by Nick Harrow
The world had moved on without me. My parents had grown old and passed away believing I’d died trying to become a shaman against their advice. My unfortunate fate had probably been used to convince my friends to listen to their parents.
If only those friends had known I’d spent years in the embrace of a horny spirit animal, they might have realized that sometimes it pays to pursue your dreams, however crazy they might seem to someone else.
Hoarse cries of anger interrupted my thoughts. There were at least a dozen other men out there in the fog, maybe more. With the men still in the town square, I rounded up the number of my enemies to an even twenty. I would have been flattered that the Emperor had thought so highly of me to send such a large force if I wasn’t more concerned that one of those motherfuckers would soon cut my head off my shoulders.
The vile mist that blanketed the village did an excellent job of hiding me from the hunters, and the clatter and clang of their heavy armor both announced their presence and drowned out the quiet pad of my soft-soled boots against the earth. That combination let me slip through the first wave of reinforcements without being spotted, and I hunkered down in the shadow of a burned-out shell of a building to get my bearings.
The number of voices in the fog grew by the second, and I revised my count of their numbers up to thirty, then forty. Floating Village wasn’t very large. If they kept adding to the hunting party, they’d be able to encircle the whole damned thing and cut off my escape routes. My only hope of survival lay in getting the fuck off this hunk of rock and into the wilderness. Out there, the skills the crimson bear had taught me would make it impossible for even experienced woodsmen to find me.
There were only two ways out of Floating Village. The first was the east bridge to Mount Shiki. That exit was a no-go because Mielyssi sealed the top of the stairs behind me. The second way was the wider suspension bridge to the west that led to the Cliffs of Hedoran. If I made it across that bridge, I’d be a stone’s throw from Ruliko’s Wood.
That was a big fucking if, though.
It’s not like you’ve got a choice.
Mielyssi’s voice jolted me like a beesting. The voice had been so faint that I might have imagined it. It was also completely right—the only options I had were to go for the bridge or wait until the Seekers finally surrounded me and slit my throat.
The bridge it was, then. I slipped out of my hiding place, my heavy spiked war club over my right shoulder and ready to swing, and made my way toward the western edge of the village.
There were far more Seekers in the mist than I’d counted. Flashes of scripted jade armor lit up the gloom in every direction, and they’d formed a circle of searchers that closed around me with every passing second.
And as they grew stronger, my techniques started to fade. In a handful more minutes, the protection from my shamanic powers would be gone, forcing me to spend more rin to reactivate them. With only three nodes still filled, I couldn’t afford that. Once my core was empty, I’d have to rest and restore my rin before I could accomplish anything.
Time was always, always, too goddamned short.
I prowled inside the noose of hunters, invisible and silent to my pursuers, looking for a gap I could slip through. All I needed was a hole a few yards wide, and I’d be gone like a ghost. After minutes of frustration at the orderly advance of the Seekers, I finally found a weak point. Just in time for my techniques to wear off. Looked like I had to do everything the hard way.
One of the warriors had sheltered on the downwind side of a crumbling stone wall to light the brown twist of his cigarette. I recognized what was left of the place as the ruin of Old Lady Lyri’s candy shop. I’d spent countless afternoons there, running errands for a handful of sticky sour treats.
I’d never imagined I’d have to kill a man in its shadow.
The guard had raised his helmet’s green visor to puff on his smoke. It was the last mistake he’d ever make. Blinded by the orange flare of his cigarette and the cloud of thick, gray smoke it spewed, he didn’t see me emerge from the shadows.
My war club smashed into the Seeker’s face and buried its spikes deep in his gray matter. The impact of the skull-cracking blow vibrated through my weapon with stinging force and nearly shook it loose from my grasp. I tightened my fingers around the weapon’s handle and ripped it free of the dead man’s head. The spikes pulled the Seeker’s skull open to reveal the shredded mass of his brain through the crushed wreckage of his sinuses.
The guard collapsed onto his face, and the pulped goo inside his skull sloshed out and splattered on the weed-choked cobblestone path like a dropped bowl of pudding.
“Gross.” I carefully stepped over the mess I’d made. If I slipped in the corpse’s brains the other Seekers would be on top of me before I could escape. That would be embarrassing as hell.
Before the fallen Seeker’s companions realized he was down, I loped into the ruins through the gap I’d created and headed for the bridge. The disgusting mist clung to my skin in oily beads and turned my breechcloth into a sodden strip that slapped against the insides of my thighs with every step. I hoped the world outside Floating Village wasn’t cloaked in this fucking mess.
After five nerve-racking minutes of fleeing through the ruins, I finally saw the bridge looming out of the mist ahead of me. Its chains, each as thick as my waist, were attached to mighty iron towers at the near end of the suspended structure. The rusty chains faded to indistinct streaks as they rose through the heavy mist toward the enormous support pillars at the center of the bridge. Despite all the time that had passed since I last saw the massive thing, it was still intact and ready for me to run over it to freedom.
As soon as I killed the two Seekers who guarded it.
The one on my left fiddled with something in his belt pouch, while the warrior to my right pierced the gloom with a hawk’s penetrating glare. They stood yards apart and faced away from one another to cover all angles of approach to the bridge. That made my job a little easier, since I’d have a few seconds to fight one of them without the other one jumping into the battle. It also made things harder because I couldn’t take them both out at the same time.
“Ah, well,” I whispered to the tiny peep frogs who’d gathered on the swampy ground around me while I watched my targets. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
I bided my time and stayed as still as a rat under an owl’s shadow. The guards grumbled at the weather and muttered to one another without moving from their posts. During the half hour I watched the bastards, they didn’t take a break to shit or piss, and neither of them allowed themselves to be distracted from their watch for more than a handful of seconds.
“Fucking professionals.” The frogs chirped their agreement that the world was a much safer and more pleasant place when your enemies were incompetent scumbags.
The sounds of the other guards grew fainter by the moment. As near as I could tell, their circle would reach the village’s center in another fifteen minutes. When they met up there, they’d know I’d slipped through their net and they’d come back this way, pissed as hell.
I needed to get across that bridge, right fucking now. I debated using my techniques for a few moments, then decided against spending any more rin. The seabound warriors were tough, but I had the advantage of surprise and a few other tricks up my sleeve. If I really needed the techniques, I could always pull them out for an encore presentation of ass-kicking.
The guard on the left was closer to me, and I charged at him with my war club raised high over my head. The enhanced speed and strength of my earthbound core let me cover the ground between us in the blink of an eye.
Surprised by my sudden appearance out of the gloom, the Seeker fumbled his spear into the mud at his feet. He raised his hands in a feeble defense and cried out in alarm.
Fucker couldn’t even have the decency to die without making a racket.
My war club hammered the top of the Seeker’s head and shattered his jade helmet with a surpris
ingly musical tinkling. The ruined helmet still saved the man’s life by turning away just enough of my blow to send the war club’s spikes into his armored shoulder rather than through the crown of his skull. The impact was strong enough to drive the man to his knees and open ugly black cracks in his heavy armor.
It just wasn’t strong enough to kill him, and now the battle was two Seekers versus one shaman. Not exactly awesome odds.
The second bridge guard liked the way the fight was shaping up and dove right into the fray. He jabbed his spear at my guts in a blur of punchy strikes that put me on the defensive. He pressed his advantage and shouted for his friend to grab his weapon and flank me.
That wasn’t cool.
Facing two trained Jade Seekers with enhanced cores at the same time was a surefire way to get stabbed, so it was time to even the odds. I dug my toes into the mud, clenched my war club in a two-handed grip, and eyeballed my foes.
The one on my right, who still had his helmet, was a little more eager than his partner. He advanced with quick, even steps and kept his spear aimed at my heart. His maneuver pushed me away from the bridge and gave his partner time to retrieve the weapon he’d dropped.
His wounded buddy, who had a bloody nose, two black eyes, and—judging from the way he wobbled as he walked—a concussion, advanced more slowly. He looked ready to back his friend’s play, but he clearly didn’t want me to ring his bell again.
His hesitation to get up close and personal with me was the only real hope I had of winning this lopsided fight. I feinted toward the uninjured guard, who dodged back from the whistling sweep of my spiked war club and raised his spear to protect himself. It was a perfect defense.
Just like I’d hoped.
The warrior’s switch to defense gave me the necessary space and time to channel a node of rin from my core to activate Earthen Darts. The technique erupted in front of my target, hurling darts of hardened earth straight at his face.
Or, at least, that’s what the technique would have done if the entire area hadn’t been saturated with brackish water. Instead of sharp missiles meant to pierce the Seeker’s helmet and kill him dead, the technique threw sprays of reeking mud that splattered across the man’s visor. Effectively blinded, the warrior cursed and scraped at the goo with the back of one gauntleted hand. That hadn’t gone quite the way I’d expected, but the mud splash had taken one of my enemies out of the fight for the moment.
I’d take it.
The wounded fighter got his balls back and charged toward my left side. He was clumsy and slow from the head wound I’d given him, and the tip of his spear wobbled drunkenly. What he lacked in finesse he made up for in raw aggression. Mud sprayed from around his heavy jade boots, and he roared a wordless battle cry as he covered the distance between us at a full-on sprint.
I pivoted on my left foot and slipped away from his attack.
The Seeker shot past me, feet churning the mud in a futile attempt to stop his headlong rush.
I spun and slammed my war club into the base of the warrior’s skull. His head shattered with a wet crunch and his body sagged to the wet ground, threads of tainted senjin unravelling from his core.
The blinded Seeker had decided the better part of valor was to back the fuck away and try out whatever dirty tricks he had up his sleeve. His right hand dug in the pouch at his belt, furiously searching for something to save his miserable hide.
There was no telling what he had in there. I charged at him, determined to finish this fight before the Jade Seeker could unleash a script grenade or some other damnable device that would blast me into a fine red mist.
The bastard found what he needed before I could pulp his face. It was much worse than any weapon I could have imagined.
He raised a thin bone rod into the air and snapped it between his fingers.
An unearthly wail exploded from the shattered spirit siren. Birds burst into frenzied flight, frogs dove into puddles of water, and even the mosquitoes suddenly had other places to be. The sound was bone chilling and so loud I knew my ears would be ringing for the next hour.
“Fucking asshole.” I closed with the Seeker and grabbed his still-raised arm with my left hand. Before he could react, I wrenched the captured limb around behind him, seized his elbow with my right hand, and expressed my displeasure with his little stunt by twisting my hands in two very different directions.
Violently.
The Seeker’s shoulder and elbow gave way inside his armor with wet pops, transforming his arm into a limp sack filled with meat and bone. The scream that tore itself free of his throat was nearly as loud as the spirit siren’s wail. I hoisted him over my head by his groin and wounded shoulder, hauled him to the edge of Floating Village, and tossed his sorry ass into the ravine.
Angry voices burst from the mist behind me. The siren’s shrill cry had summoned the Seekers, and they were closer than I’d hoped. Another two minutes, three at the most, and they’d be on top of me.
It was time to get the hell out of town.
The bridge from Floating City was twenty feet wide and ten times that long, and when the wind blew it bucked like a beestung stallion despite its enormous size.
It was very windy just then.
“Of course,” I growled and stepped onto the undulating bridge. Thirty seconds later, I’d made my way halfway across the bridge despite its best efforts to throw me off its back to my doom.
A slow clap from the far side of the chasm mocked my achievement.
My tormentor emerged from the mist surrounded by a brilliant blue aura that told me he was the proud and powerful owner of a skybound core. That put him two levels above me and meant I was in for a very serious ass-kicking if I didn’t come up with a truly awesome plan in the next few seconds. The arrogant asshole strode across the dancing bridge as if its surface was as still and stable as a marble slab. His armor was thicker and heavier than the other Seekers, its jade plates etched with glowing scripts, and his helmet was crowned by a pair of antlers that shed radiant sparks like autumn’s leaves with every step he took. His aura glowed like molten gold around him, and his core was a dazzling sphere of roiling flame. This dickhead looked like something out of a storybook and scared the living shit out of me. He didn’t look any less terrifying to my spirit sight.
His skybound core was two full levels above my training, and just two levels short of Mielyssi’s power. He had an offensive and defensive technique, as well, though I wasn’t sure how he could use them when his core held no nodes. Like the other Jade Seekers, he was bound to something or someone much more powerful.
If this guy got his hands on me, my quest to save the world would come to a sudden and painful end.
“It is the Emperor’s will that the Moonsilver Bat Kingdom be annihilated.” The nightmare that continued walking toward me had pronounced the death sentence of my entire kingdom with the casual, bored air of a man with much more interesting things he could be doing. “Thank you for coming down off that damned mountain so I can finally put an end to this endless vigil.”
“Or, you could step aside and let me go about my business.” The cocky words sounded a lot braver than I felt. The two nodes of rin I had left in my core wouldn’t be enough to dent this guy’s armor.
“Kyr Nissil.” He spat out the syllables of my name like they tasted bad. “You are the last of the Moonsilver Bat’s people. You are condemned to death by the word of the Midnight Emperor. Kneel and accept your fate.”
“Nope.” Before he’d started talking, this piece of dog shit had had me rattled. As soon as he started in with the death threats and the proclamations from his boss, my spine stiffened and my balls grew three sizes.
This guy, the voice of some authority from a thousand miles away, thought he could push me around on my home turf? This was exactly the kind of asshole that had made me want to be a shaman in the first place. I’d go down swinging before I’d give in to this officious dickface.
“Know that your petty resistance only
adds to your crimes, boy. Your honor will be tainted by your cowardice and criminal ways, even in the afterlife.” The obvious commander of the Jade Seekers reached for the hilt above his right shoulder with both hands. “Please, feel free to continue debasing yourself. It will only make my pleasure at your death that much greater.”
The prick’s armor was twice as thick as the plate worn by the other Seekers, and that had only cracked with all the weight of the crimson bear’s power behind it. The scripts that blazed across its surface would add to his defenses. I wouldn’t be able to beat his protection with my war club or my bear’s claws.
The asshole hadn’t left me many options.
I charged. There were two nodes of rin left in my core, and I burned them both to stiffen my hide against his attacks and give me something to grab hold of him with if shit went south. The techniques might not win the fight, but they could keep me from getting my head knocked off on his first swing. That’d have to be good enough.
Confident his armor would shield him from whatever damage I could dish out, the Jade Seeker didn’t even try to defend himself as he drew his sword.
I reached him at the same moment that enormous sword’s point was at its zenith. The blade was the color of lightning and it moaned with a young woman’s lusty voice. It was a powerful weapon, the kind of thing a hero out of myths would wield when he went off to slaughter demons. Its presence was terrifyingly awesome, and the sight of it made me want to piss myself and run far, far away. Even scarier, his offensive technique flared to life, surrounding the blade with black flames.
So, yeah. I couldn’t let the sword touch me.
From the Jade Seeker’s casual posture, he knew the effect his weapon had on his enemies. He probably expected me to give into that fear and let him slice my head off. I was a simple savage who couldn’t possibly pose any threat to him.
“Surprise, motherfucker.” I dropped my shoulder on the last step of my charge and threw all my weight behind it. In the same instant, I shoved the shaft of my weapon between the asshole’s legs and bent all my bear-given strength into him.