Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 13 (Patreon)

Chapter 13

After helping Jess get the fire started, I volunteered for the first watch.  I was still juiced up on energy, and there was no way I could sleep with all these new developments hitting me rapid-fire.  I needed to figure out what was happening to me.

I checked the ropes holding Cross, then sat with my back to the fire and concentrated on my stat screen some more, focusing on the new information.  It had been a long time since I had actually looked at the pop-up screens that gave details on each bit of data.  Since nothing had changed in years, there had been no point.  The first one I looked at was ‘Rank.’

Rank - Designated status of personal mana source.  Effects ability to cast spells and enhance physical potential.  Accessible only to those with high aptitude and necessary resilience capable of containing the forces subjected to the body and mind.

So, it looked like I could continue to level up through the growth of a personal mana generator?  That went against almost anything I had learned from the Elven Mages on the eighth world I had visited.  They told me that mana came from the power of life around you, and certain people were able to harness that energy for their own use.  Storing that power inside you was only temporary, like a battery that needed to be recharged.  If my body was an electric engine, mana was the charge that the environment around me slowly replaced.  This new ‘Rank’ system was like stuffing a diesel generator in the trunk and never needing to stop and pull over.

If it was only available to those with high aptitude and resilience, it made sense that I hadn’t been able to unlock it until after I had maxed out my stats.  The current version of myself was far different than the person who had first appeared on a foreign planet, with dreams of helping people through kindness and caring.

That James Holden would have exploded like a meat-covered bottle rocket when he stepped into the clearing and had power shoved into his body with a proverbial fire hose.  That James Holden had also been an abject failure on his first world, and learned hard and fast how the universe really worked.  My eyes had been forcefully opened, and I discovered very quickly that violence might not have been the best answer, but it was certainly a solution.  Power respects power, so I gained as much of it as I could, as fast as possible.  I relaxed my fists, realizing that I was clenching them hard enough to make my knuckles pop.  Thinking about the first world I visited always made me angry, so I took a deep breath and shoved those thoughts to the side.

Next, I focused on my new quest.  Which revealed nothing, like always.  Okay then, thanks for nothing.  Stupid mystery gods and their even stupider ridiculous quests!

Instead of getting worked up all over again, I concentrated on ‘Strength,’ to see if it was different now that it had gone past fifty.

Strength- 55 - The measure of your ability to employ your physical skills and abilities, carry heavy objects, and participate in melee combat.  You have surpassed the maximum limits of all human analogs, and are broaching the barrier of the metaphysical.

The rest of my stats basically said the same thing.  Breaking past fifty was some kind of threshold that made me more than a human was ever meant to be.  And if it meant all human hybrids by using the word ‘analogs,’ I was looking at becoming even better than the half-elves that had constantly shown me up when training on world eight.  Those had been some seriously brutal training sessions, and I had marveled at what they had been capable of doing.

“Are you ready to talk about it now?”  I was startled out of my stat screens by Jess, who had once again snuck up on me.  I guess that stupid hide-and-seek title wasn’t good for much after all.  She was standing over me with her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth on her heels.

“There isn’t much to talk about, Jess.”  I looked up at her with a frown, upset at myself for letting my guard down.  “I’m just dealing with some changes to how I can cast spells.”

Jess sat down next to me.  “Would you show me?  Maybe someone from the outside looking in can give you a new way to look at things.”

I thought about it for a second, and nodded in agreement.  “Okay, I can see how that makes sense.  Watch this.”  I held my hand in front of me with the palm facing upward, fingers straight except for my ring finger pointed up.  A flicker of concentration, and a barely visible curved blade of wind the size of my hand shot into the sky.  I didn’t even feel the slightest tug on my energy levels, and it held its shape well beyond what I would normally expect.  “See that?  I didn’t even need to say anything.  To get a blade that big, I would normally need to at least mumble the activation phrase.”

“Whoa…”  Jess was looking up, trying to see where the blade had gone.  “Will you show me how to do that?”  I raised an eyebrow in answer, and she blushed.  “Right, I’m an outsider looking in.  And you need to trust me first.”  She looked around the clearing in silence for a bit before meeting my eyes.  “Do the gods really speak to you?”

“They don’t exactly speak to me, no.  More like give orders and expect them to be carried out.”  I grimaced at how many hours of my life I had wasted shouting at the sky in an attempt to get any kind of reaction from whatever had stolen me from Earth.

“Well, if they want you to do things for them, maybe they are making it easier for you because they know you will need help.”  Jess looked out past the edge of the trees, where the darkness of the forest seemed to be waiting for our little fire to go out so it could rush in and engulf us.  “Maybe the gods know better than you what’s coming, and for you to do what they want, it means you need to be even more powerful than you’ve ever been.”

I held back the shudder that tried to run down my spine.  “I hope you’re wrong, Jess.”  I got to my feet, dusting off my pants as I stood.  I turned to make a circle around the edge of the circle.  “But I’m afraid you might just be right.”

A twig snapping on the other side of the clearing brought both of us to high alert.  Jess sniffed hard and gritted her teeth and hissed out a curse before looking at me.  “Vampire.  At least three, probably more.”

“Wake up Leedy and Murphy.  Don’t untie Cross.”  I snapped the blade out of the end of my staff, then stuck the dull end upright in the ground next to me.  After unhooking my mace from my belt, I took another step to the edge of the firelight in the direction where the sound had come from.  “You might as well come out.  We already know you’re there.”

“Ah, no matter.  The hunt is always more fun when the prey sees you coming.”  A pale-faced man dressed like a farmhand stepped to the edge of the trees, where the light of the fire stopped.  He was big.  Heavy muscles, with the height to match.  “Why don’t you come over here and we can discuss the events of two nights passed?  I have some questions I think you can answer.”

I looked down, noticing that the vampire didn’t step on the cleared ground.  His bare feet were right on the edge of the circle the trees formed.  “What’s wrong?  You can’t come closer?”  I smiled, spinning my mace before setting it on my shoulder.  “I’ve never seen a vampire afraid of a location outside of a church or temple before.  Is this blessed ground to you?  Does getting any closer cook the stolen blood in your rotting veins?”

Another vampire joined the first, this one a woman dressed in the clothing of a minor noble, or maybe a wealthy merchant.  Her clothing enhanced her figure, no doubt making it easier to entice victims to step into a dark alley with her.  She whispered to the man, but my increased perception was able to hear what she said.  “It’s weak, but it surrounds them completely.  We can’t get to them.”  After giving her report, she looked up at me.  “Were you the hunter who killed three vampires at an inn?”  When I didn’t reply, she snarled at me, and I felt a mental shove against my mind.  “Answer me!”

“Oooh, you trying to control me, little leech?”  I gave her a genuine smile.  I had almost forgotten the last time something had tried that.  “If you weren’t such a walking cliché, I might feel sorry for you.”  I twisted my free hand, flicking the power back at her.  To the vampire’s credit, she barely reacted to the attack.  “Sorry, but those little tricks won’t work on me.”

“Sorcerer…”  She hissed at me, lifting her own hand and casting a defensive spell that flickered in place around the pair with a dim red glow.  “What dark god do you serve, that they would allow you to kill one of us?  The Grimweaver?”  She looked at her fellow vampire.  “If he is owned by the Grimweaver, we cannot touch him without permission.”

“Sure, let’s go with that.”  I hated being called a sorcerer, but they were dropping all kinds of little nuggets of information.  No sense in cutting that off if I didn’t have to.  After questioning the vampire at the inn, I was happy to increase my knowledge of the greater undead operating in the area.  “Why don’t you tell me why you care so much about the three vampires at the inn?”

The male vampire frowned, clearly picking up on my sarcasm about my soul being owned by a dark god.  “You killed three members of our… organization, and our leader demanded an example be made.”

“Oh, so you’re some of the Destitute’s people?  I was hoping to run across more of you.  I really want to know where your base is.  Care to tell me the location of the Mausoleum?”  Both vampires took a step back, either from shock or surprise.  “I know it’s to the north and east somewhere, but I’m still vague on the details.”

“How do you–”  The woman was cut off by a sharp glare from the man.  “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t be like that!  I had a wonderful conversation with your friend before he succumbed to his wounds.”  I tapped the handle of my mace for emphasis.  “It’s always hard to gauge how much damage your kind can take before they die.  I’ve never been able to figure out that fine line between undead and dead, you know?  Probably just need more practice.  Now, you can either tell me what I want to know, or volunteer to be my test subject.  Your choice.”

Before they could answer, a shout from behind made me spin around.  I saw Leedy running for the edge of the clearing toward another pair of vampires, his sword leading the way.  I sprinted to catch up to him, barely catching him by the belt before he could get himself killed.  “Leedy, stop, dammit!  Take a second and look around.  They can’t enter the clearing.”

A hiss from the pair of disappointed vampires was echoed by another pair that stepped into sight.  Leedy had almost ran straight into an ambush.  But, instead of thanking me, he tried to jerk free of my grip and run to them anyway.  “Let me go!  I can take them.  They’re weak, and I’m invincible!  Let me go!”

“What’s wrong with you?”  At first, I thought he might just have an ego that big.  It didn’t really fit with his general level of competence and experience though, and I finally caught sight of his eyes.  They were glazed over and unfocused, like he wasn’t seeing what was actually in front of him.  “Ah, they got you with a mind whammy, didn’t they?”  I had to put him in a choke hold for him to stay still, but I managed to draw a circle on his forehead and imbue enough mana to break the hold on him.  He slumped in my arms, suddenly weak from the attack on his mind.

“I… I’m okay, you can let me go.”  Leedy stood on his own, holding his free hand to his head.  “Thank you.  That was much closer than it should have been.”

“Are you going to be alright?”  I stayed close, ready to stop him if they managed to give him another whammy.  “These bloodsuckers aren’t newborns.  They’re old enough to have developed at least some of their powers.”

“I’ll be fine.  If I had just taken a moment to put on my helm, the inscriptions would have protected me from such a simple attack.”  Leedy stared balefully with bloodshot eyes at the undead crowding the circle.  There were six of them on this side now, all of them crouched and ready in case he decided to get within range of their claws.  “If we’re safe in this circle, it might be best to wait for daybreak.”

“You just make sure they don’t get to the others.”  I looked over and saw Murphy already wearing his helmet, and Jess was wearing the one that had belonged to Cross.  “Although it looks like they’ll be okay.”

Leedy stumbled off, still holding his head.  I made sure he got his helmet on before I turned back to the pair I had been speaking to.  “Now, where were we?  Ah, that’s right, I was giving you the chance to tell me what I want to know, before I kill you all.”

“I don’t think so.”  The woman gave me a wicked smile, showing off her fangs.  “Unless you want your friend to die, I suggest you answer our questions.”

“My friends are all fine.”  I motioned to the trio standing near the fire, all safely protected by Warden helmets.  “You can’t get to them now.”

“Are you sure about that?”  Her red eyes flickered to the side, where a shadowy figure was stumbling through the dark.  “What about this one?”

I grimaced as the limping figure of Cross finally stepped into the light.