by D. Levesque
Once we three are outside, Leeha walks over to me, puts her arms around my waist, and looks up at me. “Thank you for what you did to Marken,” she says with tears in her eyes. “And you as well, Bridget,” Leeha says, putting a hand out to her. Bridget willingly comes into the three-way embrace, putting one of her arms around my other side, and looking up at me with a grin.
“So, what now?” I ask the two girls, looking between them.
“I don’t know. What did you want to do? I am with you, wherever you want to go,” Leeha says.
“Honestly, I have no clue,” I tell her with a laugh. “I am new to this world, remember? I have no clue what is around here. I do know that I want to stay out of any human settlements,” I tell them vehemently. I seriously do not want to go to another town if they are going to treat Leeha like that again, or even Bridget now.
“Well, we can explore your power,” Bridget pipes up.
“What do you mean?” I ask her.
“We can go hunting!” she says, jumping up and down in my arms, which makes her breasts jump up and down as well, causing me to look down with a smile.
“And I know the perfect spot!” Leeha says with a grin.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I feel a pain on the left side of my thigh. Looking down, I see that one of those little fuckers just stuck me. Leeha said she had the perfect spot to learn hunting, but fucking hell. Why am I fighting things that look like rabbits with horns?
I put my hand over the horned rabbit’s head, and I say, “Air Bullet.” Suddenly a hole appears in it’s head. It flops once, making me wince, and then it goes limp against my pant leg. I reach down and pull it away quickly.
You have used the spell Air Bullet. You have used 10 points of power.
Leeha comes running up to me, takes the rabbit, and puts it into a bag on her hip. “You need to think quicker than that, Alex. Otherwise, you will be a pincushion,” she says with a laugh.
“I know!” I tell her in frustration. I have six wounds now. But thanks to Bridget, they get healed up quickly. Which still amazes Leeha, that I can do healing through my Elemental.
“You keep saying the words out loud. Why not just think of them?” Leeha asks me.
“I guess I assumed it looked more badass to say them out loud,” I tell her with an embarrassed smile.
“It doesn’t if my partner keeps getting punctured,” she says with a raised eyebrow.
“I agree,” Bridget giggles.
She is next to me but is in her Wind form, since that is the spell I am using. All I can see of her is an outline, with air currents moving around inside it. She said she finds it easier to be in this form when I am using magic, since it allows her to pull more of the elements from around her. Whatever that means. Maybe she is harvesting it from around her, like sucking it up? I wish I knew more about how magic worked!
“Fine, let’s try the other way then. Quietly and in my mind,” I tell her with a sigh as I look her way.
Bridget walks over to me, places her hand on my leg where the damn horned rabbit injured me, and I can feel healing power coming from her. What is odd is I can feel the power physically leaving my Chakra at the top of my head. It’s not that it feels funny. It’s just a feeling that is there.
We have been hunting these things now for the last three hours. Horned rabbits are one of the oddities in this world compared to mine. They are meat-eaters, they attack things, and are aggressive. They use their horns to attack, and while they normally don’t attack large targets like me, I have been making them do it so that I can cast spells at them.
We would walk until we saw one, and then Leeha would have me shoot an air bullet at the ground in front of them, close, but not hitting them. This action would make them angry, and they would attack me. My job was to shoot a spell at them as they zigzagged toward me. I am finding out that the problem with trying to say the words out loud like I am some kind of anime character shouting some word of power, is that Bridget keeps having to heal me over and over. Instead of sounding cool, I was getting hurt. Speed is what I needed, and since I can think quicker than I can speak. Internal dialog it will be.
We all hear a noise to our left, and as I turn to it, I see the bushes move. Leeha looks at me and covers her mouth. Sighing, I nod, getting it. Shut the fuck up. Looking back at the bush, I send an Air Bullet to land in front it. But instead of a horned rabbit coming out, something bigger emerges. Much bigger.
I stare at the thing in horror. It’s about the size of a grizzly bear, but it looks more like a rat, with large teeth, enormous claws that are digging up the ground, and red eyes.
Leeha grabs my arms and tries to pull me away. “Alex! We need to run! That’s a Fire Rat!”
“A what?” I ask her, confused.
She is still pulling my arm, so I follow her and we begin to run. Bridget is floating next to me, keeping up with me. Damn, the life of an Elemental. Leeha screams as we are running, “That thing is a Fire Rat. I don’t know what it’s doing here! It should not be in Lamor Forest. They are usually near the Lake of Ruins in the cave system there. We need to get away from them,” she says, and there is desperation in her voice.
“What is so dangerous about them?” I shout, avoiding a branch, but missing the next one and getting hit in the face, which leaves a stinging sensation on my cheek.
“They,” Leeha begins, but suddenly a small fireball hits the tree ahead of us and to our left, causing it to explode from the impact.
“They shoot fireballs?” I say in disbelief. What the fuck? How the hell can a rat shoot a fucking fireball?
“Yeah, they shoot fireballs. Fire Rats are slow, but they don’t need to be fast if one of their fireballs hits you,” she says, dodging around the tree that just exploded.
“Can’t we fight it?” I ask her, starting to get winded.
Fucking new body. Even a short sprint like this and I am running out of breath. Then again, in my old body I would have been huffing and puffing if I even thought of running.
“It usually takes a group to fight one. That one, I would say, is older, so it’s stronger. I can tell by the scars on its side. It’s been in a lot of fights and survived.”
“How do you fight it?” Maybe something she says will give me an idea?
“We would each take shots at it, making it go after different targets, and we would then whittle it down.”
“Wait, are you saying you would kite it?” I ask her incredulously.
“What is kite?” she asks me, saying the word in English. I have noticed that she has gotten better at repeating the English words I say.
“What you just explained,” I huff out to her, trying to catch my breath. “You would attack it but not let it hit you. Bring its health down until it dies.”
“Yes! But we don’t have that option,” she says.
“Why not?” I ask her. Shit, I need to figure something out, as it’s getting harder and harder to breathe.
“Because there are only two of us,” she shouts, just as another fireball comes at us. Thankfully it ends up flying between the two of us, and I can feel the heat as it passes and falls to the ground, rolling. Rolling? As we go by it, making sure not to touch it, I see it’s a fucking rock with some kind of flammable substance on it. What the fuck? Does the thing have rocks and tar in its stomach?
“We aren’t two!” I shout at her, “we are three.”
Leeha quickly looks at me sideways in surprise, then looks up at Bridget, who is floating next to me, keeping up still.
“It might work!” she says after thinking about it. “But can Bridget do magic on her own?”
“Oh shit,” I blurt out. I look over at my floating Elemental. “Can you?”
“I can if you tell me to. What’s the plan?” Bridget says, excitement in her voice.
“All right. Can you use the same Element as me? Or if I wanted to use Mind to see if I can confuse it, can you use Fire?” I ask her.
“Sure, I can switch to Fir
e. You need to tell me to use Fire. Why Fire if we are fighting a Fire Rat?” Bridget asks me, confused.
“Because if I am right, that rodent has filled up its belly with something like tar. I want you, Leeha, to hit it with your Water Arrows. What I will do is use Mind Arrows and distract it—hopefully confusing. But I want you, Leeha, to hit it in the face. We need to get it to open its mouth,” I say.
“Its mouth?” Leeha says, baffled by my request.
“Yep,” I tell her with a big grin. “So that Bridget can fire a Fireball of her own down its throat.”
“What?” she asks me with a frown.
“Kaboom!” I say, miming an explosion.
Leeha’s eyes widen in surprise, and then she laughs. “That might work!” she says with a grin of her own.
“Bridget, Fire.” And the floating air Elemental next to me switches to a Fire one. But she is running now. Oh? So she can only float as an Air Elemental? Interesting.
Focusing, I think Mind to get this plan into action. Looking behind me, I see the Fire Rat about twenty feet behind us, its claws digging into the ground as it chases us.
Now, let’s see. I aim behind me and think, Confusion Arrow. Suddenly a purple arrow leaves my hand and shoots straight for the Fire Rat, hitting it right in the left front shoulder. It slows down and shakes its head.
You have used the spell Confusion Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
“Bridget, you’re with me,” Leeha cries and peels away from me.
“With you!” Bridget yells out with a laugh, running to follow her in her Fire form.
I turn to face the Fire Rat. It’s pawing the ground, and from here I can tell its eyes have a muddled look. Three seconds later, the eyes clear and it looks back up. It sees me and starts coming at me again. Suddenly, it squeals in pain and turns around to whatever was attacking it from behind. It’s Leeha. She had shot it with a Water Arrow.
Before it can run after her, I shoot another Confusion Arrow at it, making it shake its head. But the confusion doesn’t last as long this time, and shortly after, it turns around and comes at me. Shit! That one didn’t last long. Can this thing resist my spells? Great, it’s like a fucking game with monsters having a resist bonus.
You have used the spell Confusion Arrow. You have used 10 points of power.
I turn around and run, hoping to put some distance between it and me before Leeha or Bridget can fire something new at it. I can hear it huffing as it chases me.
“Alex, duck!” I hear from behind me. Without waiting or wondering why, I throw myself to the ground. Just in time apparently, as over my head flies a fucking rock fireball, whistling in the air above me. I scramble up off the ground quickly, knowing it hasn’t shot two in a row yet. Although knowing my luck, I might be finding out that it’s a ‘special’ ability of Fire Rats.
Hearing a squeal of pain again, I dare to take a quick look behind me and I see that the Fire Rat has turned around and is facing away from me. I point my hand at it again and shoot another Confusion Arrow. This time, it paws the ground in bewilderment, and the spell lasts longer than a second or two. Suddenly I see two Water Arrows come at it from somewhere in the forest. The Fire Rat screams in pain, opening its mouth.
Faster than I could have imagined, a Fire Arrow zips through the air and goes right down into its mouth. Even from where I am, I can hear the Fire Rat cough in surprise. It has stopped running and is looking around in a panic. Does it know what is about to happen to it? The Fire Rat heaves its chest, almost like it is trying to throw up. Yep, it knows, I think with a grin.
I walk towards it slowly, with my hand extended towards it in case I need to shoot it with a Confusion Arrow, and I stop about ten feet away from it.
“What does the Fire Rat say?” I say to it with a grin.
The Fire Rat turns around and looks at me with a perplexed look on its face, and without warning, it explodes. I duck to face away from what I am sure is going to be tons of gore flying at me. Not feeling anything, I look up and see there is a wall of Fire in front of me— and then the wall drops.
I look at the spot where the Fire Rat had been, and I say, “The Fire Rat says, kaboom.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Thanks, Bridget,” I cry out to where I believe she and Leeha are in the forest.
“You’re welcome,” Bridget says from behind me, and I jump almost a foot in the air.
I turn around swiftly and Bridget is there in her Elf form. “How the fuck!” I exclaim in surprise. “Weren’t you just over there with Leeha?”
“Yes, but I am your Elemental. Your protection is my priority,” she says with a grin, laughing at my surprise.
I am finding out new things practically every hour about Bridget. I wonder what else she can do?
“Too bad there is nothing left to pick from it,” Leeha says, running up to us as she avoids the gory mess that was the Fire Rat. “ Its teeth are worth a lot because they are immune to any form of fire or heat.”
“So, what? An armor set made of Fire Rat teeth?” I snicker at her.
“No,” she says, laughing. “They’re used by alchemists to crush down and use in fire-resistant potions.”
“Wait, you can buy potions here?” I ask her in astonishment.
“Of course,” Leeha says with a frown, but then she smiles. “Right, I forget you know little about this world.”
“Are there potions to increase your power or heal, or such?” I ask Leeha with excitement in my voice. My God, do they have potions like they do in games where you can increase your power, stamina, and health?
“No, it’s mostly resistance potions. As for healing potions? Healing has been lost. Until you, that is.”
“Damn, it would have been nice to have potions to use,” I say with a sad sigh.
“Well, unless you have the gold, you won’t be using them,” she says with a laugh. “Those teeth,” Leeha points to the gory spot behind her, “would have fetched about ten gold each.”
“Ten gold!” I exclaim in amazement. Fucking hell, maybe we should go get some? I mean, wow, ten gold per tooth?
Leeha must see my calculating look as she says, “No, we are not going to the Lake of Ruins. Honestly, we need to talk to my dad. Those things are not supposed to be out here. Something must be going on to make them leave their hunting grounds.”
“You think it’s something bad?” I ask her.
“Yes, and that worries me. There are more than Fire Rats there. There are other monsters that we cannot take on like we did the Fire Rat,” she says worriedly, looking back the way the Fire Rat had come.
“What is in that direction other than this Lake of Ruins?” I ask her.
“There is a small settlement I was taking you to,” Leeha says with a sigh. “I hope the inhabitants are all right.”
“Elf settlement?”
“No, Rabinis.”
“Oh?” I say, perking up at that.
“Let’s go back and talk to my dad,” Leeha says worriedly, looking behind her once more.
I nod to her and say, “Lead the way.”
“Wait, can you call up Air again?” Bridget asks me pleadingly.
“You just want to float instead of run!” I tell her with a chuckle.
“Of course!” she says with a giggle.
“Fine. Air.”
I take another sip of the coffee that Leeha had given me. It’s a cold coffee they brewed, and my God, it’s better than any of the coffee shops I have frequented on my world.
“You are sure?” Maxil asks us.
We are all sitting outside the tent, and others have gathered around. There are still some hostile stares directed my way, but at least no arrows are pointing at me.
“Yes. It was alone, thank the Gods,” Leeha tells her father. “Otherwise, I am not sure we would have been able to kill it.”
“I think we would have,” Bridget says proudly from next to me. “Alex is very smart with ideas.”
Leeha looks at he
r and smiles, probably at her enthusiasm at my unproven ability. “Yes, but this was only one Fire Rat. We got lucky. If we had fought an Earth Boar or even a Water Snake, it would have been a different outcome.”
What the hell? Are these monsters Elemental based? So that Horned Rabbit we fought was just a normal monster? And the Fire Rat was what? Man, this world is becoming more and more odd. Then again, there’s fucking magic here. How odder can you get?
Maxil looks thoughtful as he looks over at Lahana and says, “We need to get this news to the Elders.”
She glances at him worriedly. “We can’t leave the Homestead, Maxil. We are their protection.”
“I know, but we have people who can go, who have been in the fight and can convey the news to them,” Maxil says, pointing to Leeha, Bridget, and myself.
“It’s a rough journey. It’s at least a week’s travel.”
“I know, but the Lake of Ruin is over a week from here. What made that Fire Rat come so far from its home? We need to let them know. Something else is going on. Something must have pushed it out. And if something is pushing a Fire Rat out, what else will it push out that may reach our Homestead?”
Lahana looks at her husband with worry. Finally, she nods and says, “Very well.”
Maxil turns back to us, and as he speaks I can hear some concern in his voice. “We need you to go see the Elders. We need them to send someone to find out what is going on,” he says.
“Very well, Father, you can count on us,” Leeha proclaims.
“Where are we going?” I ask, curious as to where this adventure is about to take us.
“We are heading towards the mountains on the other side of the City of Bromar. It’s in the Mital Forest. It’s about a ten-day journey,” Leeha enlightens me.