Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Redeemed: A LitRPG/Wuxian Novel - Book 5

by M. H. Johnson

  It was a devastating, lethal attack that could shatter the spine if not blast right through most spirit beasts, as it had the massive boar collapsed at his feet.

  Assuming he timed everything right.

  Of course, it was at that moment that the half-dozen lesser boar accompanying the rearmost sow turned around and squealed their outrage, eager to gore him to pieces.

  Alex flashed a grin just as hot as the hate in their eyes.

  Challenge accepted.

  Three Adderstrikes successfully chained!

  You have shattered the skulls of half your opponents!

  Remaining spirit beasts have been successfully intimidated!

  Spirit beasts are fleeing!

  “The hell you will!” Alex hissed, Bullrushing forward, gleefully anticipating yet further glorious kills before he jerked himself to a halt, sensing the forest’s sudden discontent.

  Alex gave an angry shake of his head, clenching his fists, filled with the hot hunger of a predator eager for his next kill.

  Before taking a deep breath and turning around, back to his kill site.

  “Fine. You win.”

  Maybe it was delusion.

  All he had heard was an oddly discordant rustle in the trees.

  But after what Cai Gen and others had told him, he’d be a fool not to trust the sudden twisting in his gut.

  He chuckled softly.

  “I don’t even know why I wanted to fight it. I used to like playing a druid and being all about balance, once upon a time. And you’ve let me hunt to my heart’s content, up to this very moment.”

  And it was true. He had enjoyed stalking his prey and mastering the hunt over the past few weeks, one day blending into another with a simplicity that was almost joyous, and the peace of mind he experienced after the first day of restless, racing thoughts had been profound.

  He smiled when gentle warm light caressed his features, absently biting into the dew-covered apple that fell into his open palm.

  Exquisitely refreshing, and delicious as always.

  For the first time since he could remember, he felt truly at peace with himself. Burdened by no demands, free of all expectations, just savoring each day he could explore the pristine woodlands stretching out for endless miles in all directions as it slowly revealed its mysteries to him, delighting Alex with hidden troves of delectable mushrooms, caches of delicious honey, the juiciest, sweetest fruit imaginable, and of course, incredible vistas as the sun rose and set and he gazed upon it all from the tree tops, entranced by views that utterly took his breath away.

  And every day he could embrace the sheer exhilaration of the hunt, increasing his skills at stalking and ambushing so very many species of tasty prey, savoring ever increasing mastery of his favorite Qi attacks, so much so that they soon seemed more a natural extension of the predator he was becoming than the tools of a highly disciplined cultivator, laughing for sheer delight as he raced up tree trunks and sprang between branches as adroitly as any primate in the jungles of the world that had once been his home.

  And every night he would sink into a dreamless slumber, safely secured by his tied-off pants to a tall stately trunk, his cultivator’s body feeling nothing but a delightful shiver when cool air occasionally caressed his form. Increasingly, however, he found his sleep not so much dreamless as simply dreaming of being one with the forest all around him, smiling when the occasional predator glanced at the strange human slumped over in a tree, before their attention was inevitably turned elsewhere, and Alex would awaken every morning filled with the sublime joy of being one with the forests all around him, no cares or worries troubling his soul, eager to be up with the dawn.

  When he approached the fallen boars he bowed his gratitude to their spirits and the forest both, solemnly plucking free their lesser beast cores and winding them into the choker he had woven out of rawhide strips that might earn him a few curious looks if he ever wandered back into the world of man, bound as it was with tightly woven spirit beast cores one could barely see, but the beauty of it was that every single beast core was making contact with his neck, so he had a flood of power at his beck and call, should he ever need it.

  Almost, but not quite, as good as if he had a functioning storage ring.

  After eating his fill of exquisitely tasty boar’s meat, he gently touched each carcass to his artifact, taking a great sigh of relief when they seemed to fade away before his very eyes. He recalled WiFu once telling him that the ring was effectively an extension of his soul, and so he couldn’t help but wonder if feeding it sustenance, particularly high-grade spirit meat, might help to speed its repair, just as it would aid his own recovery as a person.

  He knew it was absurd, of course. His ring was a divine storage artifact, tied to the realms of shadow and dream every bit as much as the elements, and far beyond his limited abilities with spiritual treasures. For all that he had learned how to destroy certain types of artifacts by flooding them with Dark Qi, and at least temporarily negate the effects of magical traps and talismans, sometimes, those esoteric skills didn’t give him any insights at all into how to fix his precious prize.

  All he could do was look at it from another angle, recall that it was as much a piece of him as it was an exotic artifact, and try to help it in the only way he knew how.

  And the spirit meat was disappearing.

  He could only hope that was a good sign.

  He took a deep breath of satisfaction when he had cleaned up his kill site, happy to spend the rest of the afternoon just exploring, and perhaps finding a nice-looking tree to spend the night in, when he heard something quite unexpected.

  Alex froze, ears all but quivering as he tried to make out the origins of the hauntingly beautiful song suddenly washing over him.

  It bespoke of tenderest love for the forest, and the sweet satisfaction of hearth and home.

  The joyful triumph of a successful harvest, and caring for the land in turn.

  Alex felt a shiver of wonder course through his soul as he scurried up the nearest tree as fast as any squirrel before launching himself from branch to branch, flowing forward almost as fast as if he were a falcon swooping from perch to perch, the very trees seeming to flow around his destined passage, stiffening like a spring board under his feet just as he launched forward, and not once did he suffer mishap as he danced from limb to limb, just as if he were just an extension of the arboreal awareness he could now feel all around him…

  Captivated by the warm, harmonious feeling of an entire community living in perfect harmony with the woodlands all around.

  Entranced by that glorious song.

  Congratulations! You have learned Forest Flight at Rank 1! Dart through primeval woodlands as effortlessly as any flying squirrel! Wood and Spirit Qi dependent. Qi drain: minimal, so long as you are on good terms with the forest you inhabit.

  For an endless time, Alex embraced the halcyon feeling of soaring through the trees as fast as any denizen could hope to weave through the arboreal wonderland they called home.

  Before that entrancing state of almost innocent wonder burst in an eyeblink, Alex struck by the acrid stench of young green shoots and even younger flesh set ablaze.

  Ears ringing with the sudden sound of shrieks and wails.

  And the exhausted voice of whoever had sung that wondrous song, her entrancing cry ending with a gasp.

  In an eyeblink, Alex understood why.

  Gazing upon a scene of horror.

  A dozen stately elder trees that even now held the remnants of a cleverly-built city had been set on fire, connected by elevated paths now blazing.

  A single glance downward revealed a score of hard-bitten figures wearing conical helmets of bronze and lamellar hauberks all dyed the color of blood. Some held bows half drawn as they glared at no less than two score women and children trembling in terror as they were all roped together with knots that bit cruelly into the flesh of their necks.

  The rest of the men were equipped with small round
shields and dao, over half with short compact bows secured upon their backs. A tiny part of Alex wondered if they were part of a company of skirmishers or light cavalry of some sort. Part of an invading force? Or just auxiliary troops that had a falling out with command.

  But no matter what the case was, what they had become was clear.

  Abominations that must be cleaved from the forest for all time.

  Eyes hot with wrath caught sight of the Fire cultivator then, and Alex could sense his power even from here.

  A Bronze so strong he was on the cusp of Silver, just a half step away.

  Surrounded by a whirlwind of flame.

  The abomination responsible for the destruction of this beautiful sanctuary, a community of peaceful hunters and gatherers who hadn’t just made peace with the forest, but had sought to live with it as one. And this Alex knew not from the details of the now naked and terrified women and children, nor from the heaps of charred flesh that had once been men daring to fight to protect those they loved, but rather from the dry quiet rustle of the leaves whispering their secrets to Alex.

  Truths he had always known.

  A coughing sob, raw and ragged from the hauntingly beautiful voice that had captivated him.

  The gasping wail of a baby soon after.

  Both voices coming from one of the trees set ablaze.

  “Master, she is not here,” whispered one of the slavers below, his words somehow carrying to Alex’s ears.

  The hot-eyed cultivator below glared up at the burning copse of trees, sneering as his hand filled with flame. “Surrender, druid! I know you still live, thinking to hide in Wood that has been bested by Fire! Surrender at once and give your cultivator’s oath to serve me in all things, or I will butcher every last surviving member of your tribe! Do you hear me, wench? Lower the ladders I know you have, and come down at once!”

  Alex choked back his killing fury long enough to listen to what the forest was telling him.

  Surrender was impossible.

  The trees were nearly dead, and the woman whose song had captivated him had already fallen unconscious.

  Not so her gasping child, choking on toxic fumes.

  Bullrush!

  Alex didn’t bother analyzing how difficult it was.

  He already knew what it meant to be forged in fire.

  So what was walking through a little flame?

  Pristine Form negates all damage from toxic fumes! You are racing through a wall of flame! Finesse check made! You avoid falling through a weakened bridge!

  You are before the door leading to the druid’s shelter!

  Door opens at your touch!

  And after a mad dash along a blazing fortress a hundred feet in the air, barely managing to avoid falling through a collapsing rope bridge, Alex darted along what had once been a scenic view of the majestic forest all around, darting past dozens of empty domiciles that were an odd fusion of careful craftsmanship and being extensions of the intertwined trees themselves. Beautiful, graceful, and dying, more than half set cruelly ablaze.

  Alex’s gut knotted with more than just the pain of his skin charring and crisping, damage near instantly healed as he accessed Power Healing using just the tiniest flicker of one of the dozen lesser beast cores he had claimed in his hunts, entwined in rawhide he had toughened and made near hard as rock, thanks to secretions generated via Biochemical Mastery and his Alchemy skill, having had days to make his leather choker as resilient as any bronze gorget.

  He tensed his muscles, ready to explode through the thick hardwood door of the arboreal domicile that, alone out of all its neighbors, seemed resistant to flame.

  It opened at his touch.

  He didn’t hesitate to storm inside, beholding the sight of a beautiful young woman with exotic Eurasian features half covered by soot-stained hair the color of rubies, presently slumped over in a near comatose heap, and a terrified two year old girl who looked so very much like her mother, coughing and sobbing before turning around and gazing at Alex with wide, frightened eyes.

  Alex forced a smile, tamping his fury at the monsters below with a desperate need to soothe the child before him.

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” he soothed the red-headed child looking up at him with aqua-blue eyes overflowing with tears. “I’m a friend. I want to see if I can wake your mother up so we can leave. Okay?”

  The girl whimpered but gave the tiniest of nods.

  Alex didn’t hesitate to gently take the woman up in his arms and kiss her pale lips, caressing her tongue with his own.

  Beast core accessed. Biochemical Mastery critical success! You have generated four doses of Lesser Restoration. You have transferred two doses of Lesser Restoration. Target’s throat successfully massaged. Target has swallowed your potion.

  Target is awake.

  The woman coughed and jerked awake with a sob, lurching back from Alex with a soft cry before nearly tripping on her own sobbing child, before Alex steadied her with his hand.

  Her eyes widened. Alex only then realized how his arm must have moved like a blur.

  “It’s okay, I’m a friend,” Alex soothed. “Let’s talk later. Right now, we just need to get out of here.”

  The woman jerked a quick nod, gathering up her child.

  “I... yes. Please, yes!” Her jaws hardened as the heat washed over her and her child from the blazing wood just beyond her domicile. “But I fear my child will die in that flame.”

  Alex blinked, more than impressed that the woman thought nothing of herself, only the little girl desperately crawling in her mother’s arms and clinging so tightly, as if for dear life.

  Alex then took a deep breath, steadying himself, extending his focus to the blazing trees all about him, and beyond.

  Qi Perception accessed.

  He frowned then, sensing a possible path forward even beyond the sixty feet he had been hoping to spot, realizing his senses were far more acute that even he had recalled.

  Forest Sense accessed. You sense a path to safety!

  He didn’t hesitate, turning around and channeling all his desperate focus into one tightly-controlled punch that nonetheless exploded through the back wall with all the power of a charging knight.

  Adderstrike synergizes with Bronze-ranked strength! You have successfully destroyed your target!

  Or perhaps a charging rhino, Alex allowed. His Adderstrikes had been shattering wooden trunks and crumpling bronze armor back when he only had a mortal’s strength. And his power had grown significantly since then.

  “Alright, let’s go!” he said, turning around just in time to catch the young woman’s frightened flinch.

  “How did you...?” She abruptly shook her head. “No. It doesn’t matter. If you can get us out of here...”

  Alex frowned. “Honest question. Just how strong are you?”

  She winced. “Not that strong, I’m afraid. I certainly can’t scale the floor of my building and climb down the trunk, even with my... affinities. Especially not with those monsters waiting for us below.”

  Alex nodded. He furrowed his brow. “Alright. Here’s the thing. I’m almost positive that what I’m going to do will work. But...”

  The woman blinked, pursing her lips. “What exactly are you going to do?”

  “See those trees rustling about two hundred feet away?”

  Alex pointed well past the small clearing surrounding the once beautiful copse of trees that were now little more than a flaming pyre. If there was one special advantage to these mammoth specimens, it was that they soared high enough that Alex could see past neighboring tree tops, awed by the view of the forest canopy as a whole, despite the urgency of their circumstances.

  The young mother rubbed eyes no doubt stinging from the smoke before at last dipping her head.

  “Good. I think there’s a sheltering spot you can use in those trees over there. It should be safe for you and your child.”

  She blinked at this, slowly nodding. “I know. I set it up myself. How did you�
��”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Alex quickly said, in truth having absolutely no idea how he knew. “Alright. This might sound awkward, but wrap your arms around me. Your daughter can nestle between us.”

  Much to her credit, she didn’t hesitate to do just that, and Alex was amazed once more at how easily he was holding a healthy young woman with a sturdy build and her young child.

  Before pushing all extraneous thoughts out of mind, focusing on what he knew he must do.

  Desperation aids focus!

  You have embraced Storm Flight without connections to Ley Line or Thunderstorm!

  Skill check successful! You are racing through the air!

  Your peripheral channels have suffered Mild Strain. -1 to Qi total until peripherals have been fully restored.

  It was an exhilarating handful of seconds as Alex seemed to fly through the air, racing along on nothing more than his own fierce resolve, as if his will alone was compelling both elemental Air and Water Qi to do his bidding. It was an irony that it would have been far quicker to simply chain Bullrush and arrive in the blink of an eye, and without any risk of meridian strain, but what he realized only at that moment was that he had absolutely no idea if any passenger brought along would even survive the abrupt jolt.

  And as exhilarating as the flight through the air was, it was over in seconds, the little girl both shrieking and laughing, her mother’s heart pounding with terror Alex could so clearly sense, though she had the presence of mind not to panic such that they all risked their lives. And then Alex’s feet had found stable branches within the welcoming tree, and he found himself holding a sobbing, exhausted woman, grateful for her life, for her child’s life, finally able to release the mask of desperate focus she had forced herself to wear when she had been at death’s doorstep, just seconds ago.

  But now, in what were for her familiar surroundings, as her daughter happily slithered into the shelter formed like a bird’s nest out of the myriad branches around the trees crown, her brittle defenses at last crumpled, and she was sobbing in his arms.

  Alex gave her a brief handful of seconds. All he could spare.