by Dante King
I didn’t, either. But if I didn’t figure it out, we were both dead.
Asking hadn’t done anything. But then again, asking wasn’t what Anna had wanted in the bedroom. She’d wanted to be commanded—almost to be owned, like an object. Maybe a command was what she needed?
“Anna,” I roared, forgetting the pain in my limbs. “I command you to take the form of the Scythe!”
An instant later, Anna’s body exploded in a psychedelic glow. Colors washed over her body, sending the Nippers on top of her screaming into the brush. Her form shimmered, turning transparent for a brief moment, then reforming into the great curved weapon I knew so well.
My scythe lay on the forest floor, freshly sharpened and ready for carnage.
I bolted for it, ignoring the Nippers snapping at my heels. Several of them still clung to my arm, sinking their fangs up and down my arm like a fucking sewing machine, but I could handle those soon enough. The moment my fingers closed around the jeweled handle of the scythe, I was fully in control.
The weapon felt like an extension of my own body. I knew it as intimately as I’d known Anna’s body the night before.
At the sight of it, the Nippers’ red eyes filled with caution. The ones still in the trees managed to stop themselves from jumping into the fray, but the ones clinging to my body were far too committed now. Their beady eyes narrowed at the sight of my weapon, their tails flexing as they prepared for combat.
I choked up my grip on the handle on one arm, and drew the belly of the blade across my other arm, taking off the Nippers like I was shaving with a giant razor. The blade sliced through the Nippers like they weren’t even there, decapitating three in a single swing. Blood poured from their neck stumps as Nipper heads rolled across the jungle floor like a dropped bag of limes.
A quick twist dislodged the last two Nippers. I switched the scythe to a two-handed grip, pointedly ignoring the pain in my forearm and the blood on my robes. Only one thing mattered: killing all of these beasts before they could do any more damage.
It turned out to be pretty easy. They were tiny, vicious bastards, but they were still squirrels. The scythe flashed in my hands again and again, doing tricks I’d never have thought myself capable of. I spun it like a wheel, sparks flying from the tip as I swished the whole thing at a nearby tree, slicing through the trunk. It collapsed to the forest floor, giving the Nippers nowhere to hide.
Up close, they had no chance of laying a paw on me. They melted before me like a field of snow, Nipper bits flying in all directions as I tore them apart. By the time I was done, the jungle floor was littered with miniature squirrel parts. The place looked like a Build-A-Bear franchise from Hell.
Eventually, I realized I had no more enemies to fight. The last of the Nippers gurgled and died, torn in two. I stared at the scythe in my hands, something tugging at my brain, then tossed it into the air with both hands, flexing my fingers. A glow enveloped the weapon at the top of its arc, and by the time it hit the ground, it had transformed back into Anna.
She swayed unsteadily on her feet, a little surprised to be back in human form. “Oh wow,” she said, glancing with disgust over the carpet of disemboweled squirrel carcasses. “That was a fucking massacre, Eric. Geez, I kinda wish it was like last time when I didn’t remember so much.”
“Do what now?” I asked. Her voice distracted me from my thoughts. “You remember me using you as a weapon?”
Anna clutched the sides of her head with her hands, like she was coming down from a major-league bout with brain freeze. “Kinda?” she panted, blinking a few times to clear her vision. “I mean, I know I was in your arms, and I was all... sharp and angry. Most of it’s still a blur, but I guess it’s a little less of a blur than last time?”
The rustle of fabric behind me made me turn. Eliezer stood there, a pleased look on his ancient face.
“The two of you grow closer through combat,” he said, sounding amused. “It won’t be long before your Anna recollects being your weapon as clearly as she remembers being your woman.”
Again that strange dichotomy between the woman I caressed in my bed and the weapon I caressed in the fight. I sensed that Eliezer wanted me to ask more about it, probe those mysteries, but I wasn’t feeling much like doing what the Peak Supreme God wanted at the moment.
“Why the fuck didn’t you warn me?” I growled, turning away from Anna. “Those things could have killed us!”
“The Nippers?” Eliezer dismissed the field of dead squirrels with a wave of his hand. “Bah! They’re nothing but fodder!”
I looked down at one of the creatures I’d slaughtered. If this was what a cute, cuddly animal had in store for me in this world, I shuddered to think of the kind of hurt a real predator could inflict.
“You received ample notice of their intentions,” Eliezer chided. “Do you not read the messages that appear in the air, Eric?”
“I do,” I said, the thought of the strange messages making my brain skip like a record knocked out of the groove. “But this is all so…”
“Exciting?” Eliezer suggested. “Exhilarating?”
“Much,” I said, flatly. “It’s all so much.”
“Well,” Eliezer said, “if you need me to tell you everything, there’s a little more on its way. A lot more, actually.” He sighed. “I think you’ll find her quite… distracting.”
As I turned, following his gaze, a cry echoed through the woods. My heart was still pounding from the fight with the Nippers. “Halt! Who goes there?”
I nearly commanded Anna to transform back into the scythe. The words stood ready on my lips as the person who’d yelled stepped through the treeline, entering our little clearing. Yet when I saw the newcomer, the command died before it could be spoken.
She was beautiful. A slender, buxom blonde crossed the forest floor, stepping around the corpses of Nippers. Her hair was done up in a long ponytail, trailing down her back as she walked. Her robes shone with the same shade as the jungle around us, a rich, verdant green like the depths of a jade stone. A curved sword hung at her side, halfway out of the sheath with her fingers around the hilt. Clearly this woman was just as dangerous as she was gorgeous.
As she drew closer, words appeared in my vision:
Cultivator Detected!
Realm 1: Level 1: Stage 3 (Late Mana Gateway Cultivator)
“Um, Eric?” Anna took a step to the side as the woman advanced, her eyes on the curved sword. “She looks like she knows how to use that sword…”
“I can see that,” I said, catching the newcomer’s eye. “There’s no need for that. My friend and I just got attacked by these little demonic squirrels—as you can see, there was quite the battle. But it’s over now.”
Another inch of steel shone from the woman’s sheath. “What are you two doing in here?” she demanded, glaring at me, then at Anna. She held her weapon like she was ready to strike at a moment’s notice, and from the way she gripped the hilt, I had no doubt she could have that blade out within a heartbeat. “The Verdant Ruins are a Mana Zone, restricted to members of the Hollow Frog Guild. Unless we’ve picked up a few new recruits while my back was turned, the two of you are trespassing.”
Some welcome party, I thought, holding up my hands. With Anna in human form I was unarmed, and it would take far too long for her to transform for the scythe to be of any use. Honestly, even if I had the scythe, I doubted my ability to hold my own against the woman. She looked even more like a weapon in human form than Anna did.
“The old man brought us here,” I said, jerking a thumb over my shoulder. “His name’s Eliezer, and according to him he’s something called the ‘Peak Supreme God’. I’m Eric, and this is Anna.”
“His girlfriend,” Anna added, giving me a little smile.
For a moment, the newcomer’s eyes went as large as saucers. She snorted, her long ponytail shaking back and forth with barely suppressed laughter.
“Well, lying certainly isn’t your strong suit,” she said, drawing her curved blade. It s
ang as it left the sheathe, sending a high, piercing note through the jungle. “Though I have to give you points for style. Claiming you met the Peak Supreme God is certainly an audacious lie, at the very least.”
“It’s the truth!” I protested, getting irritated. “He’s right there—”
I glanced over my shoulder. Eliezer wasn’t there. At some point between the Nipper fight and the arrival of our newcomer, he’d simply disappeared. As a God is wont to do, I suppose.
“Fuck,” I swore. “Of course he dips out now, right when I need him...”
“The two of you will come with me,” the blonde explained. From the way she held that sword, I knew there’d be no arguing with her. “I’m taking you to Guildmaster Ji. If it turns out you’re lying—and I have no doubt that you are—you’ll face the justice of a Late Embryonic Soul cultivator.” She shook her head. “Peak Supreme God…”
Anna took a step closer to the newcomer. Dappled shade from the trees bathed her face in a chiaroscuro of light and shadow. “He really is telling the truth,” she explained, her lips a tight little line as she explained. “We met Eliezer back on Earth. He brought us here, because he wants Eric to walk something called the Eternal Dao.”
The newcomer looked taken aback. “Hmm,” she said, running a thumb along the underside of her chin. “That is an interesting thing to claim. And neither of you seem worried at all to be interrogated by a Late Embryonic Soul…”
“I have no idea what that is,” I said with a shrug. “Look, I’ll gladly go wherever you want me to go. We’re lost in the jungle—we quite literally don’t know which way is up. But whenever we get to this Guildmaster Ji person, I’m going to want some answers.”
The woman stared deep into my eyes, as if she were trying to see the soul beneath the skin. A sensation like pins and needles washed over me, the Core within my abdomen quivering. What was this woman doing to me?
Finally, she came to a decision. She sheathed her blade as quickly as she drew it, the steel disappearing within the ornate sheathe at her side. “My name is Hazel,” she said, brushing an errant lock of hair from her eyes. “You said you are Eric, correct? And this is Anna?”
“Nice to meet you,” my girlfriend said. Fuck, I guess I could call her my girlfriend now. “What were you doing out here in the jungle, Hazel? Looking for wayward souls?”
“Hoping to get into a fight with some demon squirrels?” I asked, nodding toward the pile of tiny bodies beneath the trees.
Hazel shook her head. “I’m hunting for Cores,” she said, gesturing for us to follow her through the jungle. “The Verdant Ruins are excellent for farming alone, although most people prefer to hunt for Cores in a group.”
“And you don’t?” I asked, stepping around a large vine in the path. After my encounter with the Nippers, I wasn’t taking anything on faith—I double-checked every plant we came across, keeping my eyes peeled for any animals that might be lurking in the brush.
Hazel shrugged. “I prefer to work alone,” she said simply, the words like a door slamming shut.
There’s definitely something there she doesn’t want to talk about, I thought, sharing a glance with Anna. I wonder why this woman is so intent on going against the grain? I almost thought to ask, but I’d angered our new guide enough as it was. The last thing I wanted was for her to draw that steel on me again—at least until I had a weapon of my own.
The ground sloped upward sharply from the clearing where we’d fought the Nippers. Gauging the time of day proved almost impossible, as the trees above us were so thick that only pale, dim light filtered through the thick branches. We crossed a small stream, Hazel leaping across like an acrobat while Anna and I balanced on a log in the path, and kept on walking for what felt like an hour.
As the adrenaline from the fight left me, I found myself flagging. I’d neither eaten or slept since my date with Anna, and both of us were exhausted. Hazel didn’t seem to notice, however, or perhaps she didn’t care. She led us mercilessly, looking back over her shoulder occasionally to make sure we followed in her wake but never stopping.
Eventually, we reached a ruin. Stone pillars stood out from the landscape, the remains of a much larger temple complex. Most of them had half-collapsed into the loamy soil, overgrown with moss or covered in strange, stubby mushrooms. Here and there you could get a sense of the original structure. Half of a wall remained standing against a grove of trees, bent inward near the top as if a giant had used it as a cushion.
We’d neared the center of the ruins when Hazel stopped suddenly. The blonde held up a hand, calling us to a stop for the first time since we’d set off. “Halt,” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder at me. “Can you sense it? My Mortal Sense is barely activated, but as an Early Core Formation, you should have a better grasp of Mortal Sense.”
Mortal Sense? What the hell was that? Then, I realized. It must have been something along the lines of what Eliezer had taught me.
Closing my eyes, I pushed outward with my senses, the energy in my Core seeping out into the living world surrounding me. The sudden onslaught of sensory information overwhelmed me: focusing on any one thing was like trying to play chess and run a marathon at the same time. I could feel the ants rummaging through the soil, taste the faded blood where sacrifices had been carried out in this temple thousands of years ago. I felt Anna’s blood coursing through her veins, the beat quickening as her nervousness with the sudden stop increased.
“What am I supposed to be sensing?” I finally asked. I saw the words leave my lips—not as words, but as vibrations in the air.
That clinched it. As I watched the words dissipate, before Hazel could even give me an answer, I saw what she’d been trying to direct me toward. The air around this temple trembled, like the ripples of water in the glass when the T-Rex approached in Jurassic Park. I had no doubt a similar threat awaited my party.
“Never mind—I feel it,” I said, cutting off Hazel’s reply. “What the hell is it—”
The section of wall collapsed. The trees behind the stone shook back and forth, sending the ancient stone collapsing to the forest floor like a Jenga tower with one too many pieces missing. As the smoke cleared, we saw a dark shadow climbing the trees, much larger than a human.
“Oh no,” Hazel said, reaching for her blade. “This is not good…”
Words flashed in my vision:
Monster Detected!
Marsh Croc (Realm 1: Level 2)
“A Marsh Croc?” I asked, as if the words weren’t right in front of my face.
According to the readout, it was Level Two—which still put it at a lower power level than yours truly. From the way Hazel reacted to it, though, I knew this thing would put up a way tougher fight than those Nippers.
Chapter 5
The Marsh Croc dropped from the trees, landing on its back and rolling across the jungle floor. Several times larger than an ordinary crocodile, the beast could have given a Clydesdale horse a run for its money in the size department. Even Steve Erwin—rest his soul—wouldn’t have dared tangle with a reptile like this. Its scales resembled overlapping plates of armor, covering the creature from head to toe. Its underbelly seemed unarmored, which I made a quick mental note of.
The Croc’s powerful tail swished back and forth as it licked its jaws. Just like the Nippers from earlier, an unearthly red glow lit up this monster’s eyes. It was hungry, and we’d just intruded on its territory. Small wonder we hadn’t seen any other monsters in these ruins—the Marsh Croc had turned this place into its lair.
“Get back,” Hazel snarled, pushing me out of the way. She held her sword, sure and strong, sizing the beast up. “I can handle this…”
“Like hell you can!” I looked from the monster to Hazel. “That thing’s a higher level than you are! You’re going to need my help to bring it down!”
Hazel scoffed. “Normally I’d run,” she said, speaking more to herself than to me, “but with three people, that’s not going to be possible. Stay whe
re you are—you’re just going to do more harm than good!”
With that, Hazel launched herself forward. I couldn’t help but be impressed with the grace and fluidity of her stance. She moved like a dancer, side-stepping past a swing of the brute’s muscular tail and raising her sword above her head. The blade came down, sparks flying off the Marsh Croc’s scales as the steel struck.
The monster shrugged off the blow. Not even a mark remained on the spot where Hazel’s sword hit—it was like she’d missed entirely.
“Damn it!” Hazel danced backward, the Marsh Croc’s jaws snapping shut inches from her shoulder. “It’s heavily armored!”
“Yeah, no shit,” I growled. “We need to tear a couple chunks off if we’re going to do some serious damage. Anna, could you—”
“I’m on it!” Anna had been watching the fight, her face scrunched up with concentration. Now she closed her eyes, bringing her hands together in front of her cleavage as if she were praying. A moment later that psychedelic wave of light washed over her, altering her form, and my scythe floated a few inches over the ground.
Killer, I thought, taking hold of it. The weapon felt good in my hands, like clutching a firm handful of Anna’s supple flesh. I liked it more and more each time we entered combat together. There was something intimate, almost sexual, about using my girlfriend in this awesome, violent way.
I turned back to the battle. Hazel caught a glancing blow from the Marsh Croc’s tail, blood streaming from her nostrils as she nearly lost her balance. With a grunt, she sheathed her sword, concentrating instead on her outstretched palms. A golden glow lit up her fingers, the air around her body shimmering with energy.
I wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything about that glow a few minutes ago—my knowledge of it would have ended at ‘looks like some cool magic shit’. But with the altered senses Eliezer had taught me to use, I could sense Hazel drawing some of the energy from the world around her into her fists. The trees around her were almost glad to provide her with power, the sunlight on their branches glistening brighter as they passed their essence to her. Whatever power or ‘cultivation’ Hazel used to fight, it was a thing of the earth—a thing of life.
