Battleborne Page 4

Setting the bunny down on a flat-topped stone, he knelt and looked into the pool. His reflection showed him pretty much exactly what he’d seen in his avatar. Dark skin, dark eyes, white hair that hung down just past his shoulders. When he smiled at himself, the reflection revealed something the avatar hadn’t shown him.

  He had monster fangs!

  Well, not fangs, exactly. Most of his teeth were the normal, squared-off human teeth. Made for grinding and chewing more than biting. But his canines were more pronounced than human norm, by far. He opened his mouth wide and bared his teeth at himself, turning his head left and right to get a good look. “That’s pretty badass!” He muttered.

  Movement in the pool caught his attention, and he refocused. Looking beyond his reflection, he spotted quick flashes of silver scales that indicated fish swimming around below the surface. “Stable food source. Good to know. If I don’t find signs of civilization soon, I could probably camp here for a while.”

  Max surveyed the area, looking for a likely campsite. Maybe fifteen yards beyond the pool, there was a cluster of large boulders right up against the cliff face. At the very least, the rock would give him some shelter from the wind. That spot would do until he found something better.

  Leaving the bunny corpse on the rock where he’d set it, he jogged back to the tree line and began to gather kindling and dried leaves for a fire. After returning to drop those off near the boulders, he went back out to gather some larger pieces. He lucked into a clump of dead moss that was attached to a fallen branch. It was dry, and would make excellent tinder. Now he just needed to be able to create a spark.

  Easily carrying a heavy bundle of branches under one arm, he hiked back to his chosen campsite. The moment he cleared the trees, he spotted a lone wolf sniffing around the stone his bunny carcass rested upon. It stood about three feet tall at the shoulder, grey fur peppered with black and white here and there. Max guessed it weighed close to two hundred pounds.

  “Hey!” Max shouted without thinking. On Earth, he was generally always armed when romping about in the forest, and a wolf didn’t present a serious threat to him. But here, now, he realized he’d probably just made a big mistake. The wolf turned and stared at him, its hackles rising, and a low growl rumbling across the open space between them.

  “Oh, shit.” Max saw his club still leaning against the stone where he’d left the bunny. His eyes darted back to the wolf when it took a single step toward him, crouching lower to the ground. Its growl grew louder.

  “Easy, boy. Nothing to see here. You go right ahead and take that bunny. Tasty, tasty bunny. Much easier than trying to eat me…” He dropped the bundle of wood he was carrying and selected a stick about three inches thick, two feet long, with a jagged, splintered end.

  “Good wolfy. Just take the tasty bunny, and be on your way.” Max spoke softly, as he would when approaching a stray dog. The wolf didn’t seem to appreciate his tone. It trotted forward several steps, then paused, baring its fangs and growling. Its tail went down, and ears flattened.

  “Shit. This is gonna hurt.” Max gripped his sharp stick tightly in his right hand, and set his feet wide apart, crouching into a knife fight ready position. When the wolf’s growl turned into a bark, some instinct within Max urged him to reply. Baring his own canines, he took a step forward, spread his arms wide, and roared at the wolf.

  “RAAAAWR!!”

  The wolf, now confused, stopped growling and tilted its head to one side, sniffing the air. Max took another step forward, growling as loudly as he could. The deep, gravelly growl that echoed up from his chest was pretty impressive. The wolf took a single step back, baring its teeth again.

  “Please, wolfy. Just take the bunny. You can even have the shiny rocks inside.” Max didn’t advance, but he didn’t retreat either. He made eye contact with the wolf, and growled some more.

  That did it.

  The wolf decided it didn’t like being challenged, and darted forward. Its powerful legs closed the distance between them in seconds, and when it closed within a dozen feet of Max, the wolf sprang off its back legs, leaping for Max’s throat.

  Max tried to stab it in mid-air with his stick. He did manage to make contact, but his timing was off. The sharp end gouged a chunk out of the wolf’s shoulder as it bowled into him. Max had raised his left arm to defend his face even as he’d stabbed with his right. As a result, the wolf latched onto his forearm with its powerful jaw. As Max was knocked backward and falling, the wolf was already thrashing its head back and forth, doing its best to mangle the arm.

  Max’s tough troll skin resisted the fangs, mostly. Where the wolf’s jaws would have bitten right through the meat of his human arm, and possibly snapped the bones, now the damage inflicted so far was mostly superficial. Deep punctures that hurt like hell, but were not yet life-threatening. Max saw “-25” float across his vision in red.

  His back hit the ground, and the wolf was on top of him, still gnawing on his forearm and growling. Max took another stab with the stick, jabbing it at the wolf’s neck. He got some penetration this time, maybe an inch or so, then the thrashing caused the sharp point to break off. Max was left with just a dull stick. The wolf yelped in pain, letting go of his arm. But a moment later it surged forward again, slavering jaws going for Max’s neck.

  Dropping the stick, Max grabbed the wolf’s neck with both hands, instinctively digging his claws deep into its flesh while using his improved strength to push its head away from his own face. The wolf yelped in pain, thrashing even harder as it tried to free itself from the painful grip. Blood flowed from the wounds Max was inflicting, staining its fur bright red. He pushed upward as hard as he could with both thumbs, driving his claws in under its jaw, hoping to sever a vital artery or something.

  The wolf began scratching at Max’s belly and legs with all four paws, trying to get purchase and leverage to pull away from him. It whined in pain, and Max momentarily felt sorry for it. He loved dogs, had always had at least one at home until he became a soldier. It pained him to hurt this wolf, even if it was trying to kill him.

  His slight hesitation allowed the wolf to turn the tide. It lunged forward again, its jaws clamping down. The bite just missed his neck, closing on his shoulder where a human collarbone would be. Max felt a heavy pressure, then a searing pain as the wolf managed to tear into his thick skin and mangle the meat underneath.

  “Nooo!” He growled, tightening his grip and pushing the wolf’s head away with all the strength he could muster. Pulling his right knee in to his chest, he lodged his foot against the wolf’s belly and shoved, trying to launch it away from him.

  There was no launching, for two reasons. First, he’d forgotten to let go of its neck, his claws still buried deep in its flesh. And second, the wolf had refused to let go of his shoulder. The result was that when he pushed with his foot, the wolf’s belly was ripped open by the claws on Max’s toes. Blood and entrails soaked Max’s body as the wolf’s struggles rapidly weakened. It let loose its grip on his shoulder, yelping in pain. Max rolled to one side, pinning the wolf underneath him, then pulled his right hand free and jammed it back into its throat as deeply as he could. Curling his fingers, he ripped his hand away again, removing most of its throat and causing another fountain of blood.

  The wolf gurgled weakly, going limp. A few seconds later the blood stopped pumping, and Max’s vision lit up with notifications. He gasped for breath, not realizing he’d been holding one for most of the fight, and rolled off the wolf’s body to lay on his back. After a quick check of the area for more wolves, he began to breathe more slowly and deeply as he read his notifications.

  Skill level increase! Your Unarmed skill has increased by +1!

  Level up! You are now a Level 1 Chimera.

  You have earned three free attribute points.

  As Max was reading, he noted the green numbers drifting across his vision every second. When he focused on them and watched for ten seconds, he realized he was receiving +2 to his health every second. Glanc
ing down at his belly, he saw that the long scratches from the wolf’s claws had nearly stopped bleeding already, though the deeper wound near his throat was still pumping blood weakly. A quick thought pulled up his status, and he saw his health bar ticking upward from about sixty percent. Which meant that during the fight, he’d likely been down below half health. He didn’t like that idea at all.

  “Hey, Red? You there?”

  “I’m always here, Maximilian Storm. You just can’t always see me.” She appeared, sitting atop the wolf’s head, not far from Max’s face. Looking down at all the blood on its neck fur, she scooted herself closer to its snout. “What a mess you made. Of yourself as well as this wolf.”

  “Yeah, about that. I think I should go ahead and assign my free points. I don’t like not knowing how much damage I can take before it kills me. I know you said to save the human points, but…”

  She raised a hand to quiet him. “You’ve just earned three more points. If you’d like to assign your ten human racial attribute points now, and save those three, it will accomplish what you want. Namely finishing the calculation of all your base attributes, health, mana, and so forth.”

  Max was glad to hear that. “Can you tell me the best place to put the points?”

  Red shook her head. “I can not. That would be cheating. I can answer questions, and offer limited advice as you move forward. But the gods limit what I can share at this time.”

  Frustrated, Max pulled up his status sheet. Sure enough, he was showing as Level 1, with 138/500 needed to reach Level 2. His health bar, still grey, was steadily ticking back toward full. Before he went ahead and assigned his last racial points, Max asked, “Red, I don’t know a lot about how this is supposed to work. But why dump me out here in the wild with no clothes, no weapon, and no civilization nearby?”

  “That was not my choice.” Red’s brow furrowed and her lips pressed together. “And no, I can not explain it. It may just be the Norns, the Weavers of Fates, presenting you a challenge to offset the blessing you received. Or the universe throwing you a little ‘screw you’? Maybe just bad luck.” She shrugged.

  “And, can you tell me how far I am from the nearest people? Or which direction to go?”

  Red just shook her head.

  “Fine. If I’m stuck out here for a while, fighting with my claws and sharp sticks, then I need to make sure I live through these fights.” He quickly assigned all ten of his human points to Constitution. A message appeared in his view asking him to confirm his choice.

  Red cringed, opening her mouth to say something to slow him down, but he mentally pressed the [Yes] button before she could.

  Max grunted in pain and curled up into a fetal ball as his entire body began to burn. He gritted his teeth, refusing to scream as Red spoke to him.

  “I was about to warn you. Slamming ten points into Constitution all at once is causing some serious changes to your body. You’re not meant to change that much, that quickly. You’ll be in considerable pain for the next five minutes, or so.”

  Max closed his eyes, trying to focus through the pain and take some deep breaths. Every inch of him hurt. And not like sore muscles the day after a hard workout. This was millions of white hot needles being jammed into his skin while his muscles tore themselves apart and his bones cracked. This was falling into a magma pool, then a tub of ice. His lungs wouldn’t take in the deep breaths he wanted, and he found himself panting like a dog from pain and fear.

  He couldn’t help it. He sobbed in pain, tears running down his face, snot leaking from his nose. The sobs turned into a whimper as he unconsciously rocked back and forth, still curled in a ball. Red bit her bottom lip, a look of sympathy on her face as she waited for the transformation to be complete.

  After what seemed like hours to Max, the pain began to fade. He was able to breathe more evenly, and he opened his eyes. Staring at Red, he gasped. “Little warning, next time?”

  She crossed her arms, eyes blazing. “I tried to warn you. Your dumb ass just charged ahead before I could get the words out! Don’t blame me for your rash actions!”

  Max wasn’t in the mood to hear it, still feeling the last twinges of pain as he straightened his legs and rolled onto his back again. “That really sucked. Do me a favor, Red. If you think there’s even a chance I’m about to stumble into something like that, tell me. I don’t ever want to feel that shit again.”

  Red shook her head, standing up and stomping up and down the wolf’s head, waving her arms. “Don’t put this on me! I only just met you, and I can’t read your damn mind! You need to learn that everything in this world is dangerous, and there are any number of stupid ways to take yourself out. Lesson number one: Think before you act!”

  Max tried to calm himself. Part of him knew that she was right, but he still wasn’t ready to accept that. Instead of accusing her again, though, he said, “Alright, tell me what happened. I know you were talking, but I wasn’t exactly listening.”

  Red sighed, hopping over from the wolf’s snout to stand on Max’s chest. She poked a finger at his nose, then wagged it at him. “You just leveled up. You saw the notification that it got you three free points?” She waited while he nodded his head. “Normally, when one receives points, one assigns them right away. So usually you’d be assigning a total of three points at a time, often spread across different attributes. The effects are much less profound than what you just experienced, and generally not painful at all. Also, you chose Constitution, which directly impacts your physical body’s structure. Each point you invest in Constitution makes you a bit stronger, hardier, even taller. Your muscle mass and bone density increase. A point at a time, and the worst you’d feel is a little discomfort. By comparison, if you’d slammed all ten points into Intelligence at once, you’d have had a crippling headache for a minute or so as your brain fought to establish neural connections that didn’t exist before. And someone without your troll regeneration ability would likely have died trying either of those options!”

  Feeling slightly ashamed, and more than a little stupid, Max apologized. “Okay, I get it now. I’m sorry for yelling at you Red. I’ll try to be more careful.” He shook his head. “Damn, that was bad.”

  “In your case, it wasn’t just the pain of the changes. Your regeneration ability tried to heal you, tried to override the changes. So it drained a good bit of your endurance, and complicated the process.”

  “Alright. Good to know, thanks. From now on, just a point or three at a time.” He checked his status sheet, and managed a half-hearted smile. “At least it worked. I have all my numbers now.” His health bar was now a bright red, and a set of numbers inscribed across it said “540/540”. A bit of quick math suggested that with a Constitution of 27, he was getting 20 health per point. His mana bar was now blue, and read “300/300”

  Red shook her head, chuckling. “Five hundred plus health points at level one is nearly unheard of. If you had waited for me to explain a few things, I would have told you that wearing clothes, or even better, armor, will greatly reduce the amount of damage you take. Combined with your tough skin and high regeneration rate, you probably didn’t need to dump all ten points into Constitution.” She paused when she saw the crestfallen look on his face. “On the other hand, your other stats are not lacking in any way. So no real harm done. And you learned a valuable lesson, I hope.”

  Max just grunted as he got to his feet, causing Red to hover in the air in front of him. Looking down at the corpse of the wolf, he just stared for a moment, trying to organize his thoughts. He was quickly distracted when a description popped up.

  Level 3 Forest Wolf

  Health: 0/300

  You have learned the skill: Identify!

  While your Examine skill assists you in learning about inanimate objects, Identify will grant you knowledge about living sapient entities, flora, and fauna.

  Continued use of this skill may increase its level and functionality.

  “Shit, this thing was level three!” He look
ed down at the badly mangled wolf carcass. “I damaged the fur pretty badly, but maybe I can make something useful out of it? And there should be enough meat to last me a little while.” Flexing his fingers, he bent down to begin dressing the corpse.

  “You could just loot it. I think you’ll find you get better results. At least until you get a decent knife and learn the Skinning skill.”

  Max stared at her a moment, a sarcastic comment on the tip of his tongue. Instead of speaking, he closed his eyes and thought Loot! While touching the wolf’s head. More notifications appeared, telling him that he’d received one tattered wolf pelt, five pieces of wolf meat, and two wolf fangs. When he opened his eyes, the corpse was fading away.

  “That is much faster, thank you.” He bowed his head to Red, who floated over to sit on his shoulder.

  “Creatures, or people, that you kill will remain where they fall for up to one full day. During that time, the person or persons that killed them are the only ones who can receive the loot. After the day expires, others can take the loot for another twelve hours. At that point, if still unclaimed, both the corpse and the loot fade away.”

  “That reminds me.” Max mentally called up his inventory again. This time in addition to his loincloth, a box appeared to one side of the display. There were five rows of five boxes each, and the first three boxes contained meat, pelt, and fangs.

  “My inventory shows twenty five slots. How do I increase that?”

  “Again, that is more than most level ones. Most have ten or fifteen slots, as you call them. Your increased Strength attribute has granted you more carrying capacity. Once you reach civilization, you may purchase items that allow you to store larger quantities of stuff, without the weight penalty.”

  “Awesome! Looking forward to that.” Max’s stomach growled so loudly that it startled Red. “Now… can you tell me how to make fire?”

  Chapter 4

  “Most people just use a Spark spell. It’s among the simplest of magic spells, taught to children as soon as their parents feel they are responsible enough not to play with fire.”