10
(Adam Jensen- Street Fight)
Vetia
I was just chilling, having a relaxing walk through the woods with my friends. Nothing to worry about. The day was warm, and the sunlight warmed the forest floor until brisk breezes slinked through the trees, cooling us off.
But what really grabbed my attention was the wildlife. I was intrigued by how dissimilar it was from the wildlife of Earth. Hell, the size of the trees made the forests feel prehistoric, like we were millions of years in the past when forests were allowed to grow completely unobstructed.
The tree leaves were easily two to three feet long with thick stems and shaped like long jagged teardrops. There were needle trees mixed in, but they were hardly needles. They gently swayed with the breeze, dangling like strings. When I ran my hand over them, they hardened and the stringy fibers shifted so that the needles were like sharp little swords that would cut you if you kept messing with them. I stopped at a cluster of trees by the edge of the cliff and poked at one, running my fingertip against the jagged edge of the strange needles. A clean, fresh and earthy aroma wafted off of these little swords as they calmed back into their loose bunches.
Around most of the trees were pale blue fungal formations that twisted upwards into little spires. They jutted out of the ground and got as high as three feet tall, but always pointed straight up. Large collections of them grew from the tree roots that broke the surface. I leaned down and stepped on a smaller one, which snapped like brittle styrofoam. The fungus bursted, emitting a cloud of light blue spores into the air that smelled oddly like cotton candy.
“Stop! Get your asses off the edge! Behind us!”
The hell was Desmond yelling about? I turned my head toward the group I had wandered away from and before my head finished its pivot, a terribly cold sensation ran down my spine. Three of those things.
They shouldn’t have… but- those things- they followed me?
My head spun and that same fear curdled my blood. I caught myself on the trunk of one of the sword trees and glanced toward my friends as the bugs rushed them. Adam’s knee buckled from being slashed. Brenden got chased into a standoff. Desmond took bow shots at them, and Tells was running toward me. There was a third, somewhere.
A chill shot down my left arm.
I quickly looked over my shoulder as one of the insectoids charged me on all six of its legs. I didn’t have any weapons, and none of my sigils were useful in fighting. All I could do was run.
I raced around the side of the tree cluster with the bug close behind. Little yelps escaped my throat as I danced away from its snips at my ankles. Around the tree it chased me. One rotation around and it countered to cut me off, catching my shin with its pincer. I haphazardly turned and staggered away. I couldn’t run fast enough to get away, not in this body.
So much for all that exercising last life! Now I’m gonna die because I got stuck with an unathletic woman’s body?! What a load of-
An arrow zipped between us and lodged into the tree cluster, giving me a little extra distance from the bug.
Suddenly, I clipped shoulders with Tells and screamed in shock as she darted past me. She jumped into the air and slammed both her feet down on the insect, crunching its abdomen, but not causing any noticeable damage. The creature chittered at us and wriggled under Tells’ feet, trying to free its pincers as Tells wailed on the back of its neck with her scimitar.
I stopped and raised my hands to do something, but what the fuck was I supposed to do? Intervene? Cheer on Tells? I couldn’t do magic, I hadn’t memorized any of it yet.
Gotta find something to use… some sticks, a couple pebbles, leaves, tons of needles. Great! Just what I need! Or maybe…
I grabbed onto a thick branch that was dangling just enough for me to tear it off. As I yanked away, Tells hopped off the insectoid and stood between me and it. I tugged and tugged, and just when I felt some give, Tells’ back crashed into me. She tumbled to the side and caught herself, but I fell into the dirt while the creature shot up to finish me.
The bug lurched at me, pushing against the stick I held to its chest. I held it at bay just long enough for Tells to send a wild swing at the back of its neck with her scimitar. A crude snap erupted and chunks of exoskeleton exploded from the wound.
The insectoid rolled off the branch and turned back to Tells, who followed up with a buckler bash to its head. The bug stumbled backwards and fell into its skitter. It rushed Tells with wrathful intent, lunging up and snapping at her with all four of its claws. She caught two on her shield and deflected one more with her sword, but it shredded her side with the last one.
I clutched the branch and clenched my teeth. Tells wasn’t going to survive its onslaught unless I did something.
“Raaaaaaah!” I screamed maniacally and rushed the bug with the branch, going for a slam to its head. The branch was right on target until it turned around at the sound of my scream and caught the branch in its pincer, snapping it in two.
Tells grunted at being slammed with the stray chunk, which hurdled behind the insectoid and right into her head. It knocked her away, sending her into the one that Brenden was fighting.
Tells ain’t coming back over here, she’s already fighting the other bug. I’m alone.
I panicked and hucked the other half of the branch at its head, but holy hell I could not throw for shit. The branch flipped through the air, a hair away from hitting Tells’ head again.
The insectoid loomed toward me, wiggling its mandibles and chattering while flicking its barbed yellow tongue around. It happily snipped the air with its pincers, trying to intimidate me from running away.
Suddenly, the creature lurched and its body twitched violently. Its pincers wildly attacked the air while its neck involuntarily jerked sideways. The bug’s body twisted independent of its legs, forcing it off balance as it frothed and clicked.
An arrow gouged the exposed back of its neck. Then another arrow whizzed by and snapped on its head, leaving an oozing gash on its left eye.
Desmond knocked another arrow with a pissed off expression, which the arrows littering the topsoil explained pretty clearly.
He whistled at me and shot the next arrow, missing high by a country mile, but still grabbing the spastic bug’s attention.
What should I do? Run? Desmond’s gonna get killed if none of the others are up. But what can I do to help? I’m an untrained healer. God, my blood is boiling, being so fuckin’ useless. These bugs are here because of me, because they followed me, and I ain’t gonna let them kill a single one of my friends. What’s that? Rage. Oh a rage, and so primal, filling me to the brim.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
I lost control of my body. The wound on my leg wasn’t as deep anymore, but I didn’t want to stand. Instead I hunched on all fours into a pouncing position. My lips stretched and split apart. Gnarled fangs extended over my normal teeth. Claws the length of half my finger shot out from the tips of my fingers. Pressure filled my head, like my eyes had gone bloodshot and all of my instincts became that of a rabid animal.
Kill.
Pouncing forward, I latched onto the bugs back and sank my claws into its eyes. My fingers wrapped around the bulbous balls of goop and yanked. Yellow ichor spurted out, then slow streams like tears ran down its face. Not dead yet. I wrestled it forward, throwing my body weight around to knock it down, but it wouldn’t give in.
I clung to its back, growling in animalistic rage as the insectoid threw its body around wildly. I clutched the bleeding eye holes and drove my fangs into the open wound on its neck, yanking out chunk after chunk of putrid yellow flesh and blood. Its movements became slower and weaker as I ripped and tore into its neck. It screeched and clicked madly as it lowered onto all sixes and slammed against a tree, but not hard enough to break my death grip. I held it down and wrestled until it finally went limp.
My senses returned. The claws and fangs receded back into my body and my eyes darted around wildly. Desmond’s petrified stare locked on me, and I couldn’t blame him. I wiped the yellow guts from my mouth and hopped off the bug.
I spit out a piece of exoskeleton. “I’m not gonna pretend to know what just happened, but keep it on the DL.”
Desmond’s surprised expression didn’t fade, “Uh, um, sure. Yeah. Cool.” His head snapped toward the rest of the group like he was alerted by a sound. “Fuck, Rowan get over here!”
He bolted back to the cliff. Brenden and Tells were on the ground with deep gashes across their bodies, and Adam stood there, his upper body folding in on his own stomach, cut like a timbering tree. He collapsed into a pool of blood and yellow goo.
OH GOD! ADAM! ADAM!
I took off in a dead sprint to Adam, who was on the brink of death. His wound wasn’t excessively deep, but all of the attacked muscles and organs were shredded, practically liquefied on the ground.
“Desmond! Get the innards back in his body! There’s a spell in my book that can fix this!”
I reached into my bag and plucked out the book. I had thumbed through it, but hadn’t actually committed to fully reading or memorizing any of them except the one I used on Tells. That one could work. It was about rebuilding the body.
Desmond reached down and started splashing the guts into Adam, but he had fallen on his side with both arms behind him and a leg bent backward.
“Help me push Adam on his back!”
I stumbled over to Desmond, who was wrestling Adam’s arms out so they wouldn’t keep him upright.
“One, two, three!” I shouted as we pushed. It was mostly Desmond pushing, but we got him onto his back. “Now get that shit back in him!”
Why are my hands bloodless?! Fuck, no time.
I flipped to the page I had dog-eared and held it in my left hand while I drew with my right.
Heart racing. Out of breath. Fuck fuck fuck fuck! Talk it through!
My voice stuttered and choked. My hands shook like mad. Even the simplest of lines was impossible. “Okay, okay, okay. Three shapes. A big triangle. Three points for life, death and rebirth.”
The warm, energizing feeling shot from head to arm like lightning as my finger drew a wispy light green line through the air in front of me. The shape was easy, but it shuddered intensely like it was about to explode or collapse. Jzanmah jolted through me and I couldn’t keep my calm anymore.
“Two is… two oval shapes, eyes, on the left and right sides of the triangle.”
I raised my finger and willed the jzanmah to start, but I was way too early. The shape I started bursted into glittering green light that dissipated around the sigil. I took three quick, deep breaths and restarted the shape. Finger in position, I was taking too long.
Adam is still alive, I can sense that much from the aura, but he doesn’t have much life left at all. Oh God, what if he dies? It would be my fault. All my fault. I can’t let him die! I can’t!
I shook away the tears in my panicking eyes and readied myself for the next shape. I clutched my arms desperately.
Stop shaking! Why won’t you stop shaking! I have to save Adam! Arms! STOP SHAKING!
“God dammit!” I growled through gritted teeth. “Stop shaking, me, stop shaking!”
Suddenly my body recoiled as a bloody hand rested on my shoulder. Desmond gripped me with a fearful look in his emerald eyes. “This is all you. Just ease up. It’s just like shooting, you gotta stay loose. Breathe out and draw.” He grabbed both of my shoulders firmly and squeezed.
I let out a long breath and began the next shape of chaotic jzanmah. “Three teardrops. One in the middle, and two under it, one over the other.”
Jzanmah flowed into my finger, burning like magma in my veins. The lines vibrated violently as I breathed out on each tear. Sparks jetted out of my finger. The shape emboldened and roared like green fire. It dazzled in place like a lightning storm, ready for me to initiate.
I put both of my hands behind the sigil and intertwined them, pulling the sigil toward me as if embracing it. Suddenly, my eyes bulged and my muscles seized like my entire body was being violently electrocuted.
What’s going on?! JUST FIX ADAM!
As I thought that, my arms lurched forward by some other will, reaching into the mess of blood and ripped flesh. They grabbed chunks of organs and fragments of bone, soldering them together with the jzanmah in my hands. Every organ they reconstructed sent a spike of heat that stunned my own organs, like the jzanmah was taking blueprints from me to use on Adam.
Adam’s aura weakened significantly.
I can’t lose him! Please, please don’t let me lose any of my friends! That’s all I’m asking, but I need to heal faster!
The jzanmah responded to my will. My bones popped and my muscles tore. My hands and fingers snapped every which way, snatching up pieces of Adam and rebuilding him, bit by bit. I winced and gritted my teeth, the jzanmah forcing every muscle in my neck and face to violently flex. The pain blinded me. My wrist twisted, trying to reach and connect bone, but instead of changing direction, it twisted further, snapping backwards.
“Gaaah!”
Tears streamed down my seizing face as the white hot pain numbed my arms and exhausted my mind to the point that I had to fight blacking out. Darkness clouded the outside of my vision, but I had to stay conscious. Long enough to fix Adam. Then Brenden and Tells. Warm blood replaced the tears that dripped from my nose, eyes, and ears. My arms acted autonomously, moving faster than I could make sense of. The world became red and muffled, like I was drowning in a sea of blood, choking air down my convulsing throat. All I heard were muffled pops and snaps and cracks.
Despite the pain, the shattered bones and shredded muscles, Adam’s organs and bones ended up back in place, fully restored. I rose from where I was, unable to feel my shoulders or arms, which dangled like wet noodles at my sides.
“...okay?! Can you hear me?!” Desmond was in front of me yelling something, but my mind couldn’t make sense of it.
Tells and Brenden, heal them!
My vision went out, and all I could sense were my friends’ auras around me. My legs dragged past Desmond to treat Brenden and Tells. Tells’ body was so vibrant with energy, with her aura. Piecing her back together burned so much less than Brenden. Everything was a blur, but my arms eventually finished as a migraine set in like a scorching sword stabbing through my brain.
I walked in a direction, my boots carrying me from soft dirt to solid stone. My legs gave out, and I sat kneeling in silent darkness.
Finally, the jzanmah released. My arms stopped, but the intense pain in my head didn’t follow. I couldn’t see or hear anything. Something pushed its way up from my stomach, knocking me onto my side as I retched to expel a viscous liquid. A cool headwind fluttered across my face. My friends’ auras slowly were strengthening.
I did it.
That was all I needed to let myself fade.