by Han Yang
My efforts resulted in flaring pain, causing a loud grunt to escape my lips. I hobbled over to the back wall, set the weapon in my lap, and thought about life.
It didn’t matter if I was Bradley Pierson or Bradley of Ocarna. What mattered was my leg was slowly starting to feel better and there was only one way forward. A future on Gearnix.
A hiss of steam ejected from my arm.
Okay, if I was being honest with myself it did matter. I didn’t like losing memories or feeling like my thoughts were torn.
Actually, I hated it.
Feeling lost was… abysmal and yet, I had to let it go.
I decided to pass the time by inspecting the hydrox cubes in the sack.
When I tried to feed the magic into my mechanical foot, it consumed half of the cube. A sensation of needing to pee washed over me. The steam releasing tubes on my foot, eye, and hand hissed all at once.
“Oh… Oh!” I stood, realizing I actually did have to urinate.
My rush to relieve my bladder revealed my leg was now healed. I’d need to look into that in Langshire.
Could I just input x amount of hydrox and I'd be healed? Or was this a one off because my injuries were superficial?
I knew I’d need to get a pen and paper to start recording all the intriguing questions I had. Somehow I figured someone would answer them for me, for the right price.
After a second thorough sweep of the cave, I exited hesitantly.
I froze.
There was a shuffle of leaves near where I’d fought the rats.
My eyes swiveled to find a big gorilla with a corpse stuffed in its big jaws as if it were starving. The glare of the big beast told me I was in trouble. Its sheer size loomed over me even at a distance of a dozen paces.
There was an ear ringing roar that sent the rat corpse flying with spittle.
Two massive fists slammed into the animal’s chest. The hits were so powerful air washed over me and I could feel the impact transfer from its body, through the ground, and into my bones.
I did the most rational thing possible.
I dove into the cave opening and hoped the abnormally large gorilla would take his free food without a fight.
The crash of the mighty beast sent my heart racing. Grit fell from the ceiling as the tree cave was shoulder checked.
A massive hand reached in, its fingertips coming inches from grasping my waist.
My mind finally connected the dots and processed what was coming next. When you reach into a box, you don’t grab what you seek. You -
I leveled the blunderbuss at the opening, stepping forward with the weapon firmly against my shoulder.
The hand retracted swiftly. A fraction of a second later two massive eyes peered into the small cave. I smirked in satisfaction of being right.
Before the eyes could finish widening I pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
The steaming blunderbuss round belched forth in a dazzling display of incredible power.
The result was instant. A spreading circle of bluish white swirled forth at astonishing speeds.
The firing was so fast that the tendrils of power were still ejecting the weapon as a massive hole bloomed in the face of the gorilla. I wanted to watch the magic tear through the beast, but was robbed of the enjoyment by the kickback of the weapon.
I flew backwards, crashing into the wall. The unexpected impact caused me to bite my tongue.
Blood filled my mouth that I spat onto the cavern’s floor. Hesitantly stepping forward, I held my weapon up like it could fire again.
Steam hissed out of tubes and I was shocked to see it actually still held a minor charge.
Holding the trigger mattered. Good to know for next time.
I lowered the weapon as I approached the twitching gorilla in the middle of its death throes. There was a basketball sized gaping hole in the face of the beast. These things were tough if it was still dying with that kind of damage.
I gave the twitching beast space, allowing the mortal wound to do its work.
I headed back into the cave, unslung my bag, fished out the hydrox velvety purse, and filled the blunderbuss again. The process was tediously slow and again I realized I’d need to find a faster system.
A second mouthful of blood was spat out and there was a tingling sensation of my torn tongue healing.
The charging hum of the weapon told me it was ready for killing.
I left the cave, carefully walking around the tree. I peeked around, inspected tree tops, and cleared as much of my surroundings as I could for other threats.
Gearnix was brutal. I let the fact set in that I’d just killed a monster. A literal twelve foot tall gorilla, downed with a bloody magical shotgun. I kissed the weapon as I finally let go of my anxiety and let euphoria pour in.
“Oh… you leveled,” I said, seeing that the weapon had grown ever so slightly and added new gears into its design. “What do I call you?”
The weapon unfortunately didn’t answer.
“Darcy, yeah I like that. Darcy sounds great. Reminds me of Mom. If I won’t remember her later, then having her watch over me by naming my trusty boom stick after her… well, that’s fitting,” I told the weapon.
When I arrived over the dead body I grimaced.
“How the hell do I get your heart out?”
My question wasn’t answered until about two hours later. I would learn that a cutlass can’t cut through ribs. No matter how hard you try, or how much you think it's actually working, it’s not.
The trick was to open a hole under the rib cage and reach up. I could only use one hand to fish the heart out, and after pulling just about everything besides hydrox out first, I finally retrieved an eight sided cube the size of my fist.
When I studied the container it shined bright enough to blast through the caked blood. I frowned, not willing to waste the last of my water to clean the nasty filth off.
A few minutes later, I had the hydrox set into my bag, and a pep in my step. I never dropped my guard the entire walk to Langshire. If there was one thing I learned about Gearnix already, it was that the wilds were to be taken seriously.
Whistling off tune on my walk, I pondered what wonders Langshire held.