Moving on pure instinct and reflexes I struck out with my two blades, spinning them around in my hands blades downward and lunged forward to a full extension brining me head high with the cannibals. A quick slash with my burning kukri and I gashed out the first monsters neck, a fast spin while lashing out with my Bowie took a second on my left in the stomach. My burning blades slicing through the flesh like it was a block of stinky moldy cheese. The fire immediately burning flesh as I struck, the smell matching the texture. Screeches of pain and fear coursed through the monsters as I attacked.
Laughter coursed from me echoing through the air as I struck and moved. Not stopping my lunge and attack I continued my momentum and leapt up in the air spinning in a full somersault high over the monsters. I came down like an avenging angel, blades out on either side of me like flaming wings, in the center of the Gollum group. The kukri in my right hand took a monster right through the top of the dome while my Bowie did the same on the left. I landed hard using the two Gollums to break my fall, then immediately yanking both weapons out of their heads with a jerk and twist of my hands.
Before they could react I jumped forward two quick cuts bisecting a fifth monster. Now the remaining three leaped forward at me in unison. I jumped into the incoming trio and slammed my knee into the face of the first and jabbing my knives into the chests of the other two. I accepted their claws and fangs gashing into my arms and chest as the four of us crashed into the ground in a rolling heap.
We rolled into the legs of one of the Gollums attacking Freak. He used the opportunity to strike a distracted monster almost ripping its head from its neck with his strike. The third Gollum attacker turned just in time to receive Freak’s giant fanged maw which closed around its head and snapped shut with a loud crunch. I had rolled out of the pile and on top of the final living Gollum. Both my blades were stuck in the last two monsters but it didn’t matter. I had my burning hands around the Gollum’s throat as I squeezed its neck and burned its flesh my fire. It screamed and cried as its eyes bulged and then its neck snapped and it went quiet.
I let go of its neck and sat back the fire flaring out from my hands as well as the cloud of anger from my mind. Deep heaving breaths wheezed from me as my tired lungs gasped for oxygen. My head was dizzy as I surveyed the battlefield. The little Gollum fucks were all dead, stabbed, maimed, chopped, squished, etc… Blood that was more of a black than red littered the area painting the place like a Jackson Polack painting. The air smelled like rotten blue cheese and rancid bacon.
Freak came over raunchy black blood covering his face and fangs, while brighter red marred his grey and white flanks. He licked me on the face and I patted him on the head. I began to feel even more dazed, the world started to spin. It was like I just got drunk as fuck in the last five seconds. I barely made out a blurry Moon Flower as she bent down over me. Then blackness hit and nothing.
Darkness slowly began to recede and my eyes began to blink open. Everything was blurry and I still felt dizzy and sick. I blinked slowly as the world began to resolve itself. There was a blue sky and then a blurry face that eventually resolved itself as Moon Flower. I tried to sit up and the dizziness became tenfold as strong hands firmly but gently pulled my head back down. I blinked a few more times as the blackness returned and more dizziness but a few more deep breaths and after some time I started to feel better. This was when I realized I was lying on the ground with my head in Moon Flowers lap.
“You fought well. You killed all the Teihiihan, and Freak is ok, his wound is much less deep than it looked. I have already cleaned him and you up dressing both of your wounds.” Moon Flower said. “The water skin is very handy.”
I tried to sit back up again but she stopped me once more.
“Rest for a minute, your body was not hurt too badly but you exhausted yourself and depleted your magic. Not much time has passed it has only been half an hour. We did good deeds by destroying the Teihiihan. We may rest for a little while.” She said softly.
Freak was lying on my left side and I saw he was cleaned up as well. Winston stood a few feet away and whinnied softly as I looked at him. I took a deep breath of the fresh air and grimaced. It still smelled of rotten blue cheese and bacon. It was then that I noticed the lightly flashing light in the far upper corner of my vision. It was almost not noticeable due to the bright sunlight. I thought about it and the lights turned into tabs. I pulled the first one up.
SKILL LEARNED
IMBUE FLAME (LEVEL – 1)
This skill lets you imbue your flame directly into your weapons. This increases the damage of the weapon and adds fire to your attack. Depending on the size of the flame you will use your Magic Points or MP. Once your MP is exhausted the flame will die and you will have to wait till your MP regenerates to use the skill again.
Nice, so that was cool. Even though it was due to the Rage skill I learned a new magical ability. I clicked the next window.
RAGE ENERGY SPENT… ABILITY ENDED… DAMAGE ASSESSMENT… 8 HIT POINTS TAKEN…
MAGIC POINTS EXHAUSTED… IMBUE FLAME ENDED… DAMAGE ASSESSED… 1 HIT POINTS TAKEN…
Holy fucking shit! I just took nine hit points of damage! I was just about dead. How the fuck… then I remembered my Rage skill activated and it said I would take all damage at the end of the skill. But I didn’t know about the Magic Points thing. Shit, no wonder I blacked out. That move was definitely a last resort thing. I really would have died if shit had gone a bit different. I sighed and closed the screen and pulled up the next.
EXPERIENCE ASSESSED… 100 EXPERIENCE GAINED… LEVEL UP… WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEVEL UP NOW… Y/N?
I selected the yes option.
LEVEL 2 GAINED… PLUS 10 HP… PLUS 10 MP… HP AND MP RESTORED TO MAX… PLUS 12 ATTRIBUTE POINTS… ASSIGN ATTRIBUTE POINTS NOW…
I thought about what to do with my points. After a moment I decided to go with my class and spread the wealth.
ATTRIBUTE POINTS ASSIGNED… UPDATING CHARACTER SHEET…
When it was finished my character sheet popped up.
NAME – Lawrence ‘Law’ Wrath
RACE – Half Human
ALIGNMENT – Neutral Good
CLASS – Jack of all Trades
EXPERIENCE – 175/500
LEVEL – 2
HIT POINTS – 23/23
MAGIC POINTS – 23/23
FEATURES
HEIGHT – 6’5”, WEIGHT – 275 lbs, HAIR COLOR – Black, EYE COLOR – Amber, SKIN COLOR – Bronze
ATTRIBUTES
STRENGTH – 3
DEXTERITY – 3
CONSTITUTION – 3
INTELLIGENCE – 3
WISDOM – 3
CHARISMA – 3
ANIMAL COMPANIONS
Familiar - Westley ‘Freak’ Wrath – Level 1 – EXP – 95/100
Mount – Winston ‘Triumph’ Wrath – Level 1 – EXP – 80/100
Sweet! Both my animal companions were close to leveling and all my HP and MP had healed up. But, damn now it was five hundred EXP instead of one hundred to level. Ah well, I expected things to scale like most games did. I already felt way better and I sat up this time with no dizziness or anything. In fact I felt pretty good. I wonder how long it took to heal naturally, and not with a leveling healing. A screen popped up.
HP AND MAP REGENERATION IS BASED ON LEVEL AND SKILLS LEARNED. CURRENT HP REGENERATION IS 2 HP PER TEN MINUTES. CURRENT MP REGENERATION IS 2 MP PER TEN MINUTES. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MASSIVE DAMAGE SUCH AS LIMB LOSS, MAJOR ORGAN FAILURE, OR PERMANENT DAMAGE. THESE MUST HEAL ON OWN OR WITH MAGICAL ASSISTANCE.
Well that was good to know. I closed the window and stood up.
“Thank you for tending to us Moon Flower.” I said.
“Your welcome, you killed them all so quickly and now you have healed so fast, I no longer see any of the cuts and bruises. No wonder the Old One has sent you.” She said shaking her head also standing up.
“Yeah…” I struggled for an answer. “I won’t always be able to do t
hat and the healing thing is kind of… not regular…” I trailed off.
“Yes… and your tiger is a mouse…” She snorted. “Let us go we still have a long ways to go and the day is already moving.”
I shook my head and patted Freak on the noggin. We walked over and mounted Winston, who had somehow found a patch of grass in all that rock, and continued our journey.
TRACK 19 – SUNDAY MORNING – MAROON 5
The next few hours passed by quite peacefully. I kept Freak within eye distance, telling him to make sure he stayed close, we didn’t need anymore surprises. Even though we won, both of us had been hurt and I almost died. Thank god I leveled. One hit point I shuddered just thinking about it.
We picked our way down the mountain slowly but surely. It was much tougher going without a set trail and there was so much more scrub and trees around than I was used to. But Winston was surefooted and his long strong legs carried us easily. At about the halfway point we hit an area, which was close to a picture area in my time, overlooking the whole Colorado Springs Valley that I remembered. I said something to Moon Flower and she seemed to understand the spot I was explaining and pointed the way, as it was on our way down anyway, soon we were there.
“Wow…” I said breathlessly.
We came through some brush and out to the area that I had remembered. It was still the same place but so changed I had a tough time recognizing it. If it wasn’t for the layout of the valley view before us I would hardly have believed it. The view now was so breathtakingly amazing that I had to remind myself to breath. The picture area from before was now a verdant green field with a waterfall that trailed through on its way down the mountain side.
The water terminated at the edge of the field of grass and flowers in a sheer drop hundreds of feet below joining other streams and waterfalls. Until, the myriad of waterways became one massive white washed fall pouring down into a huge lake below. My eyes tracked the water down from the lake to the mouth of a river that cut through the valley center. Gone were the hills and homes from my memory. I looked from the lake to the river that wound lazily around the natural highs and lows in the valley. I knew that they had diverted the water flow in my time it was just a shock to see how things once looked.
The banks of the river now had small forests here and there the surrounding area was so much greener and full of life than I remember. Granted all the people living in the houses and apartments and such were gone, but something about the natural beauty of this primitive landscape was awe inspiring. I closed my eyes and a topographical map came to my minds eye of the Colorado Springs of my day. Another map appeared and the two began to shape and morph gradually sinking into each other. The two maps shivered and then shimmied into one.
TOTAL RECALL ACTIVATED…
SKILL LEARNED
MAP MAKING (LEVEL – 1)
By accessing memories of landscapes you can update topographic information by seeing large vistas and comparing the two data sets. The updated data will then translate and redraw topographical information on your map settings. Skill will update and change automatically with increase in level.
I opened my eyes and an opaque three dimensional map sat in the top right of my periphery. Some mental aerobics and I was able to spin, turn, zoom in and out, dismiss, and recall the map.
“You have got to be shitting me…” I whispered. This was fucking Billy-Bad-Ass!
“What was that Law?” Moon Flower asked.
“Nothing… nothing at all.” I replied, grinning and dismissing the map. Then I pointed off into the distance. “What’s that?”
Several trails of smoke rose slowly in the bright sunshine easily picked out with their bright blue backdrop. I counted a few dozen with my enhanced vision even from this far away. She put her hand over brow to shade from the sun and nodded.
“That is my village.” She replied.
I nodded and gazed trying to gauge the distance. If the numbers in my head added up that was about twenty miles away. It didn’t seem like a lot but with no roads, heck not even paths. Throw in some wild animals and whatever other legendary monsters were here now, that was a long fucking twenty miles.
“Let’s get a move on.” I said, nickering to Winston and squeezing my thighs.
My horse turned and we headed back down the mountain.
As it turns out I was wrong. The rest of the trip was pretty unremarkable. We made it down the rest of the way no monsters or animals bothering us. We paused at the lake and washed some of the dust and travel sweat off. I had the water skin but it felt like a waste even if it was unending. I mean the water had to come from somewhere right? Moon Flower gave some warnings about not going to far out due to crocodiles and alligators. I gave her a raised eyebrow but followed her advice. She lived here and I just arrived.
Images of the movie Lake Placid ran through my mind but luckily for us no incident and shortly we were back on our way. I was queued up to max my attention focused on my surroundings and my Danger Sense was on full bore. I literally had my head on a swivel and my keyed up state translated to Freak and Winston. But once again the way was uneventful and after hours of travel down a scenic river walk with a beautiful girl on my back and a glorious sunset behind us we arrived at Moon Flower’s village.
She said we should dismount when the village came in view and walk the last mile on foot. I did as she said and had Winston and Freak walk along behind us. When we about half a mile away we came to a copse of trees, huge aspens, firs, spruces, and willows. We paused and Moon Flower whistled three times each call sounding like a night bird’s cry. A few moments later and three calls answered her in return these sounding like an owl’s call. Another reply from Moon Flower and two figures stepped out of the lengthening shadows of the trees.
I immediately tried to identify the men but as with Moon Flower I was unable. I instead began studying them the old fashioned way. Both the men were tall and tan with similar colored hair to Moon Flower. Each was tall and muscular shorter than me, a little taller than Moon Flower, I guessed 6’0” at the most. Their hair was both long and braided, hanging down their backs interspersed with feathers and different ornaments. Both men had brown eyes of mildly differing shades.
Each wore pants and shoes similar to Moon Flowers and I saw hatchet and knife at their sides. In each mans hands though, were crude bows and arrows nocked but not drawn. The man on the left was stouter and more muscular than the one on the right, who was more athletic in shape. The man on the left could have been a body builder or some such while the other maybe a swimmer or cross fit enthusiast. Both men wore buckskin vests opened in the middle. They studied me as I studied them when the three of us were done with our inspections we stopped five feet apart. Then both men burst into smiles as Moon Flower rushed the remaining distance and leapt into the men’s open arms.
“I guess they know each other.” I said to Freak.
He yawned in response. Guess they didn’t impress him much either.
TRACK 20 – ALL THESE THINGS THAT I’VE DONE – THE KILLERS
After the group hug Moon Flower stepped back and introduced us.
“Brothers this is Lawrence Lawrence Wrath and his companions Freak and Winston.” She began gesturing to the three of us. “They saved me from a pack of dire wolves, killed a clan of Teihiihan, and were sent to us by the Old One Coyote himself.”
The brothers blinked when she introduced the giant tiger known as Freak and the massive War Horse but their grins faltered at the names of the Teihiihan, then they shared a glance at Coyotes name.
“Come father will want to speak to you at once.” The taller thinner brother said.
The brothers turned and began walking into the trees gesturing for us to follow. We passed under the branches and into the darkness of the forest with just enough light from the setting sun to easily follow the brothers. I looked around impressed by the network of walkways and rope systems through the branches of the trees. It reminded me of one of the rope playgrounds they h
ave in trees of zoos and stuff, kind of like something from Never Never Land. Moon Flower talked to me as we followed along.
“The taller one is Thunder Foot.” The taller brother waved from ahead. “The fatter one is Lightning Fist.” The shorter brother looked back scowling as both his siblings chuckled.
“I am not fat.” He grumbled turning back to the front.
“We know he is not fat but he used to be.” Moon flower giggled. “We still enjoy teasing him about it.”
“I hear you sister.” Lightning Fist complained over his shoulder.
I chuckled at the byplay and a little at their names but they seemed amiable enough. Sibling that could josh each other usually cared for one another deeply it was the ones that couldn’t take a joke that didn’t get along with one another. They always had a Karen in those families and everyone knows Karen is always a douche-bag. We passed through the Never Land Forest and I whistled softly as we entered into the outskirts of the village proper.
This was picture perfect if ever a scene was. I stopped as did Moon Flower and her brothers. I saw the three smile slightly as if proud of the view of their home. I would have smiled as well. The river came down the center of the village then split almost perfectly symmetrical down the middle and flowed around a hillock in the center. We stood at the mouth and the exit of the forest. A natural clearing surrounded both sides of the water stretching from the banks out for fifty yards on each side. The forest came next creating two natural barriers and a hill top area surrounded by a moat to retreat to.
The hillock itself was huge a full hundred yards in diameter and rising to a height of fifty yards in a gradual grade from the waters edge. We crossed the water on small wooden bridges put together in a complex weaving of shaved branches of wood that felt surprisingly sturdy and extremely flexible. The brothers whistled and groups of children and mothers stood up from their work and play. They watched as their friends and tribesman returned the mothers with looks of speculation and the children with undisguised curiosity.
I Am Gamer Page 9
