The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“Where is he?”

Alwhin reached back and smacked his brother in the side of the head without looking, while also shout-whispering, “For the last time, shut up!”

Corwhin mumbled something that he couldn’t hear, which Alwhin supposed was a good thing for all of them hiding behind the stand of trees about a mile outside of the town of Lakebellow and 150 feet from the main road leading east. They couldn’t afford to make much noise and beating his brother for talking back to him would undoubtedly be loud.

“Bro, I think we missed him,” Balwin whispered softly by his side, with a low enough voice that it wouldn’t carry. Alwhin was glad that at least his oldest younger brother was smart enough to know better compared to Corwhin, but Corwhin had always been a bit strange even for the Gharen family. Fortunately, the youngest – Delwin – made up for Corwhin’s oddness with a good head on his shoulders and was the smartest of them… next to Alwhin, of course. Being the oldest meant he was in charge and his father always told him that being the leader meant that you needed to be the smartest and strongest of the entire group. Hence, since he was the leader, he was naturally the smartest and strongest of them all.

It was unfortunate that their younger sister, Elwina, hadn’t been transformed during the changes more than a week ago, because having an inside source of information in town would come in handy right now. They had been waiting hidden in the brush all morning, and he was starting to sweat from the heat of the day, but they had seen no sign of the stranger they had encountered the night before in the Aledeck Inn. Given what information he gained from eavesdropping on the conversation with that annoying Innkeeper, as well as his own questions, he 100% positive that the man would be leaving earlier in the morning to resume his journey to wherever he called home – because he certainly wasn’t from around the Empire.

Yet, there had been no sign of him, despite them arriving in their ambush spot before dawn. He normally hated getting up before the sun, but if Delwin was correct about the worth of the magical clothing he was wearing, then it would be worth it. Not that he had any knowledge of where he could find a buyer for it, as magic was still a relatively new addition to the Empire with the sudden changes with people becoming Mages and Martials while Scissions and Apertures appeared all over the land. His own family was blessed when all but one of his siblings had undergone the change, though as far as he was concerned, it was all that was owed to them and more.

Alwhin had become a Martial and was already Level 6 along with his brothers, with crazy Corwhin being another Martial – though they had completely different ideas of how to fight. Corwhin was more of a “throw myself directly into danger without thought of the consequences” type of person and loved to cut things up with his knives, while Alwhin was more deliberate and waited for the right time to strike with the mace he had crafted in the family forge. It balanced out, though, especially as they had fought hundreds of monsters over the last week in order to increase their Skills and achieve Level 6. They hadn’t actually closed any of the Apertures, of course, because that wasn’t their responsibility and it was too difficult to get that close to them without being overwhelmed, but they also recognized the advantages they could get from fighting the monsters.

Alwhin Gharen

Level 6

Advancement Points (AP) : 2/10

Available AP to Distribute: 0

Stama: 100/100

Strength: 19

Body: 10

Agility: 10

Battle Arts:

Empowered Strike

Fleetfoot

Shield Taunt

Martial Skills:

Stama Subjugation Level 1

Pain Resistance Level 4

Throwing Level 5

Body Regeneration Level 6

Bladed Weapon Expertise Level 7

Dodge Level 9

Blunt Weapon Expertise Level 11

For one, their Skills increased in Level insanely fast when fighting monsters rather than just practicing on their own, which was what led them to do it in the first place when they encountered an ugly, green-skinned bipedal monster out in the forest one day. It had been extremely easy to kill, especially when they ganged up on it, and had led to their first Skill increases since the change. Even Balwin and Delwin, who were Mages instead of Martials, had somehow increased their Magical Detection Skills just by beating the ugly monster to death, which had made them want to practice and learn how to fling around powerful spells.

Unfortunately, such a thing was apparently difficult and took a long time to get right, though Delwin had figured out how to cast a Fireball the day before – and had nearly burned down their house in the process. Balwin was getting close to that point, but hadn’t figured it out yet; as for Alwhin being able to use the Battle Arts that were available to Martials, they were a bit unreliable, and he wasn’t able to initiate them as easily as he knew he should. But his stats alone meant that he was still strong enough with his club to handle this foreigner passing through town.

Alwhin didn’t even blink an eye about killing and robbing the poor bastard, because he – and his brothers – had done the same with a few others that had ventured out of Lakebellow to kill monsters. At first, they were simply going to charge the small groups a fee for being allowed to hunt monsters out in the Scarwood Forest where his family had their cabin (and was therefore their home territory), but when the first group resisted, Alwhin and his brothers were forced to kill them.

Amazingly enough, their Skills increased just as well when killing people as it did with monsters – if not even better. Now, they were taking the opportunity to ambush and kill nearly anyone entering and leaving Lakebellow, though they had to ensure they did it far away from town to stay out of sight of the Protectors; the former town guards had taken it upon themselves to be the main fighting force against the monsters and Apertures and tended to wander around the countryside more than usual, but it was easy enough to estimate their routes. Unfortunately for those townfolk who decided to risk helping out with that objective in order to improve their newfound powers, they weren’t as disciplined or skilled as the Protectors, which meant that they were practically helpless against the Gharen brothers.

Now, with whatever this stranger possessed, if they didn’t sell it to buy better weapons and armor, then it was possible that Alwhin might even be able to use it himself. That, of course, depended upon what it actually did, but with how much magic was swirling around it that Delwin could see, he figured it was at least somewhat powerful.

The thought that it might make the stranger so strong that he would be able to resist their ambush never crossed his mind. It was simply unfathomable, especially considering that he and his brothers were likely the highest Level and therefore the strongest individuals in Lakebellow, if one were to discount the Protectors, who were constantly fighting and were undoubtedly slightly higher in Level. But none of them were here to help the stranger, as most of them were out to the west closing yet another Aperture.

“He couldn’t have missed him,” Alwhin responded with an irritable whisper. “We’ve been watching the road all day and we would’ve seen him. The only possibilities are he that he left before we even arrived, or he’s leaving later.” He could only hope that it was the second reason, as he hated wasting his time, but he couldn’t help but start to doubt the stranger was even coming. It was foolish to set out on the next leg of your travels so late in the day as the dark would bring about a heightened danger of being ambushed by monsters, but who knew what kinds of stupid thoughts these foreign strangers had? That he had survived a potential journey from Enderflow was probably due to complete luck if that was the case.

They waited in relative silence for another hour before Alwhin decided to call it quits for the day. He figured that he would have to go back into town and find out what happened to the stranger, before making plans to ambush him when he finally left – because he was certain that the man hadn’t left before them. He also wouldn’t be heading back toward the southwest, given that he had just come from there, and this was the only other road leading away from town.

So, why isn’t he here?

He had no explanation, but he’d had enough and had wasted too much time. He’d make that stranger pay for doing this to him; while he couldn’t be killed twice, there was also the possibility of torture. Perhaps if the man was restrained and then Delwin began burning the foreigner’s body parts with his Fireball spell—

“Bro, I think that’s him coming—”

Interrupted of his thoughts about torturing the stranger, Alwhin looked toward the road to see a figure toward the west, which was getting larger at a slightly alarming rate. How fast is he moving? How is that possible?

Despite the strange sight of what he was quickly able to identify as their intended mark racing down the road with incredible speed, Alwhin was irritated enough with having had to wait so long that he gestured for the others to get ready to move. It was going to be impossible to ambush the man using superior speed, so they were going to have to stop him with their strength and prevent him from being able to escape.

When the man was within 150 feet of their location, he began to reduce the speed of his running for some reason, but rather than be curious about why there was a change, Alwhin could only be happy that they wouldn’t have to go chasing this fool down. By the time the stranger was nearly even with them, he was only moving at what could be considered a light jog, and the elder sibling gave the signal to his brothers to attack.

Gripping the handle of his mace in his hand as he stood up from behind the bush he had been crouched behind, Alwhin took off toward the man who had stopped and was watching them emerge from the forest with confusion followed by what appeared to be irritation. Is he irritated that he’s being attacked? I’m going to smash that look off his face and enjoy doing it.

“Really? Why are you doing this? You should be fighting the monsters and closing Apertures, not attacking people along the road like a common bandit.”

Being called a common bandit, an insult to someone like himself, made Alwhin stumble a little in his run, but the man’s tone of voice was so dismissive that it made him breathe heavily as a film of pure rage filtered over his vision. All he could think of by that point was popping the stranger’s head like an overripe melon with his weapon, and there was nothing the foreigner could do to stop him. He and his brothers were powerful enough that nothing could stand in their way—

As Alwhin felt the heat of a Fireball shoot past him toward the man, the stranger sighed and said, “Well, I guess this means I can test out my new creations; not quite what I had intended, but I’m tired of all this.” As he spoke, he waved his hand and what looked like three rocks shot out in an arc toward him and his crazy brother Corwhin. Something about those rocks screamed danger to him and even in his enraged state he knew it wasn’t a good idea to be touched by them. His Martial brother amazingly thought the same thing and dove to the side with him, landing in the grass alongside the road with a roll.

Springing to his feet, he noticed that the man had completely underestimated his throws and they had instead landed far short of Alwhin and his brother, and he chuckled at how inept the foreigner was. “You missed,” he snorted out with a short laugh.

“Did I?”

Staring impassively at the two brothers, along with Balwin rushing up behind them, the man just stood there as the Fireball that Delwin had cast hit him in the chest. He didn’t even try and avoid it for some reason, and Alwhin expected him to suddenly catch flame from the impact – but that wasn’t what happened. Instead, the ball of flames seemed to bounce off his clothes, leaving only a minor scorch mark where it hit. As it hit the ground, the fireball fizzled out a second later, proving to be completely ineffective against the foreigner. Bells of alarm rang through his head at the sight, but aside from staring at the stranger for a few seconds at the sight of the fireball bouncing off the man’s shirt, his brother had apparently decided that this was the time to attack – and Alwhin couldn’t let him go in alone. It was at about that time that Balwin also caught up with them and kept going on his run, so the three of them rushed forward in a spread-out line, coming at the foreigner from slightly different angles. It wasn’t as good as attacking from completely opposite sides, but it should be more than enough to kill the man before he could do anything else.

Another Fireball was cast by Delwin at the same time, who targeted the man’s head; his aim was spot-on as it rushed right toward the impassive expression on the man’s annoying face, only to be blocked by a bare raised arm, which took the spell entirely this time. Unfortunately, the entire arm didn’t like on fire as a result, but Alwhin could see the that there was some definite discoloration along the man’s skin as he was badly burned. That was more than enough for him, though, as the distraction was all that the other brothers needed to rush in and finish him off.

Alwhin was probably within 20 feet and closing fast when he felt something catch his foot, causing him to trip and fall to his hands and knees, catching himself with his hands as his mace was knocked out of it to tumble away from him. He didn’t get a chance to look back at what tripped him as a mass of brown tree roots burst out from the ground around him and wrapped around his lower legs and arms. He used his prodigious strength to pull and rip them apart, but another root that snaked around his neck threw him into a panic – especially as he felt something sharp pricking into his skin where the roots were touching. In his panic he flailed around, ripping apart a few of the roots in the process and even managed to loosen the one around his neck, but the roots only seemed to multiply and wrap themselves around him even further.

“Help!” he tried to shout, but the root around his neck made it come out a bit garbled to the point where it was more of a gurgle than a comprehensible word. Looking to his left where Corwhin should be, he found his brother frozen in mid-run like a statue in a hazy cloud of what appeared to be small ice crystals. Even as he watched, still attempting to free himself from the roots, the skin all over his brother’s hands and face suddenly burst asunder as reddish crystals emerged from inside his body, before he toppled over with a *thud* and the sound of ice cracking.

What? What happened to him? What did that man do to my brother?!

His anger at seeing the death of his brother by some magical means he didn’t understand pushed back the mounting fear Alwhin was experiencing as he redoubled his efforts to free himself, only for his hands to become sliced up and slippery with his own blood as thorns on the roots made them harmful to handle.

Managing to turn his head to the other side to look for help from Balwin, it was just in time to watch his brother stagger to his knees in a full-on collapse. The skin on Balwin’s face and arms appeared sallow and thin, and any of the fat that he’d had – which wasn’t much – had disappeared, leaving his brother looking like a corpse rather than something living. Soon enough, after a few more seconds of watching, the latter observation came true as Balwin fell to the side, his skeletal frame erasing most of the features that made his brother who he was and making him seem like a stranger. It was almost as if all the life had been sucked out of him or consumed in some unknown manner.

“Hold on, Alwhin! I’ll burn them off of you!”

The voice of his only remaining brother startled him, as he was staring in horror at Balwin’s desiccated corpse, before he felt an impact followed by a wash of heat that started burning at his legs.

“You stupid idiot! You’re going to burn me alive!” was what he wanted to shout, but yet another root had wrapped around his neck, cutting off not only his breathing but his circulation. As he screamed internally at the fire burning him from below, his eyes widened in shock as the thorns all over the roots wrapped around his body and his limbs suddenly stabbed into him, digging into his flesh with ease. The next moment, the agony of being ripped apart as the roots wrapping him up tightened and shredded his skin and muscles overshadowed the heat of the fire burning through both the roots and his legs.

As his throat was slit and he swiftly bled out from hundreds of bodily wounds, Alwhin’s last sight as he lifted his head in defiance was the still-impassive face of the stranger staring off into the distance.  He knew exactly what he was looking at, and his last thought was of his last living brother.

Run, Delwin, run! You can’t beat—

Alwhin Gharen wasn’t able to finish the thought as he slipped into the eternal darkness of death.