Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 22 (Patreon)

Chapter 22

The three of us quickly caught up to Murphy and Cross, who were waiting near a felled tree that looked like it had been torn up by its roots.  I was surprised to see Cross wearing the breastplate of his armor over the clothes Jess had given him, and held his sword in his only remaining hand.

“What’s he doing?”  Even though Jess had offered Cross his sword back not long ago, she was still tense seeing him standing there with it.  “Did you decide to join us after all?”

“No, I’m not joining you.”  Cross rested his blade on his shoulder.  “But, that doesn’t mean I’m willing to let those bandits run free if I can help stop them.”

“The more people we have fighting, the better our chances of saving more villagers.”  I gave him a nod of approval.  “I would expect nothing less of you.  And, it’s why I left you with one hand instead of none, like that noble.  You can still be useful.”  The glare he gave me definitely wasn’t from someone who was appreciative, but I was man enough to let it go.  Some people just don’t know how to say thank you.

“Anyway…”  Leedy redirected the conversation over to the fallen tree.  “Here is where the path was moved.  The old one was blocked by this tree, and then covered up by people planting ferns and shrubs to hide it.”  He bent down and picked up a large fern that popped free with only a light tug.  “It wasn’t long ago.  Probably happened right after the group from the village left for Greendown.”

“How is it not obvious that the trail was moved?”  I motioned to the ‘new’ trail, where several stumps from freshly cut trees were clearly visible from where we stood.  “I mean, who falls for this?”

“It’s obvious that the trail was moved, but there are all kinds of reasons why it could have been done on purpose.  A washout farther down the trail, a new nest of monsters, or even a mushroom farmer tired of people getting too close to his grow spots.  And with no warnings posted, a traveler wouldn’t know it was done by bandits, unless someone in town told them.”  Leedy pulled two crossbows from the saddlebags and handed one to Murphy.  “Let us lead, and the rest of you flank around to the back.  We’ll give them a chance to surrender once we see where they are keeping the rest of the prisoners.”

“How do you know they even have prisoners?”  Jess was rubbing her eyes, obviously tired from an already very long day.  “Did you see them being held somewhere?”

Murphy shook his head with a frown.  “No, all we could see were a few people wearing chains while they worked on the roof of the waypoint.  They expanded the building, and had a few smaller sheds nearby.  There were only a few bandits watching over them.  The rest of the bandits are probably waiting along the new trail to ambush someone.”  He tucked a few spare crossbow bolts into his belt before vaulting over the fallen tree.  “If there aren’t any more prisoners somewhere, it means this group has killed a lot of people.”

With that, a feeling of tense anticipation fell over the group.  I made sure to bring up the rear as we started on the older trail.  It was almost dark by the time we made it to the clearing where the waypoint was, and we split up to cover as much of the ground as we could.  Letting them get away to warn their friends wouldn’t be ideal.

Jess and Cross waited in the tree line while I got close enough to get a better look at what we were dealing with.  I saw a large pile of dirt behind the building and my stomach sank.  It looked suspiciously like a mass grave.  I had seen too many of them to mistake it as something else.  When I got back to the trees, I took off my pack and propped my staff against it before unhooking my mace from my belt.  My Judge aspect didn’t have any mercy to spare today.  It told me these bandits would die, and I was more than happy to listen.

After giving a thumbs up to Leedy and Murphy to show we were ready, we crouched low while they approached in the open.  A shout from somewhere inside the building caused everyone to stop what they were doing and spin to face the two Wardens.  The two armored men were holding their crossbows in the open, but they weren’t specifically pointed at any of the people in the clearing.

“This is your one chance!”  Leedy stepped forward, making sure his breastplate and uniform was clearly visible.  “Surrender, and we’ll take you to Greendown for trial.”

Another shout from inside the building had everyone running for cover.  A bandit tried to drag one of the prisoners into the cabin, but Murphy’s crossbow bolt made sure that didn’t happen.  The bandit fell to his knees with a shaft in his stomach, while the chained man sprinted around the side to get clear.

Cross moved into the clearing when no one ran his way, intercepting a pair of bandits that were trying to sneak up on Leedy who was trading shots with someone inside.  His sword was a blur, pushing back the two men without giving them a chance to break away.

By then, Murphy had already shot his few bolts, and was running to cross blades with someone who had to be the leader of the bandits.  It was a woman who was wearing a full suit of red-stained plate armor and carrying two scimitars.  She looked like she knew how to use them, and had Murphy on his back foot after the first exchange.

I would have helped him, but I had my own problems.  Four bandits had tried to run, with two more going for something in the sheds behind the main building.  Jess moved to stop the pair, while I took on the four trying to run for help.

“I’ve got him!  You go and get Rich–”  The bandit most definitely didn’t have me.  I hit him so hard I crushed the side of his head in with a single move.  My mace came free with a squelch, and I twisted to avoid a long-handled axe swung by a man big enough I had to look up to meet his bloodshot eyes.

Keeping my momentum from the dodge, I let go of my mace like it was a shot-put and I was king of the power throw.  It took the quickest of the three remaining in the back, thunking into his spine hard enough to knock him on his face.  He was super dead, making it two against one.  The big guy swung his axe again, so I took a half-step back and let it swing past.  Before he could set himself, I rushed forward and grabbed the haft of his weapon.

I was surprised at how strong he was, but I still managed to take his axe away by twisting it in his grip.  He swung a haymaker at my face, and I moved the blade in the way.  It didn’t end well for him.  Hissing in pain, he tried to back away to make room for his friend who was wielding a pair of daggers.  I was still holding the axe near the head, so I threw my own haymaker and punched him in the face with sharpened steel.

He dropped like a stone, and then it was just me and the dagger guy.  He turned to run away, giving me time to line up a throw that split his skull in two.  The axe had a nice balance for something unenchanted.

A shout from Jess made me look over to see her dancing between her two bandits.  I grabbed my mace to go and help, but then I realized she would be fine.  Both of the men she was fighting weren’t able to move since their feet had sunk into the ground.  Jess had finally remembered to cast a spell, and it was a good one.

She finished them off while Murphy and Cross were working together to bring down the woman in armor, and Leedy was clearing out the waypoint cabin.  I copied Jess and used a spell to swallow the bandit leader’s rear foot with a fold of earth, giving Cross the opportunity to chop his blade into the weak metal gorget protecting her neck.  She dropped her swords to try and stem the fountain of blood that erupted when he stepped back, but it was too late.  She died gurgling on her own blood.

“Is that all of them?”  Cross fell back on his instincts, taking charge of the aftermath.  “Anyone need healing?”

Leedy was the first to answer.  “In here!  Hurry!”  The rest of us ran over to see what was wrong.  When we stepped inside, I was immediately hit with another flashback.

Stepping inside the temple, our entire team froze.  The rough stone walls were studded with large, heavy spikes of metal.  The missing caravan we had been searching for was mostly refugees running from the invasion pushing northward.  It had given the worshippers of the dark gods plenty of sacrifices, and they had impaled their captives onto the spikes in patterns that recreated the blood runes meant to summon their unclean masters from the Infernal Realms.

“By the Lady, what have they done?”  The cleric standing next to me dropped to his knees before retching.  The smell of fresh blood and offal combined with the stink of his vomit, making me fight to hold down my own supper.

“We… we need to get them down, and bless the bodies before something manages to possess them.”  Our leader of the expedition, Mitchell, was the first person to step deeper into the room.  He was the highest-ranked adventurer in the region, and had been the first choice of the Society to track down the missing people.  “Even if we killed all the cultists, their black magic only needs time to attract enough fiends to push through the veil.”

I helped the cleric back to his feet, and he gave me a nod of thanks.  Everyone was exhausted by the series of minor battles that had brought us here, but the cleric and I were the weakest of the group.  The two of us were the last to follow, letting the other, more experienced warriors go first.  It was the only reason why we survived.

Mitchell was the first to die, as the body of the woman he tried to pull free pounced on him, ripping his throat out with an ear-splitting screech that was the signal all the others had been waiting for.  Bodies tumbled from the walls, the possessed corpses bending joints in all the wrong ways, moving in sharp jerking motions that were impossible to predict.  The warriors didn’t stand a chance in such an enclosed building, and were torn to shreds before the cleric and I could do anything to help.

I snapped out of it when I heard one of the men nailed to the wall groan in pain.  My reflexes almost made me blast him to smithereens with a fireball, but I was able to redirect the spell into the ceiling.  The roof exploded, throwing wood shrapnel all over the place.  Everyone turned to look at me with wide eyes, and Cross was holding his sword like he was ready to run me through.

Jess was the first person to speak up.  “What in the–”

“Sorry, my bad.”  Once again, I reminded myself to hold back on the spells until I had a better gauge on what my new power levels were at.  “I guess I’m a little jumpy.”

“How about you not kill the people we’re trying to rescue, huh?”  Leedy let the matter drop and immediately moved to help the man who was showing signs of life.  “Help us get these people down.  Murphy, keep watch outside.  We don’t want the rest of them sneaking up on us while we’re all inside.”

Everyone jumped to work, and I started casting healing spells on the villagers in the worst condition.  They hadn’t been nailed to the wall like the poor souls from my second world, where I had changed my focus from Healer to Warrior.  Being a straight Healer had been an abject failure, but being a simple Warrior hadn’t been much better.  I had failed my second world the same as my first.  Bringing permanent change in only one year to a world that wasn’t even asking for it was hard, but for the weak, it’s impossible.  That didn’t mean that being a Healer was useless.

“Are they going to make it?”  Jess was hovering over my shoulder, watching as I focused energy into the circle of blood on the forehead of the man in front of me.  “They don’t look so good.”

“That’s because they nearly suffocated.  Being crucified, even without getting nailed to the wall, is still fatal.  The weight of their body dragging down on their arms and chest makes it impossible to breathe.  Slow suffocation is a terrible way to die, and it takes a long time to heal properly.”  I slowed down the push of mana so she could get a better look.  “You shouldn’t try doing this until we have gone over some information on how the body works, but the trick is to use a symbol to focus the power.  I use a circle, which means rejuvenation to me.  It ensures the mana goes to where it’s most needed first.  If I want more power to push through, I add things to the symbol.”

“With you blowing the roof off of buildings, it’s a good thing you have that symbol to control things.”  Jess smirked when I looked back at her.  “Well, you can’t deny it.”

“Yeah, I get it.”  I stopped the flow of mana, using the rasping breath of the prone villager to let me know to give them some time for the healing to settle before continuing.  “After another round or two of healing, we should be able to move them safely.”

Leedy was crouched over the first villager, a deep frown on his face.  He sat up and looked at me.  “We may not have time for that.”

“Why?  What’s wrong?”  Jess made sure that Murphy was still standing in the doorway with Cross.  “They haven’t said the rest of the bandits are coming.”

“No, it’s what he managed to say before passing out again.”  Leedy stood and checked the necks of everyone laying on the floor.  He let out a sigh of relief, but still drew his sword.

“Are you going to keep us in suspense?”  I got to my feet, picking up my staff off the ground.  “What did he say?”

Leedy started for the door, stepping over the villagers.  “Just one word.  Vampires.”