Author Frank Morin
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Ch 41 - Ghosts in the Trees
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 19:22:14 +0000 UTC“You can’t carry everyone. The weight of 22 people will crush you,” Burns objected, even though he’d just seen me rip the tree out of the ground with my bare hands and watched me throw that boulder last night.
“No, it won’t. Haven’t you considered what our strength stats mean? Stop thinking in terms of Earth bodies. That no longer applies to us.”
“We’re wasting time,” Hector warned as the rumbling from the cows grew closer.
“Don’t you at least have the courage to try it?”
Burns nodded sharply. “You’d better be right about this, Lucas. Everyone, spread out. Keep the load balanced. One person on each side jump up in unison. Hurry!”
Some of them still looked dubious, but the sight of over 200 magical murderous bulls charging right at us made for spectacular motivation. In seconds, everyone spread out and started jumping up.
Jane sat closest in front of me, while Hector took the spot right behind my back. Hopefully that wasn’t because he planned to kill me when my plan failed. William sat behind Jane, while Susan jumped up behind Hector. More followed, moving more quickly as they saw I was handling the load.
The weight grew quickly, but I managed, and Burns’s idea of pairing folks front and back helped keep the load pretty well balanced. A couple guys with axes rushed down the length of the tree, limbing off the branches, especially those on pointing down.
The weight pressed down harder and harder as more and more people jumped up to straddle the tree. The trunk bent slightly, but it was thick enough to handle the weight. Some people with bows or ranged spells prepared to fire as the bulls charged inexorably closer.
My feet started sinking into the ground, but my body handled the strain well. Jane was watching me with wide-eyed wonder, and Hector whispered, “How are you still standing?”
“When this is over, you should try it,” I grunted.
When all but the 3 Bio Morphs were on the pile, Burns alone remained standing near me. He glanced a final time at the charging bulls, who had closed to within 100 yards. The shaking under our feet was growing stronger and the tree swayed from the stampede.
“By the kraken, you’re doing it. If your spell doesn’t work, we’re all dead.”
“Get on so I can trigger it.”
He gestured at the 3 still clinging to the tree. “What are you waiting for?”
The first Bio Morph shook his head. “No way we jump on that death wagon. We’re taking our chances in this tree.”
Burns tried arguing, but we were out of time. The bulls were pounding toward me, death in their black eyes. The ground was shaking so bad I swayed, which shook the tree draped over my shoulder and everyone clinging to it. Many clung tighter to the trunk and remaining branches, others squeezed their eyes shut in terror, while a few cried out in fear.
“Last chance! Get on now, or you’re on your own,” I shouted.
“We’re on our own.”
So be it. I triggered Phase Walk just after Burns leaped up onto the trunk.
Mana drained out of me. A lot of mana. It seemed the spell consumed more based on how much stuff I was carrying, and I was carrying a lot of stuff. The world shimmered and colors bled to muted hues. The weight eased on my shoulders as we all shifted out of the physical world.
“Yes!” Jane shouted, her voice more of a whispered hiss than anything.
“Do not let go,” I shouted, my own voice comically breathy and weak.
Three seconds later, the herd arrived. I swung my tree so the tip extending far out in front of me pointed toward the herd. The people there shouted in fear, but thankfully retained enough wits to not let go. Bulls thundered past, snorting angrily as they charged in, deadly horns and wicked blades slashing through ethereal forms.
The people clinging to the trees screamed in fear, and a few cast spells that tore into the bulls, but did nothing to slow the stampede.
“Stop wasting your spells,” Burns shouted in a ghostly voice.
The bovines did not slow or part to run around the copse of small trees, but smashed through them like an avalanche. The small trees shook, and the Bio Morphs screamed as wood splintered, then cracked. The tree they clung to fell and was swarmed under by the herd. I lost sight of the 3 and lacked the time to try to find them in the press.
Every bull stampeding past me tried to strike with sharp-pointed horns or whatever weapon they carried. I expected to feel nothing. Indeed, the blades passed through my ethereal form like wisps of smoke, but the horns rattled me. I was immune to the physical attacks, but the horns contained a fraction of the bulls’ spirits and those crashed into me with a faint shadow of their physical force.
The unexpected buffeting shook me side to side, and that movement set the entire ethereal tree and all of my passengers swaying dangerously. Everyone shouted and clutched each other.
Burns’s voice drowned out the others. “What are you doing? You’re going to make us all fall.”
“Sorry,” I shouted back as I called Soulrend to hand.
Drawing the ethereal blade while I was ethereal too proved super cool. Usually the weapon shimmered like a ghostly reflection of steel. Now it shone with a bright blue light and looked solid and totally boss to my spectral eyes.
Bulls kept charging past so I slashed out with Soulrend at each horn that raked toward me. The blade severed the horns, sending them tumbling into the air. The physical part of the bulls remained like ghostly after-images that passed harmlessly through me.
Bulls bellowed in pain and some stumbled. More bulls barreling in behind them trampled them and I swept Soulrend out, severing more horns and even catching a couple of necks as the bulls stumbled. More bulls fell, adding to the bedlam. A few rolled right through me, shaking me harder as their spirits pummeled mine. My Tesla Coil bracelet grew warm on my wrist as it absorbed energy from the monsters I wounded.
Gritting my teeth, I withstood the barrage and kept my feet. Bulls and even a few cows tripped over the growing pile of wounded bovines and I slashed at every one that came within range. Their bellowing shouts sounded distant, like echoes rebounding off a distant canyon.
Then the herd veered away, leaving Tecton alone to charge in. He fixed me with his giant black eyes and hefted his enormous ax as he charged, his thick, hooved feet dancing with surprising agility through the mess of fallen, wounded animals. He was stepping between them, finding gaps to avoid crushing members of his herd with his own hooves.
In other circumstances, I could appreciate that level of dedication, but I did not want to test my strength and blade against his with 20 people clinging for dear life to the tree I carried over my shoulder.
“A little help,” I shouted.
Magic exploded from the group. Lances of fire and ice and lightning blazed with dazzling colors as Burns and others cast their spells. The barrage leaped at the charging minotaur, but he swept his ax across his chest and a wall of earth exploded in front of him, deflecting or absorbing the blasts.
That still gave me a moment where Tecton’s line of sight was broken. “Hold on!” I shouted as I jumped.
My body was only spirit, so I couldn’t push off against the ground with my legs. Instead, I willed myself to move. In the physical world, I’d be carrying a few tons, but in spectral form, we lacked any physical weight, and my will proved sufficient.
We soared up and to the right, the long spectral length of the tree everyone clung to flexing slightly. Many of the group shouted or screamed in surprise, but thankfully no one fell off. In fact I found it far easier to manage the load as ghosts than I had in physical form. Gravity and centrifugal force held no sway over us.
In one graceful bound, I leaped over a cluster of bulls, my left arm holding the tree secure against my shoulder, while with my free right hand I slashed down with Soulrend as I passed. I lacked the leverage for solid strikes, but still caught several bovines with glancing blows. As I drifted back to the ground and prepared to launch into the air again, I realized I was again limiting myself. Why was I landing? Gravity no longer held sway. I’d subconsciously planned my leap as an arc that returned to the ground just because that’s what I was used to.
So with an effort of will, I soared 10 feet off the ground and started flying. Most of the bulls stood at least 12 feet tall on their hind legs, so I wove between them, slashing at faces and necks as I passed. Soulrend carved through spirits like thick pudding, sending pieces flying while bodies fell bellowing or simply twitching behind. Notification messages began scrolling in, but I minimized them all.
The long spear of my tree swept back and forth across the space as I moved and turned, generating more screams and shouts and protests, but I just shouted back to hold on and not move.
“You will not escape!” Tecton roared and I spun a full circle, still flying, to see the enormous minotaur charging after us. This time he barreled through any herd member unfortunate enough to get in the way, trampling his own bulls and cows in his towering rage. His ax glowed with a sinister black light. I was not about to bet it couldn’t cut spirit.
“See if you can slow him down,” I shouted as I focused all my will on flying faster.
I rose to 20 feet, ignoring the rest of the herd and accelerated. We were spirits now, so wind resistance and physical limitations no longer mattered. The only thing limiting our speed was my imagination and willpower. I had a lot of both and we shot forward with breathtaking speed, leaving the herd far behind.
“I don’t think we need to waste the spells,” Burns shouted back. “How can you move so fast?”
“Just enjoy the ride.” I banked to the east as if I was heading toward one of the canyons through the steep foothills leading up to the slopes we’d all arrived on and the taller mountains beyond.
“Where are you going?” Jane shouted.
“Watch.”
I triggered Mirror Cloak. The air shimmered again, colors draining to monochrome as my cloak’s ability kicked in. As I had hoped, the effect covered us all since we were all one long spiritual body. Moving that fast, we wouldn’t be totally concealed, but hopefully Tecton would be confused and think we were still heading for the hills.
Then I banked around to the north again and made a beeline for the settlement hill. We flashed across the mile in a matter of seconds, leaving the bellowing Tecton behind. Flying was so much fun! If I could find a way to permanent Phase Walk, I would.
I started to slow as we neared the settlement. I spotted Tony Waldau in the center of a knot of humans who filled the largest gap between the spires of stone ringing the hilltop. They’d been the fighters holding the center of the lines with that glowing barrier.
Ruby was standing with Tony, and I spotted Steve too. That was such a relief. I aimed for them and shouted a greeting. It warbled out of me like a ghostly wail.
“Monster!” someone shouted.
All along the length of the tree, everyone shouted “No” or “We’re not” or variations on that theme. The tumult of voices rang out like a ghostly cacophony that shivered my spine, and I was already a ghost.
It obviously terrified the other survivors because as one they oriented on us and unleashed their spells.
