn’t lose any more of his attention to warning the older man. Right now, his focus needed to be keeping the wolf-sized beasts away from his companion. He hissed and tried to hurl three spears of wind, one at each rider. Instead of the compressed blasts, though, TJ sent stiff breezes that flapped the pukwudgies ears and fur back without threatening to dislodge them. With a screech of frustration, TJ instead focused on one potent tempest that smashed into the central rider’s mouth. Its sharklike teeth went flying as it screeched in confused pain and was thrown from its steed.
The other two pukwudgies and the three coyotes still rushed towards him. A flash of inspiration struck, and TJ again condensed the wind in his mind. Just before the coyotes could reach him in unison, TJ whipped his head from right to left, sending the compressed blade of wind shooting from his mouth with a hiss. The wind screamed out and cut deep into all six front legs. Every coyote stumbled, and one of the remaining riders was thrown from a saddleless back. That left the last one, the one on TJ’s left, ready to strike. Its lance pierced easily through TJ’s scales and he screamed in agony.
Before he could react, that rider’s coyote lunged forward with gaping jaws. They sunk true into TJ’s flesh, his scales cracking as it tried to rip through his organs. Though it had found purchase, the coyote’s attack was a mere flesh wound. The lance, however, nearly pinned TJ to the ground, the tip scraping the dirt under his belly. The other two coyotes, though lamed, still stumbled forward to finish off their prey. TJ couldn’t focus on them yet, but on the current greatest threat.
With a snap of his jaws, TJ nearly decapitated the coyote biting him, but it released him and lunged away before his bite caught deep. As it moved, its rider pulled the lance free, TJ’s blood spilling freely onto the ground.
Warning: You are…
TJ only looked at the notification long enough to see that he’d resisted the poison and the bleed was only -15 HP per minute. Not as bad as he’d feared. He prepared and shot out another arrow of wind that struck into the retreating coyote’s ribs with a crunching of bone and it whimpered as it tried to draw some distance. With the quick creature slowed, TJ leapt to his prey. The pukwudgie screamed as it tried to raise its lance to stave off the coatl’s strike, but his jaws found its head before it could raise any true defence. With a crunch, its head ripped free, and TJ resumed his hunt.
The three coyotes danced around him, disregarding Stanton as the massive snake showed just how threatening it could be. Their leader, the limping one that had carried the pukwudgie that had successfully struck TJ, circled around behind him while the other two menaced his front. Trusting Stanton, TJ only whipped out his tail to grab one of the two coyotes in front of him. His trusting Stanton to continue the work of death among these creatures was repaid. Another cough of a bullet being shot was immediately echoed by a coyote’s wail of pain, and the one behind TJ pulled back, away from attacking and towards the forest. TJ’s tail and then midsection quickly enveloped the other unfortunate creature he’d caught, and the wet crunching of its ribs then spine breaking cut through the other din of combat. It wheezed its last before the inhuman strength of a coatl’s constriction severed its spinal cord.
The remaining coyote, the one struck most severely by TJ’s blade of wind, saw its companion die and limped off to follow the other survivor into the forest, yipping in fear and pain. A sudden stabbing pain in his tail made TJ whirl back and see the two other pukwudgie riders had recovered enough to continue their attack. One had plunged its lance into his tail, but TJ lashed his tail back towards his face to bring his attacker into his jaws. The pukwudgie abandoned its weapon and tried to escape, but TJ pulled it further towards him with a quick inhale. With the wind yanking it closer, he struck. His teeth sunk deep into its belly, blood and viscera exploding out and painting his face in a macabre, sickening red. The other pukwudgie saw TJ’s retaliation and turned tail to flee.
TJ wanted to pursue, but instead returned his gaze to Stanton. He stood with both hands on the pistol, his eyes peeled and focused on the forest that surrounded them. A spear was lodged shallowly in his gut, but he stood confidently nonetheless. As TJ watched, Stanton sidestepped a spear to only take a grazing wound along his hip and returned fire. A hawklike screech and the tumbling of a body from high in a tree answered his shot.
Unfortunately, those throwing spears were a distraction, and a half dozen of the larger blurs rushed from all around Stanton and began their assault. Though he’d tried to be prepared, Stanton obviously wasn’t expecting so many so soon. TJ slithered as fast as he could, gathering two compressed bolts of air and letting them fly, but he missed one of the shots, the other clipping another’s shoulder and spinning it to fall. The last thing he managed to do was to barely catch another pukwudgie’s foot in his striking jaws. The bolt of air that struck true slowed one of the attackers while TJ’s needle-sharp teeth held another from attacking. Four large pukwudgies lunged with sharp spears from under the guise of their camouflage, and TJ knew Stanton was about to die.
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That was when Stanton leapt six feet straight up and, while still in the air, shot two pukwudgies in the top of their disbelieving skulls. All four strikes missed miserably, some nearly stabbing their peers. TJ, amazed but not stunned, lifted the caught pukwudgie high into the air before smashing its full body down on the other he’d hit with a spear of wind. Both tried to screech in pain, but with the wind knocked out of them they merely wheezed. Though they fought to survive, TJ smashed the one in his jaws down once more, the crack of its skull against the ground a sickening thunk. A death notification prompted TJ to drop it as he slithered over the other prone pukwudgie. It screeched in protest, but it went silent under his considerable weight as he slithered over it and rolled it to its crushing death.
With a quick snap of his jaws, TJ snatched up another of the goblin things and, without thinking too hard about it, wrapped a coil around its neck, snapped its spine, and swallowed it whole. Stanton’s Suzie shot once more, and the final pukwudgie down there died. TJ looked up, seeing at least ten weird blurs in the air, each indicating another pukwudgie. With his Perception and instincts, he knew what was about to come. Before a volley of spears could clatter to the ground around them, TJ summoned up the winds to batter aside the attack. The spears flew wide, but a killer headache struck as he did so and he quickly dropped any attempt at Wind Manipulation. Though another dozen or so of the pukwudgies lurked around, they each fled with unintelligible screeches to each other. The forest went silent as TJ and Stanton looked at each other and then the branches above.
After no sign or sound of pukwudgie for several minutes, TJ allowed himself to relax and look at his notifications.
1 Haashchʼéé Oołtʼohí-blessed Coyote, Level 7, Slain.
2 Pukwudgie Raiders, Level 6, Slain.
4 Pukwudgie Spearmen, Levels 5-6, Slain.
TJ forced himself back to his human form, hoping most of his wounds would magically disappear as he did so. He had no such luck. With a groan, TJ pulled the lance from his left hamstring and let it clatter to the ground. The wound still leaked blood, though not so steadily as he’d feared it would. Putting weight on his left leg was agonizing, while his back and stomach both sported rapidly closing wounds. Pulling up his shirt, TJ could see that where the lance had pierced him through as a coatl was mostly scabbed over just to the side of his belly button. When he gingerly tapped along his back, though, he could feel that the entry wound was the more severe of the two. It still wept blood, while his jeans soaked in continuous dripping of his blood from the latest of his wounds.
“I think I’ll be fine. How are you doing, Stanton?” TJ asked, his voice concerned.
“Not great.” Stanton admitted. “But with Natural Harmony, I can at least stop my bleeding and make sure I don’t go septic. We need to make sure none of your guts’re punctured. You can die real easy from that.”
“I don’t think that’s a problem.” TJ shrugged, then winced as he moved. “I broke my nose when all this started, and its only tender now. Nothing worth worrying about. I think that the way I’m healing now should mean that I’ll be fine.”
“Keep an eye out. I’ll take care of you after.” Stanton disagreed before looking back and forth and settling uncomfortably against one of the thickest trees nearby. As the older man sat awkwardly leaning against the tree, TJ watched carefully for any pukwudgies as the sweet scent of ponderosa pines thickened and grew to a nearly cloying level. Initially, he thought it was the lavender scent of the pukwudgies, but he quickly realized it must have had something to do with Stanton’s Natural Harmony Skill.
With none of the little bastards apparently nearby, TJ shifted back into his coatl form, hoping the boost to his Wind Manipulation and Perception would ensure he could give at least some warning about approaching creatures. When he did, though, the thick smell of blood clogged his nose and coated his tongue. There was no escaping the slaughter here. Though TJ had resolved himself not to be disturbed, the smell and taste combined to turn his stomach and threatened to make him vomit. He shifted back to his human form, trying to not breathe through his nose. He kept his eyes high and in the trees, watching for anything to distract him.
The first distraction that came to mind was a question for the System, one he immediately voiced without thinking. “What’s this… Haa’sh… whatever?”
Haashchʼéé Oołtʼohi was the Navajo god of the hunt. During his existence, he rose to the Ruthenium (VII) tier of Divinity. Though he never ascended beyond that lowest level of true Divinity, Haashchʼéé Oołtʼohi was a loyal friend and supporter of the other Native American gods and goddesses.
“I swear, there’s a Native American god named Coyote. Right? How’d these ones end up blessed by a jackal god and a Navajo hunt god before the literal coyote?”
Coyote, Maii, the great trickster, ascended to the Osmium (IX) tier of Divinity, and his memory decided not to bless any creatures in this Tutorial. Those blessed and influenced and descended from Coyote exist and will surely appear in your path if you continue progressing towards the Divine Throne.
Considering the interactions he’d had with coyotes thus far, TJ couldn’t help but hope that he didn’t run into any blessed or descended from Coyote. Maybe he was totally incorrect in his thoughts, but with how he’d had to fight to keep himself alive… well, maybe it was for the better.
“Get over here.” Stanton grunted, pulling TJ from his reverie.
“You see something?” TJ asked, his eyes roving wildly through the forest.
“No.” Stanton grunted. “No, let’s see what I can do to you with this new Skill of mine.”