by Charles Dean
She leaned back onto her hind legs as she finished speaking, and even in her crouched position, she still looked far bigger than any creature Lee would ever want to slam into him. Even so, she somehow managed to fade into the grass and shrubs around her as she lowered the front half of her body.
Lee readied his sword, remembering all too well how even a much smaller wolf had knocked him clean on his back. With that in mind, he was careful to make sure his stance would let him bounce to the side the moment she jumped forward.
“Let’s see what my partner can do,” she growled and then leapt at him with blinding speed.
Lee summoned every bit of agility he had and moved to his right as she came in hard on his left. He couldn’t fully dodge her, and she careened off his shield with a glancing blow. He felt the shattered spikes lodged there tear into her shield as she was turned away, and he staggered back under the impact. Despite taking 20 damage as well and being pushed back about five feet, he was still able to keep his balance--albeit with great effort.
“Good,” she purred and then lunged again. This time. it wasn’t a proper pounce. She landed in front of him and took a swipe with her right paw at the same time. The combination happened so fast that Lee couldn’t even think about what he was doing. He simply reacted, instinctively raising his shield--thanks to Bloody Shield--but the blow crushed him. Her heavy paw ignored the protruding spikes, and her long claws tore into Lee’s shield, shredding it into pieces. Her massive paw continued on unabated, each sharp point digging into his side as the force threw him to the right like a punched pillow.
Lee took 300 damage in that single hit and received a notification telling him that he was taking 20 damage per second due to bleeding, and he did his best to stand up despite it, but his entire body was wracked with pain. It was the closest he had come to feeling like he had been struck by a car since he arrived in the world, and his senses were disoriented from the shock. He fought down the wave of nausea that threatened to bring up his lunch, and he was suddenly thankful that he hadn’t eaten what little food the Dwarves had offered. He eventually made it back into an upright position and began circulating his spirit throughout his body as quickly as he could, healing himself in multiple places at once.
“Excellent,” she purred. “No one else could have taken that hit. Only you . . . Only you could survive the full brunt of my fury.”
“Well . . .” Lee gasped out the word, attempting to carry on the conversation and stall for time so that he could patch up his wound. It was happening so quickly, and one more small hit meant that he would easily be killed. “I have a lot of experience getting beaten up these days.”
“So I’ve watched,” she said, lowering her body again as she came nearer. “But, today, I will show you that there is a difference. I will teach you the limit to the abilities that even we gods are born with so that you can better understand the purpose of our mission . . .” She suddenly leapt at his face, her jaws hinged wide open.
That’s not going to show me anything! You're going to kill me! Lee dodged the giant feline by rolling forward and to the right as if he were stuck in a Dark Souls game. The moment he came out of the roll, he darted forward and spun around, raising his left arm out of habit as if the shield were still there. He quickly realized it wasn’t there when he sensed the missing weight on his arm, so he pulled out a glass dagger from his inventory and chucked it at Meadhbh’s face as hard as he could instead.
She lunged to the side, dodging the knife, and he followed it up with four more in quick succession, their purple glow streaking through the dark night as Meadhbh effortlessly outmaneuvered every throw.
After dodging his initial five throws, she pressed forward again. Lee had managed to stall her long enough to build his hit points up again to three quarters of a full bar, but between the crafting he had done earlier, his sequestered mana tending to the project in Satterfield, and the healing he had done just now, he was running dangerously low, so he was trying to delay her a little more. He pulled out another one of his stashed daggers, but she just ignored his attack and jumped right at him before the dagger could even leave his hand.
Lee panicked at the sight of her so close to him, but his instincts took over. He had been in fights with hundreds of pouncing beasts before. She struck him with both paws in the center of his chest, dealing 100 points of damage, and he let her momentum carry him over. He gave momentum a little help by pushing off with his feet at almost the exact moment she struck, rolled backward, and used her weight and momentum to push her over and off of him at the same time.
He was still hurt badly from the hit, but he had at least prevented himself from being pinned. He instantly sprang back to his feet and turned to see where Meadhbh was going to attack from next, but before he could even begin turning his head, she had already pounced and struck. She kept her claws withdrawn this time, but she still dealt 60 damage as he slammed into the ground. He was rolled over, flat on his stomach, and she stood atop his body, pinning him under her immense weight.
“Cunning, strong and agile. For a Human, you’re perfect,” she purred. “If you were to fight another of your kind in your original form, I have no doubt of your victory. But this is the limit. This is the limit that the blood of man has imposed upon itself--which is why you must now learn your place beneath my paw.” She lifted up her feet as she dug into his neck with her teeth and hoisted him into the air. The attack didn’t do much damage initially as she carried him like a tiger would carry a cub, but the bleeding effects were stacking up. Lee started using what little mana he had left as fast as he could to patch the wounds, but as long her teeth were in him, it was no good. He was able to stop the punctures from killing him until he ran out of mana completely, but that was about all he could do.
She dragged his body with her to a spot just a few hundred feet from the entrance of the town and laid his body down. “Rest now, little one. Heal up, and I’ll be back,” she said. “I just need to go remove the chains that bind your heart and help make sure you do not lose your way on our path to change fate and save our people.”
Then she disappeared, fading into the dark so fast that Lee couldn’t even follow her with his golems. She left Lee alone, blood pooling around his neck, his mana depleted and unable to do anything to stop his life from slipping away. Then, he remembered exactly why his mana was low.
System, I’m going to die. Can you please cancel the building project and let me access my mana? Lee pleaded as he watched his hit points slowly tick down. At this rate, he was going to die within minutes. There was no way for him to heal himself without mana, and thanks to the Spirit Builder eating up so much of both his mana and its regeneration, he was doomed.
Don’t worry, the project will naturally be canceled when you die. You don’t need to add in the additional notification. But I appreciate the reminder.
No, no! I don’t mean cancel it when I die! I mean cancel it now so that I don’t die! Lee pleaded. I need that ma-- He found it hard to think for a minute, the words getting lost in his head as a feeling of extreme tiredness washed over him.
Oh, that is what you meant. The project cannot be canceled until it is complete. You’ve already paid for it with both mana and coin. It will be completed except in the very likely event that you die. I apologize for thinking for a moment that, with your last dying breath, you wanted to kindly assist me by reminding me of which absolutely-pointless and worthless waste-of-time tasks I might need to cancel. I should take better note of your inconsiderate nature in the future.
Fine. Well, here’s hoping your next user will be better than me. Lee sighed as he ran out of ideas. With no more options and the inability to move, he just lay there on the ground, lacking both the mana to heal himself and the kill needed to trigger Life in Death. He remembered the cold familiar chill of death that he had encountered just outside Satterfield what seemed like ages ago, and he could feel it creeping in. He was bleeding out too fast, and his consciousness was slipping. Jus
t before fading though, he heard Jade’s voice, loud and clear.
“See, you stupid NPC? What did I tell you? He’s still alive! I swear, you worry too damn much for a tsundere character. You need to stick to your guns and go, ‘It’s not like I like you or anything,’ more often!” Jade prattled on as Lee watched two figures approach through dimming vision. “It’s not like the main character of an anime or video game can die. He’ll be fine in the . . . Oh, he’s seriously lost a lot of blood. He might really die. Dang, that would be a shock to the story. Hey, you! Grumpy, sexless, beardless bastard! Can you even hea--”
Lee’s world around him closed into darkness, and the rest of her words were lost to the void.
Chapter 8
Name: Ling
Race: Human
Class: Huntress - Ranger
Level: 30
Health: 400/400
EXP: 1445/57000
Primary Stats:
Power 40
Toughness 40
Spirit 40
Secondary Stats:
Charisma 5 (7)
Courage 28
Deceit 5
Intelligence 23
Honor 11
Wisdom 2
Skills:
Unarmed Combat Initiate Level 6
Swordplay Initiate Level 9
Sneak Novice Level 5
Archery Journeyman Level 3
Trap Detection Initiate Level 4
Tracking Novice Level 4
Trapping Novice Level 3
Skinning Initiate Level 10
Carpentry Initiate Level 1
Butchering Initiate Level 2
Cooking Initiate Level 2
Herb Lore Initiate Level 3
Pathfinding Initiate Level 5
Titles:
The Damsel in a Red Dress
You have killed IsEverythingOkay. Your party has been awarded a feather and 48 Experience. Your share of this is a feather and 12 Experience.
Ling stared at the notification while restocking her quiver. The journey up the mountain had taken more days than she anticipated, and penetrating some of the creatures’ thick hides had cost her a lot more arrows than she could have ever imagined. Thankfully, she was able to use her previously-vaunted ‘ability to work wood’ to fletch more arrows.
“You look worried,” Miller commented as he came up beside her. “It’s been less than a day since our last message from the Herald of Augustus; I’m sure nothing bad has happened.”
“She’s not worried,” Dave said. “She’s frustrated. Unlike you, she’s not used to being without a partner for so long. She’ll be walking normally again in no time if this keeps up.”
“You know they don’t have that relationship,” Pelham insisted. “Why must you always tease everyone?”
Dave chuckled. “Wait . . . You’re not just saying that because you want me to only tease you, are you? I mean, that’s cute and all, but come on . . . Don’t be jealous. It’s unbecoming.”
Pelham laughed and said, “I’m going to murder you one day.”
“One day? Stop lying. The only reason you haven’t stabbed me in the back already is because you plan on using my fat belly as arrow fodder in the next fight. Isn’t that what you used to always say in the colosseum?”
“I am concerned,” Ling interjected honestly. Everything felt wrong to her. It was eerie. The day was filled with the same tension that had hung in the air before they fought the first Herald and the same tingling nervousness that had penetrated her bones before they fought Sevin. Now, it was here again. And that didn’t sit well with her. All of the signs were in place indicating that something had happened--or was going to happen--and everyone needed to be on guard. “This place has gotten quiet. We’ve only been fighting regular monsters for a while, and even the Phoukas stopped showing up just after we last heard from Lee. Something feels off.” She tried to spell out some of her points, hoping the others wouldn’t take them so lightly.
“You’re right,” Miller agreed. “Something definitely doesn’t feel quite right.”
“It’s called being sober,” Dave said wryly. “You’ve finally run out of liquor, and you’re starting to feel a hangover that’s been weeks in the making.”
“Whatever. I’m going to go check around and see what I can find.” Ling put away the arrow she had just made and walked off as quietly as she could. She wasn’t the best fighter in the group--she had even shot her own friends on occasion--but she was by far the best tracker. She had hunted game her whole life around Satterfield with a bow, and she knew how to look for prints and how to avoid danger most of the time.
I really do wish Lee was here. At least he’d take this seriously. She had never voiced it, but she was fairly confident that the rest of their party was nearly incompetent when it came to anything past killing. Dave wasn’t good for anything other than biting, low-wit comedy that only he found amusing, and Pelham just went with the flow without ever voicing a real thought or opinion. Their most useful role was as a body in a battle, not a strategy meeting. As for Miller, he recklessly charged into every fight, and he rarely acted like a team player once the battle started. He had even withheld vital information that cost Amber her life and almost killed Lee.
Ling felt a pang in her chest as she remembered the previous events. She didn’t know why, but Lee’s vacant expression and his hollow, hateful eyes--it was hard to bear it as she thought back on the how he had changed after Amber’s death. Ling had always imagined Lee as a kind and optimistic guy who was out to do the right thing until recently, but during the last few days, she didn’t know when he would turn overly-aggressive, cruel, or even just plain vindictive against anyone whom he viewed as a threat. It hurt to think about, and it hurt even more to think about how she couldn’t seem to help.
Now, to make matters worse, she couldn't even be there like a good friend should. He was miles up a mountain and about to a fight a Herald, and she knew that he wouldn't wait for them. Miller had illusions about this point, but she didn’t. He could have stayed near the base of the mountain where he had been dropped, sent a signal and allowed them time to catch up while he leveled and trained if he had wanted to. But he didn’t. He had pressed onward. He had climbed higher and faster by the day without ever letting them know exactly where he was headed, and she knew it was because of Amber. His callousness, decisiveness and random bursts of violence were his way of compensating for a feeling of helplessness. She recognized it for what it was because she had seen it before.
He’s going to fight, and he’s going to try to do it all by himself so that we don’t get caught up in the combat. She pressed her lips together and desperately looked for tracks. She was about to give up when she finally heard something: a child crying. It was far away but still shrill enough to be grating. Crap. Lee warned us about this. There’s no reason for children in these mountains. I need to get back. She felt justified in her hunch, but she couldn’t stop herself from being concerned either.
She ran full speed and reached the camp a few minutes later. “Guys, guys, we have trouble. The Phouka are coming,” she warned, coming to a quick halt in the middle of the camp. “I just heard-- I heard one of them on the way here. We need to prepare for battle.”
“Was it a bear? An owl? What creature did you hear?” Miller asked.
“I couldn’t tell. I just know that it wasn’t a regular monster. We need to get ready,” Ling stressed. The men in arms around her looked at each other, and each slowly pulled out their weapons, but none organized into any formation. Ling sighed heavily at seeing their reaction. They don’t believe me. Fine, I’ll walk them--
“She heard a child,” a surprisingly-deep yet feminine voice came from the woods. “She heard a weak and crying child, and she knew it was us, so she came here. She led us straight to you.”
“By Augustus!” Miller exclaimed, gripping his spear now with both hands and turning in the direction the voice had come from. “Who’s there? Where are you?”
Brigid’s few remaining men and the paladins finally scrambled to form up together, making a line of shields with archers behind them. It wasn’t the best she had seen, and she doubted whether it would hold from the attack, but at least it was a reaction.
“We already have a savior,” Ling spoke out first.
“You mean the boy? Lee? Hmm . . . Yes,” she mused. “I suppose he is a savior to you.”
The giant tiger sauntered back and forth, eyeing them the same way Weiser did when he was watching a mouse, and Ling knew that she was deciding exactly when she would pounce.
“But, to him, are you worth saving?” Meadhbh said with a growl in her voice. “You are chains, shackling him to the illusions of mercy’s kindness and hiding the cruelty of it from his eyes. You, like Satterfield, are just chains that need to be broken, so first you and then his precious town shall be shattered.”
“I’m not the burden here,” Ling replied defiantly. “You and your people are the ones that dragged him up the mountain to fight battle after battle where he could lose his life just so you can . . . What? Continue on in your stupid Herald wars? Why can’t you leave us alone?” Ling pulled out an arrow and nocked it. She didn’t know when the tiger would choose to act, but she was going to shoot first if that beast came any closer.
“Fight battle after battle? I suppose that’s accurate,” the tiger countered. “He is indeed one to wade close to death, but I’m not here to fight a Herald war. I won’t let him die. No, I have no intention of killing him. I’m going to conquer the world with him, and you’re just a distraction . . . a weakness that needs to be purged.”
