The duelist 7, p.21
The Duelist 7, page 21
“Dad!” Rylan sobbed, and his tears hit my face like rain. My head was resting in his lap, and I was gazing up at his dirty face as he tried to rouse me. “You’re alive!”
“Ry--” I coughed and then regretted it instantly as my ribs cried out in protest. All of them felt broken, but every inch of me hurt, even the roots of my hair, so I couldn’t be sure what all was damaged.
“Oh, no, please--” he cried and then wiped something from my chin. Going off the taste of pennies in my mouth, my guess was he was wiping away some blood.
“Ry,” I said again and tried to comfort him by patting his face, but my depth perception must have been slightly off, and I fumbled through thin air. “Are you hurt?”
“How can you even be concerned with that when you’re--” he rambled with wide, scared eyes. The rest of his sentence was strangled into nothingness, and going by the expression of horror on his young face, I could only imagine what I looked like.
“Hey, calm down, buddy,” I said. “No one is dead. Why aren’t we dead, by the way?”
“I-I’m not even sure what happened,” Rylan replied. “I woke up, and we were falling, and the only thing that seemed to stop us were these really large leaves until we hit the ground.”
“Hm,” I grunted as I squinted up through the shroud of mist. There were a few massive towering structures looming above like giant silent sentinels in the grayness. “You were sleepwalking. We both were.”
“Really?” he asked. “Did you hear…?”
Before Rylan could complete his question, that godawful subterranean howl ripped through the muted atmosphere and caused the mist to bleed red.
“Shit,” I cursed and willed myself upright, but my back felt like it was torn to ribbons. “Oh, god--”
“Dad…” Rylan breathed, and his voice wobbled.
“Shh, help me up,” I said and went to grasp his shoulder to try and lever myself up again, but the damn appendage wasn’t cooperating. That was when I noticed my right shoulder was dislocated.
Of course.
Which made Rylan hauling me upright against the trunk of a tree painful with extra Fuck You on top.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he rambled as I hissed and cried out while he tried to situate me in the most comfortable position available.
“It’s, ah--! It’s alright,” I said in a poor imitation of “Alright.”
Another earth-shaking howl ripped through the air, and my pulse skittered weakly in my throat. Ugh, I felt sick, especially when there were three of Rylan staring back at me. And his face was so pale, I worried he shone like a beacon through the red mist.
“Y-You don’t look alright,” he stuttered out.
“I know,” I said and glanced down at my right wrist. “You need to help me with something, alright?”
“Okay,” he said hoarsely, and then he startled badly when the evil droning noise erupted once again.
This time, the subterranean howl was followed by the fierce sounds of shouting and tearing flesh, which caused Rylan to shudder and clench his eyes shut.
“Hey,” I said and shook him slightly by the scruff of his neck with my good hand. Well, good was relative… “I need you to help me put my right shoulder back in place.”
“What?” His eyes bulged open, and he paled even more if that was possible.
“Don’t worry, I’ll talk you through it,” I said in a voice that reflected a calm I most certainly did not feel.
“I-I--” Rylan jumped again when more sounds of carnage clashed nearby.
“Just focus on my voice and what you’re doing, okay?” I encouraged him.
“Uh-huh,” he said, and I could tell he was doing his best to shake off the nerves. “What do you need me to do?”
“Okay, hold my elbow with one hand, and make sure the upper part of my arm stays close to my body,” I instructed and gritted my teeth when even the smallest jostle felt like being stabbed by needles. “Now, you are going to take my wrist and slowly-- slowly!-- bring my hand toward you. Picture yourself pulling open a door, and my wrist is the handle.”
“Like this?” Rylan followed what I told him to a T, and he even remained calm when my shoulder slowly rolled back into its socket with a gross crunching sound.
“Fuck!” I gasped at the sensation of painful relief and flexed my tingling fingers. “That’s better, good job.”
Now that my shoulder was connected to the rest of me again, I glanced down at the hand-made bracelet Amaya had woven for me. The best thing about this little accessory, aside from the fact it was a token of her affection, was that it also came equipped with a goba nut threaded through the center like a brown bead.
I wasted no time in chewing it off my wrist like a candy bracelet.
Almost instantly, the short-term effects of the magical nut kicked in, and I was completely without any of the pain radiating through me a moment ago.
“Are you--?” Rylan tried to ask, but I interrupted him when I jumped up to my feet.
Another howl echoed around us, followed by a blood-curdling scream.
“Come on, we have to find a place to wait this out,” I said as I helped him up to his feet.
“Ah!” he hissed and stumbled slightly, but I caught him before he could fall.
“Are you hurt?” I asked him again.
“M-My ankle,” he said as I looped one of his arms around the back of my shoulders. “Something is wrapped--”
“We’ll deal with it later,” I said as we ambled along at a limping sprint.
“Raaaaaaaaaaaa!” Something large roared really close by, and as notable as it was that the sound was definitely not any demon I’d ever heard before, I had no interest in seeing the beast it belonged to.
“Come on!” I urged and pushed us faster.
“I can’t see anything!” Rylan said as the hand he wasn’t using to hold onto me reached out through the dense mist.
“I know,” I said before I brought us to a halt. Visibility really was a problem, and when I extended my own arm, I was startled to see the tips of my fingers nearly disappear.
“Raaaaaaaaaaaa!” whatever beast it was thundered practically right behind us.
“We have no choice!” I said, and with the property of the goba nut flowing through my system, I managed to sling Rylan behind me on my back.
“Ah!” he cried out.
“I know it hurts, but you’ve got to keep a hold of me, okay?” I told him as I locked my hands under the bends of his knees. I didn’t wait for a reply to this and instead started jogging in what I hoped was the opposite direction of the Eldritch Horror behind us.
The ground shook, and along with the poor visibility, this made it difficult to keep my footing on what was apparently a regular forest floor. What kept tripping me up were the large swathes of springy moss that acted like a trampoline the second I landed on them. This strange moss was probably the reason Rylan and I were both alive, but it was a nuisance when it threatened to fling us apart.
About the fourth time I crashed down on my knees, I lost my grip on Rylan as we both tumbled down some sort of embankment.
The breath was punched out of me as I landed on my back again, and even though the boost from the goba nut made the pain tolerable, it didn’t get rid of it completely, and the impact rang my bell for a good moment.
“Dad?” Rylan called out in the mist, but his voice echoed strangely and added to my disorientation.
I wanted to answer him, but my breath wasn’t completely back yet, so all that came out was a wheeze.
The disturbing drone howled again, and this time I could hear the telltale gravelly sound that signified the demon scourge spawning up from the ground like a claymation movie gone horribly wrong.
“Ahhh!” Rylan screamed, and my adrenaline spiked through the roof and hauled me up to my feet as all thoughts of pain were forgotten.
“Rylan!” I hollered back, and I vaguely pinpointed the direction his voice was coming from in the dimness.
A gurgling growl followed by the putrid rotting flesh scent told me I was at least headed in the right direction, and then, almost at the last second, I saw the form of one of those foul stump-demons.
Two of the grotesque creature’s tentacles were currently trying to reel Rylan in like he was a giant tuna, and from what I glimpsed, he was putting up a fair fight by thrashing back and forth.
With a flying leap, I stepped straight on top of its bald deformed head, which had the added effect of snapping its gross jaws shut like a bear trap.
“Reeeaaarrrccch!” The demon wailed as it severed its own tentacles much like biting through its tongue.
“Come on!” I said and tried to get Rylan up again.
“My feet are tangled!” he cried out, and even when the severed tentacles were removed from the kid’s ankles, the thing wrapped around his foot from before-- some thick stringy stuff that reminded me of cobwebs-- was now twisted tightly around both of his feet.
Another yawning howl.
More growling and slavering sounds ricocheted off the massive trees and reminded me we had less than No Time For This, so I slung the kid over my shoulders in a fireman’s carry and ran up the embankment so we were out of the valley we’d fallen down.
“Dad, I think something’s chasing us,” Rylan helpfully informed me right before something came whizzing past my head from behind.
Whatever the projectiles were, they weren’t arrows or bolts from a crossbow. These weapons sounded a lot smaller, almost like darts.
Something flew past my head again, exploded against the trunk of a tree off to my left, and splattered against my face. I instantly recognized the slimy substance as ichor smearing the side of my face, and then I realized the darts were actually barbs the demons were spitting at us in a brand-new round of What Kind of Fresh Hell Is This?
“Fuck,” I said to myself.
“The demons!” Rylan gasped. “They’re shooting at us!”
“Double fuck,” I growled and then skidded to an abrupt halt when I almost ran head-first into a large figure.
“Raaaaaaaa!”
I tried to dodge to the side, but the large figure swung one of its large appendages and managed to clip me in the shoulder.
Hard.
Rylan and I flew apart again, but I was still able to keep him from flying too far away from me and getting lost in the red mist.
“Ry?” I asked as I got my bearings again and dragged him closer. He was knocked out for the count and completely soaked in blood, but before I could do anything more to assess him, I was once again flung off my feet by a heavy arm slamming into me.
I glimpsed the sight of a singular flashing eye in the vicinity of the large beast’s head as I arched backward, and I wondered if I’d crossed paths with some kind of cyclops.
Then my back took another pounding as I landed a few feet away.
“Reeeeaaarrrccchhh!” I rolled instinctively out of the way when the cyclops’ large tree trunk arms slammed down directly where my head used to be. I then jumped up to my feet as quickly as I could because I knew laying on my back would be as good as calling me dead already, but I had to dive out of the way again when a demon that looked like the creepy plant monster from Stranger Things raised its slimy hand and shot lethal-looking darts directly at me.
These demons were definitely different from the scourge-mites and stumpys I was used to.
Another howl opened up the sky, and it was so loud I was worried it was also going to forge a crack in the earth below my feet. It seemed like this Red Moon was lasting a bit longer than I was used to, but maybe that was just because I had nothing to defend myself with, and every second that went by without some form of cover or defense felt like an hour.
There had to be something around me I could use, so I quickly squinted around for any sort of tree branch I could at least wield as a melee weapon.
“Raaaaaaaaaa!”
The cyclops I’d been fighting earlier now turned his attention to the demon and his two other demon-friends who had all followed us into this clearing. Two of the demons attempted to jump on the cyclops, which I was glad for because that at least kept him busy from attacking me again.
So, with that settled, I turned to face my foes.
The tentacles on the demon’s back lashed back and forth, and it brandished both of its palms at me as two vertical slits began to dilate like gaping mouths ready to spit out poisoned barbs.
I dove out of the way of both sticky darts and then rolled between the wiry demon’s legs. When I came back up on my own two feet, I noticed a good-sized rock I could use to lob at my opponent, so I snatched it up.
My projectile smashed the demon in its ugly face, and it reeled back with a loud shriek.
The funny thing about this, though, was the fact the demon was halfway through executing another assault via hand dart when it went to clutch its face where my rock just hit.
This had the fortunate and hilarious effect of the giant dumbass darting himself in the face.
The Treebeard motherfucker fell back with a loud bang, and from what I could tell, it seemed to be dead. Or rather, the demon version of dead without being slain by an Asher, which was really just a version of stunned.
Since it seemed like I was the only Asher around, I decided I’d better finish what I started because one less demon left to respawn in the future was always better than leaving one stunned. I picked up the rock I’d thrown before, and I hefted it in my hand like I was getting ready to pitch for the major leagues.
Then, with superhuman energy I summoned from Mercedes only knows where, I took a flying leap and brought the rock down over and over again on the demon’s head until its skull split open and started to leak that gross ichor fluid.
After one last whack, a shard actually chipped off the rock and made a perfect last-minute dagger, so I plunged it through the fucker’s heart.
A bright light flashed and caused me to jump back and cover my eyes, but when it was done, I was able to see the soft blue light glowing from the crumbling rib cage of the tree demon.
A herald core. And a blue one to boot.
I knew the blue ones were some of the more rare and powerful ones, and with a pang of regret, I once again felt the loss of my very first herald blade.
Shay bequeathed me the precious sapphire from her ever-present head circlet at the time, and with her brother’s help, I was able to forge a powerful blade that was able to free her from her bastard husband.
This core wasn’t as deep blue as the last one. It was more of a clear topaz once the shining light faded after I picked it up in my palm.
The sensation of having all of the air suddenly return to the atmosphere was the only warning I had before the oppressive redness of The Event finally lifted.
I panted heavily as I cast my gaze around the foggy clearing, and the mist seemed to be lifting somewhat as the sun started to line the horizon with its usual grayish-blue.
All at once, it seemed the strength ran out of my legs, and I landed heavily on my knees.
“Dad!” Rylan had come to at some point and must have untangled the strange fibrous material from around his legs, because he was able to run to me and support me before I listed sideways. “Dad, hold on.”
“Ry?” I scanned him from head to toe and felt my face pale at the sight of blood drenching the front of his white nightshirt. “Where are you bleeding?”
“It’s not mine,” he said with a tremble in his jaw. “It’s from your back. When you carried me.”
“My back?” I asked and then went to reach for my opposite shoulder, but I stopped quickly when a deep fission of pain arced up my spine like a hot iron brand. My vision whited out and then snapped back, and I found myself gripping onto Rylan tightly.
Then a large silhouette, easily nine feet tall, came through the mist toward us, and I’d almost forgotten about the cyclops-creature I’d also been fighting before the three demons crashed our party.
Going by the two mounds of churned clay on either side of the giant, it seemed as if this creature took out two demons to my one, and I wasn’t really counting mine because of how idiotic it was that my guy darted himself in the face.
The Ent-like demons were definitely a lot dumber than the ones on both Nata and Terr, but their brute force alone was enough to contend with.
So, the fact the cyclops took out two bare-handed made it the real threat. After all, this was a creature that didn’t just disappear with a Red Sky, and we were trespassing in its backyard.
I’d barely staggered to my feet when the cyclops came up to within three feet of where we were standing, and as I looked up, I saw it wasn't actually a cyclops, but some creature wearing a grotesque hood that had two goggle-like eyepieces with one of them missing.
The effect reminded me of something out of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
I knew I was running on fumes, but I still shoved Rylan behind me as best as I could and then brandished my newly harvested herald core.
“You better stay back!” I yelled and shuffled us back a step. “Did you see what I just did there? I ashed a demon, and that’s nothing compared to what I can do if I’m really trying.”
My knees trembled, and my back muscles screamed in protest, but I locked my jaw and held my ground. My only hope was this beast wasn’t a sentient species, but more like a mountain lion I could scare away by acting aggressive.
It seemed to work because the hooded giant stopped in its tracks and cocked its head.
“Yoooouuuuu,” the creature groaned, and the deep timbre and strange unplaceable accent struck me as highly familiar. “Yooouuurrrr sooooon?”
I looked down at Rylan under my arm and then back up to the giant. “Yes, he’s my son. We’re not supposed to be here. We need…”
I sank down to one knee as my hearing tunneled in and out. Dark spots were crowding into my vision, and I knew the miraculous goba nut had all but worked its way through my system.
The last thing I saw as the world tipped and swayed was the creature removing its hood to reveal a face that looked strikingly like Arvid’s.
And my last thought before unconsciousness finally wrapped its cold clammy fingers around me was how this must have been a dream, and I must have passed out at the kitchen table back at Ithaca.
