"People were suspicious and fearful of you already, Trickster's Choice! Imagine what they will do tomorrow."
A dozen scenarios passed through Eric's head and made him want to run away and weep. Only one piece of Eric Watley rose above the despair. The poem could no longer help him; it only confirmed what he believed to be the truth. He looked around the room and saw nothing but threats to smash and food to consume.
Gruffle observed the change and sneered. Although his hologram was torn apart at the mana level by the creature’s crystal claw, it didn’t matter anymore. Eric Watley was no longer a threat. Now all he had to do was wait for his boss’ new pet to arrive.
Samael entered a room filled with carnage. Through all her uncountable years, she had seen plenty of them, and worse, but this gave her special pleasure. It wasn’t every day that she welcomed a new reaper into the Death Corps. Eric lunged at her claws first, but before he could blink, he was on his back and pinned.
“Eric Watley, do you object?”
He snarled.
“I didn’t think so.”
Once again, she leaned down for the Kiss of Death.
"A knight becomes a dragon. A dragon becomes a knight. What is his role? What is his role? What is his role?"
In the administrator's office on the fifth floor, a large crystal provided illumination. It cast elemental light energy on a bed, a microwave, a mini-fridge, and a CV. Empty pizza boxes and soda cans were scattered everywhere. Monster waste was absent and in its place was a forest pine scent similar to the air-fresheners that cab turtles wear on their necks. Assorted magazines lay open on the bed and their contents made Annala sick.
Gruffle reached past the gold cage’s bars and grasped her chin. She looked defiantly at him despite her chains. He turned her head this way and that and she grumbled at the handling.
"You're a pretty girl. No wonder that boy fell for you."
Annala growled.
"Now, now; be nice. My boss will be here soon with your obedience collar."
Annala gasped, eyes wide.
“I’d do it myself, but I’m not an ordercrafter. Her Majesty made sure of that.”
He took off his hat and revealed a Crowned Tiger tattoo. It was etched into his forehead with the same eldritch light as Order and it stood on a crossed out Eye of Order.
“This mark means I’m doing community service for the rest of my life. It forbids me from serving other deities, like Order, since I’m serving Little Miss Demi-Goddess.”
He yanked Annala’s bangs to the limit allowed by the noose and whispered in her ear, “I bet you’re wondering why I’m telling you this.”
Annala could neither speak nor nod; she could barely breathe.
“It’s so when I do what I’m about to, you can explain how I can do it.”
He lowered her back into a kneeling position and she settled on the cage floor, breathing deeply through her nose. Then his large and stony hand glowed with otherworldly black light. Annala gasped a second time and thrashed in the cuffs before the noose choked her back into submission. The power of death touched her and there was nothing she could do about it.
"So it's true. Immortals fear death just like everyone else.”
He petted her head while she trembled.
“You see, I met Samael on the bridge. She wanted to find Eric and I wanted to ambush him. While we waited, she gave me her necrocrafter contract spiel and then ‘forgot’ to tell me that it would shorten my lifespan. ‘From my perspective, everyone is dying’ my big stony ass! Here's a taste of what I feel every second.”
The power of death flowed over her face, down her neck, through her torso, and down to her toes. It killed every cell in her body, but the Seed of Chaos within her replaced them just as quickly. It was the experience of dying without the release of death; just pain and torment. She shuddered and sobbed in his grip.
"Not so tough now, are you, little girl?" Gruffle taunted. "That cost me a month off my life, but it was worth it to see that naked terror on your face. The only thing better would be if that worm boyfriend of yours were here to see it.”
He pulled the gag out of her mouth and said, “Now tell me how I can do this.”
“Fi-ire is ass-associated with both d-death and l-life.” She sniffed and swallowed. She cleared her throat. “However, it is more closely associated with death and rebirth because of forest fires, funeral pyres, and cooking. Thus, someone sworn to a fire goddess could also swear to a death god without breaking the first oath. Cosmically speaking, they are similar.”
Gruffle forced the gag back in her mouth and she resisted on principle. He cinched it extra tight and patted her check. Then he slugged her.
“Loophole abuse…. That bastard! He set me up! My soul was payment for that grave ghoul’s help with this trap. All because of Eric...and you...”
He looked back to Annala, who was trying to slide her wrists loose without alerting the device. She failed and the noose choked her a third time.
“You have an endless supply of kon. Your Seed of Chaos generates as much as you need. That’s why you live forever.”
He loomed over her and both hands glowed with Death’s power. Annala shrank away from him and shook her head, pleading with whimpers and wide eyes.
“I don’t suppose you mind sharing.”
He encompassed her head with his hands and drained her life energy as fast as possible. She screamed and writhed as she died repeatedly. When he was finally satisfied, she slumped over, feeling violated, but too exhausted to cry over it. Gruffle floated like a trickster and glowed like a deity. He threw up his arms and shouted, “THIS IS AMAZING! I’VE NEVER FELT SO POWERFUL IN MY LIFE!” He leered at the captive elf girl. “I gained two hundred years worth of kon just now. My life expectancy has doubled. I feel like a brand new creature with a fresh lease on life.”
Experimentally, he swung his club and created a shockwave that shattered one of the four walls of the building. Standing on the edge of the new grand window, he fired a beam of pure life energy towards the moon. It rocketed from his hand, escaped the planet’s orbit, and formed a new crater in the satellite’s surface. Looking back to Annala, he said, “I just might cart you away and keep you for myself.”
A door flew off its hinges and collided with Gruffle’s bed, crumpling it. Out of the dust of the doorway walked a tall humanoid figure with metal skin. Its other features refused to be identified, but the claws on its hands were clearly sharp and bloody. Each dragged a mangled corpse. Its eyes immediately spotted the gold cage with its captive bride. It heard her sniffles and saw her tears. It turned to Gruffle and snarled.
“That’s right, Grendel! I have your precious elf girl as my kon battery. I was tormenting her just before you walked in. What are you going to do about it?”
Grendel raised the two corpses for him to see. Its lips separated into a grin. Then it tore a chunk of flesh from each one and threw them at his feet.
“Threat. Food. Threat. Food.”
“You poor bastard. That’s all you can say now, isn’t it? Grendel want a cracker?”
Grendel charged the troll, swinging its fists wildly as it ran and roared out a challenge to this threat. With club in one hand and necrocraft in the other, Gruffle stood like a sentinel between the monster and the maiden. He fired a necro dart from his left hand and a needle-like stream of deathly power soared through the air and struck Grendel in the chest. Burrowing deep, it extracted a measure of kon and returned it to its caster. Gruffle grinned as he felt it join with his own pool. Then he frowned.
“Only a day?”
Grendel’s fist connected with his nose. In any other circumstance, his nose would have shattered into tiny fragments followed by the rest of his face. He would die. Empowered by Annala’s Seed of Chaos as he was, he survived. The stolen kon repaired the damage instantly at the cost of five years. Grendel pounded three more out of him while he was dazed. Gruffle grabbed both of Grendel’s hands and drained kon directly from the monste
r’s body. It might be a slow process, but Grendel couldn’t escape his grasp. Gruffle’s empowered body was too strong. It might take a week or more, but he would steal every last drop of life from inside this creature.
Indeed, Grendel couldn’t escape. His hands were trapped and he was feeling fainter by the second. Instinctively, he pulled back. With Universal Mana Enlightenment, he pulled Gruffle’s mana straight out of his body.
While Gruffle had years and years of extra kon, his mana stayed the same. Having a body with kon but no mana was like having a car with an engine but without a heater, headlights, or anything else. Gruffle weakened while Grendel strengthened just as quickly. Raising his right leg, he gut-kicked Gruffle into the far wall. The troll’s impact shook the room and Annala squealed as mortar fell on her cage. Recognizing this and comprehending the consequences of his action, Grendel resolved not to use that tactic a second time.
Gruffle popped out of the indent he made and fell to his feet. Annala’s pilfered kon mended his injuries by the second. He rushed forward and slammed Grendel’s head with his club. Grendel dodged and the club broke only a hole in the floor. Then the metal creature stuck his left claws into the club and they gleamed with otherworldly black light. The troll gawked as his solid oak club crumbled into ashes. Then Grendel socked him in the chest with a palm strike from his right hand.
Staff-Soiléir emerged from his palm and punctured his heart, costing him more kon to stay alive. Then the central light shined and stole kon in return. The crystal was capable of storing every kind of energy. While he wasn’t a necrocrafter, he could still steal life like one with Staff-Soiléir. He rapidly recovered everything that Gruffle drained from him. When Gruffle tried to counter attack, Grendel uppercut his chin with his left hand. There wasn’t enough force to propel him into the ceiling but just enough to send him flat on his ass. He followed up by reaching for Gruffle’s head. An Order Shield stopped him.
Gruffle flourished a new Orderly Pocket Guardian. The field it generated was impervious to all physical and most magical attacks, no matter how mighty the attacker. Grendel punched and kicked it in vain. It roared its frustration. Gruffle smirked, secure in the knowledge that Grendel couldn’t hurt him and he had all the time he needed to plan. Then Grendel returned his grin and revealed his Chaotic Claw.
The black/grey at the center shone brightly, along with the cerulean sphere orbiting it, but what concerned Gruffle was the third light. At the top of the crystal was a pyramid of golden-brown. It glistened.
With savage delight, Grendel thrust the claw into Gruffle’s Order Shield. It easily pierced the defense and, driven by a grendel’s strength, punched straight through to the generator itself. The conflicting energy created an explosion. Thanks to the shield itself, it only harmed Gruffle. When the smoke cleared, the troll was badly burned and mildly mutated. A decade of his life was gone. Grendel sensed weakness and went in for the kill. Gruffle kicked him in the crotch.
Grendel whined in pain and clutched himself, leaving himself open for further hits. Gruffle exploited that with a series of punches and kicks. Like Grendel, he restrained himself so he wouldn’t bring the roof down on top of them both. Instead, he augmented his punches with necrocraft to steal a bit of kon. It might only have been a week at a time, but it was enough to stun his opponent and give his next punch extra power. Gruffle swore he heard bones cracking, and yet, the beast didn’t go down.
“Why! Don’t! You! Die?!”
Grendel’s lips, broken and bleeding as they were, separated into a grin. Gruffle paused. An awful understanding came upon him.
“You can’t possibly understand me. You’re just a monster!”
He punched again and, this time, Grendel caught it. The force pushed him back and numbed his hand, but nonetheless, he caught it. Then he decayed it. Before Gruffle’s eyes, the skin of his fist aged and wrinkled, and his muscles softened and sagged. The rot traveled up his arm. Absolutely horrified, he pointed his other hand at Annala and shouted, “Give me everything!”
Annala shouted and convulsed as he stole centuries’ worth of kon from her. Immediately, his arm sprang back to life and he regained a god-like image. Likewise, Grendel immediately switched tactics and drained mana again instead of aging him. Despite his new power, Gruffle felt winded for a couple seconds. This was all the time Grendel needed to jump to the ceiling and shatter the light fixture.
Darkness rushed in, blinding everyone in the room. Gruffle couldn’t see anything, nor did he hear the grendel land, but he could still feel the beast’s presence. Its killing intent, its bloodlust, and its rampant life were everywhere. It didn’t need to make eye contact for the troll to feel the Universal Dread.
A slap crushed his skull, a second caved his chest, and a third broke his spine. Each time, the grendel disappeared back into the darkness before the troll could counterattack. Gruffle was left fumbling, swinging left and right to hit his invisible enemy by chance. Two hands grabbed him and aged him into a geezer. In an instant, he was young again. All of his wounds mended as quickly as they happened.
“You’re wasting your time!” Gruffle shouted. “No matter how many times you attack me, I’ll recover from it!”
In the darkness, a voice spoke. Gruffle could just barely make it out with his troll ears. However, what scared him more than the words was the growl beneath them. It was deep and primal and, worst of all, hateful.
“Winds that warp and gusts that gale, become my army and fire at my command. Stratos Lance!"
A pole arm made of air impaled the troll from the left. In the next second, two more appeared from the right. Then four, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, then finally, sixty-four. Every single one hit its mark. When it finally stopped, Gruffle was bleeding from one hundred and twenty-seven wounds. The pain was so great, it immobilized him. Then Grendel stepped forward and tore off his head. It leaned in close and licked its lips. Saliva dripped on the quivering troll’s head.
"I'm sorry! This was just a stupid job! PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!"
Grendel stuck the head into his mouth and bit down hard enough to remove its scalp. Then it threw the thing up into the air with one hand and threw a wind spell after it. When the second hit the first, it became a bubble of air. Then Grendel helped itself to the troll's body.
All this time, Annala was blind. She couldn’t see the fight’s end game. She could only hear Gruffle scream as the monster ate him. When the area was finally illuminated, Grendel was right outside her cage. She could see madness in its eyes. She'd seen the same look in all the monsters she'd fought over the years on her village's borders. As much as she didn't want to believe it, she could no longer deny it. Her Eric was gone and in its place was this monster.
It ripped the bars off with one motion. Then it leaned down and sniffed her hair. She trembled at its inspection, and when it was done, she braced herself for its bite.
"Those chains look uncomfortable."
It took a while for the words to sink in, and when they did, Annala was furious. She blushed in rage and embarrassment and shouted a string of curses so vile she would look back on this event and be thankful she was gagged.
Eric chuckled a deep, throaty, and monstrous laugh, but there was no doubt that he was genuinely amused. His form shrank and reshaped. His skin became soft and fleshy, red hair grew on his head, his eyes lost their slit, and his claws became fingernails. He was now one hundred percent human. Then his lips separated into a grin.
He pulled out the gag and she shouted, "Jerk! You made me think you'd gone feral! I thought you were going to eat me! I'm glad I ran out of tears earlier because I don't want to waste any more on you!"
With Gruffle’s keychain, he unlocked the cuffs that were holding her prisoner. Then, like a gentleman, he assisted her out of the ruined cage. It wouldn’t be chivalrous to allow her to trip on the metal bars he snapped like twine. She accepted his hand, but once out of the cage, she didn’t jump into his arms. Instead, she crossed her own and looked aw
ay with a scowl.
"Please don't be mad. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
She spun on her heels and punched him in the chest.
“Don’t you dare say that! Limited lifespan is the root problem!”
“What problem? I’m alive, you’re alive, and Gruffle will stay alive long enough for Tasio to win his bet with Samael.”
Annala tugged on her ear again. A look of lovely melancholy spread about her face.
“I don’t want to talk about it. I’d rather hear you explain yourself. You demonstrated more control just now than you have all night.”
"It’s simple really. When I realized that everyone would treat me like a monster, and you said I wasn't Eric anymore, I decided, 'Screw it! I'll be a monster.' I gave into my monster instincts and embraced the monster point of view. Then I had an epiphany."
Eric transformed his head into that of the grendel, but his eyes remained human. He transformed his right arm into the grendel’s and used it to strike The Thinker pose.
"There were no monster instincts; only my desires. There was no monster point of view; only my point of view. I would have disliked a radio talk show host spitting venom at Kasile as a human. I wouldn't have tolerated the scientist’s and guard’s attitudes as a human. I already considered my guild to be my second family before my mutation. Most importantly, whether human or monster," he took her hand in his and held her gaze, "I would always protect you."
Up until now, Annala had been fascinated by his thought process. Now she was flustered. Blushing, averting her eyes, avoiding their joined hands, yet not pulling away, she was completely unable to form a coherent sentence.
“Oh...Eric …I... Um...it's...Ah..." She stopped and swallowed. "Thank you. I'm sorry I doubted you and I'm sorry for the words I said."
"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault. It wouldn't have been an issue if not for my self-destructive coping mechanism."
Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) Page 13
