The Land: Predators

by Aleron Kong

  He searched his mindscape, looking for her familiar winged form, until he saw her scaled body lying in a field outside of his mind’s village. Literally quick as thought, he ran to her crumpled form. The wounds in her physical body did not show, but the pain and anguish she had suffered had sapped her will to move.

  “What can I do?” he cried while holding her beautiful face. “What can I do?” If only he could get to her body. If only they could bond!

  Even as he pleaded with her for an answer, he saw Heman finish his command in the real world and the lightning demon prepare to deliver the killing blow. His very being cried out, the thought of her death causing a pain greater than he had ever experienced. It echoed across the dimensions of his soul.

  His cry was answered.

  Her voice echoed, not in his head, but his heart. For the first time, he understood the true connection of a soul familiar. She was never truly apart from him, for everything that they were or ever could be, was intertwined on the deepest level imaginable. Her words resonated in his soul and spoke the fundamental truth of their being, “You are not alone.”

  In that space between seconds, he understood. Through her eyes he saw himself, lying against a tree, paralyzed and beaten. Despite all that, he reached for her, not outside of himself, through the distance of space, but instead inside of himself, to the part of his soul that was also her.

  The Messeji has begun!

  Time froze and beams of blue-white light shot from Alma’s eyes into Richter’s ruined orbs. Faster than even the lightning demon could react, the dragonling’s ruined body changed into pure Mental energy and was absorbed by her master. Their experiences, thoughts, and powers became as one and yet were still distinct. To Heman, the process appeared instantaneous, but to Richter and Alma, they shared long moments of love and companionship, enough to fill a lifetime.

  A prompt appeared and was immediately absorbed by their minds.

  Congratulations! You have deepened your union with your soul familiar! As such, you have developed the following capabilities. You may now find one another over vast distances. Never will you be truly lost to one another. The Messeji can now occur if you are within eye contact and within 100 yards of one another. Over time, this distance may grow. At times when either of you are near death, when the veil between this world and the next are thinned, you may speak the Truth of Souls.

  Neither Richter nor Alma understood half of the what the prompt meant, but it didn’t matter, because there was one other notification that changed everything.

  Know This! Mind, Body and Soul are distinct but always joined. Through the Messeji, each of you become pure Mental energy for a time between moments. As such, your dragon form will have full health no matter the state of your human body. Be warned! Resuming your individual forms will restore any prior injuries. Continue to push the limits of your power, young Master; it is the only way to learn your potential!

  Both prompts were absorbed and processed instantly by the method Randolphus had taught him. Even if they hadn’t had the information, Richter and Alma would have known they were healed due to the lack of pain and the fact that Richter could move his jaw again. Even more importantly, his eyes had been completely restored and the change in his head’s shape shifted the blindfold. He could see!

  Wasting no time, he inhaled deeply, even as Heman turned his head from where Alma had disappeared to where Richter still lay. The other chaos seed only had time to widen his eyes, either in fear or rage, but nothing else before Richter breathed Glass Flame!

  Near-invisible fire shot from Richter’s mouth in a cone-shaped attack. The flame washed over Heman, charring his white skin to black in an instant. In a moment of rare cosmic justice, he was blinded just as he had blinded Richter. The lightning demon threw its body between Richter and its master, following the simple command Heman had given it to protect him from any harm. Though its body was immune to physical damage and almost completely immune to heat, not even the demon could withstand the savagery of dragon fire. It lasted for six seconds, a living shield to protect Heman’s now-collapsed form, before dying with a wail almost too high-pitched to be heard. Even though the cost was its life, the demon had accomplished its goal to preserve its master as the seven-second time limit on Richter’s attack elapsed.

  Even though the damage Heman had inflicted on Richter had healed, he still remained paralyzed as the poison coursed through his body. Another thing Richter learned in the following minute was the naturally high resistance most dragons had to poison. The counter on his paralysis icon plummeted, and before long he could stand once more.

  The whole time he had sat against the tree, he had watched Heman’s smoking figure. Analyze told him that the man was still alive. If the torturer had somehow managed to weather the one second he’d been exposed to Glass Flame, Messeji form or not, Richter would still have been helpless. The chaotic dagger still lay next to the man’s body, the exposed grey blade flashing with an internal, swirling light.

  By the time Richter was back on his feet though, Heman still hadn’t moved. Powerful though the other chaos seed’s abilities were, he was still only a level seven mortal. The invisible fires of Richter’s attack had triggered a cascade of cytokines and neurotransmitters, sending him into shock. His heart rate had increased to over two hundred beats a minute as it tried to compensate for the drop in blood pressure. Blood was shunted away from the periphery of his body and towards his internal organs in a vain attempt to keep a failing system running.

  His body was attempting an impossible feat. Even if blood loss and massive tissue trauma could be survived, Heman had screamed while he’d burned. His open mouth had provided a perfect channel for the flames washing over him. In addition to his eyes having melted, his throat had been seared and charred. Even if all of his other wounds would heal, Heman would still not be able to breath properly. In another show of karmic balance, he would slowly suffocate as the carbon dioxide built in his blood and his lungs filled with fluid, a crucifixion death without the crucifix.

  The cold stare in Richter’s eyes as he stood over the man left no doubt that neither scenario would be how Heman finally died. Analyze showed that Heman had less than twenty health left and something was making his remaining HPs trickle away. Richter grinned, revealing his sharp teeth. “Not yet,” he hissed.

  Richter picked up the Chaotic dagger.

  You have found:

  Chaotic Dagger

  Attack: +14

  Durability: 1,000/1,000

  Item Class: Rare

  Quality: Exquisite

  Weight: 1.2 kg

  Traits:

  Once unsheathed, it will disappear in 24 hours. If claiming the life of a Chaos seed, it will not only end their current life, but also an additional one of their respawns. Your victim’s respawn time will be doubled based on their new respawn count.

  Looking at Heman’s ruined body, he cast Weak Slow Heal, replenishing the man’s health by forty-five points over the next sixty seconds. He smiled again when he thought about how he would be taking that health right back in very short order. First though, he wanted to know what the other chaos seed had stashed away. If there was good stuff in there, Richter didn’t want to risk that it might disappear when he killed Heman in a few minutes. The invisible door was still open in the air.

  The Messeji dragon waved his taloned arm in the space around the open cubby, but he couldn’t feel the door or any exterior sides of the cupboard. Looking past the plane of the compartment didn’t show anything either; it was only visible from one side. Curiosity now at least partially satisfied, Richter looked to see what items Heman had stored. His sharp-toothed smile grew. The other chaos seed had been busy!

  You have found:

  Venom of Pals Cobra

  Item Quality: Unusual

  Durability: 7/7

  Weight: 0.8 kg

  Traits: The potent venom of a pals cobra will paralyze targets for 30 seconds to 1 minute if applied to a weapon, and
4-9 minutes if ingested. Doses: 2/4

  You have found:

  Emerald Ring with White Gold Band

  Jewelry Class: Uncommon

  Jewelry Quality: Well Crafted

  Gem Clarity: ???

  Carats: ???

  Durability: 14/14

  Weight: 0.5 kg

  The ring wasn’t magical, but the gem was the size of his thumbnail. He also didn’t have a Jeweling skill high enough to know its exact clarity or how many carats it was, but Richter was pretty sure it was expensive. Randy should be happy about that, he thought.

  There were also several pouches, each of which had a pleasant clinking sound.

  You have found:

  Pouch

  Durability: 6/7

  Weight: 2.1 kg

  Contents:

  9 Gold Weights

  12 Silver Weights

  You have found:

  Pouch

  Durability: 4/8

  Weight: 1.3 kg

  Contents:

  15 Gold Bands

  4 Silver Bands

  8 Copper Bands

  You have found:

  Pouch

  Durability: 5/6

  Weight: 0.8 kg

  Contents: 97 Gold Crowns

  You have found:

  Pouch

  Durability: 3/7

  Weight: 0.7 kg

  Contents: 96 Silver Marks

  You have found:

  Pouch

  Durability: 2/5

  Weight: 0.5 kg

  Contents: 471 Copper Shills

  If Richter had to guess, this was the sum wealth of the gnoll tribe and whomever else Heman had been able to steal from since coming to The Land. Ten copper shills made one silver mark and ten marks made a gold crown. With each weight being worth twenty-five coins and each band being worth ten, he had just found over five hundred and fifty gold crowns!

  He now saw why Heman had probably been so attracted to the idea of a hidden storage space that would always stay with him. It must have been a pain and a half to hide such treasures, especially in slave-like conditions. His abilities had most likely helped him create a gang with relative ease, but still, it couldn’t have been fun.

  That thought made Richter feel all warm and gooey inside, almost as much as stealing every single one of Heman’s possessions. He started to turn back towards Heman’s charred form, when he had an absolutely wonderful idea. Taking what he needed from his bag, he jotted down a short note and placed it on the bottom shelf.

  Richter put all Heman’s possessions into his Bag of Holding, except for the large pouch of coppers. That he upended, keeping the brown leather container in his hand. Then, making sure that Heman hadn’t revived enough to know what was happening, he took out a small canister, placed it into the pouch, and grabbed copper coins to pad the sides. On a cursory glance, it would look exactly the same. Richter used a small length of wire to attach the mechanism to the mouth of the pouch. With an evil grin, he placed the coin purse back in the cubby right next to his letter. With all of that done, he turned back to Heman, the Chaotic dagger clenched tightly in his taloned fist. The time for games had passed.

  The time for blood had come.

  Richter had cleared out the cubby and placed his own little gift inside in under two minutes. His healing spell had run its course, restoring almost half of Heman’s life, but it was continuing to trickle away. As Richter stared down at his torturer, the man that would have stolen lives away from him, he experienced a particular mix of thoughts.

  The first was that he should keep the man alive. That he should take him back to the village, hope to find Hisako or Sumiko in time to heal him and then have Randolphus use some of his counterintelligence techniques to get more information from the chaos seed. Richter was fairly certain Heman would break under the tender ministrations of the Spy’s knives. He could even persuade him to bind his spawn point back at the village. After that he could farm the man for Chaos Points until he died the final death. It was no more than he deserved.

  Richter didn’t feel any moral compunction against torture. Not with this rapist piece of shit. In all honesty, he didn’t feel too bad about it in general if it was used against those that would harm him or his people. He’d barely been in The Land a week when he’d tortured a goblin with Sion. He hadn’t really felt too squeamish even when he’d been back on Earth.

  One of his favorite shows had been called Firefly. Originally, it had only run for one season originally, way before his time, but it had still made a serious impact on his life. One of the lines that had always resonated was when the captain, Malcolm Reynolds, had simply stated, “I look out for me and mine. That don’t include you ‘less I conjure it does.”

  That simple statement had always seemed to cut through the whining and bullshit of right and wrong. You take care of your family. Don’t cause ill or harm those who can’t defend themselves, but if anyone sets themselves against you, god help them, because he wouldn’t. Living in The Land had only further cemented all of that as core principles of his being.

  Even though he had no problem killing this man over and over, he also still refused to be led around by his emotions. Richter was still furious, so angry that he was nearly out of control in fact, and that made him pause and think. He would love to make Heman’s last days in this existence a macabre nightmare, but Richter was also practical. One, he only had a few minutes left before the Messeji elapsed. As soon as that happened, his eyes and mouth would be ruined again. It was vital that he make it back to the village before that happened. He also wasn’t foolish enough to think that he could kill Heman multiple times in secret. If there was one thing he had learned since becoming a lord, it was that there were consequences to how his people felt. This piece of shit wasn’t worth losing ranks in the village’s Morale or Loyalty.

  Even more important, he wasn’t sure just how many of his people had been infected by Heman’s abilities. He couldn’t risk a revolt if Heman had managed to sway the hearts and minds of any of his people. No. The man couldn’t be allowed to return to the village. He had to be dealt with now, but first, Richter had his own message to deliver.

  He turned Heman over. The man’s breaths were coming in short gasps, and every section of his face was either charred black or blistered red. One eye was just gone along with the eyelid. Richter could see the bone of the eye’s socket, also scorched black by his Glass Flame attack. The other eye was completely bloodshot and the sclera had turned milky, but the structure remained more or less intact. All of the hair was gone from Heman’s face and part of his scalp had been burned away to the skull.

  The extra durability damage Richter’s breath attack caused had literally made the leather armor Heman was wearing char and turned to dust. Just the act of moving him had made the ashes fall away, three hundred and twenty-eight points of durability damage having occurred in just the one second the man had been exposed before his summoned demon had blocked the rest of the attack.

  Alma and her master listened to him wheeze for a few seconds. Small bubbles of blood formed and popped on his ruined lips, and it was clear that Heman did not have much time left in this life. Richter watched him slowly die and came to a decision. The piece of shit hadn’t suffered enough.

  The chaos seed dual cast Minor Slow Heal. His mana dropped by several hundred points all at once, but it let him restore all of Heman’s health points. At least, as many HPs as the man’s ruined body allowed to be restored. The other chaos seed’s max health had been reset from one hundred and thirty down to ninety-two to account for the portions of his body that had been burned away, never to return. The healing magic could not heal the worst of the man’s internal injuries either.

  It also could not replace the epidermis or basement membranes of his skin, so any burned area became shiny and smooth like baby oil gleaming in the sun. The ruin of his throat tightened as scar tissue formed all at once. Much more advanced Life magic would be needed to bring Heman back to full health,
but Richter had already known his spell would not fully restore his foe. He was still more than happy with the results. His soul cheered as Heman came back to consciousness with a ragged gasp and strangled cry of pain.

  “That’s right, sunshine,” Richter hissed at him, smiling his sharp-toothed smile. “I was raised to show the proper respect. Since you went out of your way to give me a thank you, a warning and a gift, I figured I’d do the same for you before I snatch the life right out of you. First, thank you for sharing that information. I had been wondering about a lot of that. Also, thank you for all the gold!”

  Even blinded and in agony, Heman’s face screwed up in anger. If nothing else, he wasn’t a total coward. The chaos seed tried to spit and curse Richter but his ruined throat would not allow either. That didn’t mean the Enchanter would let such insolence pass.

  “No, no. We can’t have that,” Richter tutted. Reaching down with his free hand, he slowly pushed his taloned hand into the soft, newly healed flesh of Heman’s chest. The pink skin parted easily and red blood began to pool and run from all five points that Richter had pierced. A new scream ripped from Heman’s throat, louder than the last despite the scar tissue caging his vocal cords. Richter kept his fingers in the man’s chest, but stopped moving his talons. The other chaos seed stopped wailing half a minute later, and this time when he looked back, the only thing in his gaze was pain and fear.

  “That’s better,” Richter smiled anew. “Back home, we would say, ‘Fix your face or I’ll fix it for you,’ but in this case,” the chaos seed chuckled, “I think we both know that ship has sailed. I also don’t think we have much time left together since your health is still falling, so let me give you your warning.”

  He moved close enough that he could have snapped his reptilian jaws shut on the other chaos seed’s face if he chosen to do so, “I do not care who you were back on Earth. I do not care what you think you are owed. I do not care how mad you will be if you are ever reborn. My warning is not the same as yours. I’m not telling you that if you stay away, then I will let you be. I’m not telling you never to come back. I’m telling you that it doesn’t matter if you do. My warning is that you should stay dead. If you are reborn, I will come for you. One day, in this long existence we have ahead of us, I will find you again, and I will feed your soul to the worst demon I can find. Now drink.”