by Bruce Sentar
He let go of the hand, and the guard fell to the ground, clutching his hand while the other whipped out a bronze sword and leveled it at Dar.
“Stop.” The woman’s voice was full of authority, and the world crackled with energy.
Dar could feel the same sense of static he had felt with the green-haired girl, only this time it felt like he’d jumped into an ocean of it.
Everyone froze. Well, except the man with the hand like a crumpled-up soda can. He was still crying on the ground.
The woman pulled a vial out of the folds of her dress. Where that could have possibly been stored was anyone’s guess. “Give this to your friend.”
The second guard took the vial carefully and helped administer it to the poor guard.
Dar watched as the man’s pain seemed to disappear immediately, even if there were no obvious surface effects.
Once she was satisfied, the woman turned on him with a scowl. “I had that under control. Now you owe me a restorative potion.” Her hip cocked as she tapped her foot impatiently, and Dar realized that gesture must be universal across worlds.
“I don’t have that kind of money.” He scratched the back of his head nervously. He doubted something like that could be bought with the few remaining chits in his pocket.
She scoffed. “With enchantments all over your clothes like that, you think I’d believe that?”
Dar shrugged. He had no clue what enchantments she was talking about, but he wasn’t about to start another fight. “Don’t know what to tell you other than it’s the truth.”
Her eyes narrowed on him, but her focus broke as the door to the house banged open and a well-dressed man came out into the yard, a measured look of distaste on his face.
“What is going on here?”
The woman was all smiles as she turned away from Dar. “I apologize for the interruption. My… bodyguard…” She shot a look back at him, telling Dar that’s what he was for the foreseeable future before continuing on. “My bodyguard and your guards had a slight disagreement, but I have given them a restorative potion, and he should be on the mend shortly.”
The guard was at least no longer shouting in pain, but he still cradled his hand.
“And who might you be?” The man Dar assumed was the count frowned.
“Silly me. I’m Sasha, a traveling enchanter. I came by to see if there was any need for my services.” She batted her eyes at him and gave a small curtsy.
“Witch,” he spat.
The air seemed to grow frigid with that word, and her smile twitched ever so slightly. Dar almost thought he had imagined it.
“Your kind isn’t welcome here. We already have enough problems with monsters attacking hunters.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. You wouldn’t happen to be comparing me to things like gremlins and trolls, now would you? Certainly not something like a direwolf,” Sasha said, her tone filled with daggers.
The air was becoming filled with so much static energy that Dar thought the air might suddenly combust.
The mayor started sweating and backed away. “Of course not. Come to think of it, I do think there might be some work for you if you come back tomorrow. My wife has been asking for things when I head back to the city.”
“Ah, how lovely! That’s great to hear.” The air of danger suddenly dispersed in a moment as she plastered on a sickly sweet smile.
Sasha turned back to Dar. “Well, come on, Lug. Let’s find a place to stay.”
“There’s only one tavern in town,” the second guard added from behind.
“Lug, why don’t you show me the way.” She gestured for him to lead the way.
“My name is Darius; friends call me Dar,” he said as he started back to the inn he had left less than an hour ago. But he was glad they’d picked one of the only places in town he knew how to navigate to.
“How about Stud? You look like you could be a stud worth breeding into the human lineage.”
Dar stopped. “Anything but Stud.” He knew his tone crept into anger.
Sasha’s hands were up in the air in surrender. “Ok, not Stud. Maybe Lug?”
“You sound like I’m your new pet.” Dar was putting up with her for now, but he wasn’t going to put up with being belittled.
“Humans ARE like pets to me. You will be but a flash in a pan, while I’ll still be finding my dao path. The times I do let myself get attached to short-lived humans, they grow too old to function and die, and then I have to go find a new human to play with. So, you’re Lug.” She punctuated the nickname like she’d just named a new dog.
Dar reeled back, staring her down, “Yeah, I don’t think so. We are done here.” She was hot as hell in a soft curvy way, but not worth that.
He wasn’t about to become someone’s dog. He did feel for her a bit; based on her tone, she was speaking with the bitterness that comes from repeated loss.
It wouldn’t be the first time he’d met a woman with a severe commitment phobia. This time, however, he didn’t feel a drop of the urge to take her for a quick spin. Maybe it was his time with Lily, but he wanted to make relationships in this world that could last.
He wasn’t going to stick around and be talked down to like that. Dar turned around and walked away.
“You still owe me for the potion,” the woman called, hurrying to catch up. She crossed her arms under her chest, and Dar wished for a moment that his eyes didn’t naturally wander over a woman’s shapely curves the first chance they got.
“I never asked you for the potion,” he clarified, wanting to separate himself from this woman. Already he was making plans to find a new town. Start over once again.
She was dangerous—he could feel it in his bones. And now they were associated.
“You would have been arrested if not for me—you owe me. Or are you an honorless scoundrel?”
She wasn’t letting this go, and she was putting on enough of a scene in the middle of the street that people had started to put their tasks down and watch.
Dar had an idea. “This shirt—you said it is enchanted. How about I give it to you, and we are clear?”
“Are you serious?” she snorted, but then noticed he was and agreed quickly, “Sure!”
It must have been worth far more than the potion, he grumbled as he slipped it over his head and tossed it at the witch. He’d find another shirt to wear as he got the hell out of the town.
Women really do bring trouble, especially the pretty ones.
“Hey!” she was already shouting, running up behind him once again.
“What now?” Dar turned around, ready for a fight.
“This isn’t enchanted,” she said, staring at the shirt, then back at his chest.
He smirked. He hadn’t counted on that, but he’d take it. “I didn’t say it was enchanted, you did. You set the price of the shirt over the potion. Trade’s done. Deal with it if you assessed it wrong.”
But she didn’t seem like she was hearing a word he said as she stepped forward, her hand reaching out towards his chest. He took a step back. She was making him uncomfortable. “You done?”
“Drasils above. Your body is enchanted!” She almost yelled it, and more people turned, taking in the two of them.
“Will you hush! And give me back the shirt if you don’t want it.” Dar snatched the shirt back and hurried away, but the witch just followed after him, wide-eyed and now far more docile.
“Who did it?” she said, lowering her voice and catching up.
They were still attracting attention, but nothing out of the ordinary for a large man and a beautiful woman. He sighed, glad they’d gotten out of the limelight.
“Who did what?” Dar didn’t turn to look at her.
“Living things can’t be enchanted. They just… can’t. And and…” she stuttered, her eyes wandering all over his body. “You are freaking decked out in enchantments.”
“Well, I didn’t even know about the enchantments,” he said honestly. “Enchantments ar
en’t even a thing where I come from.”
Dar knew the second he’d said that it had been a mistake. Her eyes lit up, and he realized he’d never get rid of her now.
“Devils!” someone screamed.
He froze, looking around for the devils, but he had no idea what to look for or do.
When he looked back, Sasha was studying him and seemed to read the confusion on his face. Her eyebrow arched as her face showed even more curiosity. “Do they not have devils where you come from either?”
“Nope. No witches either. But I met one on the way here… sort of… you really wouldn’t believe me if I told you the tale.”
“I think you’d find me more open-minded than most humans. The paths of dao are endless and often winding.”
“Great, that’s nice. But how about we start with you telling me what to expect with these devils.” He followed a guard, wanting to at least see the things he was destined to fight.
Sasha kept up with my large strides and didn’t even break a sweat. “They walk their own dao, like all of the ancient races. But they do not use mana like us. They walk paths filled with destruction and are more akin to a swarm of locusts than any sort of civilization.”
“Can I kill them?” Dar asked the important question.
“Of course. Even Drasil and Mo can die. It depends on your own strength though for whether you can accomplish the feat.”
He nodded, working to process what she was saying. Sasha didn’t seem capable of speaking directly.
“I have a shiny soul, if that helps,” he added.
“Shiny soul?” She tilted her head like a confused kitten.
Dar nodded. “Met a witch, the one that brought me here. She said I had a shiny soul, and that I’d be really good at killing devils.”
“I would like to meet this witch. What was her name?” Sasha asked as they approached what looked like the outer wall of the town.
It wasn’t much more than a chest-high layer of stacked stones. It might do for keeping out a few predators, but it didn’t seem effective at all for anything that was coming.
“Her name was Lilith,” Dar said, seeing a small, gray form step out of the trees, followed by another, then another. They were maybe three to four feet tall with nearly black, bat-like ears. Their faces looked slightly smashed, giving them an even stronger resemblance to bats.
“Gremlins,” Sasha stated before continuing with the previous conversation. “And either you met a very, very terrifying witch or one that wanted to commit suicide by taking that name.”
“Pretty sure I met Lilith. She called herself the ‘First Witch’.”
Sasha’s face went pale. “Did you meet the Black Knight?”
“No…” Dar didn’t think the death spirit was the Black Knight, but he did remember her talk about using his body to protect her.
“She’s never without a knight in a suit of armor that absorbs all light. He’s the greatest warrior to ever live. Though some believe it is just a suit of enchanted armor, because the things it could do were inhuman.” There was a light of reverence in Sasha’s eyes.
“Great,” Dar said, already thinking about the possibility. “But these devils don’t look like much.”
“Oh Lug, these aren’t the problem.”
As if proving her point, the trees behind the little gremlins started to crack and fall away.
“That is.”
A hulking, gray figure pushed through the trees. It had to be at least several heads taller than the minotaur that he’d seen earlier, and twice as big around. The thing was broad enough that it was using an actual tree for a club.
It was all upper body with thick arms corded in muscle, tottering on smaller unstable-looking legs. It was as if a gorilla’s chest and arms were on a gazelle’s legs. It would be almost hilarious if the giant muscled body didn’t look so capable of pummeling anything to death.
“What is that?” Dar asked.
“That is a troll. And they travel in packs—” Sasha started, cut off as more timber crackled behind the first.
Chapter 3
Dar wondered why he had to have ended up in this world as he watched several more hulking trolls push through the woods. Their rough, gray skin reminded him of an elephant’s, and he wondered just how hard it would be to break through it.
He looked over at the guards, assessing what weapons they were using. Many had a sword belted to their hips, but they were holding bows and spears.
When he had changed cities or states before, he had gotten used to learning the new environment, which was often full of opportunities and new girls. But he had never had a monster invasion to deal with. It seemed spears were the way to go.
And based on Lilith’s assessment, he apparently was destined to pick a fight with these things. Yay.
There was a commotion amongst the crowd that was gathering by the low wall. He pulled his eyes away from the devils and realized everyone was gathering here at the low stone wall.
Even the hostess from the tavern was here, a roughly made spear clenched in her hands.
The crowd began parting, and Dar followed them, stepping to the side and waiting to see what was emerging. As a few rows in from him parted, he could make out the minotaur walking forward, snorting and jaw locked in anger. He wielded a brutal-looking ax over his shoulder.
He looked ready to tumble with those trolls, and Dar was glad to have him.
The gremlins hooted and cawed as they grew closer, herded forward by the trolls as they thumped their clubs behind them. It sounded like war drums as they beat the ground with the timber. As they drew closer still, a growing stench seemed to be moving in with them. It was like rotten eggs, but even more cloying. He tried not to gag, but as they moved it was getting harder and harder.
A passing guard pressed a spear into his hand, and he accepted it, glad for a weapon.
“Stay behind the wall and focus on the gremlins,” the guard told him before walking away. A number of people were in the back with bows notched and ready.
Dar turned to Sasha. “Who’s going to deal with the trolls?”
“The bull and any other demon in the town will handle the trolls. Just be ready to keep the gremlins out of the town; they’ll burn the whole place down otherwise,” Sasha explained, pulling out what looked like a wand as she picked up a stone.
He couldn’t figure out what she was doing, but he didn’t have time to watch and figure it out. The gremlins had stopped moving haphazardly in front of the trolls, their movements focused more directly toward the town, picking up speed in their focus.
Dar leveled his spear forward, joining the others alongside him, holding the line.
The first gremlin running in a frenzy impaled himself on the spear, and Dar had to adjust his grip to stop it from slipping when the second speared itself after the first.
They appeared to be mindless creatures, with their greatest advantage in numbers. Dar breathed a sigh of relief; this might not be so hard after all.
The third gremlin came up to the two dead gremlins and used their bodies to climb up and over. The spear had become useless with the two bodies weighing it down and protecting those that came after.
Dar panicked for a moment, now weaponless against monsters. Something ticked in the back of his head; he needed to be resourceful, like being in a bar fight, and he was pretty sure he could outthink his opponent.
Dar snapped off the back end of the spear and stabbed the new gremlin, knocking him back over the wall.
More were coming by the second, giving Dar only moments to figure out his next weapon. He snatched a small, jagged stone blade that must have come from one of the gremlins and stabbed another that was crawling over its fellow monsters.
As he continued to fight off the gremlins, he realized that he was starting to be more surrounded than before. He looked around, realizing that everyone else that had been holding spears were backing up now that they were weaponless and starting to form a new line.
No one told me that was the plan!
“Lug, move,” Sasha said, and he jumped to the side in time to see her lob the stone she’d had over the gremlins, towards the trolls that had now stopped to watch the gremlins throw themselves at the wall of spears.
The stone sailed through the air in an expert toss, but he didn’t think that the stone was going to do much against the trolls.
But Dar was wrong, very wrong. The stone exploded on impact, swallowing the troll it hit in a giant ball of fire.
“Holy shit.”
“Pay attention,” Sasha scolded, and Dar grabbed a nearby gremlin by the head and tossed it back into the oncoming mass of them.
“That was amazing. How many more do you have?”
“That was the only one I just made. The dao of combustion isn’t stable enough to make more than one at a time.”
Dar didn’t know what exactly she meant, but it sounded like she wouldn’t be able to take out all the trolls herself.
“Let’s move back with the rest,” Dar said, pulling Sasha back to the second wall of spears the town’s folk had set up, but they were both met with spears that didn’t lower.
Dar gave it a moment, but they still didn’t move.
What the hell?
The line of townspeople were looking past them with wide, terrified eyes, like he didn’t even exist.
Dar turned around just in time to catch a tree-sized club that was descending on Sasha. He reacted instinctively, grabbing the falling club with both hands.
What a way to go.
The weight hit his hands hard, and he knew this thing was coming down with enough force to pancake him.
His fingers bit into the wood as he pushed back; he could feel the splinters threatening to puncture his skin, but they never did. The weight settled through his bones, and he held for dear life, pushing up against the ground with all the strength he could muster.
The club ground to a halt, hovering over their heads, as they all gaped, just staring at it. Sasha let out a little gasp, looking at him with new respect in her eyes.
Dar recovered first, using his leverage on the club to pull the troll forward and to the side.
The big oaf stumbled, thrown off balance, and fell sideways into the spear line, crushing several of them under its weight.
