BT - Book 1 - Chapter 57 (Patreon)

Micah’s eyes never left the goat.  With Trevor’s help he’d led the animal out into the deep deep forest, where the trees began to give way to foothills.  Right now, it was tired to a tree, eating grass casually while Micah and Trevor felt vaguely foolish.  It didn’t help that the stag sat in the glade right behind them, judging them in between mouthfuls of its own grass.

Trevor shifted next to him.  They’d made sure to build a blind with the help of Micah’s plant weave, a small hut of roots and leaves that blended masterfully into the landscape.  Micah even remembered to check the Folio for his notes on weather conditions for the day so that they could place the blind downwind from the goat.

Then, nothing happened for almost four hours.  A branch broke, drawing Micah’s attention to a raccoon scurrying through the sparse undergrowth.  He sighed.  The goat lay down in the cool grass under the tree it was tied to, resting its face against its delicately folded hooves.

Micah wasn’t sure if it was trying to mock him, but watching the animal fall asleep while Trevor and him were stuck, crouched and in cramped quarters, did nothing to improve his mood.  

He grimaced at the pain in his legs and lower back.  Maybe he’d overestimated his abilities a bit.  Sarah and Drekht had always handled the specific details of planning their missions.  His role had always been healing and magical support while the others handled the more mundane day to day details of adventuring.

Maybe it wasn’t as much of an issue when he was raiding dungeons with overwhelming force.  There wasn’t that much to do beyond fighting when monsters charged you, heedless of their own wellbeing.

An antler gently poked Micah in the back.  He glanced at the stag, but it’s eyes were fixed over his shoulder at the goat tied to the tree.  Micah’s eyes flickered back to the animal.

It was standing now, pulling at its bindings in an attempt to escape the rope.  It bleated in distress, jerking its head to the side as it tried to unseat the collar that Micah had fitted it with.  He couldn’t see what had spooked it, but Micah could tell that it was only a matter of time.

Trevor tensed next to him as the air of the forest seemed to still.  It took Micah a second to realize that the various birds and animals had all fallen silent.  Even the goat stopped trying to escape, instead huddling close to the ground, as if it wouldn’t be spotted if it could make its body small enough.

A dark shape slammed into the goat, bringing it to the ground in a spray of dirt and blood.  Trevor jumped, almost knocking Micah over as his entire body jerked at the sudden appearance of the attacker.  The goat’s panicked scream almost drowned out Trevor’s startled yelp, but Micah didn’t let either distract him.

Seconds later he spotted it.  The panther’s mate prowled just at the corners of his vision, flowing from shadow to shadow as it kept an eye on the animal mauling the goat in front of them.

Micah tapped Trevor on the shoulder, pointing to the hidden animal and then himself.  Then he pointed at the panther trying to carry off the now dead goat before pointing at Trevor.  His brother nodded, gripping the spear tightly.  

He put three fingers up.  Then two.  Micah tensed his legs, preparing himself to spring forward.  One finger.  

Then they were moving, the words to pressure spear falling from Micah’s lips.  The spell emptied his Sun mana entirely, but the bolt of gasses hit the startled panther like a runaway carriage, knocking it from its perch on a nearby tree branch.

Micah reached the falling animal a moment after it hit the ground.  Grunting, he arrested his charge to let its claws pass just in front of his face as the injured monster took a swipe at him. Mentally he made a note of the panther’s incredibly quick recovery time as Micah countered with gale thrust, his mana transforming into small vortexes of air magic that sped his spear into the crouching monster.

It jerked to the side, liquid darkness flowing away from the spearhead fast enough that Micah’s stab did little more than trace a line of red along its heavily muscled side.  He activated his spear’s sonic enchantments just as it hit the panther, his hands shaking slightly as the thrum of energy transferred into the monster.

The beast backed away slowly, circling Micah as blood began to flow freely from its two wounds, staining its murky pelt.  He didn’t dare to glance back at Trevor.  Although he’d injured his target, he’d also underestimated it.  Despite Micah’s best efforts, neither of the wounds actually impaired the panther’s ability to fight.  All he’d done was drain it of some hit points and piss it off.

The panther swiped at him, its paw moving so fast that Micah’s eyes could barely track it.  He jerked back only for his ankle to catch on some undergrowth, unbalancing him.  

Micah fell over backward, gritting his teeth as he realized that the root he’d tripped on was infused with the panther’s mana.  It was only fair he supposed as the ground rushed toward him.  He used plant weave all of the time to interfere with his opponent’s movements, it was only a matter of time before a monster used something like it back on him.

The breath rushed out of MIcah’s lungs as he slammed onto the ground.  He pulsed mana into his spear just in time to see the rainbow pre-image of the panther leaping on top of him.  

There wasn’t time.  He’d never be able to get his spear in position before the animal pinned him.

 Instead, he cast updraft, the force of the wind catching the flying cat and carrying it upward just enough that its forward momentum carried it past him.  

Micah scrambled to his feet just as the panther righted itself.  From the corner of his eye, he spied Trevor struggling with the other monster.  With the help of the stag he’d avoided any major injuries so far, but Micah knew that it was only a matter of time.  He needed to finish his opponent off quickly if he wanted to avoid  having the big cat bat his brother around like a stuffed mouse.

The panther snarled at him, slapping the ground with a paw.  Micah felt a burst of magic as a cloud of dust enveloped the monster, obscuring his vision.  Instinctively, he activated the spear’s time enchantment once more.

Grunting, he pulled his spear into position, planting its butt on the ground and lining the head up with the prismatic streak of the oncoming monster.  Each moment stretched out eternally.  Even with the help of the haste effect, Micah felt like he was pulling his body through hardening molasses.  Then, the enchantment effect ended.

The weapon jerked as the panther crashed into it, Micah using every point of his body attribute to keep the spear from being ripped from his hands.  The cloud of dirt dissipated and the big cat’s eyes widened at the haft sprouting from its chest.

Micah ignored his mana exhaustion headache and activated the sonic enchantment once more.  The spear vibrated in his hands, heated to an uncomfortable level by the amount of magic he’d poured into it in short order. 

The panther’s eyes misted, blood trickling from its jaws as it jerked for a second or two before it stilled.  Micah let out a breath of relief before turning back to the other monster.

Trevor sported a large cut down his side from where he’d been too slow to avoid one of his opponents claws.  The big cat on the other hand  bore the marks of at least two spear stabs and one fairly nasty set of antler marks.

The three of them circled each other, the panther, clearly the strongest of the three combatants, unable to leverage that advantage.  Every time it made a move toward either Trevor or the stag, the other would step forward to take advantage of the slip in the monster’s focus.

Micah flipped his panther onto the ground, planting his foot on its chest to pull the still warm spear from its cooling body.  It twitched once, a final spasm of dying nerves.  Micah stabbed the spear through its throat a second time, just to be sure.

Satisfied that the panther wouldn’t spring on him the minute his back was turned, Micah fully turned his attention to the one his companions were fighting.  Even two on one, the monster was an artist, attacking the moment either of them made a mistake and flowing away from attacks before Micah’s companions could actually land a decisive blow.

Checking his mana levels, Micah winced slightly.  Constant spellcasting and the use of his spear’s enchantments had drained him fairly low.  He still had enough in him for a couple of spells, but given the way Trevor was favoring his right leg, he wanted to save enough mana for an augmented mending if at all possible.

With a flick of his wrist and a moment of concentration, Micah cast plant weave.  The shade panther reacted instinctively, leaping away from Trevor and the stag in order to avoid the spell.  He was slightly disappointed in its reflexes, but not terribly surprised that a monster with wood affinity was able to sense his spell.

A grin on his face, Micah cast sonic bolt.  The distortion left by the dissonant squeal of the spell slammed into the panther mid-air, disrupting its balance enough that the agile animal landed in a heap.  A fraction of a second later, Micah was on top of it, his spear digging into the soft tissue under its right leg, punching through its rib cage and into its heart.

It thrashed, claws and fangs flashing just out of reach.  Micah frowned and triggered the sonic enchantment once more.  The spear hummed, and the panther went limp as the vibrations bypassed the monster’s skin and flesh, wreaking havoc directly on its tender internal organs.

Trevor walked up next to him, a noticeable limp slowing his gait as he panted for breath.

“Thanks man,” he winced as his left leg gave out slightly, quickly shifting his weight to the right.  “That fight wasn’t going nearly as well as I would have liked before you stepped in.  The damned things wouldn’t sit still long enough for me to stick it.”

Micah didn’t respond at first, instead powering through his mana deprivation headache to use augmented mending to repair the torn ligaments in Trevor’s knee.  Squinting against the suddenly too bright light he turned back to the two dead panthers.

“The fight was a lot easier last time,”  he mused.  “Probably because I was a couple levels higher and had an entire team behind me.  The agility of those panthers was no joke, but at least with a couple of people ganging up on each one we could fight them safely.  That was a lot more dangerous than I expected.”

“I know you want to keep pushing us,” Trevor wiped his own blood off of his hands and onto his shirt.  “But I think that we’re trying to run before we can walk here.  You know what you’re doing a lot more than I do, but I really would have preferred a couple more attribute points before we tried to tangle with monsters that powerful.”

The deer snorted as it walked up to them.  Micah nodded at it before turning back to the two corpses thoughtfully.

“Well,” he smiled slightly.  “Even if I disagreed with you, it looks like the vote would be two against one.  Still, both of you really smoothed out your fighting styles.  Maybe it was the pressure from a life or death fight, but both of you looked like you’d been fighting side by side for years.”

“I guess,” Trevor looked at the stag and shrugged.  “I can’t just understand it like you do, but I’m starting to get flashes.  Like I just know where it wants me to be.  There aren’t even really words, just a vague feeling of intent.”

The buck grunted.

“I agree,” Micah replied with a sigh before turning back to the two of them.  “The deer thinks that the panthers were hunting for a cub.  If it’s young enough, that means we could look into taming and raising it.”

“Usually,” he smiled wanly, “I’d dismiss that as a waste of time, but it’s pretty clear to me that we need to take a step back on direct combat.  I’ve been meaning to work out affinity improving rituals for both of us, and after I improve your wind affinity Trevor, I think it’s about time for you to join the Lancers.  We’ll need more people and access to dungeons.  If you do well in the guild, we’ll get both.”

“Did you seriously get all of that from one grunt?” Trevor glanced from Micah to the deer and back.

“Yes?” Micah replied, arching an eyebrow.

Trevor rolled his eyes at the two of them  “Whatever,” he muttered.  “Just tell me what to say to the recruiting agent.  I’m sure they’re going to have questions about why I’m level seven so soon after my awakening.”

“Tell them you met a mysterious master who trained you,” Micah grinned back.  “Isn’t that what always happened in the bards tales?  Plus, it’s not even that wrong.  I am fairly mysterious.”