“Ow.”
I didn’t feel any pain but it goddamn felt like the right thing to say. My arms felt… like a mess and I was confident I had a concussion. I had just learned that the feeling of kinetic force was a completely different feeling than pain, and equally as unwanted.
I have absolutely no idea what hit me, but my head and vision were swimming and old boxing rules were ringing in my ringing head.
‘If you get hit too hard, stay down!’
Wait, was that boxing? God what a terrible feeling.
I looked up when I heard gravel skidding by, as a healer slid to my side, laying down hands on me. I saw my broken arms, that I had somehow had raised at the last second, look like snapped twigs, before they became whole again.
More importantly, my head stopped swimming, ringing, and trying to tell me to go to sleep.
“What on earth hit me…” I asked but Konahora was already gone, heading towards the thing that had smacked me down. I looked over at a fight and was a bit shell-shocked.
First, there was a gigantic green monster, bald, wide, and swinging around a sizable tree like a club. It had a comparatively small face to its head and was roaring so loud it felt like shockwaves were being emitted. It smacked me a good dozen feet away.
Secondly, I finally got to see The Heroes properly fight.
There was no fucking around. Every time the big guy swung, Tyler would somehow block the swing and an ear-shattering boom would reverberate outwards and he’d take that second where it was stopped to cut into the tree. Already, it looked like it had dozens of cuts.
While Tyler was playing defense and counter, Riary had become an artillery cannon. Dozen of Fireballs slammed into the Ogre from every side, more than a few heading for its face and crotch, but also its knees, hands, and once, even its open roaring mouth.
The roars stopped after that one.
But that was nothing compared to Konahora. I knew she had carried a staff around, I just hadn’t truly realized why. I had, partially unknowingly, suspected it was for long ranged healing. Instead, I got to see her leap fifteen feet into the air, grip the staff with both hands, and shatter an Ogre’s jaw.
All of that was impressive, but it was the speed that made me ache. It wasn’t like I was watching all of this over the course of an hour or minutes. It had been seconds and all of that was happening. Probably less than ten. It was a cascade of surprises. I wasn’t expecting Tyler to be able to block that, I wasn’t expecting Riary to be able to make and coordinate fireballs so fast, I wasn’t expecting Konahora to be able to do well, any of what she just did. I wasn’t expecting the Ogre to be able to move so fast a regular human would’ve thought it specialized in speed, despite it being comparatively slow to the Heroes.
And there was me.
I was able to keep up with all of this. Before, when I had fought the Baron’s men, time had seemed to slow to a crawl at times. Everything had felt like it was underwater, slower. I hadn’t really, properly analyzed that. I had just thought, you know, adrenaline maybe?
But no, watching a fight that seemed to be going really fast, even if one way or another it would be over before a leaf touched the ground, I realized that it was a complete overhaul of life I’d experienced. Perception, strength, agility, speed, I and others just weren’t in the same league as normal creatures anymore. No, worse, we were normal creatures. Ero just took the limits off and the heights achievable. I dreaded the day I got blitzed by something so fast I couldn’t tell I was dead till it had already happened.
I shook off my stupor and ran to join the fight.
As I got closer a lot faster than expected, I realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. The Ogre was strong, on par with me, but The Heroes were whittling it down. It was starting to look a little wrecked already. It wasn’t that I was joining a fight I didn’t strictly need to that was the problem, it was far more base than that.
I had no idea how to fight. I was essentially a civilian.
Not even in a “ah yes, but a civilian with super strength right?” No. The Ogre was on the same level as me and the three people fighting it were not only stronger, but also knew how to fight. What I was doing was the equivalent of a normal human being tackling a bear to the ground.
Those thoughts in mind, I tapped into my reserve of cowardice, caution, and worry, and at the last moment did a complete right turn, hoping to run around the Ogre. Distracted as it was by Fire, a battle healer, and being blocked at every swing, I was able to get behind it.
If there was one thing I was somewhat confident in, it was my claws and tail. Not their strength or speed, but their sharpness. That was now going to be put to the test.
I leaped… and went way higher than I expected. My eyes bulged as I went from this thing’s feet to its middle back in one jump. Not missing my chance, I swung my tail, lengthening it as it flew forward. My tail dived forward like a spear, impaling it from behind. I had been aiming for its spine, but it turned at the last minute. It dug about a foot in, but on something this size…
It roared and turned, carrying me through the air as it did. I tried to pull my tail back and for a brief horrifying second, I felt it get stuck, before I was unleashed and sent tumbling through the air. By some brief miracle, I landed on my feet, stumbling backwards for a few moments.
The Ogre was still alive, but that moment had cost it everything.
Because it had finally stopped swinging.
In a move that mirrored my own, but far more purposeful, Tyler leapt upwards towards its neck and I got to see something I didn’t understand.
Tyler landed back on the ground and the Ogre stood still, face still twitching, but the roaring had stopped. Then, its head slid to the ground. Its headless body toppled next, a loud crash coming as it did so.
I stared at Tyler’s blade, not understanding a single bit how it somehow cut all the way through its neck. It wasn’t the sharpness, but the width. The neck was longer than his sword was. Had… had I just seen an aura blade?
What the fuck, that was so cool.
I walked over to where they were all standing, looking at the Ogre.
Riary snorted. “Easy fight. Think this is the thing that’s been bothering the Villagers?”
“A C-Ranked Ogre…” Tyler said bitterly “The villagers wouldn’t have stood a chance if it had attacked the village.”
That startled me. Right, I was in the land of fantasy power bullshit, where one “””weak””” monster, could destroy a whole town. Wait, wasn’t this thing as strong as me?
I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I had that kind of strength? Wait, if I had encountered it without the party… that would’ve been a much, much harder fight. I probably would’ve lost.
What a series of disturbing thoughts.
“What was it doing out here anyway?” Riary said.
We looked to Konahora, as she was walking toward where it… had…. appeared.
“I would like to know where it came from.” Konahora said, looking at the spot I assumed it had just, spawned out of thin air.
I finally felt the need to ask a rather serious question.
“Are Ogres normally invisible?”
Riary and Tyler’s eyes widened, suddenly back in battle mode. One invisible Ogre was fine, and I wasn’t feeling more, but clearly my power could be hidden from. I really wasn’t looking forward to getting smacked with another damn tree.
“There’s no sign of crushed grass anywhere nearby…” Konahora said worriedly. “It’s like it teleported here.”
My heart hammered in my throat.
“Please tell me that teleporting Ogres aren’t common.” I’d never sleep again if that was the case.
“No.” Riary said, Rage and hatred temporarily slathering the word when spoken at me.
I looked over at Tyler, noticing that he had kinda… sunk in? He suddenly looked very sad for no reason at all.
“It’s chest.” he said, voice practically depressed.
I looked at its chest… and grimaced. Past the cuts, burns, and what looked like a crater or two, somehow a necklace had come out miraculously unscathed. A necklace with human skulls on it.
“Oh that’s gruesome.”
“I believe that would be the patrols sent out… but there’s not enough skulls to account for everyone.”
“We’re dealing with a mage.” Riary said bitterly.
We all looked over to her, Konahra nodding her head “Probably.”
“Teleported the women out of the village and then summoned an Ogre to kill anyone who went looking. Including us. Which means we’re probably being watched right now.” Riary said, looking around.
Well, that was great. Not a single ounce of that information was good. Dealing with someone or anything that could teleport, sounded like a bitch. Being actively plotted and spied on? That sounded almost worst. They could just throw down a dozen ogres at us or take any of us away.
Since that hadn’t happened, there must be some sort of restrictions on it but still. We were officially now up shit creek without a paddle.
Tyler sighed. “We should report this to Reese. Maybe he would know something about this.”
Everyone nodded and off we went, back to the village.
I had a bad feeling about all of this. It wasn’t just the teleporting malicious mage lurking around out there, or the apparently B rank presence out in the woods (please don’t be the mage, please don’t be the mage.) It was the intent. Stealing women, alright, that’s got a simple motive. But there’s nothing out here in this plain. Its only main feature is the distance from any help.
The mage waited till patrols, and we, were isolated before attacking us. Sure, that was logical, if not for the strength of the monster. That, combined with the mage’s own abilities, it felt like capriciousness. Malicious whimsy.
I felt an evil eye on us, metaphorically, but strangely, it didn’t feel like it was me it was looking at.
“Ow.”
I didn’t feel any pain but it goddamn felt like the right thing to say. My arms felt… like a mess and I was confident I had a concussion. I had just learned that the feeling of kinetic force was a completely different feeling than pain, and equally as unwanted.
I have absolutely no idea what hit me, but my head and vision were swimming and old boxing rules were ringing in my ringing head.
‘If you get hit too hard, stay down!’
Wait, was that boxing? God what a terrible feeling.
I looked up when I heard gravel skidding by, as a healer slid to my side, laying down hands on me. I saw my broken arms, that I had somehow had raised at the last second, look like snapped twigs, before they became whole again.
More importantly, my head stopped swimming, ringing, and trying to tell me to go to sleep.
“What on earth hit me…” I asked but Konahora was already gone, heading towards the thing that had smacked me down. I looked over at a fight and was a bit shell-shocked.
First, there was a gigantic green monster, bald, wide, and swinging around a sizable tree like a club. It had a comparatively small face to its head and was roaring so loud it felt like shockwaves were being emitted. It smacked me a good dozen feet away.
Secondly, I finally got to see The Heroes properly fight.
There was no fucking around. Every time the big guy swung, Tyler would somehow block the swing and an ear-shattering boom would reverberate outwards and he’d take that second where it was stopped to cut into the tree. Already, it looked like it had dozens of cuts.
While Tyler was playing defense and counter, Riary had become an artillery cannon. Dozen of Fireballs slammed into the Ogre from every side, more than a few heading for its face and crotch, but also its knees, hands, and once, even its open roaring mouth.
The roars stopped after that one.
But that was nothing compared to Konahora. I knew she had carried a staff around, I just hadn’t truly realized why. I had, partially unknowingly, suspected it was for long ranged healing. Instead, I got to see her leap fifteen feet into the air, grip the staff with both hands, and shatter an Ogre’s jaw.
All of that was impressive, but it was the speed that made me ache. It wasn’t like I was watching all of this over the course of an hour or minutes. It had been seconds and all of that was happening. Probably less than ten. It was a cascade of surprises. I wasn’t expecting Tyler to be able to block that, I wasn’t expecting Riary to be able to make and coordinate fireballs so fast, I wasn’t expecting Konahora to be able to do well, any of what she just did. I wasn’t expecting the Ogre to be able to move so fast a regular human would’ve thought it specialized in speed, despite it being comparatively slow to the Heroes.
And there was me.
I was able to keep up with all of this. Before, when I had fought the Baron’s men, time had seemed to slow to a crawl at times. Everything had felt like it was underwater, slower. I hadn’t really, properly analyzed that. I had just thought, you know, adrenaline maybe?
But no, watching a fight that seemed to be going really fast, even if one way or another it would be over before a leaf touched the ground, I realized that it was a complete overhaul of life I’d experienced. Perception, strength, agility, speed, I and others just weren’t in the same league as normal creatures anymore. No, worse, we were normal creatures. Ero just took the limits off and the heights achievable. I dreaded the day I got blitzed by something so fast I couldn’t tell I was dead till it had already happened.
I shook off my stupor and ran to join the fight.
As I got closer a lot faster than expected, I realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. The Ogre was strong, on par with me, but The Heroes were whittling it down. It was starting to look a little wrecked already. It wasn’t that I was joining a fight I didn’t strictly need to that was the problem, it was far more base than that.
I had no idea how to fight. I was essentially a civilian.
Not even in a “ah yes, but a civilian with super strength right?” No. The Ogre was on the same level as me and the three people fighting it were not only stronger, but also knew how to fight. What I was doing was the equivalent of a normal human being tackling a bear to the ground.
Those thoughts in mind, I tapped into my reserve of cowardice, caution, and worry, and at the last moment did a complete right turn, hoping to run around the Ogre. Distracted as it was by Fire, a battle healer, and being blocked at every swing, I was able to get behind it.
If there was one thing I was somewhat confident in, it was my claws and tail. Not their strength or speed, but their sharpness. That was now going to be put to the test.
I leaped… and went way higher than I expected. My eyes bulged as I went from this thing’s feet to its middle back in one jump. Not missing my chance, I swung my tail, lengthening it as it flew forward. My tail dived forward like a spear, impaling it from behind. I had been aiming for its spine, but it turned at the last minute. It dug about a foot in, but on something this size…
It roared and turned, carrying me through the air as it did. I tried to pull my tail back and for a brief horrifying second, I felt it get stuck, before I was unleashed and sent tumbling through the air. By some brief miracle, I landed on my feet, stumbling backwards for a few moments.
The Ogre was still alive, but that moment had cost it everything.
Because it had finally stopped swinging.
In a move that mirrored my own, but far more purposeful, Tyler leapt upwards towards its neck and I got to see something I didn’t understand.
Tyler landed back on the ground and the Ogre stood still, face still twitching, but the roaring had stopped. Then, its head slid to the ground. Its headless body toppled next, a loud crash coming as it did so.
I stared at Tyler’s blade, not understanding a single bit how it somehow cut all the way through its neck. It wasn’t the sharpness, but the width. The neck was longer than his sword was. Had… had I just seen an aura blade?
What the fuck, that was so cool.
I walked over to where they were all standing, looking at the Ogre.
Riary snorted. “Easy fight. Think this is the thing that’s been bothering the Villagers?”
“A C-Ranked Ogre…” Tyler said bitterly “The villagers wouldn’t have stood a chance if it had attacked the village.”
That startled me. Right, I was in the land of fantasy power bullshit, where one “””weak””” monster, could destroy a whole town. Wait, wasn’t this thing as strong as me?
I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I had that kind of strength? Wait, if I had encountered it without the party… that would’ve been a much, much harder fight. I probably would’ve lost.
What a series of disturbing thoughts.
“What was it doing out here anyway?” Riary said.
We looked to Konahora, as she was walking toward where it… had…. appeared.
“I would like to know where it came from.” Konahora said, looking at the spot I assumed it had just, spawned out of thin air.
I finally felt the need to ask a rather serious question.
“Are Ogres normally invisible?”
Riary and Tyler’s eyes widened, suddenly back in battle mode. One invisible Ogre was fine, and I wasn’t feeling more, but clearly my power could be hidden from. I really wasn’t looking forward to getting smacked with another damn tree.
“There’s no sign of crushed grass anywhere nearby…” Konahora said worriedly. “It’s like it teleported here.”
My heart hammered in my throat.
“Please tell me that teleporting Ogres aren’t common.” I’d never sleep again if that was the case.
“No.” Riary said, Rage and hatred temporarily slathering the word when spoken at me.
I looked over at Tyler, noticing that he had kinda… sunk in? He suddenly looked very sad for no reason at all.
“It’s chest.” he said, voice practically depressed.
I looked at its chest… and grimaced. Past the cuts, burns, and what looked like a crater or two, somehow a necklace had come out miraculously unscathed. A necklace with human skulls on it.
“Oh that’s gruesome.”
“I believe that would be the patrols sent out… but there’s not enough skulls to account for everyone.”
“We’re dealing with a mage.” Riary said bitterly.
We all looked over to her, Konahra nodding her head “Probably.”
“Teleported the women out of the village and then summoned an Ogre to kill anyone who went looking. Including us. Which means we’re probably being watched right now.” Riary said, looking around.
Well, that was great. Not a single ounce of that information was good. Dealing with someone or anything that could teleport, sounded like a bitch. Being actively plotted and spied on? That sounded almost worst. They could just throw down a dozen ogres at us or take any of us away.
Since that hadn’t happened, there must be some sort of restrictions on it but still. We were officially now up shit creek without a paddle.
Tyler sighed. “We should report this to Reese. Maybe he would know something about this.”
Everyone nodded and off we went, back to the village.
I had a bad feeling about all of this. It wasn’t just the teleporting malicious mage lurking around out there, or the apparently B rank presence out in the woods (please don’t be the mage, please don’t be the mage.) It was the intent. Stealing women, alright, that’s got a simple motive. But there’s nothing out here in this plain. Its only main feature is the distance from any help.
The mage waited till patrols, and we, were isolated before attacking us. Sure, that was logical, if not for the strength of the monster. That, combined with the mage’s own abilities, it felt like capriciousness. Malicious whimsy.
I felt an evil eye on us, metaphorically, but strangely, it didn’t feel like it was me it was looking at.
