There it was again, like something moving through the bush just out of the corner of Anad’s eye, and always gone when he turned to fully look. Add that in to the odd snap of a twig, the swaying of a branch that shouldn’t be moving, or a raspy sound like labored breathing, and there was no doubting he was being stalked.
But by what? What would stalk a Mediator? For half-a-day, at that.
Anad twisted the top of his cane, ready to draw his sword, but whatever it was, it was gone again. Just him and the forest around him now.
It’s fast, whatever it is. And normally silent. Is it trying to spook me?
Maybe Tel and the sorcerer he’d followed into the woods? No, they have too much of a lead. It took too long to convince the stableboy to tell me he’d warned them off, so they should be hours ahead of me. Besides, that burst of chaos energy I felt was miles in front of me. If that wasn’t them, I’m out of clues.
Through the forest was the only way they could’ve gone if they wanted to avoid the column of Mediators and Regulars on the road on the way back to Bastion. Especially since they’d left the horse behind. Nice horse too, if a little too much of an attitude.
So, again, back to the question of what was stalking him.
Could it be that the rumours are true?
Another look around the woods – as well as a gentle pull on the ambient chaos that was so weak it wasn’t even visible – but it seemed like whatever was following him was really gone. For the moment.
Disappearing travellers. Hunters who never came back. A forest that was… haunted?
Sure, he’d heard the rumors in town – some people even thought he’d been there to deal with the problem directly – but he hadn’t paid them much mind. There were rumors like that everywhere. And, people vanishing in a forest this size wasn’t unexpected. Besides, if there really was something like that going on, the Mediator detachment from Bastion would’ve taken care of it already.
Right? Well, it can’t hurt to keep my guard up. What did that one guy call this place? Right, the Forest of Deepening Doom. Sounds like something out of one of the innkeeper’s tales.
Anad continued ahead between the trees, the foliage thankfully light even miles away from the nearest road. From what he’d learned in Gravelburg, if somebody were to head straight northwest through the woods, it’d take them to Bastion. Why Tel and the sorcerer would want to go there was anybody’s guess, but that burst of chaos energy had come from the right direction.
Revenge against the Mediators? Two against a whole garrison won’t go well. Unless the sorcerer is a bounty hunter? Maybe she’s bringing Tel in for a reward, and the fight against Kulio was because she didn’t want to split the money…
Something about that didn’t add up though. Kulio hadn’t said anything about Tel being bound or chained. More than anything, it sounded like they were snooping around the town looking for something. Probably any other…survivors.
“Tsk,” Anad said, unable to stop the bile threatening to rise up his throat. That wasn’t what he’d expected when he’d been sent to assist the Bastion garrison with the enclave. Sir Reghald had seemed like a fair and straightforward Mediator, but none of the killing had phased him in the least. If anything, it was more likely Anad would get reprimanded when he finally returned to the garrison for not being as bloodthirsty as the rest.
Assuming Sir Bafalo hadn’t opened up about what’d really happened. Then Anad would be in a lot more trouble.
And is that why I’m here in the middle of the woods on a wild goose chase instead of heading straight back to the garrison? Following childhood ghosts when I should be confronting my own shattered image of what we’re supposed to be doing?
Anad put his free hand on the rough bark of a nearby tree as he stepped up and over a long-ago-fallen log, the texture of it giving his mind something else to focus on. That was what he needed to do. Work on the now, and save the later for later. He’d deal with the other Mediators when he got back to Bastion, and worrying about it now wouldn’t change anything.
No, he had to focus on catching up to Tel and the sorcerer. And, to do that, he’d be better off using the Trance.
He’d put it off because of the… side-effects… but he wasn’t gaining any ground at this pace.
Placing both hands back on his cane, he twisted the top and pulled the ambient chaos energy into his sword. Unlike when he used the energy to amplify his senses, a minor task, he drew the energy straight into the blade, where the Chronosteel transformed Chaos into Order.
Strength immediately flowed into his hands, not just reinforcing his muscles, but also bringing his senses alive. The smells of the forest swept up his nose, earthy and humid with a tinge of something floral, while his bare skin prickled, unprotected where it was by the tuxedo, as the air crawled across it. Individual beams of sunlight seemed to lazily slide down between the branches above, falling leaves riding along them in slow motion like boats on the river, and birds hung in the air, nearly frozen.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The power of the Trance brought the world to a near standstill, and luckily accelerated his thinking to match the newfound speed of his body and senses. A damp branch cracked behind him, so quiet it almost faded into the clock-like sound of the bird’s beating wings, and then a faint whistle, like an arrow piercing the air.
Fueled by the Trance, Anad shifted left at the same time he ducked low and spun around, his sword coming out of its cane sheath in one fluid motion to cut the arrow out of the air.
Except it wasn’t an arrow – it was a twisted white spike at the end of a bruise-colored arm. And, most surprisingly of all, it didn’t cut as the edge of this Order-forged blade slapped it aside.
No time for surprise, another twisted, white spike already shooting for his chest. Straight and strong to pierce him through the heart. And, it would’ve, if not for the power of the Trance, Anad’s cane sheath coming up to bat aside the assault.
WHOCK, the cane hit the spike, the impact like hitting a tree-trunk, but he managed to divert the attack to slam into an actual tree-trunk with wood splintering force. Having given himself a second of breathing room, Anad hopped back three times in quick succession to give himself to get a good look at his attacker, while the… thing… pulled its spike out of the wood.
Standing on two legs, with the knees bent the wrong way, the monster was vaguely human-shaped. Two arms, two legs, and a head, but that was where the similarities ended. Naked, bruise-mottled skin covered defined muscles, with everything below the elbows replaced by a two-foot-long twisted white spike. Is that bone? Wide splotches of black skin sat where eyes should’ve been, large bat-like ears twitched on the side of its head, and the face lacked a nose or mouth.
No, that wasn’t right. The thing had a mouth, but it ran vertically from the thing’s throat all the way down to its abdomen. Four inches wide, spike-like teeth ran along both sides, and three long, slimy tongues tasted the air.
Maybe there is some truth to the rumors after all. Well, I’m going to put an end to their source here and now.
The monster had attacked him without provocation, and now crouched, legs tensing to spring. Talking was out.
Launching forward inhumanely fast, both spiked arms poised to drive through Anad’s chest, the creature still crawled through the air to Anad’s Trance-powered senses.
With a quick glance at the forest floor for obstacles, Anad darted forward, ducking low, but brought his blade around in a vertical arc to cut the beast in half as it soared over him.
At least, that had been the plan, but his sword caught on the monster’s collar bone instead of parting it like butter. The sudden resistance jerked his arm and stuttered his momentum, and he twisted to the side then rolled over his left shoulder and back to his feet at the same time his opponent skidded to a stop where Anad had started.
What in the…?
The creature spun around, issuing a growl like nails down a chalkboard from its mishappen mouth, and Anad couldn’t do anything other than stare.
A trickle of red blood, a trickle, ran from where his sword had parted the bruise-covered skin, but had been unable to cut the bone. Just what are you made of?
Only two things were supposed to be able to resist the cutting edge of a Mediator’s indestructible blade, and this creature was neither of those things. Does that mean it’s reinforced with order like the sword and sheath?
No…the feeling is different.
Another growl, and the creature charged, dropping down to all fours and churning the ground as it ploughed forward. Faster than a runaway cart, it barreled towards Anad, but he sidestepped around a thick tree and raised his sword to cut it as it passed.
Except it didn’t.
A deep CRACK was his only warning, and he threw himself to the side as a twisted spike exploded out of the foot-thick tree in a shower of splinters.
Not just feral. It has the ability to think and adapt. Dangerous, and all the more reason it needs to be put down now.
Not giving the beast a chance to pull its spiked arm out of the wood, Anad dashed forward and around the tree. The second spike shot up at his face, but he deftly twisted around it, his blade coming across once, twice, three times in quick-slashing succession as he passed.
Lines of red opened on the side and back of the beast, though Anad had again been unable to cut through the bone, and he skidded to a stop behind it.
Cutting isn’t working.
Still with one arm stuck in the tree, the creature’s head snapped back and forth between the trunk where it wrestled to free itself to Anad, who changed his footwork and lunged back in.
Up, again, came the other white spike, and Anad parried it with his cane while he thrust his sword straight into the side of the creature’s exposed midsection. With no bone there – hopefully – the blade drove deep. A twist of his wrist, and Anad ripped the blade back out, blood gushing from the wound, then stepped to his right behind the creature.
Another flailing spike, another parry, and Anad lined up his blade again while he pulled hard on the power of the Trance. Your bone structure is very similar to a person’s. Which means your ribs are…there!
Lightning fast, the creature paused in the midst of its pained flailing, Anad thrust in again and again. Arm pumping, blood gushing, he drove his sword in so fast it was a blur even to him. Three strikes in the first second, twice that in the second, a dozen in the third, his blade pierced straight through to erupt out of the creature’s chest, crimson showering the forest floor.
And yet the monster didn’t die, only falling to one knee, and its free arm still weakly swinging. A hoarse wheeze escaped its strange mouth, but it made no more sound than that. Maybe it would bleed out – it’s internals had to have been ravaged beyond repair – but Anad couldn’t risk it.
Taking aim at anything soft, Anad lashed out over and over. He carved up its shoulders, arms, and upper thighs, splitting muscle and cutting tendons until the limbs were useless. The chest and grotesque mouth fell apart at his fury, though the teeth still managed to deflect his blows. Finally, he tore apart its throat, leaving the head dangling on little more than the spinal column with a bloody mess all around.
Only then did the thing finally scream, it’s death yell long and warbling at a pitch that threatened to burst Anad’s eardrums, before it fell over, one arm still stuck in the tree.
“Well, that should make the forest safe again,” Anad said, breathing heavily and staring at the strange creature in front of him. What are you? Maybe one of the few licensed scholars back at the Bastion garrison would’ve heard of this thing, or have a record of it. “I’ll send some Regulars to pick up your corpse for study and…”
He tensed as a branch snapped off to his right.
That couldn’t be…
Then another on his right.
Of course it is.
Dual growls like nails on chalkboards, and two more of the monsters weaved their way between the trees.
“I guess the forest isn’t safe quite yet,” Anad said, taking a deep breath and pulling on the power of the Trance. “Yet.”