Monsters and legends, p.18
Monsters and Legends, page 18
part #1 of Infinite Realm Series
Melody dashed around the boar and stabbed it in the leg where Ryun had cut it. It screamed in pain and stomped with its front legs, and the ground cracked, sending Melody to the ground. The boar put its head down and charged at her, looking to impale her—but then Ryun was there, glowing with a faint white light. He grabbed Melody and pulled her out of the way. The boar passed by them and hit a tree, cracking the trunk and sending the tree falling down.
The boar shook its head and then turned around, looking at Melody and Ryun with hate in its eyes. It charged at them again, but a wall of flame sprung in the boar’s path. It passed through and caught on fire, but didn’t stop. Ryun and Melody jumped out of the way, and the thing turned and headed straight for the pond where Zach was just walking out of. With a curse he jumped to the side, falling badly on his shoulder as the boar plunged into the pond, extinguishing the fire.
Almost immediately it turned around and set its sights on Zach.
That was when Ryun yelled out.
“Hey! Over here, you big stupid pig! Come and get me!” He waved his hands and called out more to the boar, who turned to look at him. With a roar, it charged past Zach and at Ryun, who was standing next to a large boulder. At the last moment, Ryun jumped out of the way and the boar slammed into the boulder. Zach ran over just as Ryun used {Empower} and stabbed his sword into the boar’s eye. It roared and attacked blindly, catching Ryun with its tusks across an arm, sending him to the ground. Melody reached him before Zach could. She dashed and stabbed her spear through the boar’s mouth. It gurgled blood and twisted, snapping her spear in half, leaving a piece inside its mouth.
Zach roared as he leapt and landed on its back. With a [Piercing Stab], he pushed his sword through the back of its neck, severing its spine. The boar shook once, then dropped to the ground.
Linda ran over and fussed around Zach, while Melody looked at Ryun’s bleeding arm. Zach stomped over to him.
“What was that?” Zach asked.
“What do you mean?” Ryun asked.
“The plan was not for you to provoke it and nearly get killed! You and Mel were supposed to attack its rear until Linda and I could tire it out and kill it!”
“Well, we knew that the plan wasn’t going to survive the actual fight.” Ryun winced as Mel pulled his wound closed with needle and thread.
“No, we didn’t know that!” Linda said.
Zach sighed. “You know, Ryun, your biggest fault is your arrogance. You don’t stop to think. And one of these days it’s going to get you killed.”
Ryun waved his free arm. “I know, I’m sorry. I just saw the opportunity and I took it.”
Zach shook his head and looked at his screens. The boar had given him almost two thousand Essence, more than any other monster they had killed so far—more than even groups of monsters had, actually. And there, next to its body, was a big green chest. Zach walked over and opened it, finding three items inside. Two were rings, and the last a hatchet that looked to be made out of polished bone.
Boar Bone Hatchet (uncommon)
+2 to strength
Strength Ring of the Boar (uncommon)
+2 to strength
Vitality Ring of the Boar (uncommon)
+2 to vitality
Seeing the items, Zach couldn’t help but smile. They were the first items they had gotten that gave any kind of bonus, and they would be most welcome. Picking them up, he walked over to the others to show them.
CHAPTER 25 – PAST – Zach
Talks
He found Ryun in the kitchen, sitting on the floor and meditating. It had become a common occurrence, as in every free moment he had he was cycling and creating crystals. While Zach wasn’t sure if that was a smart move, the extra Essence that he was feeding the rest of them was welcome. Still, Zach felt like it was reckless, and he needed to say something before they headed out on their trip to the valley.
“Ryun,” he called.
His friend opened his eyes and glanced at Zach. “Hey, Zach, what’s up?”
“Can you talk?”
“Sure,” Ryun said slowly with a questioning look on his face.
Zach pulled out a chair and took a seat, and Ryun followed.
“I wanted to talk about…well, everything,” Zach said.
Ryun just raised an eyebrow.
“It’s about the way you’ve been acting ever since this happened. I’ve known you since we were kids, and you’ve never been like this. You are rushing to danger, being reckless.”
“This is about the boar.”
“No…yes. It’s about everything. We’d agreed to a plan, and that plan had been that you were not going to be the one to provoke the boar. You are weaker than us, slower than us. If it had managed to land a clear hit on you… You would’ve been dead,” Zach told him.
“I can be as fast as you guys with my {Empower}.”
“And how many times can you use it? Once, twice, before you go down from exhaustion? Ryun, you are going to get yourself killed.”
Ryun opened his mouth to argue, but then he deflated and sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s just… I see you guys getting stronger after every hunt, and I am still at the starting point. I need Essence if I am to advance.”
Zach released a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. He knew that Ryun was stubborn at times, especially when he thought that he was in the right.
“You could start accumulating the Essence you get through meditation,” Zach suggested. “That would let you advance faster.”
Ryun grimaced. “I could, but I am pretty sure that doing that would hinder my future potential.”
“Is that a feeling, or do you have a confirmation of that? Did you read something in the details?”
“It’s my own intuition, based on stories I’ve read before and a few things that I have tested out on my own.”
“Are you sure that you can trust things you learned before the Framework?”
“No, but I feel like I am right.”
Zach sighed. “I understand that you feel like we need to get stronger in this world, but I feel like you think that you are invincible, that nothing can touch you, almost as if you don’t care about danger. There are a lot of unknowns around us now, things that can kill us in a heartbeat. Getting stronger is all well and good, but dying in the process—”
“I know, I know,” Ryun interrupted. “I still think we can only rely on ourselves and our own power. But I see your point. I’ll try to be less…reckless.”
“Good. That it all I ask.” Zach smiled. He had been feeling like there was a slight rift forming between the two of them. He had been spending most of his time with Linda, leaving Ryun alone or on patrol and foraging runs with Melody. They hadn’t had a chance to talk since their last little spat. But he should’ve known better; the two of them had grown up together, and they would always be able to talk with each other about anything. “And I did think about that a bit.”
“Oh?” Ryun raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, you were right. We need to get stronger, and to make sure that we have a safe place to return to. I was thinking that we should fortify the cabin some, too. We’ve dealt with most monsters in the immediate vicinity, but we have no idea what else is out there.”
“I think that is a great idea. And in case we don’t find what we are hoping for in the valley, having a fortified base would came in handy.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Zach said and stood up. “Okay then, I’ll let you get back to your meditation.”
“Cycling!” Ryun called out as Zach left the room. “Wait!” he called again, and Zach stopped in the doorway.
As he turned, he saw Ryun cupping his palms, a pale light shining between them, and then he threw a small crystal at Zach. “It’s your turn, right?”
Zach nodded. Ryun had been alternating between who got the crystals he created. “Yeah, thanks.”
Looking at it, Zach saw that it held two hundred Essence, which was enough to get him to the next level. Immediately he consumed it and then leveled up. He walked into the living room and took a seat on the couch. The girls were in the bedroom, talking quietly so he had the room to himself. He looked through his stats, and allocated his free ones. He was feeling good about how he was progressing. His Class gave him a solid movement ability; the attack ability was a bit underwhelming, but it allowed him to punch deeper through harder materials when he used it. He had been testing it out, along with his other abilities.
They had also come to the realization that they couldn’t just keep using their abilities, as doing so tired them out. Their stats mitigated that somewhat, but they could still run out of steam. Ryun’s abilities, or rather techniques, were the same, except that they drained what he called Qi, and if he got drained of it completely he just dropped to the ground, unable to move from the pain. The upside was that he recovered faster as well, and wasn’t really physically exhausted afterward.
In Zach’s opinion, though, Ryun lacked both offensive and defensive options. His technique allowed him to go beyond his own stats, and perhaps in the far future that would give him far more power than what Zach or the girls were capable of; but right now, he could barely keep up. Zach hadn’t really voiced his opinion on that, as he didn’t know enough about their new reality. Perhaps Ryun was right and sacrificing his power right now would pay off later—but aside from his |Cut| skill, he was currently working with limited tools compared to the rest of them.
Zach shook his head and looked at his own skill. His |Slash| was now 5/10, which didn’t really tell him much. It wasn’t any stronger, and in fact the skill was not really like an ability. When he used an ability, he could feel an effect taking place, something outside of his capability—magic, or whatever. With a skill it was more discreet, as if he just knew how to slash better. His attack was only as strong as his own strength. But there was something deeper there, too: the more he used the skill, the more he felt like the motion was becoming a part of him, as if he was beginning to understand the act of slashing better. He was probably imagining it, but that was how he felt at least. He wondered what would happen once he reached ten in the skill.
Finally, he glanced at his hip, where the Boar Bone Hatchet was hanging. It only gave its bonus when it was used, but none of the others wanted it, so he was stuck with it. The ring of vitality had gone to Ryun to give him a bit more survivability, and the ring of strength to Melody, because Linda usually stayed far away from the fight and Zach had the highest stats. They had done a bit of testing with the stats; it appeared that endurance made them tire less, as well as made them able to endure more pain and discomfort. Vitality made them heal faster, although they didn’t heal like super-humans just quite yet, it also seemed to make them healthier overall. Strength and dexterity had to do with physical strength, speed, and coordination. Wisdom and intelligence were the hardest to categorize; Zach didn’t really feel any smarter when he increased his intelligence, but he did suspect that he was able to think just a bit faster. For wisdom, Ryun had said that it probably had to do with magic and such abilities, as well as with the grasp of concepts.
But Zach was focusing on strength and dexterity, so he didn’t have much interest in the other attributes.
Linda walked out of the bedroom with Melody and came to sit next to him, while Melody walked in to the kitchen.
“Hey,” Zach said as she settled in next to him.
“Hey, you,” she said.
“What did the two of you talk about?”
“Don’t worry, we didn’t talk about you,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
Zach smiled, feeling happy to see her like this. She hadn’t handled this all that had happened well in the beginning, but the last two weeks of hunting had made her feel more confident. “So is the topic of your conversation a secret?”
She shook her head. “No. We just talked about the valley, and the trip.”
“Ah,” Zach said. Their first agreement had been to wait a week before beginning the journey, but since then they had revised that decision so as to gain more strength.
“When do you think that we should leave?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been speaking with Ryun about fortifying the cabin,” Zach said.
Linda grimaced. “You listen to him too much.”
“He is my best friend.”
“I know, I know. It’s just that I don’t think he wants to find other people.”
“Of course he does!” Zach turned to look at her. “Why wouldn’t he?”
“I don’t know, it’s just this feeling I get. I mean, he’s trying to convince us all that we should just keep hunting monsters and getting stronger.”
“He wants us to be strong enough to protect ourselves,” Zach said, maybe in a harsher tone than he had intended.
Linda shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, yeah, you’re probably right. But we did agree to go to the valley once we’d defeated a boss monster. We’ve done that now.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Zach said.
“You don’t need to listen to him, Zach. I mean, it’s not like he’s our leader,” she said.
“We don’t have a leader,” Zach said slowly.
“Well, it’s obvious that it should be you. You are the strongest.”
Zach didn’t respond. He could tell that she wanted to say more, but she kept her mouth closed. He didn’t really know what to say to that. He had no desire to lead anyone. He just wanted them all to be safe.
CHAPTER 26 – PRESENT – Ryun
Cut
The first thing that returned was his hearing. He heard someone cry out; he heard yelling, a scream, and sounds of flesh hitting flesh. He didn’t know for how long he had been unconscious, and even now, his mind was fuzzy.
Next came his sight. Ryun opened his eyes, seeing a world washed in orange colors of the dwindling sun. Night would turn soon, it appeared. It meant that he had been unconscious for about an hour, if it was the same day. He tried to focus, to distinguish between the fuzzy shapes and identify them. He recognized people, some standing in the distance all around him, but in the middle were two forms, one kneeling before the other.
His hearing started to clear up, and he heard a voice.
“—what you cost me? Dozens of warriors!” Ryun recognized the voice as that of the Lord he fought. His name eluded him for a moment, but then he remembered: Fier, a leader of a group that had come to claim this territory. And then more memories came, of the fight, of him killing warriors, and then of him crumbling to poison. A Qi poison, something that he had never heard about before. He hadn’t known that Qi could be used in such a manner; he had assumed that Qi in this world would be the same as on Earth. He had been wrong. Clearly, he simply didn’t know enough.
Fier kicked the kneeling form, sending it tumbling to the ground. Ryun recognized Anrosh. Her lip was split, her cheek was swollen, and blood flowed from a cut on her brow. Her clothes were torn, ripped to shreds, revealing her nakedness. Someone screamed, a muffled sound coming from beyond them. Ryun saw Kri bound and gagged in the hands of a human warrior. She struggled, and the man hit her on the cheek quieting her down.
“Mercy, please,” Anrosh whispered.
“Mercy?” Fier asked. “All of this is your fault! All you had to do was do as I asked and none of this would’ve happened. In a way, I am grateful—you have cost me much, but you have given me the opportunity to redeem myself to the sect, even though it nearly cost me my life. Still, I must punish you, make an example. Perhaps I will let everyone here have you, with your daughter watching, then hang you from the top of the barracks for a few days. I need to think about this.”
Ryun tried to move, and found his body bound. He was lying on the ground, with his legs bound behind him tightly. His hands were the same, and his mouth was gagged. He pulled with all of his strength and both felt and heard the metal chains groan against his power.
“Oh, look here, your friend is already awake. Impressive—I will enjoy getting to know his secrets,” Fier said as he looked straight at Ryun. “This is good. He should watch your punishment, see that he failed to protect those in his charge.”
Fier laughed, and Ryun struggled, but the chains keeping him bound were too strong. He could tell that if he had just a bit more power, they would crack, that they were just barely containing him. If he had his full power he could break out of them in an instant, but he couldn’t reach that power.
Fier kicked Anrosh again, eliciting another pained gasp and sending Kri into a screaming fit.
“Perhaps,” Fier started, “it would be best that I punish your daughter. I have really lost my desire for you… I doubt I would get much satisfaction out of having you now. Perhaps playing with your daughter a bit might make me feel better.”
Ryun saw Kri’s eyes widen with terror, and he knew that this was his own fault, that this was the past repeating itself all over again. His actions leading to terrible results. A long time ago, he had been told that his greatest weakness was his arrogance, and he saw the truth of that now. He had arrogantly played with his enemies, had allowed them to cut him, had allowed himself to ignore attacks he didn’t recognize. And why? Because he had spent years being the most powerful being on his home planet; because for years he had hunted, and killed everyone in his way; because he was used to winning, to always having an advantage that could not be overcome. It was what he had done here—even crippled, with his power sealed, he had still known that he would win. And then he didn’t.
He needed to make this right.
“Please, don’t hurt her!” Anrosh pleaded. “She’s innocent in all of this.”
He pushed at the seal on his power again, feeling the unmovable shield keeping him from his power. He pushed at his skill—|Cut|—trying to find some way to use it, to cut the chains. It did not need a sword—one could cut with anything that had an edge. He stabbed his fingernails into the cold metal of the chains, and screamed inside his mind: |Cut|!
