WWotWW - Chapter 38 - Pus and Ooze (Patreon)

Although I could tell the spirit recognized us, it still snapped and snarled like some wounded animal. 

I didn’t know if it was attempting to keep us back in order to protect us from whatever it was infected with, or if it was being driven mad by the pain and just barely restraining itself from lunging forward and trying to tear out everyone’s throats. 

“Get behind the wards,” I hissed, slowly inching back towards our campsite. Plays struggled in my arms, shouting and wailing at the top of her lungs as she struggled to get free and rush to the injured spirit, but I didn’t dare let her go; Not while the spirit looked like it might start tearing into us at any moment.

“Are you serious? It walked straight through the permanent wards back at the coven; do you honestly think that my temporary ones are going to do anything?” Clara snapped.

“No, but I’m hoping that if the spirit actually snaps and tries to attack us, they may buy us enough time to cast some defensive spells. Besides, I don’t think we should be standing so close to it; we seem to be aggravating it,” I replied.

Every time I took a step back, trying to give the spirit room, it took a step forward, keeping pace with me. 

“What’s it doing?” Mary whimpered. 

“I think its protective instincts may still be intact, and it’s worried about Plays,” I replied without taking my eyes off the massive wolf. “Which probably isn’t good for me, since it probably looks like I’ve taken her hostage.”

“Honestly, from my point of view it looks like it’s focused on you, not Plays,” Clara said.

“That’s great… I was hoping that it might back down if I somehow showed it I wasn’t a threat, but if it’s focusing on me instead of Plays I don’t think that’ll work,” I muttered. “Anyone have an idea what it wants?” 

“Maybe it wants you to use your magic to heal it?” Mary suggested. “It was in the camp with us yesterday when you destroyed both that zombie and the goop that came pouring out of it.”

“I really hope you’re wrong because, in case you haven’t been playing attention, my magic isn’t exactly good at healing things. It’s more about destroying things,” I said. 

“Well, do you think you could destroy that goop?’ Mary asked.

I turned slightly so I could look at the girl while keeping one eye on the spirit. “You want me to try and surgically remove some corrupted gunk from a spirit which may decide to bite my face off at any moment?” I said. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“It’s better than sitting here doing nothing and getting your face bitten off anyway,” Mary replied. 

“While that’s technically true, I don’t really have great control of my magic,” I said. “And if it gets away from me for even a second I’ll do more damage than good; It could kill the spirit.”

“I could try and heal it, but I’m not sure if that’d be a good idea while that ooze is still clinging to the spirit’s wounds. I’m getting a really bad feeling from that gunk,” Clara said.

“I know what you mean. Something about it feels… wrong,” I said. “That’s why I destroyed the zombie yesterday, to get rid of it.”

“Well, you better decide what to do soon. I don’t think the spirit is going to wait forever,” Mary said.

As if to emphasize the girls words the spirit stalked forward, coming within a couple feet of me and growled. It’s hot fetid breath washed over me, and long stings of drool splashed against my face. 

“Yech… I could have done without that but I got the message: your patience is wearing thin,” I said. “Clara do you have any spells that could entangle the spirit, make it hold still for a minute?”

“I can promote the growth of surrounding vegetation, but I’d need to set up a ritual in order to channel enough magic to make the plants grow fast enough to be a hindrance,” she replied. “Even if I had the ritual set up ahead of time, I’d only be able to boost the growth of plant in the area, and unfortunately, I don’t think long grass will be enough to slow that thing down.”

“Well, I had to ask…” I muttered. “In that case, I’ll need you to take Plays from me. Based upon how she’s struggling right now I don’t think she’ll cooperate with me, and I don’t want risk her getting injured if something goes wrong.”

“Do you think you can actually help the spirit?” Clara asked. 

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “However, I do think I have the best chance of surviving if the spirit suddenly turns hostile.”

“Do you have a plan?” Clara asked.

“Unleash my magic and hope that I can direct it into the infected areas,” I replied. 

“That’s not much of a plan,” Clara said.

“Well… it’s the best I’ve got,” I said, before taking a deep breath. “Mary, can you appoligize to plays for me?”

“What for?” Mary asked.

“This.” I replied as I half-shoved, half-threw Plays towards Clara. The girl squealed in surprise and indignation as she stumbled across the clearing.

I watched the spirits head turn to follow Plays as she stumbled across the clearing before turning towards me, eyes full of rage. Before I could even twitch it howled at the moon and a bolt of lightning arced down from the relatively clear night sky, striking the spirit and causing it’s fur to take on a golden sheen and stand on end. 

As it tensed up, preparing to pounce, I held up my hand up in front of me and let my magic flow. Not to purge the corruption dripping from it’s wounds, but just to by myself time. “No! Back!” I shouted as a massive wave of black fire errupted from my hand, creating a wall between me and the spirit. 

The wolf paused, the shine on it’s fur faltering as it took a step back. 

Apparently, even though the spirit had been driven into a rage by a combination of me disrespecting Plays and whatever the ooze was doing to it, it hadn’t lost its sense of self preservation. Which was good. That had kept me alive.

However, I couldn’t keep this up forever, and based upon the murderous look the spirit was giving me the instant I dropped my guard it was probably going to take advantage and attempt to kill me. 

“Well, I’m commited now, might as go all in,” I muttered. I used my sixth sense to reach out for the fire, similar to how I would connect to other plants or creatures when I had my magic, and attempted to wrest control of the shadowy inferno. 

I felt a bone chilling cold hit me as the magic attempted to fight me, attempted to consume me. As it reached back towards me I realized that I couldn’t brute force this, so I changed my tactics. Instead of trying to force the magic to do what I wanted, I attempted to redirect it. I imagined it like a dark wind rushing across the clearing towards me and just like I used to redirect the wind, i imagined the natural flow changing, shifting back towards the wolf.

To my surprise the magic which had been rushing towards me shifted, rolling around me before surging back towards the wolf.

The spirit attempted to jump back and avoid the black fire, but the magic swirled around it, locking it in a circle of destructive magic. Once it was stuck in place I forced the current to turn again, dipping down and scourging it’s wounds. 

The operation was far from precise, and I’m sure that I’d cause more damage to the areas around the infected wounds. However, while the process appeared to be painful, it did rip our and consume all the pus, purifying the spirit.

As soon as the last of the foul liquid was destroyed the spirit went still, and calmly sat in the middle of the malestom; The wounds which I’d just inflicted on it already closing.

It looked at me calmly, as if to say ‘Everything is fine now.’ I wasn’t sure if it was actually cured, or trying to trick me, but either way I couldn’t maintain the magic for much longer. Even though what I had just achieved would have been an extremely minor feat when using my original magic, this small act had completely exhausted me. 

Rather than letting the magic run rampant when I released control, I dismissed it, allowing the fire to fade away.

The wolf immediately wandered towards Plays, who wriggled out of Clara’s grasp and ran out to meet it. The spirit calmly sat and let her check it’s wounds while she chattered on.

Clara kept a wide berth from the pair as she made her way towards me. “That was impressive. I didn’t know you could do that,”

“Me neither,” I replied with a tired smile. “It was an act born out of desperation. Although I have a decent idea of what I did, I’m not sure if I’d be able to replicate it. Not without a lot of practice.”

“Well, I’m glad you managed. Things looked bad there for a second,” she said before leaning forward and inspecting my face. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I replied, giving her another smile just as the last of my strength gave out. I was vaguely aware of Clara yelling, and the ground rushing up to meet my face, but thankfully the darkness claimed me before impact.