Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

Chapter 33

The mental assault by whatever this was had caught me flat-footed.  I was tired, hungry, cold, naked, uncomfortable, sore, and empty on mana.  Basically, the worst position to be in for putting up a mental defense.

What are you?  Human, for the most part.  More than human in other parts.  Your soul has been branded though, scarred and warded enough that even I can’t touch it.  Still, this body would make an excellent vessel.  I must have it.

“Kinda… occupied.”  I forced the words out, pushing against whatever was trying to take me over.  “Piss… off… dickcheese.”

Dickcheese?  My, I wasn’t expecting such an eloquent host.  Dominica, be a dear and show him that it is important to show me proper respect.  Not too rough, now.  I still want this one for myself, no matter his patron.

When nothing happened, I could feel a sense of anger and shock from them.  It gave me a toehold to push against the mental pressure, and I shoved them back, gaining control of my body again.  “You mean that lady vampire you keep sending?  She’s busy doing a really good impression of a burnt piece of toast, which is exactly what you’re about to become.”  I gathered my mental willpower like it was a fist, and smashed the invader with it as hard as I could.  The entity recoiled in pain and surprise, and flinched away from my second attempt at hitting it.

You are proving to be quite the thorn in my side, sorcerer.  One I’m going to enjoy plucking very soon.  Until next time…

The spark jumped out of my forehead, shooting into the ground near the fire.  The burnt skeletal remains of the female vampire–Dominica, apparently–jumped up with a clatter and hiss.  Both Murphy and I leapt to our feet, ready to fight it, but the crispy critter ran off into the woods in the same directions the other vampires had gone.  Toward Greendown.

“What was that?”  Murphy was wide-eyed, looking around with his fists raised.  “Have you ever seen a vampire come back from the dead like that?”

“That wasn’t the vampire.”  I wiped at my nose, where a trickle of blood was running down.  “It was something else.  Either a lich, psionic demon, or a mind flayer who has managed to live without its original body for a long time.  Considering how it animated that dead body, my money is on lich.”  I rubbed my temples, feeling the headache set in.  I had just fought a lich in the last world I had left, and now I had to face another one?

“How do you know that?  Have you fought them before?”  Murphy took a few steps over to the fire and tossed some more logs on it, making sure to break up the skeleton of the remaining vampire while he did so.  With the rain, the lich leaping around had almost put it out.  “I’ve only heard of those in stories.”

“Yeah, I’ve fought all of them at one time or another.  Mind flayers are weak physically, and can usually be killed easily from a distance.”  I shuddered, remembering a dark cave filled with brain-dead mind slaves we had found after putting one down.  They had started screaming the moment it had died, and didn’t stop until they were silenced.  Permanently.  “The other two, liches and psionic demons, aren’t as easy to deal with.”

“I thought demons were just a myth, a story told to scare children?”  Murphy walked back over to Jess and angled his body to protect her from the rain.  “There hasn’t ever been a real one, according to the Wardens.”

“Oh, they’re real.”  I carefully touched Cross again, this time ready for an attack.  Of course, there was nothing.  “They aren’t native to this dimension, and have to be called here by someone.  Demons, devils, fiends and daemons can all be summoned if you know how.”

Murphy looked at me like he thought I was making stuff up.  “You just said different words for the same thing.”

“Nope.  Common mistake.”  I started healing Cross, using a small circle and as little energy as possible.  “They are all similar, but they come from different dimensions, and all follow different rules.  Devils are evil, but they follow a certain set of codes and laws.  Where I’m from, we call it ‘Lawfully Evil.’  Demons are evil too, but they are agents of pure chaos, so they are called ‘Chaotic Evil.’  Daemons are more of a cosmic force of evil, focused on the annihilation of everything, so they are ‘Neutral Evil.’  Fiends come from a less physical realm, and usually embody evil concepts instead of an actual manifestation.  That’s what most sorcerers make deals with in return for power.”

“That all sounds great, but I don’t care.”  Murphy shrugged and turned back to Jess, shifting so he covered her better.  “Probably won’t be a Warden anymore when we get to Greendown.  I’d be surprised if I was even still a member of the Hunter’s Guild.”  He looked down at his hands, still crusted in the black blood of vampires despite the rain.  “I’ll be lucky if I can join the Farmer’s Guild after everything comes to light.”

I laughed, breaking the connection with Cross.  He was healed enough that he could fight, as long as the lich hadn’t melted his brain.  “Murphy, sometimes I forget how young you are.”  He cocked an eyebrow at me, probably since we looked like we were close to the same age.  “I’ve seen this play out a bunch of times.  It’s gonna go one of four ways.”  I held up one finger.   “Either they’ll try to cover everything up, so they’ll kill you.”  I held up a second finger.  “They’ll try to cover everything up, and throw you in the deepest, darkest prison they own.”  I held up three fingers.  “They’ll act like everything was a big misunderstanding, and promote you.”  I held up four fingers.  “Or, they’ll really piss me off, and I’ll end up passing judgment on everyone, and you’ll get promoted by the survivors.  My vote’s on number four.”

“Huh.  I guess I never thought of it like that.”  Murphy straightened up a bit.  “Those aren’t the best options, I suppose, but at least I don’t have to stop being a Warden.”

“I’m glad I could make you feel better.”  I certainly wasn’t feeling better.  I was sitting in cold mud, naked, with a headache that was only getting worse.  I decided to focus inward, to the mana generator sitting behind my belly button.  All of my recent activity had drained it to almost nothing, and it throbbed in time with my headache.

Deciding to experiment, I mentally prodded at the dregs of mana that sat at the bottom, causing them to swirl sluggishly.  An unexpected side effect was that my body seemed to pull in the faint amount of ambient mana in the area around me, recharging me just a tiny bit faster.  After seeing that, I kept doing it, poking at the mana until it sang.

Yes, it actually made a sound, like a low humming off in the distance.  I checked to see if Murphy could hear it, but he didn’t react.  The swirl became a tornado, going faster and faster as the energy around me was drawn into my body.  It hurt, like the way it hurts to stretch a stiff muscle.  Lightning formed inside once again, sending tingles through my body.  It danced through my muscles, causing me to twitch and jump.

That was enough to break my concentration, and the tornado went back to a whirlpool, the lightning dying down until it was only inside my mana generator.  It wasn’t back to full, but I was far from empty now.  Almost as if I had rested for a full six or seven hours.  My headache from the mental assault had also stopped getting worse.  I’d take what I could get.

“Uuunh, what happened?”  Cross sat up, rubbing his head.  “Lieutenant Lucente, where did you put my clothes after–”  His eyes widened when he saw me–still naked–sitting across from him.

“Morning, sunshine!  Hope last night was good for you, because it sure was for me.”  I grinned at his look of horror, and then I saw when it all came back to him.  His shoulders slumped, and he looked sullenly at the stump where his hand used to be.  He must have really gotten a good whammy if he had forgotten me for a few minutes.  “Back with us now?”

“Yes, I’m back with you.”  Cross looked around, seeing the mess that the campsite had become.  Bodies were still laying around, and one was even bent over with an arrow sticking out of its keister.  “What did I miss?”

“Remember those vampires that were going to track you down?”  He gave me a sharp nod.  “Well, they did.  We managed to fight them off, but a few got away.  As soon as Leedy gets back with the horse and our gear, we’re going to track them down and finish them off.”

“My horse will come if I call it.”  Cross tried to stand, and immediately flopped onto his face.  I watched him struggle for a minute before I took pity on him and helped.

“Leedy can handle it.  I’ve got some questions for you before we leave, and they’re important ones.”  I waited for him to agree before I continued.  “Do you remember how they marked you?  Was it a physical thing, or a mental one?”

Cross shook his head.  “No, but I’d assumed it was based on my scent.  That is how most vampires hunt, and once they know you, there is little you can do to escape.”

“Have you been hearing strange voices the past few days?  Perhaps someone whispering to you, or thoughts that might have seemed out of place?”  I watched his eyes carefully to check for a reaction, but he was completely deadpan.

“I’ve had nothing of the sort.  Why do you ask?  Even for you, these are odd questions.”  Cross scooted back a little, getting some extra space between us.  “Did you do something else to me that I don’t know about?”

“Not me, the vampires.”  I motioned to the fire, where the skeleton of one still burned.  “There were two blood-suckers in there, but one got up and ran away when the lich hiding in your head failed in its attack against me.”  Cross didn’t say anything, stunned at the thought of a lich being inside him.  “I was afraid that the ‘mark’ they gave you was the lich hiding inside you all this time, but now I think the vampires brought him when they attacked.  There’s no way it could lay dormant that long without revealing itself.”

“Have I fallen so low, that an abomination can take control of me?”  Cross tried to stand again, this time flopping onto his side.  “What have I become?”

I stood and walked over, licking a muddy finger before drawing another circle on Cross so I could heal him again.  “That lich almost took me over, and I’m far more powerful than you are.  It’s strong enough that I bet your guild leader would fail against it, so don’t beat yourself up so bad.  Now, hold still so I can figure out why you have no balance.”

A quick inspection showed me a lesion at the base of his brain, in the cerebellum.  I had missed it earlier because I hadn’t been looking.  I pushed a quick burst of healing at him, and it went back to healthy tissue.  Now that I knew where the lich liked to hang out in people’s minds, I could surgically target him next time we met.

“Try to stand now, you should be okay.”  I backed up and Cross got to his feet with only a single wobble.  “Better?”

“I think so.”  For a moment, Cross looked like he was going to thank me.  Then, the sound of something coming through the trees interrupted and the moment was gone.  “I think I hear Leedy returning with our things.”

“Yeah.”  I walked over to check on Jess.  Now that I had more power, I could do a better job on her too.  And I could fix Leedy’s elbow.  Then we could track down those vampires and finish them off.  I stopped and thought about it for a second.

First, I should probably put some pants on.