“Coal, go get that giant’s attention, the one by Jaken, and bring him toward me, but don’t get too close,” I ordered quietly.
I have the flailing one, guys. Stay away from him. I spoke to the others through our earrings. The others didn’t acknowledge it, but I had a feeling it didn’t matter.
The Flame Wolf dashed toward the flailing creature and began to bark rabidly at it. As he did so, I began to compress the spell in my hand but kept it rotating. Coal bit the creature’s leg, and it reared toward him and began to stumble along after it, Kayda thrashing even more furiously. The spell she had cast was running out, and the giant’s health was a little over thirty percent.
As soon as he was close enough, I ordered my familiars to back off and flock to me like they were trying to defend me via mental command. It worked like a charm. Bokaj and James began fighting the axe thief giant, so there were no other distractions.
He stomped up to me, shouting in a guttural language that I didn’t understand. His drooling, dumb face and beady eyes went from a look of rage to one of victory when he saw me breathing heavily. My mana was close to bottoming out, but he was close enough now that I could do what I had planned. As he bent down to try and bite at me, I tossed the now golf ball-sized flame ball into his mouth and leaped as far from him as I could.
Coal dove forward to keep the creature from following me, and a concussive boom shook me hard enough to knock me from my feet. The creature was gone, and Coal stood behind, slightly larger and stronger looking.
I turned in time to see Muu throw his short spear through the last creature’s head. It roared and fell, twitching and shuddering. James, slightly beaten up and with a bloody lip, did a front flip and used the momentum to kick the creature in its throat. The last little bit of red drained from its HP bar and we all received some EXP.
I limped over to where the pile of rocks was beginning to thin and began to toss some aside. It was hard work, but with all of us pitching in, we were able to move the worst of the rocks out of the way.
“Yoh?” I called into the rocks as we sifted through them. “Yohsuke. Come on man, answer me.”
Light filtered into the rubble, and we finally found him. His eyes were open, his face a grimace of determination.
He was still warm. He was bleeding a little bit, sure, but he was still whole that I could see.
“Hey, come on, bud.” I pulled him out of the rubble easily. He still didn’t move. “Hey, this isn’t funny, man. Come on. Snap out of it.”
“Zeke, let Jaken have him,” James said. Muu started to pull on me too. I couldn’t understand why they were trying to take my friend.
“He’s fine, guys—he’s just playing.” I grunted as I tried to pull away. Bokaj was skidding down the side of the canyon toward us with a worried look on his face. “We got him, man, don’t worry.”
Maebe was there suddenly. “Dear Zekiel, let the Paladin have him.” She took me by my hand, and I struggled to pull away, but her iron-like grip was set.
I watched as Jaken poured a mana potion into his mouth and swallowed and began to mutter and make broad motions with his hands. His fingers moved in complex formations and symbols that confused me too.
“What are they doing?” I asked the woman holding me. “Why isn’t he snapping out of it?”
“Zeke,” she opened her mouth. Closed it. Frowned and then looked me in the eyes. I saw a flash of light behind her, and through the muted burst of magical energy, I heard her say, “Zeke, your friend didn’t make it.”
Chapter Eighteen
“My name is …” I heard my voice say as if in a feedback loop. It echoed around me. “And I’m a puto.”
That memory. That day had been crazy. He and I had to do some stupid shoot for a command hike, and we had been goofing around. I could clearly see him sitting in the duty van with me, the sun beating down on the California base around us, and me with his tiny-ass cover on my head being stupid with him.
The next thing I saw was the first time we had met. My buddy, another Lance named Mike, had taken me to the Com-Cam shop to meet a friend of his from the schoolhouse. We walked in and this short, skinny Mexican man with what looked like almost-permanent five o’ clock shadow around his mouth and jawline greeted both of us. I found out he loved video games, and shortly after that, the three of us had been thick as thieves.
I saw the nights we had spent cooped up in his room, beating video games and shooting the breeze. Then the night that he had saved my life. When I’d had possibly the worst day I had ever had at work, and my thoughts and heart had turned against me. And he was just there—asking me if I wanted to come over and play some video games for a bit.
He was in every sense of the word—my brother. Every facet of his being had been so crucial into my being “me” that what was happening now was impossible.
For the first time in a long time—I prayed. I prayed to whoever would listen, and I felt a warm presence brush against my consciousness. I opened my eyes, and I saw Kayda leaning over me, her normally blue irises had gone a shade of deep violet and radiant gold. I knew those eyes, or at least, I thought I did.
“It has been some time, young Druid.” The voice I recognized—Mother Nature.
“Can you help my brother?” I skipped the preamble.
“Death is as much a part of my will as life is, little one,” she chided softly. “Why should I intervene in the natural order of things?”
“Because I serve you.” I began to panic. “Because of our mission to help save this world. Because of the things we are doing.”
“Do you serve me?” Kayda’s head tilted oddly. “I have seen little evidence of this. You have helped a few dryads. You have even helped strengthen two of my allies. But nature still suffers at the hands of those around you. The jungle you go to now is slowly being consumed by some form of disease. Find the source, and cleanse it for me.”
“If I agree to do this, will you help ensure my brother comes back?” I asked with more hope than I should have.
“I have already,” she replied, “and so, as a portion of my fee, I require you do this. If you should fail to stop the disease in time, his life is forfeit. Please me, and I shall reward you all. I can give, and I can take. I have given already, and I happily will do so again. So long as you do your part. Remember, little one—Druid is not a mantle to be discarded when it does not suit your purpose.”
I blinked, Kayda’s eyes were their usual blue, and she looked over me with concern.
“Yoh!” I sat bolt upright and began to look for my friend. He was still on the ground, and Jaken looked distraught.
The still body that was Yohsuke opened its mouth, sucked in a huge amount of air, and began to cough and hack until a thick, viscous black liquid erupted from his mouth. As it hit the ground at Jaken’s feet, it screamed—loudly and shrill—and began to try and crawl toward any shadow that it could, but it swiftly stopped and died.
I fought my way to my feet and cast Heal on Yohsuke just before I got to him. I pulled him off the ground, still coughing a little, into a fierce hug.
“What the fuck happened?” he croaked. His voice was hoarse from the coughing and hacking.
“We lost you, man,” I said gently. “That thing threw you into the canyon wall. Then we had to fight to get to you. Do you remember anything?”
He looked confused and shook his head quietly. The others came over to pull him into individual hugs and pats on the back. Maebe walked close to him and looked him over.
“I am glad that you have returned, friend Yohsuke.” She nodded at him, then took my hand.
I pulled her close to me for comfort. Then I had to share what happened and what needed to happen.
“So, thanks to Jaken and the Mother—yes, Mother Nature—Yoh is back,” I began. Everyone’s eyes were on me. “She’s pissed because I haven’t been very Druid-like in my dealings with this world. So, she’s given me a mission. Where we’re going, the jungle is dying of a disease. I don�
��t know what kind, but I do know that if we don’t stop it, she’s gonna be pissed. And that will be deadly.”
“She’s gonna take me back if we don’t do it, isn’t she?” Yohsuke asked quietly. His eyes looked haunted, but he blinked that away just as quickly as I had recognized it. “Well, looks like we just have to play ball.”
“You okay?” James asked Yohsuke.
“You know me, man.” Yoh tried to sound confident and just barely eked by with it. “Nothing can stop the overlord.”
We nodded quietly and began to search for loot. The giant creatures—Hill Giants, Maebe had called them after the fact—didn’t leave too much behind. We were able to collect the weapons that we had ended up losing to them by accident and then found a couple leather scraps that Muu said were trash. The camp was clean as well except for bones of unfortunate travelers, bison, and other strange animals. Muu had gone from level 11 to level 13, though.
None of us were in a talkative enough mood to see how he had spent his points.
We only traveled for another few more hours that day, opting to find the safest place we could and having wards in place thanks to Maebe. Everyone slept pretty roughly that night. I took a watch, not because I didn’t think we wouldn’t need one but because I knew if we were going to proceed, we had to do so smarter. And not being able to sleep helped too.
I thought about some of the abilities I had and decided on a craftier way to respond to threats in this place.
As I sat thinking, Maebe sat next to me. “Please, do not be offended, but that fight went poorly. You all spend so much time together. Why did you not use that unity to fight those hill giants?”
I blinked at her question, and I had no answer. By her thinking, we should have planned better. Should have known things may not go the way we thought they would.
We needed to work better as a team. We were pretty damn strong, but we needed to grow more. Together. Using our different abilities to our advantage.
“You’re right. We need to improve. I guess focusing on being sure Muu was good and getting Balmur back has driven our efficiency down.”
She seemed satisfied that I was thinking on it and left it at that.
I took a moment to decide on Coal’s stats. He had gotten to level 5 after that last fight. A huge gain.
Name: Coal
Race: Flame Wolf
Level: 5
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 7
Constitution: 6
Intelligence: 2
Wisdom: 2
Charisma: 6
Unspent Attribute Points: 12
Awesome. So his intelligence and wisdom had gone up one point, and his charisma by two when he had leveled up to this point! Okay. That left me twelve to use, so I bumped strength, dexterity, and constitution up by four apiece.
Looking at him, Coal seemed much healthier and more robust now. Good. Cuter too. He nosed my foot and thumped his tail happily. He didn’t get a spell though like Kayda had, but that was okay.
In the morning, we were on our way. Everyone was still a little groggy when we came upon an enemy I didn’t want to see—an Ettin.
The lumbering monstrosity was easily forty-feet tall with two heads that bickered back and forth in a guttural and foul language. He wore a simple loincloth and had a spiked club that looked like it had been made using spears.
We ducked back behind a large rock before it could spot us, and I filled the others in on my idea.
“Ettins are smarter than the others we fought,” I began.
“Fucking duh, it has two heads!” Muu whispered harshly. I glared at him before he looked away. “It does.”
“This thing could end up having some kind of magic,” I continued. “We have to hit it and hit as hard as possible. As quickly as possible. Unload on this guy because the guys we fought earlier may have been his lackeys.”
“How are we going to do that?” James asked. “That portion of the canyon is huge, at least eighty to a hundred feet wide. With all that room, he can do whatever he wants.”
“I’m going to see if I can’t trap him and cause a cave in that will lock his ass up. At least for a bit.” I thought for a moment, then added, “No promises, though.”
I focused on the element of earth and shifted into my earth elemental form. I looked like a larger, stronger version of Pebble except that I was made of diamond. Wholly of diamond. I focused and pushed myself into the ground. As I melded with the earth, my vision vanished completely, and I felt a oneness with the stone that I had become. I knew where my friends were, and as I moved toward the Ettin, I could sense it too.
I also got the sense that I wasn’t going to be able to move the earth because I no longer had a physical form. I could potentially cast a different spell, though. Yeah, that would have to work. It was all I had left at this moment. I moved beneath the creature, feeling the weight of its mass, then got an idea. I decided to explore the rock face of the canyon walls and see how they felt. If we could trigger another rock slide, we might be able to do some serious damage to this guy. I found a couple faults and made a note of them in relative position to where I felt the Ettin.
I popped out of the ground behind the creature and inwardly began cursing.
Ettin level 37.
I briefly refocused on the faults, then touched the Ettin while casting Iron Maiden. The stone beneath the Ettin turned liquid and rose around the creature, his level 37 health taking small bits of damage from the spikes that formed inside. Soon, he was completely encased in stone that solidified into an iron-like shell. I threw four Stone Spikes, spear-like projectiles of diamond, into the areas I had felt the faults to weaken them slightly. The spikes held there, and I shifted back into my Kitsune form.
I looked at the timer for the spell and saw that it had been cut in half when I shifted out of elemental form. Fuck.
“Get out here, guys,” I shouted. The others joined me, and I pointed to the faults, “Those are going to be how we do this. We hit him with our heaviest spells and attacks first, then topple that on to him. If he survives? Well, we beat the shit out of him.”
“Solid enough of a plan,” Bokaj observed. “I still have some of the arrows you enchanted, so don’t get too close.”
“And I’ll take care of the canyon wall,” Muu stated. He pulled his original short spear from his inventory and rolled his shoulder. “Then I’ll go for him.”
I felt a strain internally and summoned Coal. He was ready to fight by our side.
“Yoh,” My friend looked even more determined, “you good for this one? You need to sit it out?”
“Fuck no, this bitch is mine.” He spat and began to mumble and press his hands together in a series of motions I hadn’t seen him do before. Heat and a vile stench of rotten eggs began to emanate from his hands in waves. “Soon as that spell of yours ends, step aside.”
“You got it, boss.” I shrugged and stepped aside and began casting my own spells.
I brought my flame tinkering to the forefront of my mind, added it to my Stone Weapon spell, and formed a great axe with it. The total cost was 250 MP—half my mana.
I felt the Iron Maiden start to dissolve and shouted, “In three… two… NOW!”
I activated my two piece combo of Cleave and Wind Scythe, then sent the spelled weapon careening into the upper body of the Ettin.
I saw Yohsuke snarl and heard the word, “Fallemeara!” As his hands shot forward, a roiling bolt of flame four feet long shot forth and spiraled toward the creature. Then another that Yohsuke cast using his ring.
I saw two arrows fly at the Ettin and detonate, and an arm went flying into the sky. A rumble sounded, and I watched as the canyon wall between the two faults I had found began to crumble and pitch forward in a roar of falling debris and stone. The stone hit the somehow-still-standing Ettin and knocked it on to its side. His health bar was low, but he was still alive.
“Watch out.” Muu pushed me aside. He brought his spear up, and I spent the mana
to imbue the weapon with my buff, Star Blade, for some added damage. An aura of black, like the night sky with stars sprinkled throughout, burst from it as he prepared to launch it.
Muu must have activated his bracelet because the weapon damned near warped from his hand and sprouted from the creature’s eye, then back to his hand for another throw. By this time, Yohsuke had cast his Black Snow spell that caused a flurry of inky, dark pellets to eat the final dregs of the Ettin’s life away.
Once it was completely eaten by the snow, we did find a rather sizable bag of coins—three hundred gold, seventy-four silver, and two hundred fifty copper that we gave to Muu. There was a toe left behind that said it was an alchemical ingredient, but I didn’t want anything to do with that.
Muu tucked it into his own inventory with a smile that ended up turning into a gag as he got blood on his hand.
We skirted the rubble, then mounted up to move on. Jaken led the way, and I hung back to try and pick Yohsuke’s mind.
“Hey man, how are you doing?” As I looked him over, he looked tired. Really tired. And angry.
“I’ll be alright,” he grunted.
“I didn’t ask how you’ll be—I asked how you are,” I pressed as we looked about for more enemies.
Kayda was scouting again, and Coal was back inside me. He had leveled up three times this time and Kayda once. I’d already bumped everything into constitution for her. His were to strength and dexterity.
Yohsuke was quiet for a few minutes, pensively watching before finally saying, “I saw her,” quietly.
“Who?”
“My wife.” His lips twitched. “I was right there. I could feel her there next to me. I heard her say goodnight to me, and like a stupid asshole, I went back to sleep. And when I did, I was staring at you guys. I was there. I was home.”
Fuck, I thought to myself. Out loud, “I’m sorry, man.”
“Don’t be.” He sighed. “It’s not your fault. Hell, it’s not anyone here’s fault. It’s that shitstain War and his posse. If we don’t try to stop them, my wife, your kid, Jaken’s kid—everybody back home would be fucked. So, I’m here to whoop some ass and chew bubble gum, and I don’t have any fucking bubble gum.”
Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2) Page 41