Zero Potential: Chapter 22 (Patreon)

Chapter 22

Terra stood over the charred burnt husk of an Immortal. Looking down, she could see that the rumors of an Immortal’s ethereal beauty were not wrong, as this creature before her was stunning. Even with half his body burnt and blood covering most of his face, he was well and truly handsome.

“Thou,” The Immortal began, his words coming out choked due to the clear pain he was in. “Thou art a monster.”

At that Terra could only grin maliciously, as she prepared for what to do next. Then with a sudden burst of laughter, she decided to tell the monster before her what she truly felt.

“I’m a monster, but yet, here you are a trained dog of an assassin set to strike down a little girl.”

“What? What does thou mean? I was sent here to get you.”

“Me?” Terra asked, tensing her body for the inevitable retaliatory attack that she knew would soon come.

“Yes, you are the awakened,” he said, before sniffing the air. “Yes, and as we had hoped you have not been corrupted by the others.”

“The others?” Terra asked, suddenly wondering whether she should just kill this lunatic where he stood. Clearly, he was in the process of stalling for more time, but why? That was the only thing that didn’t seem to make much sense to her at the moment. Well, stalling for time was never something to be avoided, but using this as an excuse to stall, that was a bit much.

Realizing it was best to remove this threat while she could, she acted.

Piercing Rock Spike.

Shape Rock.

“GAHHHH!!” The Immortal cried out in pain.

In rapid succession Terra cast spells, her staff making the process of wielding mana easy as she first began by generating dozens of rock spikes that impaled the momentarily docile Immortal. The minute the spikes were through, she began crafting the tips to continue to spray forth rock particles as if they were an active volcano that spewed forth liquid stone. After which she had the rock flows form down into reverse spikes that threatened to further impale the monster, if it tried to rise up from its momentary prison.

For an Immortal this was little more than a safety precaution. Even near-death Immortals were said to be able to regenerate from even these grievous wounds. Yet, Terra didn’t stop there, as she began lowering the Immortal into a veritable grave of earth and stone. Then she went about reinforcing the stone spikes that jutted through the monster.

By the time she was done, barbed spikes protruded from every open wound. Any movement, slight or minor would be met by piercing stone spikes that threatened to rip the monster to pieces.

The Immortal just looked on in a form of shock, that and the fact that most of its vital nerve clusters and the base of its spine were severed by the first spike made it impossible for the Immortal to do much else.

Even with help, Terra assumed the monster before her would be down for at least a month. Yet, she made sure to keep its vocal cords and at least one lung in working order.

Rasping.

The Immortal sat there, wheezing blood choked breath after blood choked breath.

Looking at the monster, Terra couldn’t help but have a twinge of respect for the creature, as even now it fought defiantly for life.

Silence.

“Now you can call me a monster.” Terra said, looking down at the still burnt, and impaled creature.

Defeated chuckle.

Laughter, the dry laughter of someone who was pushed to the brink of death and beyond broke free of the beast.

“Why don’t you kill me?” He finally wheezed.

“I think we both know how that would go.” Terra states.

Chuckling.

He was a corned dog, one that was slowly giving way to madness. “So you believe the old wives tales about Killing Immortals?”

“The one where you inherit their curse if you kill them?” Terra began, but then stopped herself for regardless of how she answered that, she knew it would not be good for her.

“Yeah, don’t tell me you believe in superstitious rumors?” He chides.

On the wind, Terra could feel a few figures that were coming directly for her. Realizing that there might be some credence to what the Immortal said, about him only searching for Terra and not the child was a bit concerning. Never trust an Immortal, they always lie.

Realizing that she now needed to leave before she had two sets of monsters after her. The fact that those that were coming could not disperse her Wind spells did make it seem that they were either not as skilled with Wind magic as this Immortal, or they were not fellow Immortals.

If they were humans, she would deal with them. If they were Immortals who were masking their presence by purposefully being picked up by wind magic, well she would deal with those people the same way.

“Good luck getting out.” Terra said, before turning away and beginning to slowly walk away. Her plan was simple, place the pinned Immortal between her and her pursuers. If it was a fellow Immortal, then the pinned Immortal would be freed. If it was humans, then Terra knew she wouldn’t have to worry about the humans.

As she walked away, Terra found herself mentally she wondered if the monster could teleport with rocks and debris around it. Mentally, Terra knew she could as she would focus on her body and her belongings, but she wondered if what the Immortal used was in fact Teleportation, or an intense speed burst that was somehow fooling her spatial senses. That or what she also figured could be the case was that Immortals while having a much larger pool of energy to draw upon, might take longer to recharge said energy, particularly the closer they got to morning.

“I will find you.” The Immortal managed his powers of regeneration, apparently already able to heal his bleeding lung.

“I have no doubt.” Terra said, coldly. Then she felt the mind of the Immortal roll off the edge of her Obfuscation Aura, as she continued to lead monsters and men alike away from those who had trusted her with their protection.

Looking down at the still glowing pendant, Terra realized that this was turning out to be a rather interesting day.

***

“Be careful, they should be around here.” A male leader called out, as a bright blue light glowed in a singular direction through the woods.

“How far can they have gotten?” A second voice asked.

“I don’t…” A third voice cried out, but then stopped. “Boss, you need to see this.”

“What?” The leader called out, already frustrated that the person holding the pendant was so far ahead.

Then in a matter of moments half a dozen well-trained scouts gathered around a body that despite being impaled numerous times still looked to be alive.

“Oh Gods, what did she do?”

“Who is that?”

“Is that Steve?”

“No, Steve wishes he looked that good.”

“He’s dead.”

“Even dead, this guy clearly has it over Steve.”

“Enough!” Granger, the lead tracker called out. Instantly a hush fell over the group that had all gathered around the beautiful corpse stapled to the ground.

Granger wanted to say something, but then realized if he did it would only cause problems later on. The members of his group were clearly trying to hide the fact that they were all frightened by what they were witnessing. Even now part of Granger’s own mind wondered if there was something to this, if this was some form of an Illusion. He had heard about such magics, one designed to catch people off guard. Realizing that this corpse looked far too healthy, he decided to test out his thoughts on the person just pretending to be passed out.

“Hey Dathen, go over there and stab the body with your little poker.” Granger said.

“What?” Dathen asked, outraged.

“Not that little poker, the only on your side.” Granger said.

Chuckle.

Just as expected the joke at the newest member’s expense was well received. Seeing a body was always concerning.

“Yeah, stick him.” Bulher said, adding to Granger’s authority by his saying the action was called for.

“But he’s dead.” Dathen said.

“Then he won’t mind you poking around with your little poker, now will he?” Granger asked.

With that, the others quickly joined in. No one wanted to be the one to have to do a check on the monster, but everyone did want to make sure this wasn’t a trap of some kind.

“Okay.” Dathen said, as he pulled out his dagger and reluctantly moved forward. He moved forward, one reluctant step after another, until final he was within arm’s reach of the monster.

“Well?” Jackson asked.

“Well what?” Dathen asked, holding up his dagger, but suddenly stopping at the random question.

“Well, is he dead?” Jackson asked.

“I don’t know.” Dathen said, pausing in place as fear gripped him.

“Well use your little dagger and check for his pulse with it.” Jackson said.

Laughter.

At that, the other members of the hunting party started laughing at the panicked look on the boy’s face.

Dathen was about to move, when finally he asked. “Shouldn’t we be following that stone?” He said, while pointing to the tracking orb in Granger’s hands.

“Aye, we should. But it is clear that the person we are tracking was capable of this. Now either it is a trap designed to capture us from behind, or it is something we need to be aware of from the people we are tracking. Either way, we need to know.” Granger said.

“Right.” Dathen said, pausing.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” Illain said, her bow drawn and her voice full of confidence.

Hearing and seeing her ready to lodge an arrow into the downed warrior made Dathen fill a bit better about this whole thing. In his mind, he still felt that this was some test of some kind. But since everyone was so adamant about it, he held up his blade. Then pausing at its apex for someone to tell him to stop, he looked around. “I’m about to do it.”

“Then do it already!” Bulher shouted.

Hearing that, Dathen lunged forward, dropping to his knees and stabbing the blade down with as much force as possible. This was his best strike ever. Everything was going perfectly, his angle was correct, he saw the location he was aiming for perfectly, a spot directly between two protruding rips.

Thump, shink, snap.

A number of sounds echoed all at once. First the sound of Dathen’s knees hitting the ground, followed shortly by the sound of his dagger striking and then bouncing off, followed by the blade of the very same dagger breaking upon impact.

Dathen just stared down in horror at what he had done to his blade, his sign that he had made it as a member of the Thorn of Halos guild.

“Wha?” Was all Dathen managed, before he saw a blur out of the corner of his eye.

Instantly, his mind thought it was a rat streaking across the field. Frightened by the idea of a giant quick moving rat, he tried to hide, diving towards the dead corpse.

Snap!

Only to find that the rat turned mid movement, then before he could register what made the sound, Dathen felt an intense pain in his leg.

“About time.” The melodic voice of the dead body cooed as he began rising up.

Dathen watched in horror as the monster began to rise through the stone spikes that protruded from its chest cavity.

Thump, thump, thunk.

Arrows from all around began flying at and into the dead corpse that was now sitting upright. Dathen tried to run, but soon found himself on the floor as his leg was being held. No, not just held, it was broken, the snapping sound he heard a moment ago was that of his own leg being broken in place.

“IMMORTAL!” Granger called out.

Then like an echo in a cave system, the cry was repeated over and over by the other members.

Unperturbed by the arrows, the monster just raised its hand. By doing so, Dathen found himself being easily pulled back towards the monster.

“I was wondering when you would get close enough.” The monster said seductively, as suddenly Dathen found his mind clouded. The fears he had a moment ago were suddenly gone, as all he could think about were those the beautiful eyes before him. Those beautiful silver eyes, and the big beautiful teeth that seemed to go along with them. Teeth in a mouth that grew wider and wider, until they threatened to block out the sun.

Snap.

***

A few minutes later, a blood covered Immortal was seen, holding a glowing blue orb as he smiled to himself.

“You humans do have some interesting tricks.”

Then leaving behind a trail of desiccated corpses in his wake, the Immortal followed the glowing blue light into the deep forest. The sun was up, but that would not be a problem for the Immortal, having so recently fed.

“Such interesting tricks indeed.” The Immortal said, as a malicious smile filled his face as he looked forward to once again finding the person at the end of the glowing blue orb, a person he was certain he desperately wanted to meet again.