(TLO) Chapter 102: Somewhere In The Distance (Patreon)

The boar bent its head into the shot and took the brunt of it. The bullet struck and bounced off its hide.

Missed, again, his mind thought, bored.

“Come and try it,” he scoffed, charging through the woods, constantly on the move. “See if it’s so easy.”

Who do you think keeps steadying your shaky arms?

Seth’s steps faltered. Their cadence altered. Rather than stop, he darted to the side, took on a new path. It was easy to forget now that it was subconscious. Like in the earlier months of his travel with Jabari, when his mind had first broken, he still allocated tasks to his minds. Unlike then, it was now unconscious. Simply instinctual. It was easy to forget.

He ducked under a low hanging branch, vaulted over a surprisingly fallen tree. He pushed passed the mist, ignoring it as it enveloped each space he left. He ran past a particularly skinny tree, took hold of it and used it as a pivot. His speed unhindered, he turned left and continued on. Finally, he skidded to a falling stop behind another fallen log and imitated Forlorn, readjusted his grip, rested his rifle on it and took aim at a charging bull.

He gave conscious thought to his body, sought out what mind guided what. What he was in conscious control of. He was appalled to find how much he relied on them. One mind guided his vision, enhanced his aim. Another steadied his hand. One was now in charge of his breath so that it slowed when he needed it to. Thrice split. Thrice effective.

The fourth… he frowned. “What’s the new guy doing?”

Playing look out, a mind answered. Now can we do something about the beast. We need to take out its other eye.

“It’s not coming at us,” he said, not sure he trusted the new mind to watch his surroundings. “You sure the new guy’s up for the task?”

Would you rather he did the breathing?

Or the aiming?

Or the seeing?

“Good point,” Seth grumbled under his breath as he looked down his scope. In its sight he found the beast charging in the direction he’d last been.

Another shot rang out, took it in the hind leg. It clipped it enough to stumble the beast, but not enough to fall it. It seemed his brothers were getting the hang of it. despite its silver rank strength, its eyes remained vulnerable to their bullets, and its legs lacked stability.

Our turn? A mind asked.

Seth shook his head barely. “Not yet.”

Another shot struck the boar. Its anger rose and another struck its head.

“That’s a lot of bullets.” He adjusted his position, lying on the dirt with his stomach.

We need to use our allies.

“They’re not smart enough, yet,” he disagreed. “They don’t even know who their protecting… but Timi does.”

Then we just have to find him.

Seth took aim but not at their hunt. He panned his view to the side, the world a cacophony of blurred trees and stagnant mist. He slowed when his attention was on the surrounding he needed. Timi’s last shot had come from there. All he had to do now was seek out his brother. His sight focused, then skimmed around. He paused, confused, unable to find his brother. His mind’s next thoughts held his attention captive.

But how does he know?

Seth opened his mouth and no answer came to him. His awareness was—in a sense—unique. He’d seen enough to know his brothers did not possess one of the same level. Still…

He shook his head, banished the thought. Failed. Tried again. Failed again.

“How does he know?” the words slipped from his lips, unbidden.

How about we kill a reia beast first, then ask questions after? A piece of his mind offered. Doesn’t sound too bad a plan, considering it’s why we’re here.

But there really is a good reason to think about this. We think it best to—

Shut up! Three minds echoed as one and the fourth fell to silence.

They were right. Seth shook the fog he just realized had clouded his mind. If he could do it, it would be hubris to believe there did not exist another capable of similar feat.

“We need to find him,” he said after a moment, rising gently to his feet, quietly. The last thing he wanted was the boar’s attention.

Run? His mind asked. He wasn’t sure which one.

He looked between the reia beast, barely visible through the mist and cacophony of trees, and where Timi could be. The beast was closer.

[Quick Step] would take him far and hard. But did he really need it? the thought queried him as he took a step away; a step towards Timi.

His answer came like a serpent’s tongue, slithering but certain. No. He turned and ran.

Maybe running wasn’t the best idea, a mind panicked as he weaved around trees.

He asked no questions as he ran. Did not try to glean out a reason. It came to him mere moments after. It was in the echoing of stomps, the loud rumbling snorts. It was in the sound of stomping hooves and raging breaths. It was in the ever promised violence of a raging reia beast.

Hurry! Hurry! His mind rushed. Oh, we shouldn’t have run. What ever happened to stealth? Does the seminary even teach stealth?

Ever heard of a priest sneaking into a place and killing quietly before? Another mind mocked even as he ran.

Of course it teaches stealth. Clint teaches it all the time during his lessons.

Seth frowned at their bickering. Even now, with a reia beast strong enough to kill them in a single blow chasing after him, they continued to focus on unimportant things. Filled his head with insignificant information. Useless thoughts. It was difficult to remember they could be useful. Still, he had more pressing matters than the voices in his head.

He turned and leveled his rifle at the beast. The world seemed to hesitate in that moment. It slowed around him, held its very breath. He fired off a shot that nicked the beasts tusk harmlessly and fell back into a tumbled, propelled by the recoil. He held the rifle to him, horizontal against his chest as he fell. The tumble carried him for a while before he was back on his feet, darting off in a different direction.

What was that? A mind scolded. We wasted a shot, and dare we remind us we don’t have a lot left.

Seth ignored it.

Oh, another thought, drawing on the sound in realization. Makes sense.

Seth’s smirk was only momentary. They were the voices in his head. That they would not understand his intentions was a sign they were not attentive to his own thoughts. He was glad to find at least one noticed his intention.

Now he just had to stall. No amount of running would help him find Timi before the boar caught up to him. The beast was already barely ten feet from him. So his best chance was to have Timi find him.

That’s a lot of faith you have in him, a mind thought. More faith than you have in us.

Perhaps, Seth thought as he dived to the side, threw himself with as much force as he could muster. There was more to say but words would break his breathing, and more thoughts would risk him losing himself to his minds.

Some fears were not so easily overcome.

Wow.

He wasn’t certain which of his minds the sound belonged to, but the amazement in it was suffocating.

That’s one determined charge.

Seth barely turned his attention to the stomping that came from somewhere to his side. His attention too focused on the beast turning to impale him, he couldn’t risk the distraction. But it heralded itself with the grace of a silverback guerilla. With a frown and a muttered cuss, he braced himself for whatever came. He wouldn’t be surprised if Emriss had set another reia beast on them.

“[Indomitable Dome]”

The massive boar filled Seth’s vision for the briefest, most terrifying moment, then Timi shot out of nowhere and barreled into its side.

His brother struck the beast like a Humvee. The sound they made wasn’t of flesh or muscles meeting. It was a thing as physical as the action that birthed it.

The shockwave ruffled Seth’s already unkempt hair and he fell to the ground. Before him, Timi charged the once raging boar into the side of a tree, raised both hands and brought them down on its head. The blow rung as loud as the collision. Once. Twice. Thrice. Then a fourth.

He raised his hand for a fifth when the boar swung its head at him. Seth watched the vicious blow connect as he scrambled to his feet. The tusk missed Timi’s side by a breath so that it struck him with its head. It threw him across a distance and into another tree.

Ouch! His mind winced. Seth winced along with it, hurried hands reloading his rifle.

The boar’s tusk had missed Timi so the blow wasn’t so devastating. Still, it was a blow from a silver rank beast, even Silver soul magi didn’t shrug them off so quickly. But no part of him believed he’d need to buy time for too long. [Indomitable Dome] had never struck him as a simple skill. It might still be Iron but it was strong.

Rifle reloaded, he shot the beast again as it rose to its feet, taking cautious steps back, wondering where the rest of his brothers were. From so close, his shot nicked the eye. Unfortunately, while his aim was better, the beast was not stationery. The injury was only a graze. When it stood, it bled from the grazed eye, blood leaking like tears.

Then it rose to its feet and made a sound.

It did not squeal as boars do. It did not grunt as it had been doing for the period they’d been hunting it. No. It turned its bleeding eye on Seth and roared. The sound shook the world around them and he paled as the very power of it took him by the spine and squeezed.

Shite!

Off to the side, in a distance not too far away, an equal sound drew both their attentions. It shook the world in almost equal rage.

Somewhere in the distance, Timi roared back.