Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Chapter 9

I sprinted out the door, my right hand already hooked into a three-fingered claw.  It was similar to the form for my heat spell, except the three extended fingers were curled halfway to my palm.  It was too dark for me to target anything, so I made a throwing motion at the edge of the clearing at the tallest tree I could see.  As my arm whipped forward, I growled out the activation word to help focus my mind.  “Fireball.”

The ball of flames that was launched at the tree was much smaller than I was used to seeing.  Call it performance issues, but I was tired.  Or, fire magic was weak in this world.  Either way, it was underwhelming considering the cost in energy it took from me.  Instead of a basketball-sized orb of fire, I created something closer to a baseball.  It was still enough to ignite the tree into a giant torch that lit up the clearing, the napalm-like flames eating into the still-damp tree like it was dry kindling.  I had been hoping for a little more shock-and-awe, and I regretted doing it as soon as another wave of dizziness hit me.  Learning new worlds was always a hassle, and I was quickly figuring out that my magic didn’t recharge nearly as fast as it had in the last world.  There was a flash of movement near the illuminated trailhead where Jess and I should have approached the waypoint, and I crouched to sprint for the treeline, thinking the monster must be using the narrow trail to escape with its human prize.

“Help!”  Anton’s shout came from around the corner of the bunkhouse, on the side where the injured wendigo was still wailing in pain.  I reoriented and ran around the corner, fighting off the nausea that threatened to slow me down.  As I rounded the corner, my own shadow blocked most of the light from the burning tree.  I was still able to see that the uninjured wendigo was dangling Anton upside down over its partner like it was offering him as a snack.  The injured wendigo paused its wailing, somehow sensing there was a nearby meal being offered to it even though half of its face had already melted away.  It tilted its head and opened its mouth, unhinging its lower jaw in a frightening display of teeth and dripping bloody saliva.  This world was definitely as bad as number eleven.

“Hey, ugly!”  My shout made both wendigo turn to look at me so quickly that their movements looked blurred.  Well, one of them looked at me.  The other one’s eyes had melted, so I guess it just moved its head in my direction.  “You two freaks want to tango with someone your own size?  Cause I got something special for creepshows like you.”

The wendigo holding Anton threw him at me.  The poor tinkerer smacked into my shield hard enough to overload it in one hit, and I stumbled backward as his limp form bounced off of me.  Before I could blink, the uninjured wendigo was in my face, and I desperately swung my spear-staff to block it.  The thin edge of my spearpoint intercepted its fist, and it split the hand and arm up to the middle of the forearm like a peeled banana.  I got a face full of black blood, and I clamped my lips shut so I didn’t get any in my mouth.

I twisted the spear to free it from the monster’s arm, and it kicked me in response.  My shin lit up in agony, and I spun the butt end of my weapon into the bend of the wendigo’s knee as hard as I could.  My shin bone didn’t break, even if it felt like it should have.  The wendigo’s knee folded like a wet paper bag.  Yay, me.  Winning fights through durability wasn’t fun, but it was still a win.

The monster tried to use its split arm to brace itself to stand back up, and it fell flat on its face.  I took the generous opening it gave me and cut its head off with a downward chop, causing another fountain of blood to erupt all over the side of the building.  Poor Anton got coated in the stuff as well.  Nothing I could do about it now, though.

I started limping around the body to go finish off the wounded wendigo – wondering why people were so afraid of these things – when the headless body kicked me in the stomach hard enough to take me off my feet.

Oh.  That’s why.

A hard blow to the stomach from such a strong monster would have probably ruptured organs on a normal person.  I wasn’t normal, but it still managed to knock the breath out of me.  I gasped for air as I rolled to my feet, spear-staff ready to block any follow-up attacks.  The kick had knocked me between the headless monster and the injured wendigo, and both of them started moving for me.

The eyeless one was hunched over to protect its vitals, swinging its single arm side-to-side like it was a heavy club.  I dodged out of the way and watched as it hit the headless monster that was doing some kind of shuffle-crawl with its two functioning limbs.  They immediately started duking it out, and I walked around their struggling forms to go check on Anton.  My aching torso and shin were almost worth the show of the two creatures tearing into each other, and I watched in fascination as chunks of gray flesh and black blood went flying.  Which is when a third wendigo came blurring in from out of nowhere and shoulder-checked me into the bunkhouse.

Now, being maxed out at level one hundred makes you incredibly strong, fast, and durable.  But it definitely didn’t make you invincible.  I knew that at least one collarbone was broken, and it felt like my left shoulder, which is the side that took the hit, had been ripped out of its socket.  I could only see out of my right eye, and I tasted blood from almost biting my own tongue off during the train wreck of an impact.  There might have been some other broken things, but the wendigo choking me made them less of a priority.  I guess I hadn’t been seeing only flickering shadows earlier.

I was using my right hand to hold its face away from mine, its fanged maw snapping only a few inches away from taking off my nose as its grip tightened around my throat.  My neck bones creaked in protest, and I was already starting to black out from lack of oxygen to my brain.

Concentrating was hard, but I had plenty of practice casting the spark spell.  It didn’t need any motions or words to activate, and two of the three tubes on my left hand went off with a roaring boom.

Since my shoulder had popped out of place I couldn’t really lift my arm to aim, but luck was on my side.  The two silver bullets hit the wendigo in the hip and upper pelvis, blowing off its right leg and causing it to topple over with me somehow landing on top.  Whether it was that this one could actually feel pain, or maybe the shock of the noise and instantaneous limb removal, the monster let go of my neck to try and catch itself as we hit the ground.

I grabbed my left wrist with my still-functioning right hand and jammed the unfired barrel against the bottom of the wendigo’s jaw.  It went off with another spark spell, blowing the creature’s head off in a fine mist of black blood and chunks of white bone.  It spasmed, still mostly functional, but I managed to roll away before it could grab me.

Thankfully, it didn’t get back to its feet.  It flopped around on the ground, spinning in place and flailing its limbs in an uncoordinated mess.  I struggled back to my feet, looking around for my spear-staff in the flickering firelight.

Unfortunately, the two wendigos that had been fighting each other had figured out that they weren’t enemies.  The one with a melted face still had ears, and it was using them to try and figure out where I was.  Setting off my hand cannon must have given it a good reference point, because it was already closing in.

Seeing the snapping severed head of the wendigo that had grabbed Anton, I walked over and punted it off to the side.  The sound of it bouncing through the grass sounded enough like footsteps that the eyeless creature turned and tried to chase it down.

I finally found my weapon, and bent down to pick it up.  As I made my way over to check on Anton, I heard a rustling from behind me and spun around, dreading another attacker.  Instead, I was greeted by flashing cat eyes.

“You’re alive!”  Jess rushed forward and slammed into me, giving me a hug that caused a hiss of pain to escape my lips.  “Oh, I’m so sorry James, I didn’t mean to hurt you!”  She fussed over me, wincing in sympathy as soon as she saw my arm hanging limply.  “Are you okay?”

“I will be.”  I coughed, and spit up some blood.  “Well, that’s not good.”  Another wave of dizziness hit me, and I used my spear-staff to help me keep my balance.  “Go get the rest of those potions the tinkerers made, and throw them over everything.  And I do mean everything.  Anton, me, the wendigos, and anything their blood touched.”

She gave me a sharp nod.  “Got it.  What about you?  Do you need anything?”

“My waterskin, and one of the trail rations.  I’m going to need it soon.”  I was having trouble catching my breath, and I started worrying about my left lung trying to collapse.  “Hurry.”

Jess ran off, and I started tracing a small circle over and over again on my forehead with my right index finger.  It wasn’t necessary for self-healing, but it helped me concentrate.  Especially once the bones started sliding back in place.  The lack of mana in the area meant it would take some time to get back to one hundred percent, and I wasn’t looking forward to the migraine I was sure would hit once I bottomed out.  I wanted to save the healing potions I had bought for emergencies, so a bad headache didn’t warrant their use.

I limped over to Anton as soon as I could breathe normally, and I let out a sigh of relief when I saw the rise and fall of his chest.  From the awkward way he was laid out, it was obvious he had at least one broken leg.  There wasn’t anything I could do for him at the moment beyond making him more comfortable, so I did my best to straighten his limbs and ensure he couldn’t choke to death on his own tongue.

A cold splash of stinking liquid hit me, and I jerked upright, wincing in pain as my shoulder popped into place with the sudden movement.  Jess was standing behind me with a guilty look on her face.  “I scared you again, didn’t I?”

“I swear, I’m going to put a bell around your neck until you learn to stop sneaking up on me.”  The smell of onion and garlic was foul, but I ignored it as best as I could as it dripped down my back.  “Start with the two wendigos, and I’ll bring down the other one when it comes back from chasing the severed head of its friend.”  Jess tilted her head, obviously confused at the odd statement.  “It’s a long story.  Just know that you are going to have to track down wherever that head went, and pour some potion on it too.”