Deathcreator Book One

by John Domus Cruo

  I continued walking to the bear corpse and knelt down beside it. I reached down to a large patch of exposed muscle and ripped it off. I took a bite and chewed it slowly while trying to be aware of my surroundings.

  I felt hot breath on the back of my neck. I went to turn but something sharp sunk deeply into my shoulder. I felt my body being slung around like a rag doll before I was tossed into the air. I smashed through several smaller trees before slamming into a large one sideways. I felt my bones crack as my head jerked back and my neck broke from the impact. I lay there in shock. I was in undead mode again already, but It still hurt, especially my shoulder. I reached out to it, but it was gone. My entire arm was gone!

  I sat up. My head flopped to the side. I focused my fleshcrafting to mend my back and ribs as my eyes feverishly scanned my surroundings. Almost all the bones in my upper body had cracked or snapped. The arm I had left had shattered at the wrist, and even my bone spike seemed to have broken.

  My bones were condensed to a hardness that was superhuman, and something had been able to throw me with enough force to shatter them all. My back itself would probably have been worse if it wasn't for my weapon taking some of the impact.

  I propped up my head with my arm, and I finally saw it. It was huge. A mass of pure shadow, all I could make out were eyes that reflected the moonlight and massive white teeth snarling at me. It growled a low growl that raised the hairs on the back of my neck and before I could react it was tore into me in a blur of teeth and fur.

  I felt it's fangs sink into my neck as my body jostled around.

  Everything went dark and silent as I once again flew through the air. I landed in a heap, the rest of my arm shattered from the fall. In less than a second I felt something continue to chew on my neck ripping out chunks of flesh and muscle. I feebly reached my shattered arm up to try to push it away only to feel something that caused me to freeze in shock. My head was missing! My fucking head!

  It stopped it's frenzy for a moment to rip off my hand, before continuing to work at my neck.

  What could I do here. I activated the calming effect, I desperately needed it as it kept tearing at me. I thought about what I had available. The only thing that came to mind was the fog. I didn't have anything to infuse it with other than weakness, which wouldn't do much to this thing.

  I went back to the windigo's soul and learned curse of sleep. I was saving that for Bob, but this was an emergency.

  I focused and began feebly leaking a constant stream of fog infused with the sleep effect. as the creature moved on to eating my upper chest cavity, getting ever closer to my core.

  I felt it's movements lose their sharpness bit by bit. then I felt a weight press down on top of me.

  I reached my arm stump up protruding the still unbroken tip of my bone spike. I made a small hole in it's flesh and melded my stump to it.

  I focused my fleshcrafting on stopping it's heart as I continued to produce fog to keep it sleeping through this.

  I felt it let out one last hard breath and it was dead.

  I focused all my energy of mending back together my bones, until the ones that remained where whole again.

  I then focused on severing it's head from it's body. I couldn't do much if I couldn't see or hear anything.

  I awkwardly maneuvered it's head to my neck and melded it together. I guess this will have to do for now.

  I opened my eyes. The world was almost entirely black and white but I could smell and hear everything in such sharp detail. I looked up at the moon, and the light was almost unbearable. I sat up, rolling the massive body off of myself and found my hand laying only a few feet away. I positioned my stump and reattached it.

  I felt up to my face. It was terrifying. I had a massive muzzle jutting out at least a foot and a half with teeth so large that they threatened to bite through my lip. The mouth was covered with my blood and it's drool.

  I got up and searched for my other arm. I was quite a distance away from the bear corpse I had marked earlier. I walked towards it again, and found my arm laying beside it. I picked it up and reattached it, melding and reblending it.

  I went to find my head, god only knows where that went. I smelled around. I could smell several traces of fresh blood. One however smelled similar to the rest of my body. I walked towards it.

  There it was, bald and beautiful. It had a confused expression plastered on it. It's not everyday you get to see your own severed head. Was this really my last expression back there? A look of Huh!? I had a disturbing thought. Did living me have a soul that may be separate from my own? I used soul steal, but luckily nothing showed there. I sighed with some relief and canceled soul steal. I sat down by my head and placed it in my lap.

  I focused my fleshcrafting on removing this head, whatever it was. I sat it to the side, then I placed mine back on, melding it into place and blending the skin.

  I opened my eyes again. everything was now in normal colors. I missed my exceptional hearing, but it was still good to be me again.

  I grabbed the massive head by the fur and walked back to the small bear corpse. I used it to restore all my flesh that had been eaten by the massive creature. I also ate quite a bit of it as now I was truly hungry.

  I dragged the small bears remains back to the creature's. I placed the head back on it's body. It looked similar to a wolf but had huge bulky muscles in the front, it was even bigger than the small bear. It's shadow coating was no longer in place and I could see it was mostly grey and black in color. It was as if you took the size and muscle of a massive bull and combined it with a wolf, then slapped on a large head that was roughly a fifth of it's body length while adding the teeth of a prehistoric creature.

  What should I call this thing? A night wolf. No that's a fighting game character and offensive stereotype. Shadow wolf, nope that name of something else. Is this perhaps a warg? Is it a shadow warg, a shadwarg, no that's stupid, who would name it something like that.

  "Mors, do you know what this thing is?"

  "Yes master, according to orc shaman knowledge that is a Sha'Dwarg."

  I face palmed.

  Did they think the gap in the pronunciation made it better or something? I wondered now if orcs were as bad at naming things as I was.

  "Any other interesting information about it Mors?" I asked.

  "They have some degree of magic, but their speed and bite are their primary weapons. Orc's actually ride a smaller domesticated variant of these for scouting or into battle. The domesticated one's they have, no longer have any magical abilities however and are simply called wargs." She replied.

  Well it certainly is big enough to ride. I still can't get over just how easily it ripped me to shreds though. This thing gives me a great idea. I could definitely use a mount at some point. Too bad I have no idea what soul I could use here to make it obedient enough. I don't really want to use a sentient soul either as that would be too weird.

  "Thank you Mors."

  I used soul steal

  I took the creatures soul into me.

  Skills:

  Stalk: The sha'dwarg is an excellent hunter, and has mastered the art of remaining unnoticed when following it's prey.

  Sit: When a sha'dwarg is young it's parents often teach them this ability to help in the distribution of food. If offered a treat, the sha'dwarg may sit and wait patiently to receive it.

  So, if I had held some meat up in the air this thing might not have attacked me? You've got to kidding me here. No wonder the Orcs were able to domesticate them.

  Well I'll definitely take stalk, it seems better than hide at least.

  You have learned skill Stalk.

  Let's check magic.

  Magic:

  Dark shroud: You cloak yourself in darkness making you almost undetectable at night. This skill does not work in daylight.

  Mana cost: 1 per minute as long as the spell is maintained. Additional mana may be used in lighter conditions. When in pure or near darkness this spell has no mana co
st.

  Yep definitely taking that too.

  You have learned Dark shroud.

  I closed the soul screen, and melded my finger to it's body.

  "Mors, make a notable parts list please."

  Notable Parts:

  Sense of Smell: The Sha'Dwarg has an exceptional sense of smell.

  Sense of hearing: The Sha'Dwarg has an amazing sense of hearing.

  Sha'Dwarg Heart: Minor mana regeneration.

  I closed the notable parts list.

  I went about altering my sense of smell, and my hearing to match the Sha'Dwarg. I restarted my heart and inhaled.

  The sounds of the night came alive again, and I could smell the rich earthy smells of the forest once more.

  Well, dragging this and the small bear will be difficult. I fused the two bodies together to make them easier to drag and began my trek back to the cave moving slowly foot by foot.

  Chapter 21: Others - John

  I used my new senses to avoid any strange smells or unknown noises, which lead me to walk in strange patterns to avoid them. I could tell the trip back was going to be a long one.

  After traveling for a while I decided to take a break near an unusually large tree to again gauge my surroundings for danger. I wonder if this is a redwood? It's massive. As I had opted to take the direct path here and back earlier I hadn't noticed it.

  I sat next to the two bodies and looked up at it trying to estimate it's height. As my eyes traveled back down it I saw a strange sight. From the bark of the tree, a body started to form. It was tall, maybe only a few inches shorter than me. As it took shape, I noticed it was female.

  Finally the body emerged from the tree and before me stood a very well endowed green woman. Her head sprouted long hairlike leaves and vines and her skin smoothed out as she smiled invitingly at me.

  I sat there slack-jawed as I stared at the absurdity of this spectacle.

  She raised her arms and began to sing.

  It was the most beautiful song I had ever heard. I felt like I was feeling the full spectrum of the life cycle all at once. I was transfixed by this beauty and had a tremendous urge to embrace her.

  Wait a minute here. This is a damn dryad isn't it and this is an obvious attempt to lure me in. Pervy guy seems to be lured, but I'm not. Though when I look at her just right...

  My mind started wondering as I stood up. The dryad licked her lips as I approached.

  Nope! I'm not letting this happen. I stopped my heart and went undead. The song lost it's charm and her face turned to one of annoyance as she lowered her arms and glared at me.

  "Tsch, oh it's one of you things." She said as gave me the shooing gesture with her hands as if trying to scare off a small animal. The language she spoke in was almost melodic sounding, I'm guessing this was forestkin.

  "It's not nice to attempt to eat people you know." I replied in fluent forestkin while taking another step towards her.

  Her face changed into a look of surprise, as if she didn't expect me to talk. She seemed to regain herself however and continued to glare at me like I was something gross she had stepped in.

  Alright, let's see how she likes this. I restarted my heart.

  Her eyes lit up and she smiled widely at me.

  I stopped my heart.

  She curled her lips in revulsion.

  I started my heart again.

  Her smile returned as if it had always been there while she licked her lips as if trying to entice me.

  I had heard different versions of the dryad story. One was that they were the peaceful and gentle spirits of trees that wanted nothing more than to make the forest flourish. The other story I knew of said they would lure men to them so that they could drain their life essence to sustain their own and grow their personal trees. This one seemed to be behaving like the later.

  I was curious however. I wanted to see if fleshcrafting would work on her, or was she more tree than person. She looked soft enough.

  I got closer as she held her arms out invitingly. I wrapped her in an embrace. Sure enough vines immediately shot out of her, piercing my skin and traveling through my veins.

  Before the draining could start I stopped my heart.

  She started struggling to get away. I picked her up, she was heavy. I dragged her away from the tree as she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her hard arms hit me, it was like being hit by a thick branch. After that didn't work her fingers tore at me and her legs flailed in her desperate attempt to get away.

  As I carried her away from the tree she gradually stiffened and hardened in my arms until the struggling stopped. I looked at her, she was now a solid object. I ripped the vines from my skin and attempted to fleshcraft her.

  Nope, she was indeed just a tree. I took my weapon from my back and struck her in the neck. It connected with a dull thud noise. I began sawing until her head came off.

  I then brought it closer to the tree. It's mouth opened in complete horror. It seemed to be trying to speak, but no words came out.

  I guess this thing is technically unkillable. Maybe fire would work, but I didn't have any of that. I activated soul steal. I saw nothing. Well, this is a bust. I dropped her head.

  I grabbed her body and returned it to the tree. I did the same with her head and both parts melted back into the giant redwood.

  A few minutes passed and she reformed.

  "Damn you!" She screamed at me while stomping her foot down with as much force as she could muster. "Damn you to the abyss you foul monstrosity! How dare you do something like that to one as perfect as me!" She continued berating and threatening me for several minutes until she ran out of steam and stood there once more, her arms crossed. She looked at me just seething in rage and disgust.

  "You did try to eat me I believe." I said

  "Of course I did! But at least I would have had the decency to make sure you enjoyed it! What you did to me was something else entirely, never have I been treated this badly. You sawed off my head!" She was grinding her teeth now just looking me up and down. "The whole time you did it don't think I didn't notice your little friend there poking at me. You're sick, you make me sick!" She finally stopped talking, but her eyes remained glued to a certain spot between my legs.

  Pervy guy twitched in acknowledgement of the attention he was getting. No, I will not be pulling splinters from there. I don't care how hot she looks I have zero desire to screw a tree.

  "Okay then, it was nice to meet you and all but you can't eat me and I can't steal your soul so I think we're done here."

  She seemed to shake herself out of her trance. "What, you're just going to do all that and leave?" she said.

  "Yep" I replied, before walking over to the fused corpses.

  As I dragged the bear and sha'dwarg away she continued to hurl obscenities that I didn't know this world had in my direction until just before I got out of eyesight. She then screamed something unexpected "Come back to chat every now and then, it does get boring out here after all."

  If she wasn't entirely green I would swear she was a redhead. I still marked her tree on my map, I might need to talk to her again at some point.

  My newly aquired sense of hearing and smell allowed me to navigate my way back to the cave in relative safety. I had to take a detour once or twice to avoid an unfamiliar smell but by the time I could see the clearing the sky was already starting to brighten.

  I inhaled again, yep that's the smell of death. Home sweet ho... Wait, what's that? I took several more deep breaths. I smelled something different. It smelled of dust and leather there was also something familiar about it. A hint of rot?

  I used life sense, and saw two blobs making their way through the trees across from the clearing. I released the corpses.

  I activated the Dark Shroud spell that I had gotten from the sha'dwarg and watched my vast manapool decrease slightly. With my current mana regen this wasn't a problem, even if it depleted halfway I would be fine in a week or after a big meal.

  I stalked m
y prey, being careful of my steps and avoiding anything that may be noisy. I deactivated Life sense.

  I could see them now. One was wearing a red cloak and matching crimson robes. The other was a masked figure with robes similar to Dipshit's. I'll call them Red Guy and Masked Man.

  I stalked closer to them. I stopped when I was about ten feet behind them. The one in the red seemed to be winded and was just resting on his staff. The other one had their arms crossed and seemed to be looking around impatiently.

  I drew my weapon and squatted down.

  "Damn that wretch Harolf for making us chase him all the way to the mountains!" The red guy spat.

  The masked man responded. "I still can't believe an idiot like that was actually able to steal the book."

  They were speaking Therossian.

  "Well if he was foolish enough to actually try to read it I'm sure that it already sucked his soul out, and all we'll find here is a corpse holding a book." The red guy responded between breaths.

  "Just how the hell did he even join our order in the first place, don't we have high requirements for intelligence and magical aptitude?" The masked guy said while stifling a yawn.

  "It was all Eunice's idea. That man had been her tailor for years and you know how she is about fashion. I was fine with my regular brown hemp and burlap, but no, now I'm the red guy, just because I don't animate corpses anymore." The red guy responded.

  Was he a psychic? I worried for a second, but he didn't turn my way.

  The masked figure spoke up "You should get back into it, It can be a lot of fun. Every now and then the initiates will make zombies and flesh golems then fight them against each other to see who wins. They're always coming down to the parts room and buying different stuff from me to try out. I actually remember hearing a story about Harolf taking on a few of these fights."

  "You know I'm too old to be interested in trends. In my day a zombie was just for terrorizing your foes and maybe the occasional manual labor, not for some trashy blood sport. I mean initiates these days just have no respect for the dark arts." The red guy feebly held his fist into the air and looked like he was about to start rambling when the masked guy cleared his throat interrupting him.