The Road to Red Thorn

by Blaine Hicks

  The monster became confused as if it had just seen a coin disappear from a magician’s fingers. It was sure the spineless prey had just been here and looked around for any sign of where Radley might have gone. Radley was unaware that he had given the creature the slip and was still trying to get away. He pulled himself to his feet with a grunt which again drew the attention of the predator below. Hearing the sound, it looked up and its mouth split into a fang filled grin when it saw him.

  Rising again on its back legs, the grendel had no trouble reaching the limb with its powerful hands and had even less trouble ripping the limb free from the tree. Radley had just pulled himself onto a higher branch when the first limb fell away. The grendel stood for a moment staring up with a calculating look as it searched for a solution to this new problem. Puzzles were not a normal part of its routine and the gears of thought turned slowly.

  “What are you gonna do now?” Radley taunted, immediately regretting his words when the monster roared back furiously in reply.

  To a hammer, every problem is a nail. To a grendel every solution is brute force. If something was still a problem, it just used more. It gripped the trunk of the medium-sized tree in a bear hug. At first nothing happened, then the tree began to shake.

  Radley thought it was trying to shake him out and hugged the tree in an attempt to not fall out. The claws of his hands dug into the bark anchoring him in place but the monster was bringing the whole thing down. With a series of cracks and pops the entire tree began to tilt until, with a terrible groan, the mighty tree came down. It left behind a gaping hole in the forest canopy and shook the ground where it came to rest.

  Radley came down too, smashing first into the trunk and then onto the ground. He was stunned by the jarring impact and the world around him swirled like bits of paper in a tornado. When the spinning came to a stop, he lifted his head in time to see the grendel standing over him and grinning with demonic glee. Both hands were raised together in preparation for a double axe handle smash into his face. Radley had time for two thoughts. First, that he was about to die...again, and second, at least he didn’t have any boy parts because he would probably have peed all over himself.

  CH 21 Running for your life

  The monstrous hands came down for the deadly blow, but they never touched him. With a heavy thud, and blur of movement, the grendel was suddenly gone. Radley wanted to stand to see what had happened but was still light headed from the fall and had to use the tree trunk for support. He looked around to see where the grendel had gone but wished he hadn’t. What he saw was worse not better and filled him with even more fear. A second, slightly smaller, grendel had joined their little party and was taking some serious aggression out on the larger grendel.

  Radley glanced at both monsters’ status bars. The larger grendel had a yellow HP bar showing 908/1447 HP. The smaller grendel had a green bar with 1350/1411 HP.

  The combat between the beasts was ferocious and both grendel struggled to beat their opponent into a senseless corpse. It was not the kind of makeover that Radley wanted to be a part of but he was having trouble getting away. The tree had fallen just right to block his path backwards and made any retreat very awkward and obvious. In front of him the grendels battled. Everytime he tried to sneak to one side or the other, they rolled past him, blocking the way. He was driven back inside the branches of the tree and waited for his opportunity to escape.

  The two titans only battled for a few minutes but the intensity of their blows consumed Radley’s attention. To him, time passed in slow-motion as he watched each punch crash into the opponent’s rigid flesh. Any one of the punches would probably have killed Radley but each grendel took everything the other was dishing out and then dealt more back in return. Besides an occasional shoulder block, Radley could see no strategy being employed by either combatant. Instead, the two traded blows, bites, scratches and kicks. The trauma left streaks of blood and fur covering the ground but somehow the onslaught continued. After three minutes of fierce combat, the contenders began to slow. Radley could see the end of the battle drawing near, and the probable victor was revealed. The larger grendel had lost too much health and stamina during its headlong charge through the trees. The extra power and speed it enjoyed being a higher level, equalized the fight, but not fast enough to change the outcome. Both their health bars were red when Radley inspected them again:

  Forest Grendel - 62/1447 HP (aggro)

  Battle consideration: This Forest Grendel is level 58. This grendel is in critical condition.

  Forest Grendel - 124/1411 HP (aggro)

  Battle consideration: This Forest Grendel is level 57. This grendel is bleeding heavily and very hurt.

  Radley suddenly had a new idea. If he could time an attack right, he could make the killing blow himself. If game mechanics were applied, he would steal the XP by kill stealing (KS-ing) the high-level creature. KS-ing the kill would bypass days or weeks of experience grinding. But he had to be careful. He decided to wait until the larger grendel dropped below 20 HP. His spells were melee range only, which meant he’d have to get close to them; closer than would be safe. One misstep would flatten him, but it could be worth the risk. Even if the remaining grendel killed him, the lost experience left in his soul shard wouldn’t negate the experience gained by killing a level 58 opponent.

  Radley quietly set down the sports bottle and walking stick and crept towards the battle. The two grendel were locked in a final struggle. The smaller grendel had the larger one pinned against the ground. Its fanged jaw was clamped tightly on the larger beast’s shoulder. In this position of dominance, it couldn’t avoid being clawed as the HP drained from its opponent. This damage though was not inconsequential and both monsters’ health bars were bottoming out. Radley needed to strike. He balled his right hand into a fist, preparing to cast fire palm and stared at the health bars. The larger grendel dropped below twenty HP and Radley drew on his mana and uttered the incantation. His hand burst into flames as expected but the sudden flash of light in the dark forest drew unwanted attention. The smaller grendel hadn’t noticed Radley until that moment. He had been lying on the ground when it had arrived and found the larger grendel in its territory. With a new opponent in sight, it let go of the incapacitated foe and turned to face him with a gutteral snarl. The other grendel lay unmoving with only 8 HP remaining.

  Radley just needed to touch somewhere on the limp beast. He tried to get close enough to finish it off but the smaller grendel twisted its position to block his way. He tried to juke sideways and get around it, but the new opponent threw a powerful haymaker in his direction. If the monster had been in good condition, Radley would have quickly become a red stain on a nearby tree but the grendel was weakened with exhaustion and its face was swollen from battle. The fact that it could even see him clearly was suspect.

  Radley leapt backwards to avoid the attack and the grendel’s fist passed heavily in front of him. The near miss left the creature wide open for a counter-attack and easily within Radley’s striking range. His already burning hand snapped forward, slapping the monster’s muscled shoulder to discharge the spell.

  Orange fire turned dark green as it engulfed the right side of the beast’s torso. Waves of heat flashed outward as the spell spread over the grendel like spilled gasolene. The intensity of the heat wave would have burned off Radley’s eyebrows if he’d had any.

  The grendel stumbled backward in a panic but became tangled in the limbs of the larger grendel and tripped. In its muddied haze of exhaustion and pain, it wasn’t able to break its fall in time and smacked its head against a rock. The monster went limp and sprawled onto the ground in front of Radley. Radley stared down in disbelief at the fallen predator turned prey. He could see the smoldering wound left by his fire spell. It had burned a patch of stiff blackened skin from the shoulder blade to the collarbone and halfway to the elbow. The beast moaned but didn’t get up. Taking the advantage, Radley triggered his stone fist with a second incantation of power. His rig
ht hand became a jagged shard of glossy stone. He stepped forward and used the momentum of his hips to drive the spelled limb into the monster’s exposed abdomen. The razor-sharp crystal shard punctured the underbelly then shattered into the dying beast’s flesh. The red health bar dropped to 0 and the grendel gasped as its consciousness faded into oblivion.

  Radley was surprised the battle had ended so quickly and couldn’t let the moment pass without celebrating. He started with a fist pump that transitioned into an awkward robot victory dance. A host of prompts and icons appeared at the edge of his vision but before he could inspect them, the dead grendel’s corpse was suddenly thrust forward, directly at him. He had no time to dodge and the ragdoll body carried him a dozen paces where they landed together in an entangled crash.

  The grendel hit the ground first and its limp body softened Radley’s impact some, but his ankle was caught under the beast’s heavy arm and twisted the wrong way. In addition to his injury, the event took a prodigious bite out of Radley’s meager HP. He was still alive only because he had leveled when killing the other grendel. The larger grendel had finally come to its senses again and was not happy to find the body of the smaller grendel on top of it. The damage Radley sustained was incidental when the large grendel kicked the corpse away like an unwanted blanket.

  When his wits returned, Radley’s health bar flashed red with only 9/90 HP remaining. He was probably going to die again and his death-by-rabbit experience flashed through his mind. He was grateful for the attribute point he had put into constitution since without it he would probably already be pressing respawn. He groaned and sat up. His ribs felt like he had been hit by a car. He looked back towards the spot where he had just been standing and saw the larger grendel sitting up and moving again.

  It slowly scanned the forest. Its large ears twitched forwards and backwards, searching for something; searching for Radley. Radley, held his breath as the behemoth rose again to all fours. Despite the silence, Radley was eventually spotted. The grendel was sensitive to sound but its eyes weren’t completely useless. Radley used his identification ability to inspect the monster’s status:

  Forest Grendel - 19/1447 HP (aggro)

  Battle consideration: This Forest Grendel is level 58. You better run, squirrel.

  If he was bold enough, he could kill it with a spell but both his fire palm and stone fist were on cooldown and he didn't have his staff. The grendel wasn’t in great fighting shape either. The battle against its smaller rival had been severe, almost deadly, but it was slowly regaining health, at least faster than Radley could, and it still wanted his blood. With a tentative step, the grendel moved towards him but dropped abruptly as it tried to put weight on its right foreleg. The leg apparently couldn’t support it. Radley managed to stand as well and considered his options. They included the holy trinity of RPG strategy: run, fight, or hide. With his own tender ankle, running was problematic. Even standing was not guaranteed. Fighting wasn’t realistic without a way to inflict damage. He looked around for a place to hide but found only tall trees. This time no branches were low enough to grab.

  “No place to hide!” Radley said out loud to the beast began to limp towards him. Whether from pain or in response to the statement, the grendel roared loudly back at him. The beast gave up trying to use the wounded leg and began walking towards him slowly on the remaining three legs. This seemed to work better and its pace increased to a slow loping gait. It panted heavily from the effort but continued towards him with murder in its eyes.

  Radley chose not to wait for death to come and instead began his own pathetic attempt to escape. He took a hint from the grendel and lifted his swollen foot, choosing to hop instead of putting weight on the injury. He hopped like his life depended on it; because it did, and he was able to keep ahead of his enemy. The pair continued this slow-motion chase for some time. Both of them were exhausted and on the verge of collapse; both stubbornly refusing to give up.

  Radleys stamina began to bottom out and every hop felt like he was moving through mud. He glanced at the red status bar in the corner of his vision: 4/40. He wasn’t built for hopping and he wished he had his walking stick back. The movement speed bonus and the +2 stamina would have been useful but he really just wanted help keeping his balance. Despite his slow pace, he was actually gaining distance on the beast until a wave of pain stopped Radley dead in his tracks. His stamina had reached 0 and his muscles felt like concrete. With a cry of effort he forced another hop through the pain and this time his health bar dropped a point; apparently supplying the movement’s energy from life force in the absence of stamina.

  Radley’s HP had crept up slightly since the chase began but was still flashing red with only 11 HP remaining until his death. He looked back and found the grendel was no longer chasing him. Its thick pale tongue hung from its mouth and a froth of white spittle coated its jowls.

  The grendel must be having stamina problems too, he thought. His talent to inspect things didn’t show stamina but he knew it had to be low after the long chase, the fight with the other grendel, and second chase (while limping). Their eyes met and the monster snorted in fury which encouraged Radley to hop away again.

  *10 HP*

  The pain from moving had become too excruciating to continue and Radley’s body felt like his leg was on fire. He couldn’t take another step and was sure the grendel would crush him with its next charge. Death didn’t come. The grendel remained motionless with its injured foot back on the ground to help keep balance. In spite of this support, it swayed slowly from side to side while it wheezed in and out in ragged breaths. Radley identified the monster again.

  Forest Grendel - 17 / 1447 HP (aggro)

  Battle consideration: This Forest Grendel is level 58. This grendel is incapacitated by fatigue.

  The grendel had run out of stamina first and had been sacrificing its remaining HP to continue the chase. With no more stamina and little health, it was ripe for killing if Radley had been in any better shape. The problem for Radley was that his situation wasn’t any better. He pivoted on his good foot to face the beast but nearly collapsed from the effort.

  *9 HP*

  “Is that all you’ve got?” Radley mocked the grendel weakly.

  The beast stared at him with cold hatred that seemed to pierce the air between them. Radley stared back trying to provoke it. Movement in the absence of stamina would do more reliable damage than Radley could offer with no spells. His strategy now was to run the grendel into the ground. The grendel was oblivious to this and limped forward several steps as it snorted through the pain. It crossed half the space between them but stopped again to pant. The small progress brought the beast too close for Radley’s comfort and he took another step backward. With his stamina still empty, the simple movement took another HP in payment.

  *8 HP*

  The beast could see victory within its grasp and stumbled towards him again, closing on Radley like a slow-motion tank. Both Radley’s spells had finally come off cooldown during the chase. He chose the best option for the situation and cast stone fist to defend himself. The grendel lowered its head to crush him against the ground in a final charge forward. All Radley could do to dodge was collapse to the side and the hulking creature stumbled past him. As he fell, his stamina finally ticked up to 1/40. The single point of movement energy was enough to turn the exhausted collapse into a roll and Radley ended up on his knees beside the grendel who had lost track of him. The pain of exhaustion that had momentarily abated returned again as his stamina returned back to 0/40, but Radley wouldn’t waste the opportunity. He lunged forward through the pain with his stone fist, shattering the magical shard of crystal into the monster’s exposed flank.

  *7 HP*

  Radley was weak and lost health, but the attack was enough. The grendel collapsed to the ground under the assault. It had nothing left to give. It’s heavy panting slowed, and its eyelids fluttered closed but it still didn’t die. Instead the fury and rage that had consumed it drained awa
y and it began to emit a pitious mewling sound from deep in its throat.

  Radley swooned on his knees as a new wave of dizziness swept over him, but he took a deep breath and steadied himself. When he looked back at the grendel, a new dialog box hovered in front of him. Unlike the typical notifications that required a mental selection to open and view, this prompt seemed to hang physically in the air. It was similar to the respawn prompt that hung in the black void of death.

  A forest grendel has been incapacitated during your recent battle. Its fighting spirit has broken and it is now susceptible to taming. Since grendel are not normally companion animals, a battle of wills is required to initiate taming. Would you like to spend 116 stamina points to initiate a battle of wills with Forest Grendel - Level 58? (Yes/No).

  Radley selected Yes and a new prompt appeared.

  116 stamina points are not available. You may not enter a battle of wills at this time.

  This prompt faded and was replaced by a third prompt.

  Naga and grendel are both psionic creatures and may therefore conduct the battle of wills through a psionic link. 38 psionic points may be used instead of stamina to initiate the battle of wills. Would you like to spend 38 psionic points to enter a battle of wills with Forest Grendel - Level 58? (Yes/No).