Into the Hells

by Christopher Johns

  I pulled Magus Bane from my inventory and stood. I activated Cleave and sliced through the branch that Bokaj was sitting on, firing at Yohsuke and Jaken. The branch fell, and with it, the Ranger. He landed on his back, and before I could bring my weapon around to strike at him, I heard a shriek of laughter. I watched in horror as Jaken took the brunt of Muu’s drop from the sky, and his health dropped to half.

  The Fighter took out his hammer and smacked him in the head twice, dropping him to ten percent exactly before turning on Yohsuke.

  I heard a groan behind me and saw Bokaj begin to sit up with a loaded arrow, just as Coal fell on him and savaged his shoulder, trying to drag the Ranger away from me. Tmont limped over at me, hissing and snarling at thirty-five percent health. I decided she wasn’t worth the distraction and turned back in time for Bokaj to release a Volley straight into me from almost point blank range.

  I went down hard and fast. Lights out.

  Chapter Fourteen

  When I finally came to, the others were chatting over bowls of noodles and veggies.

  “Holy shit, man,” I grunted as I sat up. I was sore but not too bad. “Nice shot, Bokaj.”

  “You made it kind of easy.” He clapped me on the shoulder, and Tmont eyed me dangerously.

  “No hard feelings, pussycat?” She rolled her eyes at me and ate her own dinner, a large side of meat that she shredded easily.

  “So, that was a start.” Jaken slurped some of his noodles noisily and looked at us. “There was a lot going on there, and the planning and communication—while not perfect—were there. Right?”

  “They weren’t perfect,” I answered. “There were times when I acted alone when I think I should have focused more on helping you guys rather than trying to neutralize the threat.”

  “This is true, but that is a balance that anyone rarely finds,” Maebe added. “You did well to bring low one of your enemies, especially one so dangerous as James, but your true target should have been to ensure that Yohsuke could align an attack on Bokaj.”

  “How do you mean?” James looked from her to Yoh. “What, you would’ve tried to snipe him the same way you did me?”

  “Yeah. Bet your ass.” Yohsuke took a bite as he stared at Bokaj for a second. “He shoots so fast and often that getting close would only truly be ideal if it was you closing in. I can slice shit up, sure, but that just means I have to focus on defense until an opening comes, and that won’t happen unless I can get him to stop firing.”

  “Excellently put.” Muu belched rudely. “Knowing each other as well as we do means that we can see each other’s weak spots. It makes it more difficult to fight each other.”

  “Which is why I can summon enemies for you as well,” Maebe offered.

  James clapped his hands. “A warm up for the day, and then we can focus on fixing things that went wrong in the evening?” His sharp teeth flashed. “I think that could work.”

  That night, I took the first watch while the others slept. Maebe sat a little ways away from me, so I could focus on the lesson she was giving me while we had this time together.

  She was currently teaching me to press my awareness into the shadows around me so that I could sense danger—a minor ability, she had called it, but the first hour of my shift had been spent working out how to do it.

  Now, by hour two, I was able to send my awareness into the shadows around myself, my friends, and even beyond our bubble of safety that Maebe erected for us.

  While I was moving my mind along the shadows, I felt a brush of movement, almost small enough to think it had been a muscle spasm, but then I felt it again. I homed in on the offending motion and found a small creature, a hare, snuffling at the shadows south of where I sat. His presence gave me pause, and I wondered about something.

  “Hey, Mae.” I kept my eyes closed, but I knew that she was paying attention to me now. “Is it possible to move things through shadows?”

  I felt her awareness push against mine inside the shadows around our position and knew she had seen my reason for asking.

  “Yes, and it is a simple thing as well.” I opened my eyes, and, suddenly everything around me went dark, then reappeared, and I was next to Maebe.

  “How did you do that?” I asked in wonder.

  “Tell the shadows to surround your target wholly in a ball, then pull the creature or object to the shadow nearest you.” She put a hand out in front of her, and a small amount of snow appeared in a perfect sphere in her hand. “Be sure that the shadow around them is solid and that your focus does not waver. Try it.”

  I blinked at her, worried I might fuck up and kill the animal, but I did as I was instructed.

  I brought my awareness into the shadows and built a ball around the rabbit so tight that I worried about it being able to breathe for a moment, but then I yanked it toward me into the shadows about three feet from where we sat.

  The ball of shadow appeared, then dissipated, and the hare stood immobilized by fear. Suddenly, it shrieked, “Where am I?! Who are you? What was that? Don’t eat me!”

  I tried to smile reassuringly, but that didn’t help, and I worried that the animal’s crying out would wake my friends.

  “It’s okay!” I whispered calmly. “We won’t eat you. I’m a Druid. I only wanted to talk to you and practice an ability—which you have already helped with!”

  “What about her?” It sat back on its legs and motioned to Maebe. “How can I be certain a big predator like that one can be trusted? I can feel the weird coming off her. Like she’s waiting to eat me.”

  “Because she is my… mate,” I added as the hare’s nose began to twitch nervously, “but she won’t eat you either. I promise.”

  It calmed down significantly, and Maebe pulled a carrot out of the shadows on the ground to offer to the hare. He bounded away from it at first but soon figured out it was a peace offering, then began eating greedily, stopping to observe his surroundings. I dug a small bowl into the ground and transported some snow into it so that it would melt and I could practice.

  ABILITY UNLOCKED!

  Nether Transport (Minor) – Caster uses the shadows to move small objects and animals through the void. Cost: 50 MP. Range: 150 Feet. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

  That was a pretty cool ability, and I could see having to do both portions of it to unlock it being important. It helped set limits. I liked that.

  The hare drank the water with gratitude, and I watched it for a time, wondering if the form would be worthwhile. There didn’t seem to be a limit to the animal forms I could take, so why not?

  “Would you mind biting me?” The hare looked at me oddly.

  “I am not one to convert to the predator side of the food chain, Druid,” it replied flatly.

  I had to chuckle, and it stiffened. “I wanted to see about acquiring your form, and it seems the swiftest way to do so. Though I could just hold you for a couple minutes if you like?”

  It blinked at me and then bounced up and clawed at my open hand before biting me.

  “Ouch!” I cast Regrowth with a grumble. “You came in swinging, huh?”

  “I had to be certain you hadn’t changed your mind about eating me!” It nibbled the carrot, warily eyeing us.

  Maebe and I just watched it in silence as I cast my senses back into the still darkness around us. The rest of the night was silent and enjoyable.

  That morning, we ate breakfast and sparred first with a large shadow beast in the shape of a gorilla that was basically on PCP. No matter how we beat the damned thing, it didn’t seem to hurt it, and it kept separating us from each other, so our grouping tactics were foiled. It would grab me and throw me into Jaken, then whip around and toss James into Bokaj, breaking his line of fire.

  Yohsuke would attempt to call us all back together, but the beast slapped him senseless enough that we had to distract it rather than grouping together to beat it. And don’t even get me started on Muu’s attempts to spear the thing to the ground from above.

  Our normal t
actics just weren’t working, and as I would steal glances at Maebe, I knew exactly why it felt like the beast was cheating.

  It was because it was. She was.

  As we traveled after breakfast, our travels went much the same as the day prior, but we focused on trying to incorporate hand and arm signals from the Marine Corps into our communication. There had been too many times of late where our earrings hadn’t worked for us not to learn from that.

  We would swing our fists slowly up and down to garner attention, then motion toward what we were seeing or put a fist up next to our heads to signal a dead stop—a hand straight up, fingers closed for caution, then the same with splayed fingers multiple times to fan out.

  While we moved, I stepped closer to Maebe. “I saw that this morning.”

  She cast her gaze my way, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Do you disapprove?”

  I shook my head. “It’s what we need.” I watched the others moving cautiously in practice. “We have to break the mold. Think outside the box.”

  “What is this box?”

  I blinked at her, then scrambled to put together a coherent explanation. Leave it to me to forget that I was speaking to a Fae Queen.

  “Think of the box as being how things are normally done. You get comfortable there. It’s structured. Safe. But inside it, things can grow stagnant.” I motioned to my friends. “Without innovation and thinking outside the norm, we can’t improve. We can’t develop. Not to our best anyway. Does that make sense?”

  “Perfectly.” Maebe’s eyes shifted toward the sky. “That is a very clever term, not to mention idea. You are very wise, indeed.”

  I waited to see if there would be a wisdom increase. There wasn’t. Look, I’m wise okay? Real wiseass here.

  I shrugged. “It took someone much wiser than me to figure that out. It’s a common phrase from where I come from, but saying and doing are always a little different, aren’t they?”

  Her smile at my response was breathtaking, and it was a moment I would likely remember for some time to come—her dark, star-speckled cheeks against a backdrop of our small bubble of spring, snow in the background. I felt a welling in my heart that made me smile ridiculously, and I had to turn away to keep from stumbling over a root.

  As the warmth of the moment began to drain from me, I began to think about Kayda once more. We were in the north; I should be able to feel her presence. Right?

  So why couldn’t I? I know that the distance our bond covered was small, maybe a mile or two at most, but still, I hoped she was okay.

  I turned my attention back to our travels and on we went.

  That night, and the few days that followed, our new routine set in. Scouting was dangerous with the trail being sent to us when someone on foot would return, and the errant gusts and quick shifts in temperature would freeze my owl form swiftly.

  It was line of sight and craftiness for us as we moved forward.

  We fought each other in the evenings, and the next morning, we fought a shadow beast. To keep things interesting and varied, we would switch out on certain exercises and fights. Sometimes we fought one to one, and the others would offer advice; sometimes it was two to one—three to one.

  That last one still left me a little miffed because I had gotten my ass handed to me. There was absolutely NO reason they had to do me so dirty like that.

  I mean, sure, getting smacked with a hammer while distracted by a floating sword? That could happen to anybody, but having me go flying over James who was waiting behind my legs so I couldn’t catch myself? Those dirty bastards.

  Well, the joke was on them. Remember when I said I would get my revenge for them fucking with me for Vrawn?

  Here. Some. Came.

  As I picked myself up off the ground, I cast my newest aspect spell.

  Aspect of the Hare – The Primal Warrior’s body lengthens and shifts slightly, making them as agile and springy as a maddened hare.

  -15 strength, +20 dexterity

  Hearing and movement speed greatly increased.

  I could feel my legs lengthening, and though my muscles became a little sprier and stretchy, I noticed the lack of strength immediately. My ears lengthened slightly to that of a hare, and I could hear so much more than I normally would.

  But if I was going to get the shit kicked out of me—I was going out kicking.

  I tensed my legs; they were bent weirdly, but even if it felt unnatural at first, I knew I would be able to move quicker. I grinned savagely and released myself.

  It was hard to compensate for the sudden burst of motion I had going. I’d only get a short amount of time before they caught on to my tactics or the spell ran out of time.

  Time to play.

  I realized I was bouncing over James as my foot caught the back of his head and shoved down almost of its own accord. My right ear twitched, and I used the kick to my friend’s dome to shift my momentum slightly to avoid the hammer that swung beside my head. I brought my left leg up into a front kick that disarmed Muu.

  The hammer flew into the watching crowd and smacked Bokaj in the chest by accident.

  “Hey!” I heard him groan.

  Clang! A shield smacked into my hip throwing my legs into the air, taking seven percent of my HP with it. I punched Jaken in his exposed shoulder, making him shift back, then kicked him in the face, snapping his head to the right.

  The Paladin glowed golden with some kind of healing spell, and then James was punching me in the gut. I socked him in the face once, twice, and as I went for the third, he turned and hip tossed me on to my back. I was down to seventy-seven percent health now.

  I reached out and cast Lightning Bolt. The shock flung James away from me, and I shoved my way off the ground. I ducked under Jaken’s sword swiftly and moved away.

  As soon as I was in range of Muu, his short spear readied, I dipped my hand into my inventory and brought out my simple great dagger—one of the first weapons I had bought from Rowland—and I shoved it straight toward his heart, hoping he would fall for the feint.

  He dipped left and brought his shield in to parry as his spear shot forward almost inhumanly fast. It caught my left bicep as I flung myself toward his legs in a forward shoulder roll. Now, I sported seventy-three percent health.

  As soon as my feet were beneath him, I kicked up as hard as I could and shoved him into the air with a grunt, then cast Water Sphere. A large ball of water sucked Muu in, where he struggled mightily, and as I was about to cast a lightning bolt, James and Jaken crashed into me. The pummeling they gave me was worth it.

  After all of our wounds were healed, I was still laughing.

  “Why are you laughing, fool?” Yoh raised his eyebrow at me. “You just got your ass beat. Why didn’t you use your axe?”

  “It was my first time using that aspect. I didn’t know what exactly to expect beforehand.” I held my hand up to stop him. “I take that back—I knew. I just didn’t know exactly how much it would be to get used to. I figured, in the moment, the dagger would be better because it would let me get close and use my legs without throwing off my balance or new-found speed.”

  Maebe seemed to find my answer satisfactory, but Yohsuke shook his head.

  “We can play all we want later—for now, we focus. Do you think that form would be decent in a fight?”

  “Hell yeah.” I didn’t wait for him to tell me to elaborate. “I might lose a significant amount of my strength, but I can close with an enemy almost as swiftly as James or Muu. With my spells, I could shove a Lightning Bolt into a caster’s throat before they can fire off a spell. I could be shoving Falfyre into someone’s skull one second and then helping one of you a second later. I can jump higher too, I think. If they didn’t expect me, I could storm an enemy line and hamstring them before you get there.”

  “All of those are viable options,” James agreed. “Those punches were fast, and that kick hurt. If you had your axe for that, it would’ve been hard. We would’ve been hard-pressed to get close to you
.”

  “So then maybe he fights in aspected forms to get used to them?” Muu offered. “Like I had to get used to heavy-ass armor so that I could jump higher.”

  I shrugged. That was a solid idea, and getting used to fighting in the many different aspected forms I had would be advantageous. It was time to do so.

  I could clearly see myself hopping around the battlefield as a jackrabbit version of death and destruction gifted at the blade of my axe.

  It was added work, but we began to squeeze that into our routine as well, a warm-up before our fighting, then as a cooldown after our evening sparring sessions. It hurt to fight each other, but I felt like we were better for it.

  The next few days flew by. Every now and again, I would get little blips from our surroundings, showing that we were in the pack’s territory, but they kept their distance for some reason. I was okay with that. Being around the pack, or at least thinking about it, made me want to fight. I don’t know why, but the Werewolf wanted to subjugate them in the worst way.

  The trees, larger by far than they had been when we first arrived in the area, began to thin, then give way to a large, open plain of frost and snow with jagged winds swirling the snows into flurries.

  “That’s going to suck,” I observed to the others.

  Bokaj looked at us and snorted derisively. “Wimps.”

  “How are we going to stay together?” James asked as he shivered just looking at the vast expanse.

  I felt a hand smack my shoulder and turned to see Jaken grinning at me. “Zeke is going to break the wind.”

  “Look, man, I farted a mile or two back, and I heard Muu gag.” I looked to the astonished Fighter. “Sorry, man.”

  “No, man—break the wind. You’ll be our barrier. You take your Ursolon form, and we just walk beside you. That way, we can’t get separated by the gusts and snow.” He tapped the Mobile Spring Rod in my grip. “I don’t know how well this will work, but we don’t want to leave too big of a path behind us, and without the trees to block the wind, it will still be rough going.”