The Chaos Lands (Part 5)

“Here we go,” Idris whispered to himself, looking around the grove for any signs of danger. But it wasn’t from the surrounding forest that the danger emerged.

“Idris! The tree!” Eana shouted, pointing to the fallen ironwood.

Turning and brandishing the ax, Idrs watched as blue energy like liquid mist emerged from every branch, twig, and leaf of the fallen tree. It gushed from the stump, and was joined by another flowing river of glowing mist from the trunk of the other tree they had cut.

The energy swirled and cohered into a sphere above the forest floor. Hanging for a moment as a single mass, it suddenly dropped straight down into the trunk of the ironwood. With a flash the tree exploded into pieces.

The two cringed back, shielding their faces from the expected piercing pieces of flying wood. Rather than continue outward, however, the glowing blue mist held them in a floating mass and then, in a rush, pulled everything back together and began to reassemble them.

But the thing that emerged, glowing eyes and joints seemingly sewn together by misty energy, was humanoid and dangerous looking. Two arms and two legs, but everything the sharp chipped angles of bark and broken branches with leaves forming a semblance of clothing and giving expression to its monstrous face.

It turned toward the two humans and took a few faltering steps forward, reaching spasmodically. A beak-like mouth coalesced and opened to reveal a maw glowing with the misty blue energy that brought the thing together and it bellowed, its voice a rasping of grinding wood and creaking branches.

Still with one leg back as if ready to run, Eana looked the thing over. It had to be half again as tall as she was, taller even than Idris. Every piece of it that wasn’t bristling with sharp points was covered with thick armor of ironwood.

“I don’t think this is such a good idea anymore, Idris!” She squeaked.

But after only a quick acknowledgement with his eyes, Idris turned to face the Forest Guardian. He raised the ax - it should be a better weapon against the thing than his hammer and he already knew a well placed Imbued Strike could cleave through ironwood.

“Stay behind me!” He called over his shoulder, “And be ready with that healing.”

He didn’t have time to see if she was following his instructions as the Guardian came on. With each step it gained dexterity as if it was getting used to its body of broken wood and debris. Idris decided not to wait for it to gain complete control.

He started forward at a run, rapidly closing the gap and imbuing his ax.

He hadn’t done much killing in his life. He had hesitated when it came down to killing the drone. But the drone had felt alive, was alive.

Not this thing. Having literally watched it form from the fallen Ironwood tree and some kind of Chaotic energy, he knew the truth - It wasn’t anything more than a bunch of animated wood and forest scraps.

He’d send it back to Chaos without a second thought.

With a bellow he stepped into the final short space between them and swung with everything he had, intending to take the thing down in a single attack.

Incredibly, the monster opened its arms as if welcoming the bite of the ax. With his full strength and the power of his imbuement the ax sank into the thing’s chest, the metal head practically disappearing inside!

Feeling the legs of the monster give a little under the blow, Idris had the presence of mind to make this easy kill look masterfully cool to his sister.

He looked up into the things glowing eyes and bellowed, “You’re fi-!”

It backhanded him across the mouth, sending him backward, tripping over his own feet and onto his face. He looked up from the ground and made eye contact with Eana. She looked as stunned as he imagined he did.

Getting to his feet and feeling a good deal more ashamed than confident, Idris turned back to the Forest Guardian. It gripped the ax and with several powerful jerks, pulled it from its chest. Then, placing the haft across its body it flexed its chest outward, breaking the haft in half like a man might do with a stick over his knee. It tossed the weapon aside and, awkwardness of motion gone completely now, started toward Idris.

Idris pulled his hammer from his inventory. He was more comfortable with the tool than the ax, anyway. He made ready to fight and checked on the cooldown for Imbued Strike. Still a few more seconds.

At a rustle behind him and with a soft whisper of magical energy, a cooling wave washed over him. With it came the familiar sense of disgust and hatred alongside the relieving sensation of his split lip sealing up, the feeling he had always associated with the unnatural act of magical healing.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

That was just what it felt like when pain left the body, and rather than bottle it up and wait for it to go away like he usually did, he gave it a target.

The guardian would do just fine.

“Same plan?” Eana asked.

“You got a better idea?” Idris replied. The hatred that filled him completely erased his sense of shame, and the healing all memory of the pain of the creature’s blow. He looked at it clinically and ran the numbers.

It had hurt when it hit him, but he had been off balance when he fell so he reasoned that either it hadn’t used its full strength - but why wouldn’t it? Or, alternatively, just like every person he had ever come into contact with this thing wasn’t as strong as he was.

Born of Chaos or not, this creature was subject to the same rules that Order subjected the rest of the world to. Its strength, abilities, and all attributes were quantifiable. And since that must be true, Idris felt certain it didn’t stand a chance against his strength.

It came on, and Idris rushed out to meet it. He swung high, meaning to take its head off, but it ducked the attack and countered with an overhand strike that would rake claws down Idris’s chest.

He dodged back just in time but the guardian closed the gap immediately, swinging its arms wildly. It landed several glancing blows before Idris had the presence of mind to just shove the thing back with the haft of his hammer. It stumbled, off balance, and Idris followed up with another overhead swing that came down on its shoulder.

The guardian dropped to one knee, its arm hanging by loose threads of roots and magical energy. Idris attacked again but the thing was faster now, like it had switched from learning to move to learning to fight.

It dodged the attack and backed away. Making a creaking noise it reached out to one of the nearby ironwood trees. A few leaves fell from the tree as magical energy coursed over it and flew toward the guardian, knitting its shoulder back into its proper form.

“Well that’s frustrating,” Idris said, charging forward. He swung over and over, trying to capture some of the fluid grace that Conrad had with the practice dummy. But he was just too slow. If he could hit it he could bring it down, but if it kept getting away eventually he’d tire out and they would be finished.

Eana cast a spell, but the target wasn’t Idris. His annoyance and frustration increased. It should be him figuring out what to do but his sister was back there, doing something to help the fight.

“OK, I’ve got it’s stats,” Eana said, “It’s immune to negative status effects like poison, weak to fire.”

Still swinging Idris called back to her, “You have a fireball spell you’ve been hoarding? Because I’m using everything I have!” The creature slashed at him, raking his lead arm and drawing more than a little blood. He grimaced and backed away, giving Eana a quick look he hoped conveyed the need for some more healing.

She obliged, his wounds knitting back together, and then continued, “I’ll try again, sometimes the spell gives better information after a second cast.”

As she did the thing turned its attention to her and charged forward, but Eana managed to get behind Idris who continued his attacks. He was learning too. Any hit was going to be more useful than a hundred full powered misses, so he was putting everything he had into increasing the frequency of his attacks.

They were often awkward and strained his muscles as he forced the heavy hammer to change directions mid swing, using both ends of the head and even thrusting in his attempts to just hit the thing. But it was having some effect. The forest guardian was fast but as long as Idris kept up the assault he was causing gradual damage. Chips of wood and twigs broke from the thing at each blow, and occasional wisps of blue misty energy would puff out and float away.

“It’s stats are changing,” Eana said, “It’s agility and dexterity have gone up. It’s getting faster the longer you fight it!”

“Well we’d better end it then! Get in here!” Idris shouted. And Eana, Order preserve her, did exactly that.

She circled around the monster and, imbuing her staff, struck it mid back. Immediately imbuing again she struck again and again. Then she just stopped, her eyes glazing over as if she was checking her status interface.

“Oh wow! Idris! My progress is -” she cut off with a scream as the guardian reached out and grabbed both her arms. It lifted her into the air, beak-like maw opening wide enough to swallow her entire head.

Not even thinking Idris imbued his hammer and leapt at it while its back was turned. With a powerful two handed swing he brought his hammer down on the back of the thing’s head.

It crumpled, blue energy spewing from the cracked and crushed wood at the base of where its skull would be. It dropped Eana, who backed away looking astonished.

“Thanks,” she said.

Idris scowled at her, then set to work slamming his hammer into the thing over and over. It reached weakly out toward one of the trees and started to use the same healing skill it had done before, but Idris imbued his hammer and crushed the arm before the magic could take effect.

The glow began to fade from the forest guardian’s eyes and blue mist began to flow from places where Idris hadn’t even hit the creature. It was clearly on its last legs.

“Wait!” Eana said, holding out a hand.

“That’s right,” Idris replied, “Killing blow. Sorry. Do it.”

Eana imbued her staff and hit the thing over the head. It groaned out a sound of crushing leaves as it stared up at her. She imbued a second time, giving the strike her whole body.

And a moment later a prompt appeared in Idris’ vision:

Quest Complete

Ironwood Vandal

Sometimes the bad guys win.

Reward: 100XP