Chapter 43: Mind Freak (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jvS6TgISE_UcbHSrjokwwuNoWrgXw-wtzf2tnWz6GQc/edit?usp=sharing

--

Cayden swung at the monster with bared claws.

Unfortunately, though Cayden’s claws pierced through the monster’s scaly skin with ease, they seemed to do little serious damage, the monster not even reacting to its new set of gashes along its side. After its failed first attack, the dinosaur attempted to bowl Cayden over with its full weight by simply running him over, but it was once again surprised when Cayden refused to budge.

Hold the Line (active) (lvl 2): Temporarily locks the user's position in space. Small mana cost.

Coupled with [Taunt], [Hold the Line] was an extremely useful skill that Cayden could imagine was overpowered in the right circumstances. But when the bewildered monster next attempted to grab Cayden and tear him apart with its over-large teeth, he nimbly dodged backward out of the way, breaking the effect of his skill.

If he’d remained in place, he could have kept [Hold the Line] active for another thirty seconds. But with another nine dinosaurs quickly bearing down on him and an empty mana pool, Cayden decided it was time to make use of his agility.

He rolled back to dodge the charge of one of the other eight dinosaurs, then dodged behind a massive tree away from the bite of another. There was a massive thump as the tree shook precipitously, and Cayden sprinted away from the tree before the dinosaurs could surround him or lose interest.

With the way the dinosaurs seemed hyper-focused on the other two adventurers, to the point that it required three taunts to drag their attention away, Cayden unfortunately couldn’t afford to simply flee as fast as his feet could carry him. He needed to remain a tantalizing target lest their attention return to the less tanky adventurers.

He shouldn’t have to remain a target for too long, thankfully, nor would he have to worry about taking down the monsters. Even as he ducked under the snapping jaws of the closest monster and leading it on a merry chase around another one of the trees, he noted another of the dinosaurs dropping from the flames of the third adventurer. As long as they didn’t run out of mana, Cayden just needed to survive.

That was easier said than done, though. With eight dinosaurs hot on his tail, all of them faster than him, though thankfully less nimble, Cayden was amazed that he hadn’t yet taken a serious hit.

His taunting thoughts against the universe immediately backfired as a dinosaur’s jaws clamped down on his left arm mid-dodge.

Without [Hold the Line] active, physics reasserted itself. It didn’t matter Cayden’s strength when the monster outweighed him by at least a ton – there was little he could do now that it had a grip on him.

Cayden was lifted and rag-dolled through the air as the monster violently whipped its head back and forth, something in his shoulder snapping as he let out a cry of pain. He flexed his claws, tearing at both the inside and outside of the monster’s jaw with each of his hands, but it seemed oblivious to the pain and damage he was inflicting.

Two other dinosaurs approached the one that gripped Cayden, likely planning on grabbing and then ripping him apart. But just before they could latch onto him with their own massive jaws, a line of blue plasma shot through the air.

Cayden smiled, instantly recognizing the attack. Affectionately named by Cayden and confusedly accepted by Elise, the BFG was his favorite of Elise’s enchanted creations. It could only be used once before needing a full week to recharge, but when it was used, it packed a punch.

Elise still stood at the top of the hill, a wand that appeared to possess an inner fire of its own in her hand. Unfortunately, the BFG required the user to aim, and despite her high dexterity, Elise’s aim was not perfect. But it didn’t hit Cayden, so he would forgive Elise for her poor aim.

Instead of taking the dinosaur through the head or chest, what would likely have been an instant kill, the lance of plasma shot through the flank of the monster, which finally reacted to a wound by opening its mouth in a roar of pain, releasing Cayden from its grip in the process. It might not have been dead yet, but after getting hit by the BFG it would be down for the count.

But then a moment later Cayden had to reevaluate as the monster, so recently bellowing in pain, twisted its body and lashed out at Cayden with its tail.

It had a hole the size of a softball punched clean through its flank; how was it still moving so fast? Much less even still upright? As he ducked under the appendage, Cayden mentally upgraded the threat level of the monsters along with the power of the third adventurer. How strong were that adventurer’s flames if a shot from a BFG couldn’t even take one of the monsters down?

He didn’t have much time to contemplate their relative power levels, because in the time the wounded dinosaur had been flinging Cayden around by the arm, the rest of the herd managed to fully catch up with the object of their ire. Cayden was completely surrounded by angry dinosaurs with nowhere to dodge.

He didn’t have more than a few points of mana, nor did he have any skills that would help had he the mana to spend on them. [Hold the Line] would keep the monsters from being able to knock him around, but it would do nothing to prevent them from tearing him apart. Expecting to only face the brantings, which were resistant to most poisons and acids, he didn’t have any last-resort poisons or acids to throw, although with how easily the dinosaurs shrugged off their wounds he found it unlikely that any of Elise’s poisons would be enough to take them down. He only had his passive defenses, which was the area Cayden truly shined in comparison to other adventurers – he just hoped it would be enough to survive the coming onslaught.

In his last moments, surrounded by a half-dozen vicious, angry dinosaurs, Cayden ducked low and chugged the strongest health potion he had, his left arm almost immediately snapping back into place with a nauseating crack. Hopefully he’d be able to heal through whatever the dinosaurs were able to dish out, living long enough for them to either lose interest or for the third adventurer to finally finish them off.

And then, as his vision filled with teeth, claws, and brown, scaly skin, everything changed.

He looked to the south, towards the center of the Lost Forest.

Why was he sitting on his butt when he could be walking there? It was obviously the correct way to go. Everything would be better if he just went a little further south.

He pulled himself to his feet and strolled through the ferns, walking in tandem with a herd of dinosaurs. But with their larger legs, they quickly outpaced him. That was okay, though; there was no rush, and now that he was going in the correct direction everything would be fine.

A tree was in his path, and Cayden frowned. How was he supposed to keep heading south if there was a tree in the way? Ah, but he could walk around the tree, he realized a moment later, and with a triumphant grin he veered around the trunk.

From the corner of his eye, he spied Elise standing on top of the ridge, and he tripped over his feet.

Wait…what was going on? What…?

Cayden shook his head in a desperate attempt to make sense of his surroundings, then locked his gaze back south. Everything would become perfectly clear as long as he kept going south. That was all he needed to worry about.

But before he could regain his feet, something crashed into him, knocking him prone among the ferns. He struggled to push himself back up, but there was a weight on his back and something kept knocking his arms aside before he could get them under him.

“Just hold him still, I only need a few seconds to get it off of him,” a young-sounding female voice said.

“Ugh, easier said than done. What’s this guy made of?” another voice responded, also female.

“What did you expect? He body-slammed a terravia. I’d be extremely surprised if his strength was less than yours. Doesn’t say much for his mind, though.”

“Saved our butts. And you saw the way that terravia was flinging him around. I thought he’d be a bit less…energetic…after all that.”

As the two girls talked, Cayden continued struggling. Every move he made was with the intention of going further south, but everything he tried was immediately foiled. As he tried again and again to pull himself to his feet and failed again and again, a pressure built in his mind. He needed to keep going south. He needed it more than he felt he’d needed anything in his life. While he’d been able to walk it hadn’t been an issue, but now that he wasn’t making any progress south, the need built and built into an all-consuming drive, and his struggles to stand grew more and more desperate.

Yet despite his overwhelming desire, some part of Cayden’s mind registered the words that the two girls were speaking. And that same part, which had been dormant since the need to travel south had arisen in him, finally awoke and realized that everything wasn’t as it seemed. Obviously, he knew he needed to go south. But why did he need to go south? He couldn’t remember ever having that need before.

“Why…” he mumbled between grit teeth as he continued to fight against the girl that struggled to hold him down. “...what’s going on?”

“Is he fighting it?” the voice just by his ear asked in surprise.

“No way,” the other voice responded. “I put three hundred mana into that compulsion.”

“How is he able to talk, then? You didn’t put caveats into the compulsion, did you?”

“Of course not, there was no time. And it doesn’t matter, because I’m just…about…and done.”

Cayden dropped to the ground, his mind once more returned to him, his desire to move south evaporated like morning mist.

He shuddered. That had…not been pleasant. Even through [Resistance] he’d had trouble realizing that anything was amiss. And if it hadn’t been for the external stimuli of seeing Elise and the girls’ conversation, he doubted he’d have ever noticed anything was wrong.

The feeling of not being in control of his own mind was horrifying. Being no more than a passenger to a will other than his own – he would rather be forced to reacquire [Pain Resistance] a hundred times over than have to go through that again. It was why he had ultimately discarded the skills [Berserk] and [Determined Mind] so long ago, despite their synergies with each other and with his fighting style – he just couldn’t abide handing over control of his mind to something else, even if that ‘something else’ was his own skills.

To Cayden, his mind was sacrosanct. Others could tear apart his body, could manipulate him through circumstances, could lead him along by the nose with clever plans and bribes. But nothing should be able to violate his mind. Even at his lowest in his previous life, Cayden had steered clear of those drugs that messed too much with his head. It was the one place Cayden felt like he had complete control, and he wasn’t willing to lose that for anything.

Yet one of these adventurers had so easily violated that. They had torn away his control as if it were nothing more than tissue. Worse, they hadn’t just removed Cayden’s control. He hadn’t just been a passenger looking on to his actions – he had truly believed that what he wanted most was to go south. That it was his own idea and desire.

“Please don’t ever do that again,” Cayden mumbled, still facedown in the dirt.

“What was that?” one of the female voices asked, and he rolled over onto his side.

“Don’t do that again. Like, ever.” Then he glanced up and got his first look at the two adventurers.

Beautiful, was his first thought, and he shook his head in self-reproach. What was he, some horny teenager to zero-in on teenaged girls’ looks after barely surviving a life-and-death battle against a herd of literal dinosaurs?

Of course, that was exactly what he was, but he had the mind of someone who should be more mature. He expected better of himself.

But it was hard to notice anything else, because both of the girls truly were beautiful. The girl who stood further away much more than the one that was closer, but both of them looked absolutely lovely. Which Cayden thought was strange, because neither of them was dressed in anything that could be considered flattering or provocative.

Their figures were hidden beneath their armor, their heads covered by their helmets. It was extremely nice armor, Cayden noticed, a light variant of adventurer’s armor that Cayden guessed was enchanted. He had no way to [Inspect] it to know for sure, of course, but after seeing so many different enchanted items created by Elise, he recognized the sheen and the strange way it flexed that indicated an item made from the thousand-year-oak enchanting material.

The closer girl, who was on her knees among the ferns next to Cayden, huffed as she pulled herself to her feet. “How about a little gratitude? She just saved your life!”

Cayden sat up and rubbed his face. “That makes us even, by my count.” Then he looked south, following the tracks of the dinosaurs. “Are we truly safe? They won’t be able to break out of it and come back even angrier?”

The girl who stood further away raised her head in a haughty manner, her face an expressionless mask, though no less beautiful for it. A single lock of curly fiery-red hair hung loose from the constricting helmet and dangled over her cheek. “Our…companion will see to them before they are able to regain their wits.”

Cayden grunted, deciding to take them at their word. Before he could begin to formulate his next question, there was a commotion from the ferns behind the two girls, and all three of them tensed in anticipation. And then Elise burst out from the undergrowth.

“That was amazing! Was that [Compulsion]? I had no idea it could be so strong!”

The two girls stared at Elise, the closer girl with mouth agape and the standing girl with an impassive gaze, and Cayden smirked. Leave it to Elise to focus on skills and their applications rather than the surprising appearance or circumstances of the battle with dinosaurs.

He groaned as he pulled himself fully to his feet. He actually felt surprisingly good for having so recently been tossed around in the mouth of a dinosaur and having his shoulder dislocated, the healing potion having done its work well. The groan was more a remnant of the mind-controlling skill than of any physical pain or trauma.

“Well, this has been interesting,” he said before the girls could get into any more of a conversation. Though he was curious, he had no interest in being roped into whatever drama had resulted in the two beautiful girls being chased by dinosaurs deep in the Lost Forest. Especially not when one of them had such a terrifying skill. “I suppose it was nice meeting you, but it’s getting late.” He made to step past the girls to walk north towards Avernon. “We really should–”

“STOP!” a voice yelled, and from behind him the third adventurer stepped around a tree. He was much older than either of the girls and had a salt-and-pepper beard on his chin. His armor looked similar to the girls’ but was much more worn in and battered. Sweat dripped from his forehead, forming streaks in his dirt-encrusted face, and his breath heaved as if he had just run a marathon. And in his hands were two massive balls of fire, the heat of which Cayden could feel from twenty feet away. “Step away from the princess!”

Previous Chapter -- Next Chapter

--

Slight correction. In the last two chapters, I mistakenly referred to dexterity when I should have said agility. For those who need a reminder (which apparently includes me) agility translates to speed, while dexterity translates to controlled movement. Think agility = Usain Bolt, while dexterity = brain surgeon. It's fixed now.