by Max Jager
The shapeshifter tried pulling the spear out of Mendelen's hands, and the two of them began to struggle over it. Mendelen was holding his ground and keeping his grip on the spear, but with each passing second the shapeshifter was making the muscles in its arms grow stronger and stronger, it was slowly starting to overpower Mendelen. Mendelen remained calm and just continued sapping its energy through its contact with his spear.
The shapeshifter eventually overpowered him and ripped the spear out of his hands. It threw the spear into the cave wall as far from Mendelen as it could throw, then it jumped at Mendelen, attempting to tackle him.
Mendelen stopped the beast's tackle by bashing it in the face with his shield and knocking it backwards. It landed on its feet, and while it was stunned from the blow Mendelen stepped forwards and side-kicked the beast in the stomach. The kick knocked the shapeshifter a few feet backwards and knocked it off its feet. Before it could get up, Mendelen grabbed his dagger and flung it into the beast's stomach, it pierced through the bone armor, but only just barely.
The shapeshifter screeched out in pain then removed the dagger and got back up. Using shapeshifting again to close the wound and repair its stomach. It growled in frustration and charged Mendelen head-on. Lashing out at him with its right claw, followed immediately by its tail stabbing over its shoulder at Mendelen, then a left claw.
Mendelen blocked the first claw with his shield, and sidestepped the tail, then blocked the second claw with his shield again. Each time the monster touched his shield, each time he hit it, any time it had contact with him or any equipment he was touching, he stole a little more of its energy. The shapeshifter was starting to get worn out.
As Mendelen blocked the second claw, he ducked to evade another stab by the shapeshifter's tail. As he ducked the shapeshifter leaned forwards and attempted to bite his neck, where his armor didn't fully cover. But he stopped the bite by punching the beast in the jaw and knocking it back. As the shapeshifter stumbled backwards Mendelen drew his sword and stabbed the shapeshifter in the chest. However, the bone armor had become too strong, the sword could no longer pierce the shapeshifter's body.
The shapeshifter thrust its tail at Mendelen again, and this time he didn't move fast enough, it stabbed through his armor. The attack narrowly missed a fatal blow to his heart, instead it stabbed into his left shoulder. Mendelen shouted out in pain and immediately jumped backwards to pull the sharp tail out of his shoulder before it could cause any more damage. He looked up at the shapeshifter, expecting a follow-up attack, but it didn't attack again. It kept a little distance and waited. Why?
Within seconds Mendelen figured out what it was waiting for. An intense burning sensation began shooting down his arm and through his chest. He realized immediately that the shapeshifter had developed a fast spreading, and lethal poison within its tail during the fight. His defensive strategy, the one that always brought him victory, was faltering. For the first time in two years, his defenses were useless. No matter how tough his armor, or how sturdy his defensive formation, the beast was just cutting through it. Defense alone was not going to work here.
The shapeshifter was slowly starting to grow a second and third tail. It was expecting a retaliation, and was preparing to tear the human's armor apart. But for the time being, it just watched and waited for the poison to do its job.
Mendelen took a deep breath and formulated a new plan of attack. He had stolen a lot of the monster's energy, so he had plenty of extra stamina for his spells and clones. He focused and four unarmed clones of himself appeared behind him. The four unarmed clones each pressed their palms together, sat on the floor, and started to meditate. They each gained a green aura that stretched out to touch Mendelen. When he was surrounded by their auras, his wound slowly started to heal. Mendelen readied his sword, and charged at the beast head-on.
The shapeshifter braced itself, and as Mendelen closed in it stabbed its tail out at him. Mendelen ducked under the tail, then summoned a clone of himself right next to she shapeshifter. This clone was different, this one was unarmored but carried a giant scythe. As soon as it appeared it slashed its scythe at the shapeshifter with incredible strength. The shapeshifter tried to evade the attack, but it couldn't move fast enough. The blade of the scythe pierced clean through the shapeshifter's bone armor and severed its arm.
The shapeshifter's tail panickedly snapped around to stab the scythe-clone, dispersing it immediately. But as it was dealing with the clone Mendelen rushed in and threw a powerful front-kick at the beast's chest, knocking it backwards. The shapeshifter stumbled backwards, and suddenly one of Mendelen's armored clones appeared behind it.
This clone crouched down and held its shield over its head. As the shapeshifter stumbled backwards it fell onto the massive shield and the clone immediately sprang off the ground then disappeared, throwing the beast into the air.
Mendelen knew he had it now, it couldn't dodge in mid-air. Six more clones of himself appeared along the edges of the cave, these ones were also unarmored but they carried bows and arrows. As soon as they appeared they unleashed a hail of arrows at the shapeshifter. The shapeshifter was struck with twelve arrows, all over its body, before it suddenly grew wings and began avoiding the other arrows in mid-air.
The shapeshifter screeched out in pain and frustration. It reached behind itself and tore off two of the sharp spikes on its back, then threw those spikes down at the archers. Two of the archers were impaled and dispelled. The bone spikes regrew, and the wounds caused by the arrows also regrew and healed immediately, but the beast was slowing down. All the energy Mendelen stole, all the energy waisted shape shifting over and over. As it went to break off two more spikes an arrow struck one of its wings and tore the wing apart. The shapeshifter screeched out in pain again and fell to the ground, only to be shot several more times by arrows.
The shapeshifter scrambled to its feet as soon as it hit the dirt and lunged at the archers. Its three tails each grew extra long and lashed out at a different archer, piercing and dispelling three more of them. As it turned on the last archer another armored clone appeared next to it and rammed into it with its shield, knocking the shapeshifter to the ground.
Once the beast hit the ground, the armored clone grabbed its mace and began wildly smashing the mace into any part of the shapeshifter's body it could reach. Cracking and weakening the bone armor in as many locations as possible. The shapeshifter quickly broke free and tackled the armored clone to the ground, then stabbed its tail down into the clone. But while it was distracted another berserker clone appeared behind it. The berserker clone slashed its scythe at the beast, cutting clean through the beast's body.
The shapeshifter was cleaved in half. The upper half of its body lifelessly fell to the ground, while the bottom half remained alive. It immediately regrew its entire upper half, while its tail stabbed through the berserker clone behind itself, dispelling that clone. It jumped backwards just in time to evade another kick from Mendelen, then lashed out at him with all three of its tails. He sidestepped the first tail, and used his shield to block the second two. Both of the tails pierced through his shield, but he had been careful to make sure his body and arm were not in harm's way. With the two tails stuck piercing through the shield, Mendelen threw the shield aside, throwing the tails with it. The shapeshifter tried to untangle its two tails from the holes in the shield they were now stuck in, while its third tail whipped around to attack from behind.
Mendelen ducked underneath the third tail, and in that moment an arrow struck the shapeshifter in the back. The shapeshifter screeched in pain and stumbled forwards. While it stumbled Mendelen sprang into action, stepping forward and stabbing his sword into the shapeshifter's lower stomach. The sword pierced through the beast's cracked bone armor and the shapeshifter shrieked out in pain.
The shapeshifter's body lifelessly collapsed to the ground. Mendelen had finally found where the beast was hiding it's heart, and struck it. Mendelen dropped to his knees and was panting h
eavily, gasping for air. By now his wound had fully healed, but the poison was only getting worse.
Mendelen shakily detached his lantern from his belt and placed it on the ground beside himself, then he grabbed his backpack and quickly began rifling through its contents. He pulled out a vial filled with a white liquid and drank it as quickly as he could. It was an antidote, it wasn't strong enough to cure poison this strong, but it could slow the poison down long enough for him to seek out the aid he needed. With that out of the way, Mendelen quickly grabbed six empty vials. He uncapped the vials and began to fill them with the shapeshifter's blood.
With the vials filled he put everything back in his bag. He picked up his dagger, his sword, his spear, and his broken shield. He made the rest of his clones disappear, and walked back out of the cave. Standing right outside the cave was Kaden.
"I told you, defense alone doesn't work. You can't save anyone with that." Kaden stated as he gestured to Mendelen's shield.
"You were here this entire time and didn't help?" Mendelen questioned.
"No, I was tipped off that you were here and needed help. I was here for the last half of the fight and I didn't help." Kaden replied. "You were learning an important lesson about the weakness of betting everything on defense. I didn't want to interrupt."
Mendelen shook his head. "Betting everything on offence alone is even worse Kaden." He stated. "And I didn't bet everything on defense. I won, through offence, did I not?"
"Barely." Kaden pointed out.
"What does it matter to you? It's not like you cared enough to help, so why do you care how I handled it?" Mendelen countered.
"I'm here, am I not?" Kaden argued.
Mendelen sighed, then paused for a moment. "Wait, who told you I was here? Zanath?" He asked.
"No, Zanath and Estellese didn't know you were here." Kaden answered.
"Then who told you?" Mendelen asked.
"I have eyes everywhere." Kaden answered.
"Real cryptic." Mendelen sighed and rolled his eyes. "If you're going to be here can you at least open a portal for me to get back to the dwarves, I need their healer to cure this poison."
Kaden nodded and with a brief wave of his hand a portal appeared beside himself. Kaden walked through the portal, but it remained open for Mendelen to follow.
Mendelen started to walk through the portal, but stopped. It dawned on him that he didn't know where this portal actually lead to. Would Kaden bring him to the Dwarven settlement? Or would Kaden make the portal lead somewhere far away? He thought about it for a moment, then decided to take Zanath's advice and trust Kaden for once. So he walked through the portal.
As he walked out of the other end of the portal the portals closed, and he was left standing in the middle of the dwarven settlement. It was a large, underground metropolis with guards patrolling the streets. The houses were made from stone, but were expertly crafted with intricate designs, encrusted gems, and seemed to be running off steam-powered machinery. There were lights all over the city made from enchanted gemstones. There was a large palace in the back of the city where the king and queen resided, along with several tunnels leading off to nearby mines.
Mendelen let out a sigh of relief and turned to Kaden, who was standing just a little off to the side. "Thank you, Kaden." He then turned and started walking to the dwarven medical facility.
"All differences aside, we are still friends, don't forget that." Kaden answered simply and began walking alongside Mendelen. "You may not like my way of handling things, but everything I do is for a reason. I'm picking up your slack, I'm filling in for the areas where you and Estellese are failing. And, in all fairness, you two pick up my slack and fill in for my failings."
Mendelen was silent for a moment, before saying "Well thank you. But you aren't very good at getting your point across. You tend to piss people off more than you persuade them into believing you."
"Making friends isn't my job, that's yours. You're the charismatic politician, Estellese is the hammer of justice, Zanath is our paragon of science, and I am the vigilante. It's my job to be the bad guy that fixes all the shortcomings in your laws and plans." Kaden answered.
"Or, you could be one of my leading officers and fix the laws and other 'shortcomings' from within." Mendelen replied.
Kaden shook his head. "It wouldn't work that way. Take the villages for example, you sold them all on the idea of being safe in the village. They need to be told that that isn't true, that the only way they will truly be safe is if they all learn to fight and if they all learn to face the hardships out in this world instead of hiding from them. I can't fix that from within."
"So that's what this is about? Kaden they are fine, we have it covered." Mendelen answered.
"No, this was about reminding you that we are friends. That we are on the same side. You seem to be forgetting that, and I am afraid it won't be long before you've completely forgotten it. No matter what, we are friends, we are on the same side, even if we disagree with the way each other is handling things." Kaden answered. "Anyways, good luck with making your new weapon." He turned and started to walk away.
"How did you know?" Mendelen asked.
"I have eyes everywhere." Kaden shrugged.
"Well, I'm turning the power on for Oline city tomorrow. As you know, we recaptured it and cleaned it up. Since it was a replica of a modern city, it didn't need much work to fix the power and plumbing. It's almost a fully functional city now with a lot of people living in it. We are working on getting the electricity on tomorrow. You want to come watch the lights turn on?" Mendelen offered.
"I would, but I'm really busy. I have some things to attend to. Thanks though. You should bring Estell, she'd probably like it." Kaden answered before he opened a portal and walked through. The portal closed behind him.
"Alright." Mendelen murmured to himself, then he started coughing. He coughed up a little blood, but by this point he wasn't afraid of the poison anymore. He was standing outside the medical center. "Well, let's go get that treated before it gets worse." He murmured and walked into the medical center. He paid the dwarven medics to remove the poison, and to heal the damage it had done.
Once he was fully healed, he walked over to the blacksmith. He handed over the Mythril ores he had gathered, the golem cores, the dragon scales, and the vials of shapeshifter blood, along with a large sum of money. As per their previous agreement, the dwarven blacksmith built him his new weapon.
After five hours, his new weapon was made. A pair of three pronged katars that were attached to each other by a chain. Mendelen thanked the blacksmith and took his weapons, then promptly left the dwarven settlement. It was getting dark, but he began walking across the mountains to get back to Bele village to meet up with Estellese. He wouldn't make it to the village until early the next morning, and he immediately went to his temporary home to rest for the night.
The next morning Mendelen woke up and wandered out to find Estellese. He found her in the hospital, she looked exhausted and was trying to tend to several people who looked very sick. "Hey Estell, is everything alright?" Mendelen asked.
"I don't know." Estellese replied. "Everyone is suddenly getting really sick. I'm not a healer, or a doctor, I don't know what is wrong. I switched my magic to Aether so i can heal them but I have no idea what's going on, it isn't helping."
"Everyone?" Mendelen asked.
"Well, no, not everyone. But a lot of people. Our healers are working overtime, but they don't know what is wrong either. I sent someone to get Cora from the elven village, she has medical experience so I'm hoping she can figure it out." Estellese sighed.
"Estellese." Another young woman spoke up. "You really should rest. Whatever this is, it isn't a natural disease. At least not one from our world. There's nothing that can be done until we figure out what's going on." The woman stood at around average height, she was 5' 4", wearing a dark pink tunic top with black leggings. Her long brown hair was tied back with a blue ribbon, matching the blue sca
rf around her neck. She had brown eyes and tan knee-high boots, and she looked thin and weak, but seemed determined to help.
"No time for rest Cathrine, if I'm here helping maybe we can figure it out sooner." Estellese protested, but she along with the other medics in the area looked exhausted.
"We just need to wait for this Cora lady." Cathrine replied, then she turned to Mendelen. Her expression clearly conveyed that she wanted him to help get Estellese out of here. Estellese was not in good shape, she was pushing herself too far.
"Estell," Mendelen started. "Come on, let's go to Oline city for a little. I want to show you the progress we made. I'm about to turn the power on for the whole city. Zanath got all the wires up and running, I just need to flip the switch."
"I need to help everyone here." Estellese insisted.
"No Estellese, you need to rest and wait for Cora." Cathrine insisted.
"But they need help!" Estellese argued.
"Estellese!" Cathrine raised her voice slightly, but cringed at her own tone. "They are going to be okay, relax. Go rest, so you can be there for them when they need you. I will message you as soon as Cora gets here."
