The Ice Lands

by William Dickey

  “Really,” Izusa seethed through clenched teeth. It looked to be out of anger, but the tightness in her jaw was really in preparation for what came next. Izusa reached down with her empty hand and grasped the kris embedded in her side. She couldn’t help but release a muffled screech as she yanked it from her body and shoved it into Cattail’s thigh, driving it down until the hilt prevented it from going any deeper.

  Izusa let go of Cattail’s tight fist and quickly backed away. Cattail tried to slash at her the second she let go, but Izusa was too quick and with his mangled thigh, Cattail was unable to pursue. Izusa took her time as she reached back to recover the sword still stuck in the second beastman’s head.

  While all this was happening, I stayed where Izusa told me to and didn’t anything. Izusa had been my intended target, but based on the situation, I knew that if Izusa lost, I’d be killed to cover up what happened. I imagined continually resurrecting in the center of Dewpoint week after week only to be silenced moments after my arrival. It was a no-brainer. For the time being, my captor had my full support.

  The fight between Izusa and the three beastmen was too quick for me to find an opening to help and part of me worried about the consequences of acting. If I were to fight, the existence of the weapon I’d prepared would come to light and ruin any chance in the future I’d have of catching Izusa off guard. Unfortunately, such concerns came to naught, while Izusa busied herself with her three enemies, she’d failed to realize that there weren’t three pursuers but four. Mai had revealed four orange blobs. One had hung back during the initial conflict, but now that the leader was in danger, he rushed forward.

  “Watch out. There’s one more,” I warned. Izusa looked up and immediately spotted him. She brought up her newly freed sword in defense, but in her injured state, her movements were slow and unsteady. With stab wounds to one of her hands and her side, she was in no condition to fight the fresh fourth fighter.

  “Pause,” I roared, activating a subskill of Otheristry I’d earned when I reached level ten in it. I hadn’t had much practice using it, but I knew it would freeze the world for three seconds as if I had paused it. While everyone else was frozen, I quickly tapped the spear icon on the inventory screen that remained waiting for my input. A steel cylinder with a dial and two buttons appeared out of thin air. I caught it with one hand while the other hand cranked the dial to maximum.

  Then in a single motion, I drew the cylinder back and chucked it towards the fourth beastman. As I released the collapsed spear, I tapped both buttons along the side. One of the buttons tripped the series of springs within the cylinder’s insides, causing the shaft to extend to its full length and bring out its pointed end midflight. The other button tripped the sigils I had placed all along it, increasing the spear’s weight twenty fold.

  Now, I know it might have broken the laws of physics for a projectile acquire so much mass without losing velocity, but that was the nature of magic, it bent the laws of the universe.

  Pause ended while the spear was in the air. The gravity spear hit the fourth beastman’s metal chest plate, dead center. Normally, a thrown spear would have just bounced off and as the spear struck the beastman smiled in expectation. But he was wrong. The beastman felt a sudden tremendous pain in his chest. The spear had pierced both sides of the armor and, more importantly to the beastman, everything in between. The beastman collapsed, like a switch had been turned off, a blunted and bent spear still stuck in his chest.

  You gained 3237 EXP

  †Gravity Spear† broke.

  In a single strike my newly forged weapon broke. It had been a rush job and I could have made some error, but most of the blame lied on the effect of the sigils I’d placed on it. I may have been able to cheat some of the laws, but I’d forgotten about Newton’s third: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I may have increased the force the weapon put out, but I’d also increased the force the weapon had to bear. The spear destroyed itself on impact. I made a mental note in case I made a similar weapon in the future, I’d either have to find a better material than steel or be more careful about how high I set the weight.

  Izusa was stunned as she saw my spear blow through the beastman as if out of nowhere. It was subtle for magic, no flash and bang, which somehow made it even more frightening, but Izusa didn’t have time to analyze the implications of me possessing such a weapon. There was still Cattail to deal with.

  “You still want to go through with this?” Izusa asked. Cattail remained standing a few feet away. He put on a brave face but you could tell from the way he tried to shift all his weight onto one leg he was struggling to remain upright.

  “You are not in any shape to fight either,” Cattail growled, nodding to the bloody hole in Izusa’s side.

  “Would you like to give me a try?” Izusa offered, hefting her sword over her shoulder as if everything up until now had been a walk in the park. Both combatants knew they were at an impasse. Cattail remained an offensive threat, but with his injuries, he wouldn’t be able to get close enough to Izusa to use it.

  “Fine, Dragontail will deal with you later,” Cattail gave in. Still he refused to turn around and instead slowly backed away.

  As soon as Cattail was out of view, Izusa turned her attention to me.

  “Thanks for the help with the spear,” she said, though the squinty look in her eye plainly revealed her suspicion. What was I doing with a weapon like that and how had I called it so quickly? Izusa’s familiarity with the people of my world was limited, but even she knew that the inventory was a power that required some preparation.

  “We best get going,” Izusa continued. “Cattail might send more after us and we had best be gone by then.” Izusa sheathed her sword and shifted into her wolf form.

  I could have struck out with another weapon and finished Izusa off as I’d originally planned. In her current condition, I wouldn’t need my special spear. But, Cattail could be back with reinforcements and I doubted I’d be able to escape on foot. I had to continue to co-operate with Izusa, at least for a little longer.

  The wound in Izusa’s side remained even in her transformed state but to the larger bodied wolf, it seemed less significant. Still, I could tell from the growl Izusa gave as I crawled onto her back that she was in great pain. As soon as I settled myself between her shoulder blades, Izusa charged into the depths of the seemingly endless forest.

  “I cannot believe I am surrounded by such incompetence. It is a wonder any of you survived your Blood Moons, much less rose above the status of the Fallen,” Dragontail roared, tossing a jug of wine towards Cattail, who, on his knees, couldn’t dodge out of the way. The ceramic container shattered against his helm, splashing its contents across his body. Cattail did his best to ignore the sting as the wine’s high alcohol content burned the numerous lacerations across his body.

  “I am sorry, sir. I did not foresee that Izusa would notice our ambush in advance or that her human companion would be so capable. I will gather some more men right away and head back after her. She is wounded and should not pose as much difficulties this time,” said Cattail. He wasn’t really in any condition to pursue Izusa and it would be difficult to scrounge up as trustworthy a group as he had last time, but he refused to disappoint Dragontail again.

  “Don’t bother,” Dragontail snarled in frustration. “She will have known we might send more after her. She will not take the traditional path to Doraga and I cannot risk spreading men all across the Confederation.” The territories of the Othal Confederation were vast, it’d be impossible to locate a single beastwoman in all that. Besides, bringing even more men into this risked his actions leaking to the clan chiefs. The last thing Dragontail needed was to risk losing their support.

  “Don’t we have a supporter with great influence in Doraga?” Dragontail asked.

  “Yes,” Cattail replied, eager to get off the subject of his failure. “I believe his name is Truant.”

  “Ahh, yes, Truant,” Dragontail nodded
. He’d never met the man, but Truant had sent many to aid in the war effort. They had been good warriors and, more importantly, were committed to the cause. “Notify Truant of the situation. Maybe he can do something from his end.”

  Ch. 5: Fallen

  Izusa’s getaway continued through the whole night and well into the next day. Normally, Izusa would have stopped at sunrise to have a meal before resting through the day, but with concerns over potential pursuit, Izusa carried on.

  At first, Izusa moved so quickly I marveled as to why I held any concern over her wounds at all, but as the hours wore on I could tell something was wrong. On the journey to Dewpoint, I’d grown accustomed to Izusa’s steady pace but that pace was shattered. After a couple hours, I noticed she would occasionally slow down for a short while before suddenly speeding up as if she realized her sluggishness and increased her effort to compensate.

  Around midday, Izusa suddenly tripped on a tree root. I was stunned, she’d bounded between thousands of trees, probably leaped over a million such roots yet this one finally caught her. Not bound and strapped to her back like the previous times I’d ridden her, I was sent flying.

  I was in the air for about three seconds, just enough time to curse my luck before curling into the fetal position for the impact. The ground was cold and hard and to make matters worse I only had a single bounce to slow me down before being pounded straight into an even harder tree. The health bar in the corner of my vision rapidly ticked halfway down and stars swam through my vision like the ethereal glints of spider webs in the sunlight, but I survived.

  After taking a moment to collect myself and mentally push back the throbbing pain in my left arm, I looked to Izusa a dozen yards away. She had returned to her human form and lay on the ground motionless, save for the jagged motion of uneasy breathing.

  “Are you alright,” I called out to her but didn’t get any response.

  I dragged myself to my feet and limped over to where Izusa’s body lay. Her skin was sickly pale and the wound to her side seemed larger than before. Izusa pushed herself, continually tearing open her injury so it never closed up and instead slowly drained her blood.

  I wasn’t a healer, I didn’t know any sort of sigil I could use to patch her up. Normally I would have relied on a few health potions to help her recover, but I didn’t have any more of those. The battle in Crystalpeak had exhausted my supply and Izusa kidnapped me before I had the chance to replenish it.

  I stood over the injured beastwoman. My mind filled with a single cruel thought. I could end this right now, I’d wanted to stab her in the back and get away once we escaped Cattail and his ilk. This was the perfect chance to finish off the monstrous woman responsible for the deaths of so many innocents.

  I picked up a fist-sized rock from the ground. In retrospect, I could have retrieved something from my inventory if I wanted a weapon, but filled with primal vengeance, I just grabbed what was in reach.

  It felt good in my hand as I raised it over my head. It was as if the universe had lined up everything in my favor and all I had to do was let what was to come next happen. In my mind, I’d already pulled the metaphorical trigger. The muscles in my arm relaxed and the rock slowly fell as gravity gained supremacy.

  “Need to get him somewhere safe. He’s the only one that can bring peace,” Izusa quietly murmured. She was still unconscious but spoke as if she was seeing something in a fever induced dream.

  Thud.

  The rock in my fist pounded into the ground just to the left of Izusa’s face. By the time I processed Izusa’s words, it had already been moving too fast for me to stop so I could only deflect the rock from its target.

  “What did she just say?” I asked.

  Mai appeared next to me. ‘She said: Need to get him somewhere safe. He’s the only one that can bring peace,’ said Mai, confirming I hadn’t hallucinated it.

  My mind spun. I’d known Izusa was taking me to Doraga because she wanted me for something and I would be safer there. Because Izusa’s interest in me stemmed from the “†” symbol I used as a maker’s mark, I figured she wanted me for something related to the Travelers, not what she revealed in the second part of her statement.

  “Why does she think I can bring peace?” I asked myself.

  I couldn’t be sure of anything, but if Izusa had some way to end this war peacefully, I had to find out. Although the Xebryans held their own against the beastmen so far, things still weren’t looking great. The northern villages were completely wiped out down to Crystalpeak, which had already lost most of its soldiers. Normally in a situation like this, Crystalpeak would have received reinforcements from the other regions of Xebrya, but heightened conflict on the southern border prevented this. The south had several weeks to send help before the invasion but hadn’t. I didn’t see any reason that things would have changed. The way things were going it was only a matter of time before the beastmen finished licking their wounds and re-massed themselves into another strike. Many on both sides had died in the conflict so far and this could be the tip of the iceberg.

  It was hard letting go of my anger. This beastwoman had been the source of great death and destruction. But, those lives were already lost, nothing could be done for them. I had to concern myself with what remained, those that could be saved. I took a deep breath and as I exhaled, I solidified my resolve. I couldn’t kill or abandon Izusa, not yet.

  So, I did what little I could for Izusa. I summoned up some pure water from my inventory, cleaned her wounds, and bandaged them as best I could to prevent them from being torn open again. I would have also said to prevent infection but it was probably too late for that.

  †Crescent Burger†

  Durability: 100/100

  Freshness: 98/100

  Effect: +3 health/min for four hours

  Description: Hearty burger that warms both body and soul. Grilled meat patty from the Imperial Forest Boar. Served on a bun with lettuce, tomato, and a secret sauce. Albert got the recipe from a cool cat named Nyanta.

  I didn’t have any health recovery potions, but I still had some of Albert’s cooking stored in my inventory. The burger was the best health recovery buffer in my collection. Izusa was in no condition to eat it, so I finely chopped the burger and mixed it with a bit of water until it became a Crescent Shake, which I was able to get down Izusa’s gullet.

  After I finished, Izusa remained unconscious. I didn’t see much else I could do so I decided to scout the area. Trees were plentiful, but I couldn’t help but notice the lack of higher organisms. When I first arrived in this world, I spent several weeks alone in the forest and back then, it always seemed like the forest was bursting with life. While I often found it difficult to spot or catch prey, I could always here things scurrying in the bushes as I passed.

  This forest was different. I could hear nothing. In the absence of a breeze, I couldn’t even hear the rustle leaves, just my own footsteps. I knew it might have just been because winter approached, that perhaps the animals had already gone into hibernation, but something didn’t feel right.

  During my search of the area, I found a small indentation in a cliff side. It was too shallow to call a cave, but had enough width to hold the both of us and would be sufficient to protect from the wind and rain should it come.

  I returned to Izusa and used tree branches and some cloth from my inventory to put together a stretcher. Getting the large beastwoman over onto the stretcher was a challenge, but once it was done, I dragged her into the protection of the cliff side. I intended to stay there until Izusa recovered enough to interrogate.

  I spent the next three days there. Izusa remained unconscious the whole time but her fever had subsided and her skin regained some of its color, so I figured she was on the mend. Izusa mumbled some more stuff in her sleep. I eagerly listened in on, hoping for more clues, but I didn’t find any. Most of it was indiscernible and what wasn’t was mostly more of the same: ‘He must be saved’ or ‘Make peace.’

  “How long
do you think before she wakes?” I asked.

  ‘So you’re talking to me now?’ Mai replied appearing seated on the ground next to me.

  “It’s better than talking to myself,” I said. I was still angry with Mai, but a few days of solitude had broken my resolve towards the silent treatment. “I asked a question.”

  Mai pretended to look Izusa over for a few seconds before responding. ‘She’s recovering, which is a surprise given her original state. You’ve been dripping water into her mouth to keep her hydrated. It’s working, but she needs something with calories. Try mixing more things like the burger shake,’ Mai suggested. ‘Do that and she’ll wake in another day or two, though it’ll be at least a week before she’s ready to continue your journey.’

  “Are you really so sure I’ll be continuing with her?” I asked.

  ‘Yes, I’ve seen you staring at her,’ said Mai so matter of fact I almost didn’t realize it was a joke. ‘I heard Izusa’s ramblings and I seriously doubt she would go to such lengths for just you. I mean, come on, look in a mirror?’

  “What do you-,” I began before a hoarse shriek interrupted me. From the way it echoed, I could tell the sound’s origin was far away, but it was higher pitched than was typical for a beast large enough to produce such a loud noise.

  “Think that was?” I finished, suddenly changing my question. I’d never heard a noise like that before and couldn’t help but feel a tingle on the back of my neck.

  ‘Shhh, keep it down. There’s something out there and you don’t want to attract it here,’ Mai warned.

  “And…” I whispered as quietly as I could manage.

  ‘And… I don’t know what it is either,’ said Mai.

  Another shriek filled the noon air.

  ‘All I know is that whatever it is, it’s getting closer,’ Mai finished.