New Story -- Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The distance to the cluster of buildings seemed to grow longer as he walked, but he put it down to the fact that he was running on so little energy. He had a feeling he would’ve taken a few breaks along the way to conserve what strength he had left if it wasn’t for the fact that his journey down the road was just as dangerous as it had been in the foothills – or it would be for normal people, he supposed. With his Weak Repulsion Field constantly active, he didn’t really have anything to worry about.

Other than looking like the pied piper when he finally arrived, of course.

It started with a pack of miniature wolves that were somehow able to hide in the foot-tall grass to either side of the dirt road, and they attacked as a coordinated team of 4 that surrounded him within seconds.

Grass Wolf – Minimal

Level 4

The Grass Wolves were approximately the size of a Labrador Retriever, if not a little smaller, and instead of having greyish-black hair along their backs – like he pictured wolves from movies and TV shows – they were instead a blend of dark green and tan, which blended into the landscape remarkably well. Despite their smaller size and strange coloring, the Wolves looked to have a deceptively strong bite, and were able to move quite fast around him. If he hadn’t been protected by his spell, he probably would’ve been torn apart before he could heal himself against so many.

Their attacks were repulsed just like every other physical attack that had attempted to hit him so far, but the difference between these canines and the felines in the foothills was a matter of weight. Weighing something like 10 to 20% of the big cat’s weight, they simply bounced off his protective barrier without doing more than becoming annoyed that they couldn’t get through.

At first, he stopped when he was attacked, but when they couldn’t get through, he just kept walking. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do to hurt or stop them, as they were too fast to try and kick away, and while he could’ve picked up some rocks to throw at them, he wasn’t very confident in his pitching skills.

So, after a few seconds of watching them ineffectually attempt to bite him through the Field, he kept walking toward the buildings in the distance while they nipped at his heels.

A short distance later, they original four Wolves were joined by another pack of four, and while there appeared to be some infighting between them, they all joined in on the futile assault against the Assistant Healer slowly making his way down the road.

Another half-mile of travel saw the first of a new beast that thankfully didn’t ambush him, though he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

Emu Striker – Minimal

Level 3

Standing 5 feet tall, the Emu Striker was a big, tan-colored, flightless bird that hid in the grass when it folded its legs and sat below the grass line, but when it attacked it stood up and was visible for quite a distance around. It traveled over the grass quickly at a run that was nearly as fast as the Wolves surrounding him, but instead of trying to bite him, it would jump and strike out with its wickedly clawed feet, looking like little switchblades as they attempted to cut through his protection. Each one, of course, failed, but it was their attacks against him that caused a war to start between the two packs of Wolves still following him and the Emus who came at him one at a time.

Whether or not they fought all the time when he wasn’t there was unknown, but when the Wolves noticed the Emus trying to muscle in on their meal, they took offense and quickly surrounded the land-bound birds and slaughtered them. After he was attacked by five different Emus, three of the Wolves ended up getting killed by the birds because they were deadly in their own right – and yet the canine beasts continued to follow Thaden despite their ineffective assaults on him.

Halfway to the buildings in the distance, something else appeared that were completely ignored by the Wolves for some reason.

Venomous Snake – Minimal

Level 2

It seemed as if the closer to his destination, the weaker the beasts became, though the 8-foot-long, green-and-black striped serpents that emerged from the grass looked anything but weak. They moved quickly to keep up with Thaden as he kept walking, barely even pausing at the sight of the first one, as they joined in the crowd of Wolves still following him. At total of 9 similar-looking Snakes slithered along, barely even acknowledged by the Wolves as each and every beast and reptile attempted to bite him over and over without success. He began to ignore them after a while, despite the fact that the serpents hissed constantly just before they attacked him.

Lastly, when he could see that the cluster of building in the distance was actually surrounded by 8-foot-tall walls made of wooden logs planted upright in the dirt and strapped together for strength, came a veritable horde of small mammals that streamed out from the farmed fields that he passed by; unfortunately for them, they were almost instantly eaten by both the Wolves and the Snakes.

Wheat Rat – Minimal

Level 1

Burrowing Bunny – Minimal

Level 1

Field Mouse – Minimal

Level 1

Despite their cute sounding names, the Wheat Rat, Burrowing Bunny, and Field Mouse were at least four times larger than he remembered any creature of the same species being back on Earth, which meant that they were dangerous in their own right as they had sharp teeth, quick movements, and a hearty back kick when it came to the Bunny.

The problem was that there were so many of them that eventually the Wolves and Snakes that were following him couldn’t even eat them all if they wanted to, and by the time he approached the last 100 feet to the walled… village? Town? He wasn’t sure what to classify it as, other than being a sanctuary that could help him finally escape from everything trying to kill him.

“Stop!”

Thaden nearly fell flat on his face when he heard a gruff voice calling out to him, and he nearly cried in relief when he understood the words spoken. He had been slightly worried that, after being transported to another world entirely, none of them would speak English, but thankfully that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Who are you and why are you bringing all those pests with you? Are you some sort of Beast Tamer?” The way the voice emphasized the last two words made him think that a Beast Tamer must be some sort of Class, sort of like his own Assistant Healer one, but he couldn’t be sure.

As he looked for the source of the voice, which was slightly difficult to do since the sun was getting low on the horizon and was currently behind the speaker, he tried to come up with a response that would make sense. When he finally saw the outline of the individual speaking to him, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he saw a figure standing on something that allowed them to look over the wall, and to point an arrow nocked on a bow directly at him.

The first thing he noticed was that the figure wasn’t Human, but was instead at least humanoid enough that at a distance they could be mistaken for one. You know, other than the fact that their skin was a ruddy orange like a carrot on steroids, the presence of a third eye in the middle of their forehead, a pair of ears that were approximately twice as large as his own, and hands that only had three fingers and a thumb. The figure wasn’t completely bizarre compared to some of the aliens he’d seen in sci-fi movies and TV shows, but it was still a shock to see one.

Then again, aren’t I the alien here?

Semantics of the situation aside, Thaden knew he had to answer. Working as much moisture into his mouth and throat so that he could actually speak, he shouted back at the archer, whom he assumed was male based on the tone of his voice, “No, I’m not a Beast Tamer of any sort. These things are trying to kill me, and I would appreciate some help killing them before they succeed.” It wasn’t likely that they would be able to hurt him, of course, but he didn’t really have the energy to go into that at the moment.

“Who are you? Where did you come from?” the gruff voice asked, still keeping the arrow aimed straight at him.

Oh, that’s right, he asked who I was before. “Thaden,” he responded, pointing his thumb at his chest. “I came from the dungeon down that way,” he continued, moving his thumb so that it was pointing behind him.

“The Vogmite Tunnels? What were you doing there?”

Thaden was starting to feel more than a little irritation at the interrogation going on at arrowpoint, brought on by his exhaustion, hunger, and thirst all working together.  “Look, I’ll answer all your questions as soon as I can, but I’d really appreciate some help here,” he shouted back with annoyance bleeding into his voice. When the silence – as silent as it could be when he considered that the beasts were still trying to attack him – stretched for another 10 seconds without the archer doing anything, he muttered, “Stupid people in a stupid world. I wonder if there was something in Contender Training that would’ve helped me with this.”

As soon as he stopped talking, he heard a *thwap* followed by a cut-off yelp from one of the Grass Wolves attacking him. Looking back at it, he saw the shaft of an arrow sticking out of its eye, a perfect bulls-eye as it penetrated straight to its brain. A series of rapid-fire *thwaps* followed the first, and a veritable rain of arrows fell around him, each of them piercing through the beasts trying to attack him in their most vulnerable spots. The Wolves all had their brains pierced by an arrow through the eye, matching the first; the Snakes had an arrow hit them right below their heads, cutting through what was ostensibly their necks, ending up decapitated; the various smaller Rats, Bunnies, and Mice were shot in their chests, a perfect shot that pierced straight through their hearts.

It was a super-Olympian performance that shocked him to the point that he could only stare at the carnage around him, wondering how such a thing was possible. When he realized the answer to that was likely magic of some sort, given that he had miraculous spells that he could cast, it made more sense.

“What are you waiting for? Get inside before I change my mind.”

Looking back up at the archer, who disappeared as he likely jumped down inside the walls, he slowly began to walk toward the tight-fitting gate that was opening in the wooden logs. Just like the practically invisible stone doorway leading to the treasure room in the dungeon he’d just left, the gate was so cleverly made that he didn’t even know it was there until it opened. Before he was even halfway to the open gate, the archer appeared and Thaden finally got a good look at him – and the words that popped up above his head.

Virlo – Ashcleft Town Guard

Charee

Level 45

Level 45? No wonder he was able to absolutely annihilate the beasts attacking me.

“Come along. I’m going to want that explanation now,” the guard, Virlo, said. Waving him inside, Thaden did as was asked and walked through the gate. Once he was through, the sounds and smells he had been expecting to hear from a place full of people suddenly assaulted him, which was a strange phenomenon that he wasn’t sure how to explain; it was almost as if there was a layer of smell and soundproofing around the entire town, preventing anything from escaping. Why it was that way, he couldn’t even begin to guess, but he supposed the how was answered again by the simple and expedient use of the concept surrounding “magic”.

For how high-Level the guard leading him was, and how powerful magic could obviously be, the town wasn’t as advanced as he expected. It honestly looked like it was straight out of some sort of Renaissance Festival, though it appeared authentic and real unlike the one he’d visited when he was younger.

At the same time, it was also weird as heck, because all the people looked like the Guard who’d killed all the beasts in a matter of seconds. From the words he saw above their heads, they were all “Charee”, which he assumed was their race; not a single one was Human, nor did he see any other fantasy races like Elves or Dwarves like he halfway expected by this point.

As he looked around in curiosity and shock at all the single and two-story buildings spread out in cobblestone-lined streets, he realized that many of them were shops of some kind – and they were written in something that most certainly wasn’t English. He thought it looked like some sort of mixture of Japanese and Arabic, though he was so ignorant of other languages that he could be completely off.

What he wasn’t ignorant of was what the signs said, because he could read them as easily as anything in English. “Barto’s General Store”, “Curious Curiosities”, “Ashcleft Blacksmith”, “Tailored Finery”, and “Alchemy Surplus” all passed by him as he walked behind the guard, though there were even more that he didn’t get a good look at. As for the people of the town, the few dozen he saw going about their business certainly got a good look at him, and given that he was half-naked in bloody, stinking clothes in comparison to their relatively clean outfits consisting of shirts, pants, and skirts in muted colors, he certainly stood out.

Eventually, they came to a slightly larger building that was more spread out and was a full three stories tall, and “The Cracked Cup” was written on the sign out front, with a picture of what appeared to be a, what else, a cracked cup of some sort of liquid. He could only assume it was some sort of bar, though based on its size and the fact that this looked like some sort of fantasy-based Renaissance town, it was probably a tavern or inn of some kind.

Walking up the few steps into the weathered wooden building, the floorboards creaking under his feet, he followed the guard into what it revealed to be a bar, or some sort of bar and grill, because he could smell something delicious cooking somewhere inside what was likely a kitchen. Seeing that the room he walked into was full of tables and chairs, with only a quarter of them occupied, he figured that he hadn’t hit the dinner rush quite yet.

His stomach growled so loudly at the smell of food that it startled the guard, Virlo, who turned on him as if Thaden was about to attack him, but he chuckled when he realized that the Assistant Healer’s empty stomach wasn’t a threat.

“That’s what I thought. Sit down and I’ll get you something to eat.” Virlo gestured to the bartender, who was already staring at them both the moment they walked in. Or, more accurately, the female Charee standing behind the bar was staring straight at Thaden as if he was some sort of disgusting creature that the cat dragged inside the house.

Varla – Owner of The Cracked Cup Inn

Charee

Level 8

He couldn’t blame her for looking at him that way, because he was pretty disgusting at this point. Nevertheless, no more than a minute after the guard led him to an empty table in the corner of the room, a wooden platter of steaming, sliced meat and an entire loaf of bread was plopped down in front of him with a clatter, along with a large wooden cup – thankfully not cracked – of what appeared to be a dark beer. He wasn’t much of a beer drinker back on Earth, but at that point he didn’t care what it was as long as it was wet.

He drained half of the liquid in one go, not even tasting it other than to confirm that it was some sort of extremely bitter beer, before he tore into the sliced meat and bread as if he hadn’t ever eaten before. Which, in fact, was the case as far as his body went; as such, he barely got enough to make a small sandwich back home down into his relatively tiny stomach before he was completely full. Sitting back in the wooden chair, he covered his mouth as he burped, feeling uncomfortably full from what should’ve been an appetizer’s worth of food.

“You don’t like my daughter’s cooking?” the guard asked gruffly, staring at the pitiful amount that Thaden had eaten.

“It was delicious,” he responded, meaning it sincerely. “I just have a very small stomach right now,” he lamely explained, his eyelids drooping now that he’d sat down and filled his stomach.

“Ah. Is that something common of Humans?”

Thaden thought for a moment, his mind a bit sluggish at the moment. “No, not necessarily. I’m just… unique, I guess.”

“Well then, unique Human. Tell me, if you would, what a Level 1 Contender, which should be impossible as the Contenders haven’t arrived as of yet, is doing here in Ashcleft, claiming to have come from the Vogmite Tunnels.” The guard stared at him, a glint of danger in his three eyes that promised if he didn’t like what he heard, then Thaden was going to pay for it in some way.

Needless to say, he gulped in fear at the Level 45’s question before he hesitantly answered.