Malcolm Tent
patreon
Wish upon the Stars chapter 672
🕑 Added 2024-07-18 23:52:35 +0000 UTC“So, this is a fun wedding.” Said my cousin glibly as we trudged through the snow. “It’s just not an Ascendant party if someone isn’t trying to murder us all.” She shot me an appraising glance. “You sure we’re good out here just you and me? We’re not exactly the muscle of the group. Maybe we should have brought Gabe or Bethy.”
I scoffed. “Please, you haven’t been around lately. I’m a certified badass now. I won these huge games at the conclave for the WCP, took on a bunch of peak E-rankers. I’m not saying I’m invincible at E-rank, but I can handle anything on this planet no sweat.”
“Oh really?” Asked my cousin with a grin. “You improved that much, huh? Must have been some crazy shit going down after you left.”
Shrugging, I brushed her off. “We can talk about the details later. You’ll see soon enough. I assume you have some trinkets on you for protection besides that pigsticker?” I gestured to the D-ranked dagger.
“Plenty.” She said with a laugh. “I’ve been making quite a-” I held up my hand sharply and she stopped talking.
In the snow, the tracks had stopped. My Danger Sense started shrieking at me, and I narrowed my eyes. Just out of sight, I caught gargantuan distortions in the blizzard, creeping here and there, only visible for a moment. As I caught sight of another, and then another, I realized that they were circling us, leaping and bucking their heads, ripping the air with their horns.
The snow beneath my feet began to sizzle as I triggered Mephistopheles and Belial. I kept Zagan on the backburner for now, in case of injuries. Glancing at Nat, I saw her withdraw a black parasol studded with metal skulls and black glass beads.
She spun it once, and a dome of darkness enshrouded both of us, cutting off our vision.
The distortion gave me an excellent idea, and I triggered Moonlit Night, grinning wolfishly as the mist swallowed the area. Inside the fog bank, I could see everything perfectly, even the nearly invisible bodies of the transparent Wendigos.
Which was good, because one of them was charging and about to gore me like a bull. I stepped lightly, Mephisto’s Waltz eating the ground beneath me as it rushed past. My staff licked out, interposing itself in front of its ankle, causing the blindly rushing monster to trip and faceplant into the snow.
Its leg began to blacked and crack as the corrosion crept in, but it didn’t turn out to be necessary. As it fell, its antlers stabbed into the icy ground, sliding into the frozen dirt, and its body kept going. It skidded to a stop, head and neck at an angle as its antlers held it mostly immobile. I drove my staff forward, a relatively small Cosmic Collapse smashing into and eating its hideous leering face.
Behind me, Nat engaged with one of them, able to see where it couldn’t and I was impressed to see my cousin tear the thing apart. The Wendigo snarled and tore at the air, but she slipped neatly between its strikes, and her D-ranked dagger licked out, parting transparent crystalling flesh at the joints of the limbs and where the achilles tendon would be on a person.
It collapsed, and she was on its back within seconds, opening its throat, and I watched a spray of greasy grey blood mist the air as it gagged and slumped into the powder.
I whistled as I let the mist fade. “Damn cous’, that was brutal. Someone’s been doing some training, huh?” I’d assumed her newly demonstrated calmness and peace of mind was a factor of time, but maybe she’d been a bit more proactive.
She smirked, wiping the blade on her enemy. “Of course.” She said smugly. “I’ve been training with Valk, as well as sparring with all the soldiers stationed at the town.” Her expression sobered. “I’m not going to get blindsided because I’m counting on other people to do the heavy lifting for me, and I’m not going to let Valk die because I wasn’t treating things seriously enough.”
I could see her determination not to lose another friend, and I respected the hell out of it. “I think that’s a good way to look at things.” I said solemnly. “And it looks like your hard work paid off. That was some damned impressive fighting.”
Before she could respond, I saw something off to the side. Spinning, I put up a guard, expecting an attack, but my Danger Sense had going suddenly silent. I realized when I finished turning that I was seeing a red star cutting through the air. My eyes widened as I realized it was one of the flares Benny had given out. I checked to see that Nat was with me and then took off running, using Ripple Running to let us avoid sinking in the snow as we sprinted in the direction of the signal.
When we arrived, we found Mel, injured and surrounded, holding off a half dozen Wendigos. An explosion of force from out of sight told us her partner had been separated from her, and Nat broke off, bolting for the other combatant, who I knew was Valk.
Praying my cousin’s friend was alright, I struck brutally at one of the Wendigos, unleashing a burst of black flame that sent it hissing and darting back. I let Belial drop, manifesting Zagan as I approached my friend. I let a Piece of Mind parallel take over one hand and operate Mephistopheles while I appraised her condition.
Mel looked bad. One of her legs was ripped open, but it wasn’t bleeding, it was frosted over with dirty grey ice, and what looked like grey frostbite was spreading from the wound. “Shit.” I said as I crouched over her, waiting to see if the others would attack. One tried to get close, and I swung my staff one handed, letting a burst of concussive black flame explode on contact as my swing connected.
It was blasted back, screaming in pain. Before it could attack again, Callie and Alex melted from the shadows, and my fiancee’s daggers shredded the one I’d just injured as her uncle unleashing a tide of dark spikes.
Sighing in relief, I held my hand above the wound on Mel’s leg, unleashing a blast of life fire to cleanse and heal her injury.
The grey frost melted away instantly, and the damaged flesh mended itself even as I watched. The actual wound hadn’t been deep, and the Wendigo’s had less Impact that Mel, so the damage didn’t stick too badly. The infection or whatever it was had been most of the problem.
“Go help Nat.” I called to Callie as she finished hers and came to check on me. “She went to check on Valk.”
She nodded and took off, and I turned to Mel. “What the hell happened?” I asked in concern. “Did the compass malfunction? How did you get ambushed?” I assumed it had been an ambush. While not quite at the same level as Abel (pretty much no one but Bethy was) Mel had already discovered her illusory Path (Path of the Heavenly Flame) and was a genuinely dangerous fighter.
“They swarmed us.” She spat. “The compass started going haywire because it couldn’t focus on just one of the things, they were circling like sharks. Eight of the bastards. I was more than up to taking on three or four, but the fifth one got behind me and tore into my leg. Valk drew off three of them in that direction and I haven’t seen him since.” She gestured to where we’d heard the fighting.
I squinted into the snow, happy to see that Callie was coming back, along with Nat and a badly wounded Valk. Rushing over, I checked them for damage. Aside from the big redheaded man, they were all fine. “What happened?” I asked anxiously.
Callie set Valk down nearby. “We found him on the ground being torn into. We took them out, but he’s…” She looked down at the wounded man. “They ate part of his thigh and bicep. His whole body seems to be covered in this grey frostbite effect. He can’t move at all. Can you fix it?”
I nodded, stepping forward and letting Mephistopheles drop. Focusing entirely on Zagan, I charged up the biggest Life Nova I could manage. I let the green energy burst, covering the injured man, and was relieved to see the grey melt away. Nat collapsed on Valk’s prone form, sobbing, and the rest of us took up position to guard them while he recovered.
Despite how much life force I’d used, the repairs would not be fast. Zagan was better for purification than straight healing, and Valk’s injuries weren’t light. This wasn’t a puncture wound to the leg, the Wendigos had fucking EATEN part of two of his limbs. The muscle needed to regrow entirely, and the process was far from instant.
“Hey.” I said after he’d had some time to compose himself. “How are you feeling?” Nat was sitting nearby, staring blankly off into the distance, and I cursed myself for bringing her. I’d gotten so used to traveling with my current lineup of friends, who were all powerful and dangerous people. Nat and Valk were BARELY E-rank.
I’d gotten cocky about the level of threat we’d see on Callus. Valk for his part, seemed to be taking it well. “I’m fine.” He said calmly. I was surprised how relaxed he sounded. He was normally pretty stoic, but I supposed he must have been feeling the effects of the Life Nova still. I’d probably be pretty relaxed too. “It barely hurts.”
Nat’s head snapped up, eyes pinning him as he started to move. “You are NOT walking.” She snapped. “We’ll carry you. Callie, can you make a stretcher for him?” The two compasses the others had were spinning aimlessly, so this had been the last of them, thankfully, and we could head back.
“Sure.” My fiancee shrugged. A quick effort of will had the shadows congealing into a pair of poles with a strip of fabric between them. Alex used a shadow cloud to lift him up onto it, and the two of us grabbed hold of the ends and set off for the rendezvous point.
As we walked, I frowned down at the injured man. “What the hell happened?” I asked as we walked. “Mel said you pulled three of them, which, you know, that was brave, but she could have handled the excess better than you could. You almost got yourself killed.”
“He was trying to help!” Snapped my cousin. “You sent him out here to help her, remember?”
I put a hand up in surrender, holding the stretcher with the other. “Whoa! Not blaming. Just trying to figure out what went wrong. There might be some kind of clue to where the things came from. I appreciate him helping out, as does Mel, I’m sure.”
The red masked woman nodded. “I definitely do. I was on my last leg. Literally. You saved my life. I owe you one.”
Valk just waved her off. “It’s fine. We were teammates. That was the point. As for clues…nothing I saw. I took off after tagging a few with my axe, and they chased me. They caught up to me quick, and I tried to fight them off, but they worked together and overpowered me. Once they had me down and immobilized...” He shuddered. “Well, you saw.”
Arriving back at the rendezvous point, we filled the others in on what happened. Jessie set to work trying to help Valk recover, and the rest of us exchanged information on exactly what had happened out here. Oddly, nothing out of the ordinary had gone down. Find Wendigo, kill Wendigo. Rinse, repeat.
Despite the smooth operation, I saw Bethy frowning out into the snow, echoing my own expression. Something about this still felt off. For now though, all we could do was get back to Wintervale and move on with the wedding prep. But I’d be keeping an eye out.
Comments
thaughton2
Hmm. Valk looking a little sus now.
