Todd gives one glance to find his shield, but he doesn’t see it. He shakes his head vigorously and then punches out a beam of water into the beast on Candra’s right. The cosmic energy rattles inside Todd, rattles him. But it does it’s job.
He runs to be at her side, but she shouts at him instead.
“Help Sue Ann!”
Sluggish, Todd takes a millisecond to reorient himself. He bolts off towards Sue Ann and circles around her slashing sword. The flightless beast is covered in shallow cuts. It jabs cautiously with its ugly mouth and waves its wings in threat.
Sue Ann chuffs, “I’ve got this. Help Candra!”
Todd isn’t sure what to do, but he’s here already. He lunges towards the unprotected flank of the beast and stabs his ixwa in. The blow is shallow, but a ripple of pressure blows back into the organs of the beast. It’s only a slight shock to the animal, but now that Todd has spotted it before he notices it again.
Is his weapon nicer than he gave it credit?
The turkey beast backpedals quickly, fearful of being ganged up on. Todd spares a look at Sue Ann and she motions impatiently with her katana for him to go.
He sprints back over to Candra and collides with the backside of a beast: spear-point first. He feels like he’s in a slasher movie as he drives the weapon in and out again. The beast lifts its talons and kicks back at him, but it only scratches at his shin guards. Trapped in place between him and Candra, it spins to face him with a beak full of sharp teeth.
Feeling emboldened, Todd snaps out his left hand and grabs the beast by the throat, narrowly avoiding its bite. He grips it fiercely as the animal starts to tug and warble in dismay. His arm complains nastily as he wrestles against its strength, stars appear in his eyes, but he punches his ixwa into the beast’s neck, wide side against the grain. When it doesn’t die immediately, he yanks it out and does it again.
Candra whirls around, a shield on one arm, her scepter in her other. She is freed up to start focusing on one beast or the other, and she does do with a shrill battle cry. She tackles one creature, jamming her shield in its face while slapping her rod against its shoulder. Once she makes space, she shoves off, takes a step back and… crack! Slams it in the head. The beast falls to its hocks, stunned. Candra reverses her grip and swings in an overhead blow.
Meanwhile, Todd tries to keep the second remaining beast off of Candra’s back. He chases it comically as it warbles just out of reach. He doesn’t want to run off into the woods, so he stops at the edge of the clearing. The beast pivots when it realizes he won’t take the bait. It flaps its feeble feathered arms for lift and executes an impressive taloned bicycle kick. Todd stumbles back to avoid it. As it closes on him, he shoots a ray of fluid energy at point blank range. It tears out a trough of feathers and knocks the beast spinning sideways. Todd dives on top of the beast’s back and stabs it deep. That’s not enough to kill it though. Its head twists about and its fangs dig into Todd’s back. He bites back a cry and stabs again.
There’s no art to Todd’s fighting. He doesn’t have the knack for controlling distance or making guarded strikes. He often feels like he’s getting worse, not better: taking risks instead of protecting himself first.
The beast stretches its neck and worries at his shoulder. Serrations are carved into Todd’s skin underneath his gambeson. Todd lifts and thrusts. He wiggles into a new position, opening up the turtle-turkey’s neck. He drives his ixwa into the bone of its spine and works the wound back and forth. When that doesn’t work, he drags the blade of his weapon across the base of its throat hard.
The beast weakens and drops. Todd takes aim one last time and drives his ixwa into the beast’s heart.
Back closer to the fire, Randall has joined the fray. He helps Sue Ann pin down her beast and the two of them pick the creature apart, piece by piece. Feathers fly in the air and blood coats Sue Ann’s chestplate.
Joe and Candra finish off their opponents in short order, and the forest floor is littered with bodies.
Todd hovers his hand over his injured shoulder. “Hey Randall, help me get out of this. I want to clean this out.”
Randall jogs over and strips Todd out of his padded armor. Todd hisses as the fabric rubs against his bloodied shoulder. He unwraps his Gi and drops it to his waist.
“How bad is it?”
Randall shakes his head. “Honestly, not that bad. Let’s clean it up for you.”
“Do you think I need a pill?”
“I dunno. I figure you just see how you feel first.”
As they talk and pour water over the bite, Sue Ann pulls a rag out of her satchel and brings it over. “Try this. It should be clean, it came from the System.”
Todd slaps it over his wound and gingerly replaces his gi and gambeson with Randall’s help.
“Baby,” Randall laughs.
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Todd huffs through his nose. “It’s just because I can’t see it. I feel like it’s worse than it is.”
With the immediate threat ended, the five of them begin the process of making breakfast. This time, they choose to roast a haunch of goat beast. Sue Ann prepares the meat and raises it over the coals. They finish off the last of their first ration tokens and debate whether to use more. They compromise on exchanging a single token and stretching the starch with meat.
The number of monster corpses has built up. Somewhere out there in the woods, there’s still a smarter beast probing them for weakness. There’s an unspoken question of whether to relocate again.
Todd bites into a juicy slice of red meat. Savory grease gets on his lips and drips back into his bowl. Rich flavors release, and the aroma is heady. He prefers the turkey beast, but this meat is a close second.
The humans eat voraciously. They cook another leg and portion out what they don’t eat into Todd’s jars.
With his belly full, Todd finally chooses to raise a point that has been bugging him for days now.
“Guys, I really think we should go back to the town and do the quest.”
The others disagree. They ask him how he’d even find his way back. He answers that they’re in a valley, they’ll be funneled the right way naturally. They ask him if there’s even a point. He insists that the task is important. He reminds them that they’ve filled up on water and can probably close out the remaining day with what they have. He makes his case, nervously but passionately.
It all comes down to a vote. The nays have it. The group will remain outdoors for the duration of the quest.
Todd feels like he’s wearing a perpetual scowl. He can’t believe how shortsighted his friends are being.
The day has passed slowly, with near constant attacks. They mostly come from one direction, so Todd wonders whether the beasts are being driven towards them through some unknown intervention.
The frequent fights push their teamwork and their techniques to new heights. Todd feels himself slowly approaching level twelve, even though each new level takes more and more energy to achieve. But the good news stops there. The group has had to use four more healing pills. They’re down to six.
As evening falls, they sit eating around the fire. They agree that tonight they will only take short naps. Power through, that’s the plan.
Todd takes the first sleep shift, but his lay down is fitful and restless. Not much of a quiescence. A dozen small hurts and mistakes weigh heavily on him, and he is wide awake by the time his friends come to fetch him.
Tired, he rolls his shoulders. He plops to the ground and does basic stretches to remain limber.
“Did you sleep?”
“No, not really.”
“Come on, you really should sleep.”
“It’s fine. I’m too worked up. I’ll last until the end of the mission.”
Todd takes a small snack. The small snack becomes a big snack. There are a lot of big appetites lately. Everyone seems more hungry than usual. The decision is made to roast more meat.
Todd takes his place in guard rotation. Randall slips into the tent for his nap.
Sometime during the next hour, Todd notices figures stalking the woods around their camp. He barely resolves the shape of their long four-legged bodies.
“It’s those things again,” Todd points. “The weasels.”
The feathered minks stare down the party from a distance. They linger.
Joe cracks his neck and swings his arm in a practiced chop. “They’re smart enough not to mess with us,” he says.
“Yea…” Todd replies, “but there are more of them than before.”
The others ruminate on this news in concern.
Hours pass. Other beasts come. The party cycles through naps, one at a time. Todd’s cosmic energy dwindles. The fire is kept hot and bright all night.
Dawn arrives and the five pack up their things and start clearing out the encampment. They move as one big group, carrying corpses and making heaps out in the woods. They carry their bags and weapons on them at all times, and they watch the woods hawkishly.
Everything is going smoothly. And though Todd is exhausted, a manic energy keeps him afloat. The only problem is that no one wants to risk going to the bathroom. It’s a real problem, a realistic problem that a lifetime of movies and fiction hadn’t prepared them for.
They end up digging a pit far from the fire. The idea of shame is a luxury they can’t afford. They come up with a system to avoid looking. They tear one of Sue Ann’s rags into strips.
Mildly traumatized, the group returns to camp.
They kill a speckled hound that is rooting around the raw meat near the fire. They cut away the piece where it was eating and throw it into the flames.
Joe starts talking about what needs to happen once they get back to the tutorial town. They’ll have to hand out ration tokens, check in with the leaders, survey the tutorial participants and see how they managed. They’ll have to share their experience with this harder mode, and give advice for provisioning and equipment. People need to be prepared if they’re going to take more risks. But survival is possible.
Todd itches to cultivate. He yearns to do anything. These spikes of danger combined with the almighty boredom of being on watch are hell on his psyche. It’s going to make him a nervous wreck.
The sun rises higher. Todd breaths in relief, thankful that they are going to make it intact. He carries one last [Clotting Blood, Weaving Renewal Pill], and one [dire corvid marrow, energy replenishing pill] in his pocket. His injuries are scabbed over and healing. New levels empower his body and make him more agile, and his battle experience is vastly improved by the ordeal.
Risking his life has left him more confident, less concerned with trivial matters, and closer to his friends.
Yes. Everything is looking good. Surely nothing could go wrong.
Todd perks up suddenly. There is a churning in the air, a subtle mechanism that exists just outside of the physical reality he inhabits.
[Quest Failed: Collect Three Bèi Crystals – Insufficient time to complete quest]
[Routine JLP201817 activated: punishing quest participants for poor performance]
The words echo in his head. Todd blanches. He shouts to warn the others.
But the sound of snarls already fill the air. Beasts bound from out the trees in a wave. The feathered minks have returned, and this time they’ve brought their whole pack.