Was on a roll, so I kept going. Enjoy!
Please remember to leave comments. I like hearing impressions. As this is a new area for me, I really don't know how you feel about this sort of thing as audience, or elements within it, so my curiosity is piqued. I'm all ears.
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“Will this do?” Tyr patted his hands free from as much dirt as he could and asked the redhead at his side. She was as equally dirty as him, but the picture she painted was still so desolate in comparison. Grief clung to her even more resolutely than the earth she’d been working in.
She nodded gently. “Yes, lord. I think they’ll be able to rest here.” With a hand, blackened from the soil, she reached up and straightened the horizontal section of the stick cross she’d had to fashion together on the fly.
Tyr knew that she wanted to give them a proper burial, but this was all that they could manage under the circumstances. The sun had already receded beyond the skyline, and the night was quickly closing in. They needed to move decisively. Tyr had this unshakable feeling that time was of the essence, despite the measures he’d taken to given them a buffer.
He quickly moved to Ruin after patting himself down some more. Stroking the muscle-corded, red-tinged body, he raised his hands and lightly tugged at the mane as he leaned over onto his back. I think your flames got cooler, old friend.
The horse danced to the side, sending Tyr stumbling in a fit of laughter. Ruin bared his teeth in a mock approximation of grin and sent, Better watch it master. I still have 75% of my power. You’re no different than a grasshopper to me right now.
Tyr chuckled and stepped back towards the horse, lightly hopping up onto his back. Affectionately patting his neck, he said, “That means I get to be lazy, right? That’s great! I’m always pulling the weight - it’s about time you do some work for a change.” He proceeded to yawn and stretch out his back, eliciting some audible pops.
Alexis came walking over and stared at the pair curiously. She squinted for a moment and then asked, “Can the two of you talk to each other?”
“Ohoho - well done! She catches on quickly, doesn’t she?” Tyr clapped good-naturedly from horseback. Ruin snorted and gave a subtle nod of approval.
“Why can’t I hear him, then?” She asked.
Tyr replied steadily while looking about his surroundings, “Different pacts of course. Your oath is with me, not him. Even then, you’re a long way from being able to communicate with the rune. Just know that he’s as intelligent as you or I. There may be a way for us all to be able to hear each other eventually, but that’s, again, for the distant future.”
“But what if-”
“Leave it. We will have time for this topic later. At present, we must hurry towards the nearest village or town.” He held out a hand.
Alexis walked up quickly and gingerly winced when Tyr grasped hold of her singed right hand and hoisted her onto ruin’s back like she weighed as much as a small child. Bewildered, she asked, “Why are you so strong!?”
Tyr leaned and twisted his neck to the side so that he could shoot her a disparaging look. Ruin chose this moment to leap forwards and began galloping at a fast pace through the evergreen trees. “Seriously? You’re asking me, the Horseman of God, that?”
She shook her head lightly, quickly grasping onto his armored core to stop from falling off. “Sorry, that was a duh moment. You’ll want to go this direction, Ruin,” She added on, pointing towards town which was about eight miles away.
“Duh, eh,” he said, tasting the word. “Language has changed so much in the past several hundred years.”
Alexis gave the back of his head a strange look as a question came to mind. “How old are you, Lord Tyr?”
The man quieted down and mused, “I honestly am not sure. Humanity’s history is so pockmarked and scattered that there are no more accounts of my King and country, I’d wager. We sleep too much to have any clear idea of time passage anyway.” He stared off wistfully for a few seconds before coming back to reality. “Enough of that though, tell me what you think is going on here.”
“That… actually, I can recognize most of the creatures I’ve seen up till now. I have no idea what killed them, though.”
“Well, that’s easy. I killed them. Drained a good deal of my power to clear a 250 mile area around us too. But still… has that much really changed on Earth since we were last here?” He asked in shock.
“You killed them!? Ah, ya know what, I shouldn’t be surprised. And no! No, that’s not what I meant,” she replied quickly. “These monsters are all from fiction - stories that various authors have dreamt up over the years to provoke the imagination and explore the impossible. Some have been inspired by folklore or myth as well. The green creatures that Ruin burned to ashes are called goblins, for example. Small, vicious creatures that rape and pillage - if we we’re unlucky and received the worst type of goblin, that is.”
Tyr’s mind was whirling, and he abandoned his joking manner. “There are multiple types?” he pressed seriously.
Alexis wracked her brain in order to think up a good way to describe it. “Yes. Just like how there are tribes and different civilizations of humans, there are different factions that belong to the species of what we call ‘goblins’. To keep it simple, the ones from earlier looked and acted like the stupid ‘wood goblin’ version. This is both good and bad. They’re very warmongering and constantly clash amongst themselves and surrounding species. They may not be particularly intelligent, but their vicious natures are probably a nightmare for normal people to deal with.”
Tyr digested that information. “Judging by your words then, they have two weaknesses: their stature, and their intelligence. In these stories, what type of attack patterns do they employ? What are they armed with?”
She stammered, trying to dig up everything from her memory. “Like you mentioned, their biggest flaw is that they’re not very clever, so they often just rush whatever target they’re trying to kill or capture. They do have several types of units though. Usually, there are scout, warrior, and archer, or even mage variants. From what I’ve read, they usually have some mixture of stone weapons or crude implements if they create their own. However, they prefer to steal better weapons from others if possible, and they’re capable of figuring out how to fight with most any melee or ranged weapon.
“One of the most important things to note, though, is that they’re agile and very stealthy. They’re not very tough in comparison to other creatures, but they are rough to fight because they come at you quickly and with numbers. On top of that, they’re led by Hobgoblins - a taller, more human looking version that is stronger and more intelligent.”
“Good.” Tyr nodded. “I fought with a few already, but that’s not a good sample since I still had my full powers then. I think I know how to deal with them now. What else?”
Alexis shook her head and then lost herself to thought for a second in contemplation. She took a deep breath and continued, “Okay, now these are just corpses that I’ve seen so far, so bear with me. There are orcs, satyrs, minotaurs, werewolves, direwolves, trolls, berserker trolls, mages, shit tons of spider types that I have no clue how to identify-”
Tyr held up a hand. “Wait just a moment. Sorry, you just mentioned the word ‘mage’ for the second time and we need to get this out of the way. Was that magic that you were playing with when I first walked in?”
Alexis’ hands tightened around his armor. She nodded with trepidation, “Y-yes, I think so.”
“How long have you been able to do that?”
“Not long at all,” she said hastily and then turned resigned. “It was after the towers appeared. I ran to find my dad at his work, and the corridor was very dark… I suddenly had this feeling that there was this… energy all around me, seeping into my body.” She shivered subconsciously. “Stories would call this mana - the substance that enables magic to be real. Usually spells or incantations are used to enact some effect on the world, but I was able to create light in hallway by willing it. I’m not sure if I did it correctly, though. It’ll take a lot of experimentation to figure out how to do it.”
She paused and then looked at the long blonde hair that was flowing in the wind to the side of her face. “That is... if you want me to continue it. I’ve heard that magic has a historically bad relationship with God in the bible.”
Tyr thought for a moment and then shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about that since I saw you use it. At the time of the bond, however, I was able to glimpse a portion of your soul for a fraction of second. This isn’t much, a drop in the bucket compared to the entirety of what makes you ‘you’, but it did allow me to see that your soul was not corrupted. If you were a true sorcerer from ancient times, I would have killed you on the spot. I decided to give a chance since everything on Earth is so messed up at the moment. Soon after, that choice was validated.”
Alexis was confused. “What does that mean then? I thought magic was viewed as evil.”
Tyr nodded, gripping his legs tight on Ruin’s stomach which he was riding bareback. “Traditionally, it is. Sorcery is viewed as evil in history because it invokes a power that does not come from God. In other words, they borrow power from demons or even Satan himself. It’s a betrayal of natural law, used for petty or selfish reasons.”
He coughed for a moment at the stench in the air and grew alert. They were coming up on another mass field of slaughter. While he was fairly certain that no creatures of the ground could have crossed 250 miles into the area yet, there still was the possibly of birds of prey or some other loophole that he left open. His previous pride in the pestilence design was melting away bit by bit.
He continued, “However, when I sensed your soul I found that it was not marred by the usage of this so-called magic. This made me think. If what you call mana is the substance that Ruin and I have been feeling this entire time, then it is not evil, because we could not sense it. It is neither good, though. It simply exists, like another part of the Universe. Since this is the case, I’ve decided to follow God’s direction in all this and use it since he has allowed it. So, do not worry on my account. Please spend the necessary effort to learn all there is to this version of ‘magic’.”
Ruin slowed down at this point and began to lightly trot through the underbrush. Tyr continually pushed low hanging branches out of his and Alexis’ way, maintaining an attitude of vigilance. The scene that greeted them was far from any expectations they had previously had.
There were people, most dead, but some still alive, wriggling and writhing. The bewildering fact was that they were all tied up in webbing. Several dozens of web cocoons spotted the spacing between pine trees and live oaks, wrapped and held in place by sheets of sticky white spider’s silk. The spans that this webbing covered were simply impossible. It reached up into the darkness of the tree canopy, and the view that was presented to them was only made possible by the full light of the moon.
Tyr froze and Ruin refused to enter. Alexis cowered on the back of the horse, shrinking into the man in front as if she wanted to melt into his body for safety. The surroundings suddenly seemed much more ominous and foreboding than before.Tyr finally asked quietly, “Alexis, does this modern age... have giant spiders?”
As he spoke, his ears caught the faint skittering of movement in the tree limbs. Long, sharp legs that were barbed on the sides flashed in and out of the shadows, scraping bark off of trunks as they passed by in a flurry, either sending the refuse clattering down to crash into the forest floor, or to be caught by the webbing that seemed to be everywhere.
Though Ruin shared Tyr’s current sense of crisis, he never failed to capitulate on an opportunity to tease his friend. What happened to that desire for battle, partner?
Tyr nodded slowly, his eyes wide and darting back and forth. “Normally, you would definitely be right, Ruin. But right now...I seem to have lost the stomach for it. Do you see those things? Do you? They’re the size of a bear! A SMALL BEAR, RUIN.” A tree top cracked overhead and bent underneath the weight of one particularly large spider. Tyr started to break down mentally.
He hissed in a hushed tone, “I stand corrected. Fucking spiders the size of a grizzly bear! Oh look.” He pointed in a quiet fit of manic laughter at a couple of smaller shadows that were moving about on the lower levels. “There’s their children! Say hi, Ruin. They’re only the size of large dogs. Nothing to worry about right? Damnit! Of all the things to get a ‘by’ through my pestilence, I get spiders! Fuck! I hate spiders!”
From the shadows on their left flank, a blur of motion leapt from a nearby bush. Ruin neatly danced to the side and positioned himself to perfectly aim a kick at the offender.
Before Alexis even knew what was happening, she felt the previously staunch support underneath her buck like a rolling tide and she turned her gaze in time to see the “child” spider that had launched itself at them - at her specifically - catch a steel plated hoof to the space right between the twin sets of four eyes that lined up with their own respective fang hanging below.
Ichor and spider meat ruptured like an overripe melon, vaulted backwards in a shower of gore. Apparently, the force of the kick ruptured the poison sac as well, because drops of a liquid landed on the bush that had provided cover.
It took a matter of moments for the leaves to go from smoking to completing dissolving off of the branch. The experience proved to be too much for the 17 year-old girl and she let loose a piercing scream. The sounded reverberated around the large hollow and all time seemed to halt.
Alexis quickly brought a hand to her mouth in horror, but the damage was already done. A discordant and howling shriek filled the air and one monstrosity after another zoned in on their position and started a mad dash across the web highway they’d created.
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Tyr turned and glared at Alexis.
Without breaking eye contact, he summoned the access to the Dimensional Armory and reached inside. When his hand found purchase on the correct handle, he grasped hold and wrenched out the greatsword with one hand. Like before, the rune that stood for War lit up on the flat of the blade, but this time the edge seemed dully lit and much weaker.
Power conservation was key. He couldn’t afford to drop much more in his supply, or else it would start affecting his strength too much and this would all become much more difficult. Thankfully, it didn’t require much to sustain the blade’s existence on this plane for a period of time, but it did cost him around 3% for every hour and that’s not including any extra functions he added on in the heat of battle. He’d already resolved to save it for extreme circumstances.
Listening to the frenzied scuttering of the spawns of satan making their way to him, Tyr believed this more than constituted such an occasion.
Finally turning his gaze away from the cowering girl, he grimaced and pried her hands off of him. There was mere moments before the spiders reached them, so he hopped off of Ruin’s back and gave his steed a quick pat. His left hand flexed on the leather grip as he said, “Look after the lass, okay? Try to conserve your power, but don’t take any risks.” He said that out loud more for her benefit than Ruin’s.
With that, he pushed off in an explosion of leaves and underbrush, shooting towards the oncoming tide of spiders like a falling star.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared right in front of the advancing behemoths. They were even uglier than the goblins. Fangs the size of his arms hung underneath their mandibles and constantly released a noxious stench of poison that hung on the air. Their eight eyes stared unblinkingly and the round, hairy bodies inspired an unprecedented sense of revulsion in him.
Tyr added his right hand to the grip of his monstrous 8 in. wide 6 ft. long greatsword and heaved his 8X strength into a roaring uppercut that broke the air around its edges. Blade met carapace and the blade passed through almost unhindered, only slowing briefly when it first made contact with the underbelly and the outermost portion of the exoskeleton. It seemed these bastards had some sort of extra defense.
A grimace flashed across his face.
A spray of ichor and venom followed the trajectory of his sword and he lightly brought it down with a conservatory flourish, deflecting four separate attacks by blade-like appendages and pushing back the four spiders with sheer brute force, sending them stumbling. Stepping inside another two attacks, he launched a sweeping two-handed strike across two of the aggressors’ faces and successfully severing the overreaching forelimbs of the other two.
Dodging to the side of an attack, he lightly clicked his tongue in annoyance and disgust. One killed and four disabled. A 20% kill rate was just disgraceful. He had to get closer, regardless of how much he hated it.
Wails and screeches filled the air and the injured monstrosities slammed into the ground as the they tried to heave their pain-wracked bodies away and back towards safety.
Ducking underneath a pair of dripping fangs, Tyr reached out and grabbed a leg that was aimed at skewering him, locking down on it like a vice and wrenching the spider towards his direction. Momentum carried the spider onto his waiting blade, instantly ending its life. Withdrawing the sword, he fended off a few more attacks with one hand and bought some space.
Pain filled his right hand and he looked down, surprised to see deep lacerations. Just grasping the legs did that?
Looking up, he parried another flurry of strikes and began to wade into throng, sending sweeping strikes wherever there were openings and severing life as often a possible. The lack of divine power had severely handicapped his durability, so the going was slow and soon he lost sight of Ruin and Alexis. The living gargantuan spiders continually climbed over their growing dead with no end in sight.
Slice. Cut. Block. Thrust. Parry.
Blood dripped down his right hand’s fingers, hissing as it hit the pooling venom and spider guts below.
Block. Jump. Slice. Cut. Parry. Parry. Parry.
Sparks flew in the clashes between his dimly glowing greatsword and the razor black legs of the multitude. Drops of wayward venom splashed across his leather armor, sending torrents of acrid smoke tendrils coiling upwards in fright.
Hack. Charge. Slice. Cut. Block. Parry.
Tyr’s expression was growing more and more serious as the minutes ticked by. Where did this spider horde come from? There were no similar cousins to this abominations among the masses that he and Ruin saw when they first got here. Perhaps there was another tower? Was it just because they expanded faster? No, that can’t be the whole story.
Frustration welled up inside him and his attacks turned even more reckless and vicious.
Hack. Parry. Thrust. Sweep. Thrust.
Soon, a thought came to his mind that made his back break out in a cold sweat. Could the indigenous species be transforming to match the new mana-filled environment?
His intuition told him that this was partly correct, but there was still something about this area that had to be different. He swiftly cut his eyes around while trading strikes with the barbed spiders. A few minutes later, his eagle-like eyes caught sight of something.
Nestled within a peculiar looking vine that was coiled around a cyprus, a brightly glowing green fruit was giving off a poisonous miasma just two or three feet off of the ground. Upon seeing it, Tyr immediately started walking towards it in purposeful strides.
The spiders around him continually launched attacks several at a time, but none could get through his impeccable defense. His intrepid advance continued until the spiders finally noticed where he was headed. Immediately, cries of rage and grief echoed across the web-filled hollow and the attackers doubled, effectively slowing down his speed of travel by half.
Beset by murderous blows that were not lessening in number or intensity, Tyr’s body began to tire. If it had been like normal, he could have ripped through these spiders until judgment day, but his power was flagging, continually shaved off by the minute exertions he had to make to stay afloat. He’d already dropped to 25%.
He instantly made a decision and spoke across his mental link to Ruin. Too many of these little shits. We’re gonna go scorched earth in thirty seconds. One mile radius.
A worried Ruin immediately replied, What do you want to do about the humans still alive? That level of flame is sure to attract that flying leviathan as well!
“Arghh!” A roar of frustration came bursting from Tyr’s mouth and he sent six spiders flying. Pocket the scorched earth to save them. We don’t have a choice.
To exert that level of control though...it’ll cost me-
Another deep, booming roar came out of his mouth, this time for all the world to hear. “Just do it!”
Leaping to the back of a tank-sized spider, he thrust his greatsword down through the hard exoskeleton and into the heart, causing the beast to hemorrhage and die. Swiftly withdrawing the blade, he leapt to and fro on the backs of the largest spiders, using their height to stay above the surging black mass of bodies.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a ring of blue hellfire pulsating around Ruin and Alexis, protecting them within while the steed sent powerful kicks one after the other. The two partners exchanged a glance across the distance and Tyr then leapt the last bit of distance to the tree where he sunk the greatsword into the center mass of the wood to stabilize himself.
With a quick movement of his hand, he grabbed hold of the mysterious green fruit and gave a yank!
The fruit came away easily, but the second it separated from the vine, an ear-piercing shriek echoed from nearby. All of the surrounding spiders instantly backed off and formed a no-man’s land around him. Tyr ignored the burning sensation coming from his palm and directed his eyes towards the origination point of the cry.
A massive spider the size of four grizzly-spiders combined came trundling out of a cavernous hole two hundred feet away. She had four fangs instead of two and their length was enough that she’d be able to punch through plate steel like paper. A unique green pattern adorned the backside and gave the onlooker a sense of incomparable danger. It had to be the Queen.
With a roar, the Queen pounced forward like a freight train, uprooting saplings and stepping over bushes in her rush to get to the man that’d stolen the fruit.
Tyr heaved a large breath and then smiled tiredly.
In the next moment, the sky split open.
Dozens of wormholes similar to the one they’d used to travel to Earth earlier that day appeared above the hollow. From these portals, tons of superheated plasma transported from one of the Sun’s magnetic poles was lashed at the ground, whipping all of the spiders and the hollow with nature’s hottest fury. Due to the heat, Ruin carefully created buffer zones that shielded all of the surviving humans and their party.
Up above the wormholes, another dome was created to contain the purge, so for those few moments, it was like a dome of eternal light had appeared on the surface of the planet.
Tyr just stood there in relaxation, closing his eyes amidst the raging inferno and taking a breather.
After two seconds, the plasma receded back to the wormholes and then they all shut with a ripple of space-time, blocking off the heat that was still trying to transmit through.
After a half a minute, the scorched landscape was finally revealed. Trees were made into blackened twigs and everything green had died. All the spiders were incinerated, including the eggs and webbing that they had laid. There was nothing left except rolling hills, rocks, and desolation.
Tyr heard the sound of hooves come from behind him and didn’t deign to turn, merely taking the comfort of the two other companions joining him.
Once the edges of the constricting dome had disappeared at the boundary, the superheated air immediately cause the trees to become like a ring torches circling the scorched earth. Ruin turned to Tyr and nudged him gently.
I only have 20% remaining now.
The man nodded wearily and then looked over the girl that was sitting there still shell-shocked. Seeing her well besides the trauma, he turned back to his horse. “From now on, neither of us are permitted to use the Gift below 20%. I’m down to 21% myself.” His eyes swept the horizon. “We could use our powers, sure, but it’ll never equate to a constant bonus in fighting strength. We must be more tactful in our decision making for the future so that we can survive this bizarre new world. Perhaps the answer will lie in magic...”
Now there’s a thought...
Just then, Tyr finally remember the fruit in his hand and the pain came flooding back. Wincing, he dropped it to the ground and held up his palm which had become bubbly and grotesque, like it’d bathed in acid. Shaking his head, he sapped that last 1% off from his total energy reserves and healed his hand, leaving only 20% remaining. His strength was now at a 4X multiplier.
“Well, one blight is gone. Fire really does the trick, huh...” Tyr said tiredly. His eyes swept over twenty petrified cocoons, whose residents were shivering in fright. “Now we just need to collect these people and head to town. Who’s up for a bit of shuteye?”
From the distance, a challenging roar suddenly rolled across the moon and fire-lit valley, reverberating back and forth across the scorched hills that just been touched by the Sun. Blackened rocks quaked and the entirety of the region descended into silenced with bated breath.
Tyr’s eyes grew larger and larger until he finally started laughing. Deep, booming peals of thunderous mirth clashed against the receding roar, answering the call.
Alexis finally came to off to the side and nearly fainted from fear again. She grabbed a fistful of Ruin’s mane and asked dumbfoundedly, “Was that the dragon?”
Tyr had dissolved to chuckling now and turned his gaze towards her, musing, “Is that what you call it…” He nodded his head with a smile, a hint of indignant fighting spirit resplendent in his eyes. He continued grimly. “Alright, Mr. Dragon. I had wanted to save you for later, but if you want to fight… I guess I’ll just have to accommodate you.”
It was useless to run anyway. It was two miles until the nearest unscorched treeline. Ruin couldn’t run that fast anymore now that he’d paid such a price. The beast would surely overtake them before they reached a safe haven.
In the distance, an enormous pale shadow, illuminated by the full moon, surged towards them from the mountains.