Soulweaver 78: Ambushed (Patreon)

That would’ve been a solid plan… Had it been any normal animal.

“Well,” I said. “I guess we now know what happened to the other strike teams.”

“Guards! Defense!”

The fully armored guards—Samaul thankfully had the presence of mind to armor everyone up before exiting the forest—pointed an array of polearms and swords at our enemies… Who surrounded us in all directions.

Yep… We’d been led into an ambush. Forming a semicircle around us were no fewer than a dozen enemy troops, and they came in all shapes and sizes.

From rabid dog-like abominations to Hobgoblins that wore thick furs to hedgehogs with terrifying, bloody razor discs instead of faces… That last one freaked me out the most. Aside from the nastiness, they groaned and squealed, like they were constantly in pain, and looked very much not natural. Whatever twisted fuck had modified them had a mind I did not care to know.

And right now, all of them were looking at us like prey.

A thump from the forest made me look around, and suddenly, the razor hedgehogs proved the least of my worries. What was following us was no scout. 

I groaned. “Is that what I think it is?”

“For all of our sakes, let us pray not,” Samael replied, tightening his grip on his halberd.

From out of the forest appeared a ten-foot-tall juggernaut, with a mottled, pale gray orcish face, muscular build, and yellowed bone armor that peeked through the gaps of the thick furs he wore. The Predator-Urukai hybrid scanned our group and sneered.

He barked out a command, and the battle was on.

The five dog-monsters moved in first, angling and darting in erratic ways. We didn’t carry bows, but I doubted anything short of a master archer could’ve hit them.

Our four remaining guards encircled Aerion and me the best they could, but it was four-on-five, and unlike all the kung fu movies I’d ever seen, the others didn’t just stand around to watch. 

The Urukai commander sprung at us from behind, while the two Hobs lumbered behind the dog monsters. It wouldn’t be long before they joined the fray.

Individually, I was confident we could take on any of these guys—maybe even the commander. Together, though? We were at a massive disadvantage, and that was putting it lightly. These guys had slaughtered every team we’d sent out, and all of those had Boonworthy and Blessed.

“Aerion, Reave,” I muttered, but she was already on it. Somewhat predictably, she latched onto the largest threat—the commander, and launched out of our guard’s protective circle to engage.

Not the most ideal defensive move, but then again, I didn’t really want anyone near her when she was in her Berserker mode. So far, she’d managed to tell friend and foe apart in our tests, but who knew how long that would last?

To his credit, the enemy commander was not expecting an aggressive surprise attack. Let alone from the frailest-looking member of our group.

Aerion scored a deep hit, her blade slipping through the gaps of the enemy’s bone armor, but if he felt any pain, he certainly didn’t show it.

By the time he’d recovered, Aerion was behind him, slashing away. It was just about the worst possible matchup for a big brute like him. Aerion excelled at mobility.

Of course, I wasn’t going to leave her hanging. “Take care of the small fry. We’ll handle the commander,” I shouted at Samaul.

“We’ll handle them,” he shouted back, as he gored one of the dogs. With that level of badassery, he just might. I didn’t have the time to worry about the commander.

I’d hauled my poleax through the forest, mostly because even with my expanded inventory size, the long weapon wouldn’t fit. That, and it had a pretty potent first strike.

[Skunky] activated, blasting the alien monster in the face. I never expected it to seriously distract a grizzled veteran, as I’m sure our enemy was, but it did force him to look away from Aerion for a split-second.

That was enough for Aerion’s [Shock] to activate, right as she plunged her shortsword into his abdomen. The blade’s [Venom Strike] ability activated again, though against a foe of this caliber, she’d probably need a few dozen hits for it to really start to work.

That was alright, because the poleax and the mace in my inventory were no longer my only weapons. That, and I had a nifty new trick up my sleeve. One I was sure Predator wouldn’t expect. The only catch was… I had to get closer.

I tried to sneak up behind the thing, but with how quickly it and Aerion changed directions, and with how much they moved around, the task was impossible. Fights were rarely ever static, and fights between a Blessed and… whatever the hell that thing was? Even less so. They’d moved fifteen feet from where they’d first started.

Which worked in my favor, because after a few more seconds, the battle naturally came my way.

And I was ready.

With my full concentration, I summoned [Light of the Fearless] from my inventory, except I did it in a slightly unusual way.

The weapon jumped out of a portal right in front of me… Angled up and out, toward the enemy. My inventory’s new [Aim] ability. This was the first time I’d be using it in actual combat.

I timed it perfectly. The monster jumped back, away from Aerion’s blade at the exact moment my own blade exited the inventory.

Its exit wasn’t especially fast—it didn’t fly out like a missile, or anything, and the portal had to be within a couple of feet of me—but it was unstoppable. That was to say, neither Aerion nor I had found a way of shoving the blade back in once it’d come out. I’d even tried it with some throwaway blades against a stone wall, and instead of going back in, the blade itself bent and broke.

Unfortunately for our enemy, he was neither a wall nor made of stone. 

Both [Light of the Fearless], the blade’s namesake ability, and [Shadow of the Fearless], had been active when I’d stuck the blade in, and so they were still active when it popped out.

The thing sliced right through the Urukai’s bone armor and pierced his entire body, skewering him.

I caught the handle as it emerged from my inventory, twisting it to enlarge the wound.

This time, he did scream. Loudly.

Aerion, still under the effects of [Reave] mercilessly cut into him as he flailed, trying to push himself off of my sword, which he did in about three seconds. I had to hand it to this guy, he was a machine.

Too bad for him, Aerion had inflicted about a dozen more cuts during the time he was impaled, and some of them were pretty deep.

While our enemy seemed nearly impervious to pain, his wounds didn’t magically heal, to my immense relief.

That relief was cut short the next moment when his whole body lit up, with golden lines tracing all over his body.

Static filled the air, and sharp crackling sounds made the hair on my back stand on edge.

“Shit! Everyone run!”

I didn’t know what that was, but glowing lines gave me serious ‘Magical Superpower about to ruin your day’ vibes.

The crackling grew louder, and arcs of electricity spread like spiderwebs from the commander’s corpse.

Turned out I was right. There was never a moment where I wished I wasn’t.

Golden beams erupted from the Predator’s body, tracing arcs that speared off in a dozen directions. Wherever they touched the ground, the soil turned black. Where they hit flesh… It vaporized.

The guards who’d heard me managed to put a few extra feet between themselves and the commander, but not everyone was in a position to react.

One of the commander’s own attack dog-beasts was the first to go. The beam cleaved its body in half. As it did the head of the guard team that had been wrestling with it.

Then it was my turn. 

A beam arced by me, forcing me to shimmy frantically away, avoiding it by mere inches. These things thankfully had no will of their own, moving on what looked like random arcs, but that made them only slightly less terrifying.

It was only then that I managed to glance at Aerion, fearing I’d find nothing more than dismembered body parts, and hoping beyond hope she hadn’t stupidly charged at the creature. 

Aerion was still intact. That was the good news. The soul-crushing bad news was that she was unconscious, and one of the lasers was making a beeline straight for her hand.

Cursing, I aimed and threw my poleax at the monster, who whirled. That action caused a bunch of the golden beams to move… Something I had not anticipated at all.

Luckily, the beams moved away from Aerion. They also sliced Samaul clean in half.

I watched as the man twitched, then turned and looked my way, before his upper half slid cleanly off his legs.

The laser beams winked out at that precise moment. One second earlier, and he’d be alive. Just a single second.

Samaul, our commander, was dead.

It was only several moments later that I realized the field had gone silent. The Hobs that had been fighting off the remaining two guards stared stupidly at me, allowing the guards to skewer one in the heart, taking it down.

I wrenched my eyes off Samaul’s corpse… And belatedly realized the speartip of my poleax was sticking out of the enemy commander’s neck. The creature was currently twitching on the ground, making gurgling noises as the life left him. A lucky shot. Nothing more, nothing less.

I searched for Aerion, and heaved a breath to find her still lying on the ground, unconscious. 

The lone remaining Hob bellowed a guttural roar—which I took to mean ‘fuck this’, threw down his club, and ran for his life.

Unfortunately, his last remaining buddy had other ideas. A buzzing sound caught my attention, sending a chill ripple up my spine. It sounded nothing like a chainsaw—just a high pitched whistle and the sound of chopped up soil, which was somehow infinitely scarier.

“Fuck!”

The thing saw me standing near the corpse of its master, and came charging at full speed. The guards were too far. They’d never make it in time. Except, I realized belatedly it wasn’t charging at me. It was going for the person sitting halfway between us—wait…

Sitting?

Aerion had sat up and was groggily rubbing her head, completely oblivious to the danger. She wore armor over her chest, but her extremities were in danger. I didn’t know how lethal those buzzsaw hedgehogs were, but even a minor wound would be disastrous for us. Going into a dungeon injured sounded like a great way to die.

“Aerion” I screamed, running like a madman for her position. 

She stared at me blankly, half-awake.

I did the only thing I could. I launched into a diving tackle and wrapped my arms around Aerion, while opening my inventory and ejecting every disposable item I had.

My Steel Mace, old Steel Plate armor, jeans, and Aerion’s old dagger all came flying out, aimed at the beast. 

It was a hasty, last-minute summon, so several missed, and even the ones that hit did no damage… But it did surprise the hedgehog, throwing it off enough to narrowly miss my pauldrons with its buzzing armor.

The saw  nicked my gauntlet, and its momentum kept it going for several paces.

Right into the waiting blades of our two remaining guards, who gored it with their spears. The thing jerked, let out a pathetic squeal, and keeled over.

A deluge of System Messages scrolled by, filling my HUD.

Congratulations! Vigor has increased from 39 to 42.

Congratulations! Wisdom has increased from 26 to 27.

Congratulations! Grace has increased from 23 to 25.

Congratulations! Cunning has increased from 22 to 23.

Congratulations! Dominion has increased from 37 to 39.

Congratulations! [Initializer] has leveled up to Emergence - 6. Max Essence Increased from 230 to 250. Essence Utilization: 217/250. Would you like to reclaim Initialized equipment?

“Um, Greg?” Aerion squeaked, pulling me out of my thoughts. Her cheeks were red, and only then did I realize I’d been staring right into her eyes this whole time.

“Yeah?” I asked, heaving above her.

“Would… Would you mind getting off? You’re kinda heavy.”