Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Chapter 14

Okay, well, moral values check time.  Cross was a cog in the machine of this crappy world, nothing more than a product of his situation.  But, he was also a massive dick about it.  The Judge aspect inside of me was silent about what to do.  I could let him die, or try to make a deal for his life.  Decisions like these were why they paid me the big bucks.

“What do you want, blood-bag?”  I hooked my mace back on my belt, and took another step away from where my spear-staff was sticking out of the ground.  “I’m listening.”

The female vampire gave me another fang-accented smile.  “First, you can answer some questions.”  She ran a hand down her captive’s face, and Cross leaned into her touch.  He was completely within her thrall.  “Tell me what denizen of the hells you have made your compact with for power, sorcerer.”

I had to grit my teeth at the question.  Being called a sorcerer was like nails on a chalkboard.  Not only that, but I really couldn’t give her a good answer.  Saying something owned my soul with my own voice was never a good idea.  She had been the one to talk about the Grimdark earlier, not me.  Time to improvise.  I lifted my hands and formed an orb of fire in my right hand, and an orb of water in my left.  They were both no bigger than a marble, but the power leaking from them was like a physical force that pushed against the senses.  “There is no name for who controls my power.  Even I can’t speak its name.”  I was technically telling the truth, since no one was controlling my magic, and therefore there was no name to actually say.  Gotta love semantics.

Thankfully, the theatrics seemed to have at least some impact.  Both of the vampires stepped back to confer, and finally the woman came back to speak with me, while the man held on to Cross.  “We have marked your compatriot, and can find him anywhere he goes.  Our team will return to the Destitute and tell him what we have seen.”  The man shoved Cross across the invisible line of blessed earth that protected us, and I let him fall flat on his face in the dirt.  She frowned at my lack of compassion for my ‘compatriot,’ before regaining her haughty composure.  “Once we know how to proceed, we will return.”

“And when we do, I would recommend not running.”  The man smirked at me, flexing his fingers like they were claws.  “You won’t get very far.”

Tired of their bullshit, I returned his smirk.  “You won’t be there at all.”  I flicked both hands forward, the two orbs of energy flying at the vampire so fast he barely had time to try and run.  Fire and water combined, creating a flash of superheated steam that exploded with a crackling hiss.  The attack was incredibly destructive, considering steam could get much hotter than fire alone.  The smell of cooked rotten meat permeated the air, and the corpse of the undead monster fell to the ground in a heap of rubbery flesh and exposed bone.  I looked at the surprised woman vampire and shrugged.  “I don’t like it when people threaten me.”

“Release them!”  Her shout was the only warning we had before a group of freaking velociraptors rushed into the clearing.  The vampires must have herded them toward us in a display of critical thinking skills that made me realize I had been underestimating them.  Just because the undead couldn’t enter the clearing, didn’t mean dinosaurs couldn’t.

I couldn’t do anything to stop the vampires from retreating, since the dazed Captain Cross was about to be eaten if I didn’t help him.  I grabbed him by the ankle and jumped backward, dragging him by the face back to the fire.

“Get back to back!”  Leedy had managed to get the rest of his armor on at some point, and he was positioning the others around the small fire.  I got in position, completing the circle as I tossed Cross into the center next to the fire pit.  Jess had snatched up my spear-staff for herself, and was swiping at the raptors that had come rushing in from the other side of the clearing.

Private Murphy had already killed one dinosaur, and was hacking the broad side of his halberd into the side of another.  I unclipped my mace just as the leading velociraptor chasing behind my retreat caught up to me, so I was in position to give it an uppercut straight to the lower jaw.  It was my first chance to get a close look at the dinosaur up-close-and-personal, and it was everything the twelve-year-old still living inside me hoped it would be.

Thick scales, scary teeth with bits of flesh clinging to them, dangerous talons, it was the real deal.  Seeing them gave me a thrill, but since they were trying to eat me, I didn’t get time to enjoy it.

After the first raptor caught my mace with its face, the next one in line jumped for my exposed left side.  I was forced to use the middle barrel of my wrist gun to keep it from taking off my arm, and the sound of the explosive report was like pushing the pause button on the battle.

Leedy and Murphy had been swiping their weapons back-and-forth to keep the dinosaurs back, and the loud noise made both of them duck.  It would have been a fatal mistake if the velociraptors didn’t also flinch away.  They must have been very sensitive to sound, because only the few still engaged in direct fighting stuck around.  The others took off running, their croaking screams disappearing into the distance.

Jess had heard the wrist gun fire when I had killed the wendigos, so she was the first of the trio to recover.  She slashed out with the bladed tip of her borrowed spear, opening up a deep gash in the side of the neck of her opponent.  It fell back with a strangled cry, dropping to its side as dark red blood poured out onto the ground.

The gunshot also seemed to break Cross out of his stupor, and he sat up spitting dirt out of his mouth.  He seemed upset, given the change of setting and general state of near nakedness he found himself in.  I ignored him, since the two raptors I had wounded were still in the fight.  The one I had shot was in bad shape, the silver bullet lodged in its chest making it wheeze as it lunged for me.

I swung my mace sideways as I drew forward, smashing it across the side of its head.  The mace got stuck in its skull, and I let it go to defend myself as the other raptor jumped.  The one I had given a nasty uppercut to pulled a ninja on me and kicked forward, slicing its thick and ridiculously sharp talon across my side.  The raptor I had hit in the head went all rubbery and stumbled away from me, and I formed a double wind blade with both hands that blasted into the dinosaur that cut me.

My new power boost made me misjudge the amount of energy I put into the spell, and the creature fell to the ground in three pieces.  I winced at the waste of mana, and promised myself to practice more as soon as possible to get a handle on it.  The others were done finishing off their dinosaurs, making the clearing seem abnormally quiet as the only sounds suddenly became the crackling of the fire and the heavy breathing of exhausted warriors.  My side was leaking blood, so I put pressure on it and went to retrieve my mace from the raptor that was now bleeding out near the edge of the clearing.

“What in all that is good and holy is going on?”  Captain Cross was very obviously upset.  I ignored him and pried the bladed head of the heavy mace free, finishing off the raptor in the process.  “Somebody answer me!”

“Sir, there was a vampire attack, and then there were the velociraptors, and you were taken by them–”  Leedy stopped talking as Cross waved his hand in a swatting motion, and I heard a loud slap.  Cross had a spell made just for slapping?  That was definitely a first for me.  Either that, or he had fantastic control of a kinetic spell.  Probably the latter, but I would make sure.  I could definitely use a slapping spell.

The raptor dying at my feet caused a message to flash across my vision, distracting me from the drama unfolding by the fire.

New Title Earned: Dinosaur Hunter

-Killing majestic and beautiful creatures has earned you a reward.  Congratulations on helping dinosaurs go extinct on one of the last worlds they still exist!

Skill Imparted: Dinosaur and dinosaur-adjacent creatures do 5% less damage.  An additional 5% will be applied if there are multiple opponents.

Not the worst reward, although the extinction comment wasn’t exactly fair.  They had started it.  I hooked my bloody mace onto my belt and started casting another healing spell on myself as I walked back to the drama still unfolding near the fire.

“You will return my belongings immediately, Corporal, or I will see you in the stocks!”  Cross was still giving Leedy grief, and I must have missed another magical slap because both of his cheeks were swollen and red.  “And you can start with my bracers!”

“Nope.”  I spoke quietly, but Cross snapped his head around like I had shouted.  He tried to get to his feet as I approached, his injured foot giving him problems.  “Don’t bother getting up.  You lost, and your actions back at the clearing invalidated any authority you might claim to hold.”

“It’s clear you don’t understand your situation, wanderer.  You don’t get to decide what authority anyone has.  You aren’t even a part of a Guild!”  Cross finally got back to his feet, and I saw him cup his hand like he was going to cast another spell.

I held up a clawed hand and allowed a fireball the size of a basketball to form.  It was almost too easy, the energy inside of me almost jumping at the chance to escape.  And I hadn’t even used an activation word.  Definitely needed more practice.  “If you cast anything, I’ll burn your face off, then heal it back without eyes.”  The combination of suddenly putting out a large amount of power and wild threat put Cross on his back foot.  He just gaped at me, so I added a little more mana and the color of the flames turned from orange to blue.  “Are you going to calm down, or am I going to have to use this?”

“How are you so strong?”  Cross looked at my wrists, and shook his head.  “You didn’t steal the bracers, so how are you able to draw that much power?”  I pulled my hand back like I was about to toss the fireball at him and he held his hands up in surrender.  “Okay, I will not cast spells.  But don’t tie me up again.”

“Jess, go and grab those bracers.  I think I just learned what those runes carved on them are for.”  She ran to grab them as I turned back to Cross.  “First, I would have your word that you submit, and won’t attempt to harm anyone here, or attempt to escape.”  I started absorbing the mana from the fireball back into myself, and whispered the activation to one of my Judge abilities.  “Detect Lies.”

“I give my word as an officer that I will not purposefully harm anyone in this group for the duration of this journey, or try to escape while we travel.”  My ability gave me a slight flicker of untruth when he spoke, making his lips look purple to my eyes.  It wasn’t a complete lie though, so he at least wasn’t thinking about hurting anyone.  Probably planned on subverting his Wardens back to his side, and then capturing me.  It’s what I would do in his shoes.  “Is that acceptable, wanderer?”

“You aren’t being completely honest, but I don’t think you are going to break your word right now.”  He flared up like an angry peacock when I called him a liar.  I didn’t care.  I felt my Judge skill fall away, its short time limit running out.  I wouldn’t be able to use it again for a few hours.  Another of the odd rules I wish I knew more about.  “Now, why don’t you sit down and tell me who ordered you to execute Jess and I before we could reach Greendown?”

Cross spluttered, his face going pale.  “No one ordered me to kill you!”  I didn’t need my Judge skill to tell me he was lying.  “Why would you think someone would order that?”

“Look, I’m tired.  I’ve had a really weird couple of days.”  I motioned at a dead velociraptor that was at the edge of the firelight.  “Vampires, Wardens, wendigos, more wardens, then more vampires, and now fucking dinosaurs.  How about you just cut the bullshit and we level with each other.”  He looked down at his hands, refusing to meet my eyes.  “Cross, I know you didn’t act on your own.  It’s possible you didn’t even want to kill us, and were only doing what you were told.  Although that’s a very thin excuse, no matter who you are.”  The Warden grunted, agreeing without coming out and saying so.  “I also know I could make you answer me, but I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to.  So just tell me.”

He walked over and sat next to the fire, a defeated look on his face.  Jess came over and handed me the bracers, and I hooked them on my belt to check out when I was done with Cross.  “I’m going to skin the velociraptors while you talk to him.  We can sell the hides at Greendown.”  I gave her a nod and she left, grabbing Murphy to help her drag bodies into the firelight.  Leedy just stood there, looking tired and forlorn.

“You aren’t going to believe me.”  I sat next to Cross, who was now looking into the fire and absolutely ruining his night vision.  “This goes higher than anyone would ever suspect.”

“Trust me, Cross.  I’ve probably heard it all before.  Was it your Guild leader?  A noble?  A royal?  The king himself?”  I sighed, thinking of all the crap I had dealt with on my first world.  Political intrigue was more dangerous than dinosaurs, that was for sure.  “Just tell me.”

“My orders…”  Cross swallowed hard, closing his eyes.  “The order to kill you came from the gods themselves.”

Well.  I guess I hadn’t heard it all.