by Deck Davis
“Before we do anything I have to get back to Marg at the ranch. She’s gonna kill me if I’m much later,” said Tony. “The sheriff has a 4x4 parked underneath the station. The keys will be in her office.”
Ash didn’t much feel like going back to the sheriff’s office after having been locked in there for days, but there wasn’t much else they could do. If there was transport there that they could take, then he was going to have to do it. They could drop Tony at his ranch and then he was going to gun it across the plains and out of Pasture.
Chapter Sixteen
Fine, Let’s Rock
The town had changed even more in just a matter of hours, indicating that Rapto was spreading worryingly quickly. Gone were the ugly brick buildings that had stood there for centuries, replaced by shops built from rough-cut stone. They looked like they belonged in some medieval village. Wooden signs swung in the wind, and smoke drifted from chimneys.
Most of the new Rapto shops now had stock, along with vendors who were desperate to sell it. A sword-maker called out to Ash as he passed by, while an herbalist advertised a half-price sale that he was running. Through the window behind him, ash could see shelves lined with glass vials that were filled with all manner of strange colored potions.
The paving was made completely of cobblestone now, and the tarmac road had given way to dirt that bore the wheel tracks from carriages that had passed through. Over by one shop, two horses were tied to a post with rope. Pasture Downs might have been a backwards-ass town, but they sure as hell hadn’t travelled by horse and cart before. Rapto was spreading across Pasture like herpes on a gigolo.
When they opened the Sheriff’s door, they were hit with the smell of piss and sweat. The piss, Ash knew, was kinda his fault, but what did they expect? The cell Ellie had locked him earlier in didn’t have a toilet, which he was pretty sure was against some kind of regulation. Still, now wasn’t the time for a complaint.
They found Ellie Ashurst stood above a desk. She was wearing her police jacket, and the sleeves were stained with blood. Her mustard-yellow canvas pants were tucked into leather boots that reached up to her ankles. Her hair was tied back, leaving her half-chewed right ear on show. If he didn’t know that it had happened years ago, he’d have guessed that a goblin had taken a bite from her.
“What the hell are you doing?” said Tony, staring at the sheriff.
Ellie had tied a goblin down to the desk with rope. The goblin strained against the bonds and tried to break free, but the knots held. Ellie towered above the creature. Ash was shocked to see that she was burning its green flesh with the lit end of a cigar.
“Stop grunting, you little bastard, and tell me what the hell’s going on.”
She pressed the cigar into the goblin’s breast. Ash heard its flesh sizzle, and he almost had to look away. It didn’t seem to matter how many of them he’d already melted with his Ignis, the smell of burning meat sickened him. Killing them was one thing, but torture was another. Ellie Ashurst was capable of things that Ash could only dream about.
Damn. Maybe his moral compass wasn’t as broken as he thought.
The goblin squealed. It seemed to be trying to say something, but Ash couldn’t understand what.
“Can you translate that?” he asked FF.
I told you, Dr. Aitken didn’t pick up the goblin’s language.
Tony raised his rifle.
“Enough torturing it,” he said.
“Not until it talks,” said Ellie, not turning around.
Tony pulled the trigger and shot the goblin in the head. Its brain exploded and blood leaked onto the floor.
Ellie spun around. In a second, she had drawn her pistol.
“Oh, it’s just you couple of bumholes. You’re here for the four by four, aren’t you? You’re not the only free loaders who’ve come here begging for a ride. Well, I’m not going anywhere.”
“The plant’s about to blow quicker than a virgin in an orgy,” said Chad. “We gotta hit the road.”
“Who the hell are you?”
Ash stepped in front of Chad.
“Don’t worry about him,” he said.
The sheriff stepped away from her desk. Her hair was tied back and looked greasy, and the skin on her face sagged as though she hadn’t slept in days. Ash wasn’t bothered if she had lost sleep, and he wanted nothing more than to rip her a new bumhole for leaving him locked up. He clenched his jaw and held it in. He needed to get home, and Ellie had the wheels.
Hey, maybe he was learning self-restraint after all.
“My boy has run away,” said Ellie. “and I’m going nowhere until I find him. I don’t give a crap about the plant.”
“Jake’s gone again?” said Tony.
“Yep. Right on schedule. I oughta start keeping him handcuffed to his bed.”
Tony hobbled across the office and pulled a chair toward him. He grimaced as he sunk into it.
“You’re gonna die if you stay here, Ellie. Things have gone to hell.”
“Yeah? And whose fault is that?”
“Not mine, if that’s what you’re implying,” said Ash. “The money side of things – yeah. Fair cop. But I don’t think you can really blame the god damn goblins on me.”
Ellie huffed. “It’s all your fault. I don’t care what you say.”
Ash paced forward a few steps. “Maybe I’ll just take the keys from you.”
“No you damn-well won’t,” said Tony. “I might have helped you up to now, but I’m not in love with you. You’re not gonna take anything by force.”
Ash sighed. “If we help you find your son, can we get a ride?”
“I don’t give a shit about anything except my boy.”
“We’ve all got families,” said Ash.
Ellie nodded. “Yeah. And I bet yours is proud of you.”
“Where’s your son usually run to?” Ash said.
“The forest nearby. The one near the wolf sanctuary. His scrote of a father used to take him when he was younger. He knows I hate him going there.”
It was clear that Tony wasn’t gonna let Ash wrench the keys from Ellie Ashurst’s cold, dead hands. Besides, he guessed that he owed the people around here a little help. He was still an asshole, and he was proud of the fact that he probably always would be, but that didn’t mean his morals were completely gone.
He sensed that if he was going to survive what was to come, blood mage or not, he’d need the help of Tony Fucking Shore. Best to keep him on side.
“Fine,” he said. “Let’s rock.”
Chapter Seventeen
Violated by an Orb
They drove Ellie’s four by four a few miles away from Pasture and to the edge of Holwood Forest. This was a mass of trees that looked impenetrable from the outskirts. Each section of it looked uniformly alike, so much so that Ash had no idea where to start looking.
Ellie guided them to a spot on the outskirts and killed the engine. Ash heard crickets call and birds shriek, along with other sounds that sent a shiver up his spine; ones that definitely didn’t belong in Holwood.
“This is it,” said Ellie. “He usually comes this way. Little pea-brain comes out here to smoke and thinks I don’t know.” She sighed. “He’s just like his ma. I used to do the same thing.”
“I quit when I joined the army,” said Chad. “Just couldn’t keep up the habit. Could kill for one now, though.”
“Yeah, well, when we find Jake, feel free to confiscate his smokes.”
The further they walked into the woods, the more the blue sky was drowned and replaced instead by a black blanket of shadows cast by the treetops. They walked through the forest for two hours and Ash’s body began to remind him that it had been a long time since he had eaten, and even longer since he had taken a break. He almost called them to a halt, when Chad shouted that he’d found someone.
It was Ellie’s son, Jake. He was a scrawny teenager with a floppy fringe, and he had two thin rings in his lips. He was backed against a tree with a book and
a pack of smokes beside him, but it seemed that something had interrupted his reading session.
Stood in front of him was a creature that looked like it had fallen out of the devil’s arse. It was vaguely human-shaped, except its body was covered in a kind of brown scale that looked like scabs that had healed over.
“What the hell is that?” said Chad.
Tony shrugged his shoulders. Ash certainly had no clue, either.
That’s a rubigine, said FF. A mean fucker with sulphur-drenched skin.
“Anything I should know about it?” asked Ash.
It likes long walks on the beach and enjoys seeing a play every once in a while.
“Maybe I’ll feed you to it if I can figure out how to get you out of my head. Do you know anything useful about it?”
This isn’t good…
“I’m a big boy, I can take it.”
I’m not so sure; Dr., Aitken hadn’t encountered one, so there’s nothing in my memory banks. Just be careful. It’s my ass on the line here too, since I’m stuck inside your head along with the pea that counts as your brain.
Ellie drew her gun.
“Jake, move to the side,” she shouted.
When her son darted to the left, Ellie opened fire on the rubigine. The bullets hit its brown skin and fell to the floor like discarded peanut shells.
“Can you give me its HP count?” asked Ash.
Scanning…40/40
“This thing only has 40 HP??”
Maybe that’s all it needs.
He grew a level 2 Ignis flame. That should have been enough to drop it to the ground. He sent the purple flames hurtling through the forest, where the edges caught on leaves that hung from the trees and set them alight. A bird squawked and flew from its nest. The ball hit the rubigine, spread across its scab-like body and then extinguished.
“HP count?”
60/60
“It’s gone up?”
Told you.
“Told me, did you? I don’t remember you saying ‘Ash, be careful, this pussyflap regenerates HP when you hurt it.”
The creature turned away from Jake now. Ellie’s son backed further toward the tree, bent down and picked up his smokes. He popped one in his mouth and lit it. If the kid was scared, he sure as hell wasn’t showing it.
“You guys just gonna screw around, or are you gonna sort this thing out?” he said, with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.
Ash almost laughed. He couldn’t tell if Jake was acting tough as an act, or if he genuinely believed it.
Tony pushed past Ash and Ellie, levelled his rifle and aimed at the rubigne’s head. He squeezed off a round. A mana-charged bullet hit its skull, and then bounced onto the ground.
75/75, said FF.
“Guys, this thing’s HP is going up every time we hurt it,” said Ash.
“So, what do we do?” asked Chad. “And what the hell is it doing now?”
“If attacking it gives it more HP, maybe we better give it a kiss.”
The rubigne’s skin started to melt. Rather than being scab like, it started to liquify as if someone was torching it with a flame thrower. It became so runny that it fell to the floor, and then drop by drop it collected in a small puddle amongst the fallen leaves.
For a while, the forest was silent again. The branches set alight by Ash’s arcane flames didn’t burn much, since they were wet from a recent rainfall. The bird that had fled its nest returned, but seemed to be keeping a wary eye on Ash and the others.
Ash breathed a sigh of relief. “Problem solved. I don’t know how…but it’s solved nonetheless.”
As soon as he’d said the words, the puddle of rubigine started to move across the forest floor, sliding over the leaves and mud. It went too quickly to track, and Ash soon lost sight of it.
“Maybe I spoke too soon.”
“Holy hell!” shouted Chad.
Ash turned to see the rubigine separating itself from the brown trunk of a tree. Within a few seconds, it was fully formed again. It grabbed Chad by the shoulders and bit his neck. Chad screamed, and blood poured out from him. Tony raised his rifle, Ellie her pistol.
Ash ran in front of them, purposefully blocking their aim. They were probably so wired with adrenaline, and the rubigine was so close to Chad that they’d probably end up hitting him. He had only one thought now; heal Chad before he bled out. But first, he had to get the rubigine off the soldier.
He cast Durus. He heard blood squelching around him, then felt his own life force leak from his eyes, nose, and mouth. He tasted the iron of his blood as it rolled over his tongue, he felt its wetness as it dripped out of his ears. It soon formed a casing around him, hardening over his skin like armor.
“Set a limit,” he told FF. “Keep Durus running until I get down to 200HP.”
I’m not your magic fucking wand, Ash. I’m a glorified Excel spreadsheet. By thinking about the spell limitations, you’ve already done it.
With his new armor in place he charged forward, pulled out his dagger mid-run, and tried to sink it in the rubigne’s forehead. As soon as the tip of his blade hit the rubigne’s skull, it snapped.
90/90 HP, said FF. You’re not getting this, are you?
It didn’t matter that he’d increased its health; he knew that would happen. The only important thing was that he’d manage to get it to release its grip on Chad. Ash grabbed the young soldier’s arm and yanked him away. Chad stumbled over the leaves, holding his neck with one hand and trying to stem the flow of blood.
“Keep it busy,” Ash told Ellie and Tony.
“How do we do that?”
“Dance with it! I don’t give a shit!”
He focused on Chad. The soldier was on his back now, his blood leaking out over the mud and staining it. His face was pale. He tried to talk, but all that came out were gasps.
Damn. A small transfusion wasn’t gonna be enough, that was for damn sure. After using level 2 Ignis and keeping his Durus armor running, he had 423 HP, and that was draining fast. He cast a Transfusion, donating 50 of it to Chad.
The healing arcane light washed over the soldier. Part of his neck wound knitted together, but most of it was still ripped open.
That’s not working, said FF. He still looks like hell. Must have gotten him bad.
“Ash!” called Tony, behind him.
He needed to give Chad more HP. How much would do it? Another fifty? A hundred? Chad wasn’t like him and Tony, the recruit could die. Ash wasn’t going to let that happen.
Chad stopped gasping now. His hands fell limp to the floor. He was almost gone.
He transfused Chad with 150 of his own HP. Just as the purple arcane life force left him, the rubigine stomped over. Ash looked on in horror as the transfusion mist lapped over the rubigne’s skin, where it disappeared into the cracks of its scabby skin.
Goddamn it! He could try and transfuse Chad again, but he had to get the rubigine out of the way first. At the rate he was pissing his HP down the drain, he’d soon be all out.
And then the rubigine started to scream.
You’re a genius, Ash!, said FF. It’s working!
The scabs on its skin started to bubble, and brown goo leaked out from them. The rubigine sank to the floor, choking on the brown glop that was coming out of its mouth.
He was no genius, that was for sure, but he’d done it. It seemed that the rubigne’s weakness was being healed, and Ash had just delivered a shit load of transfused HP directly into its veins.
Ellie ran over to Jake and hugged her son. Tony kneeled next to Chad and checked his pulse.
“You need to hurry, Ash.”
He delivered another 150HP to Chad with a transfusion, leaving himself running on empty. He felt his own pulse pounding in his ears, and a splitting pain wracked his skull.
Chad sat up. He spluttered for air. His face was covered with his own bloodstains.
Certain that chad was okay, Ash started to feel a little annoyed at FF.
“A bit m
ore information would have been greatly appreciated, FF. I’m not asking for a detailed history of the creature down to its toilet habits, but just the basics.”
I didn’t know, Ash. I’m not a demigod. Dr. Aitken programmed me with his knowledge of the creatures of Rapto, and it turns out the stupid bastard spent more time drinking and whoring than fighting. I only know what he knew.
