Rule 9

Be Prepared & Beware Honey Traps

Statement: Monsters turn into energy. Energy is absorbed by our tools. The tools are bound to us in such a way that we get credit for our kills. Certain items are absorbed to give us power or abilities. We’re being shaped by surviving against creatures’ intent upon killing us.

BUT WHY? What possible reason could there be to kidnap millions, or more, and bring them back with rules of physics changed? I refuse to believe this is simply a game to those creatures. Something triggered this. Something powerful enough to make them play by rules.

Six hours, four more tests of the explosive rune, and ten chunky mini-orcs later, I’d figured out additional guidelines. Unused runes faded after about ten minutes. That was an estimate. The glowing only existed on one page, so putting up two traps was impossible.

No other finger positions worked to trigger colors or different variants of red. There was a redeeming factor. The rune went onto every surface I’d tried to use. I put one on a dinner plate and threw it like disc. It destroyed the neighbor’s front door. Disc tossing was a skill which was now a lethal weapon. The original Olympians would be proud.

I still hadn’t figured out why I could see those monsters in the dark. The book also refused to absorb the second lantern so getting an additional ability was out of the question. I felt more nervous about my vague plan to kill the giant with every passing second. Defeating the giant might not result in any energy, or it might end up with no reward beyond a currently useless orb.

I kept my complaints internal and debated grabbing some pills. They’d calm me down but might make me slow. The painkillers would be better. I never again wanted to experience being broken and if that giant managed to hit me then that’d be it.

The very thought of having bones shatter scared me. Surviving physical hell once didn’t fill me with recklessness to risk another round of near death. I was betting on the power of an explosive rune.

With less than a day left I tied my book to a belt using shoestrings. A backpack would take too long to get into. I took one anyway for items, in case there were supplies worth gathering. Plus it let me bring a few bottles of liquor. Dad would forgive me for using the good stuff given the situation. It should help make explosions bigger, hopefully. Chemistry class taught me that higher proof alcohol catches fire easily, but explosions were like super-fast fires.

What I really glommed onto, was an old jar. I decided to pack nails into it and hope physics functioned as well as gravity. A rune would go onto paper. Paper, jar, nails, and any other bits of metal would be lobbed at the giant’s face. They’d be harder to throw but make a painful boom, for lack of a more technical phrase. I felt better figuring out new ways to make stuff explode.

The downside was that this would be extremely noisy. More so than tossing rune etched discs into other people’s doors. My early testing frequently made the giant pop up. I think the creature was getting used to booms because the sixth explosion barely got a rise out of the giant.

I took a hammer, two kitchen knives, my backpack, a beer bottle filled with tap water, and a bar of food. The hammer let me undo nails from the neighbor’s fence then went carefully into a backpack side pocket. I pulled two planks out and held out a hand mirror to inspect the next yard over.

It was empty except for those rabbit creatures. I finally got to see one up close in daylight. They had tiny forearms, giant teeth, and fur exactly like a rabbit. Their feet were thick but webbed like a chicken’s. They made absolutely no sense. The creatures ignored me in favor of eating every blade of grass they could find.

Bare patches could be seen where a mob of them had torn up plants by their roots. They were a plague that I couldn’t address until after I found a safe location, one that would last me after the three day window. That was part of the drive behind killing the giant. One day it’d get hungry, or decide I was a threat.

The book hung poorly from my side. I brushed my fingers along the edge until I felt the pages part. There were only a few surfaces inside and they were stiff enough that I could touch them without sight.

Glowing fingers moved to position, leaving the fifth one out of place. I didn’t want to feel that dizzying sucking motion. Not until I was against a monster or ready to fight something. Once planted, the rune took time fade unless it went “boom.” I’d discovered that the minute one exploded, I could pool another one from the page a moment later.

Each yard was basically the same. Children’s toys made me pause for a moment at the third step. They were overgrown with grass and dirty. Faded coloring implied they’d been outside for a long time, but there hadn’t been a solid day of sunlight since my return. Large clouds constantly chased each other across the sky.

Post Note: At this point, I assumed I simply didn’t know enough about how fast yard toys faded.

My target turned out to be two blocks away. Slants to the house line had thrown me off. The streets were mostly clear. I found two of the mini-orc scouts, who were like packs but without weapons of any sort, and they died under single blows of the hammer.

I struggled not to think about it. They were only vaguely human. Seeing the children’s toys and killing creatures the size of kids caused me to pause in someone’s backyard. I shivered for ten minutes and prayed they weren’t related to each other. Images of those kids being sold by their parents to sharp toothed stewardesses flashed through my brain.

Post Note: I still don’t know if the two are related. I don’t know where the children went or what became of them. I worry that one day someone will tell me those mini-orcs were all mutated toddlers. They looked like monsters, but if they had once been children—what did that make me?

After twenty minutes, I managed to make it to a wide open yard where tree and plants had broken loose. It sat on the edge of a tiny park. On the other side of the forest was as school. I had no idea if the school was still there.

Over the next fence something large snored. I didn’t dare pry off a board in case the creature’s hearing was really good. It could hear an explosion blocks away. I climbed up a slope in the rear and lowered myself through a series of bushes. The jacket blocked some thorns but my backpack got caught repeatedly on branches.

“Hey!”

I held my breath and glanced around for enemies. Part of me expected the bushes to come to life and attack.

The giant’s body was half submerged in an in-ground pool. The water had green algae all through it that grew upon the giant’s legs. A woman with a sheet wrapped around her stood at the side of his head and berated him loudly.

“Hey, you giant pig fucker! All that size and your dick’s still tiny. Come on! You’ve been standing up, and still can’t find it in you to even look in my direction.”

She was unreasonably attractive. Black slick hair trailed down a clearly well-toned body. She was barefoot and standing near the filthy water. The woman still made my mouth water and body heat.

“All that size! What good are you? You just sleep all day. Nothing’s changed you giant, fat, fuck! You can’t even scratch your own ass. You can’t even find it. You just got bigger and stupider.”

Her lower lip stuck out in a pout. There was only one flaw that I could see, she did not know how to shut up. Nearly two days of being growled at for talking, plus months of keeping to myself since the accident made the sudden influx of noise downright aggravating.

She turned to the bushes, then at the giant, and continued her verbal abuse. I stayed where I was and curled my fingers into the bomb shape. The angry woman turned slightly giving me a better view. A softly muted voice in the back of my brain wondered why she was so easy to see despite being forty feet away. My eyes were like telescopes zooming in. I could actually see a drop of water dripping down between her breasts.

She started pacing while talking. Her footsteps were uneven and swayed more than simply sexiness could account for. “All I wanted, was to look beautiful in inspire some passion, instead, I get stuck with the strongest guy around, who can’t even lift a fucking finger—” She stopped and closed her eyes tightly.

A lusty roll to her words made my ears tingle. She had slightly brown skin and the woman’s hair was stiff. Those features only enhanced her mouthwatering curves. Every time she shook, drunk or not, her breasts jiggled enticingly under the sheet. I wondered if she even knew that the top was coming loose.

“Thirty! You turned thirty and just went to shit. I should have never married you. Dad was right the whole time. Mom said marry an older man, he’s more secure and stable. Dad was like, age does funny things to a man’s man and I should find someone I wanted to be with. He was pissed at mom for the security thing. Sure no one wants to come near the house, but does your dumb ass even look at me now?”

The woman continued her tirade. I couldn’t figure out how she was so loud and I’d never heard her before. A slow work through of the logic told me that three blocks and lots of fences was enough to mute most sound.

My grand plan to blow up the giant for experience went right out the window. The giant was, if I understood it correctly, formerly human. The woman wearing a light sheet with a literally mouthwatering ass must have been human once. Both must have purchased items from the stores that changed them.

“What good is surviving this shithole of a life if I can’t even get a decent fuck!”

I couldn’t tell if she was a shrew before or after the change. Their dynamic made me worry about the items I’d been given.

“I should have had that broad chested man with the sword to delve my depths. I’ll bet he would have if you hadn’t killed him. I bet he would have all night long. That sword could have filled the void—”

The giant groaned at that and rolled to one side. His bloodshot eyes searched around but didn’t settle. A tongue, at least as large as I was, parted dry lips. He smacked a few times and an arm slammed down next to the brown-skinned woman.

“Bad woman. Whore.” The giant rumbled. His words hurt.

“At least whores get laid!” She flailed her arms and spun. I found myself staring at the woman’s ass and feeling far more aroused than I should have.

I moved a little to cover my ears. The woman turned toward me and looked back to her giant husband.

“Whores. Get… diseases.”

Covering my ears did not help.

“I’d be so lucky! At least it would be from sex! This is driving me crazy. Two months, two months without a functional vibrator. I can’t find a single battery! The plastic ones aren’t working for me. I need a real man.”

He slammed his arm down again.

“Fuck you.” She drunkenly rocked. “Fuck your couch.” The woman remembered to point accusingly at me. The sudden change in movement revealed a huge bottle in her other hand. “And definitely fuck the horse that he rode in on. If he makes it upstairs I’ll let him bang me from dawn till dusk!”

I hadn’t noticed it before because her very presence distracted me. My toes curled and legs tensed but none of it helped the reaction to her presence. She acted like the sheet slipping down wasn’t even there. Her breasts were high and round, like two perfect drops of water.

“Bet he’s here to kill you. Just like, that. God, that muscled man with the sword. Where did I put that? Fuck.” She stomped which made her entire leg ripple. I groaned and slammed my hands over my mouth. “I’d kill you myself but I can’t so much as smack you because of that stupid magic ring you bought. Till death do us part! Asshole!”

The giant’s arm flopped. It stretched at least thirty feet long and smashed one of the still standing fences. He grumbled and moved his hand again.

“Who is. Here?”

“Him! Him! The sneaky one in the shadows who has a fully functional dick. It’s bigger than yours ever was! He’s here to kill your useless ass and claim his prize!”

I looked down and found a new reason to feel flushed. The woman smirked and reeled back in amusement.

“Don’t try to hide with that ninja bullshit. I can see it all. Even through clothes. For men anyway. Or at least people who think they’re men. I thought this would be good. That’s what the fucking whore at the counter said!”

She couldn’t sound angry with that roll to her words. She had a pout that turned stern frowns into cutesy motions that made me want to hold her. It helped that the sheet had fallen completely off. I watched her bounce as she waved the bottle at her husband.

“Be a goddamn man and kill him before he ravishes me!” she yelled and stomped. “Or I swear I’ll let him spread my legs on the bed upstairs. You piece of shit cuck.”

The giant didn’t seem to understand. He licked his lips and groaned as he tried to stand. “Who’s there?”

“That stud in the bushes!”

I stared at her breasts without compression of the budding doom. There were no other thoughts in my head besides that woman and her sexy body. It’d been seven months since I’d been with a woman. Seven months, and a beautifully exotic female said I’d have my way with her once the other man was dead.

“Kill him!” she shouted.

Her order made perfect sense.

My hand gathered the spell energy in a second. Fingers curled perfectly into the bomb spell shape. Shoulders rolled casting off my backpack. The giant stood slowly with unfocused eyes. I pulled out my glass bottle of nails and my body shook. My other hand unrolled the paper.

The giant’s knee gave out. A wound on the leg bled freshly. He ignored sure pain and crawled on hands and knees in my direction. Water splashed. The woman let out a yell that deepened on the end, somewhere between a cheer and a moan. I shivered and cast the stars onto my piece of paper. The giant shuffled forward like a baby crawled.

I smiled wide and stuck the forming explosive rune into my jar. The giant lifted an arm. I screwed on the cap and moved with more grace than ever and heaved. His long body moved slowly. His arm slammed down to brace for another crawl.

I released the jar. It flew forth from my fingertips straight into his neck that was thirty or forty feet away. It smashed into his shoulder. Some small part of my brain shouted that a smarter man would find cover.

Post Note: I was enchanted. Literally. This was my second experience with mind muddling magic and it seems to be a recurring weakness.

The air rippled. Shards from the explosive tore into his neck and gouged a huge portion of flesh. Part of his body flew away, while the bushes and trees around me flailed madly from being pelted by the nails I’d packed into the jar.

I didn’t notice. I simply stared in triumph at the alluring woman whose eyes were wide. She breathed deeply and it was as though time stopped to soak in the gorgeous view, and was kind enough to let me enjoy the moment as well.

“Honey?” She broke the spell by speaking.

The giant grabbed his throat. Blood, more blood than I’d ever seen in my life, flooded down the monster’s hands and shoulder. It spurted everywhere. He fell to the side. I stared as his huge head came within two feet of crushing me.

The woman under him squirmed awkwardly. She lay trapped under his pelvis, trapped right next to the penis she’d been screaming for. I stepped around the huge body toward my prize. Blood that looked like free flowing amber poured out of her mouth. Her eyes were cloudy.

“This isn’t—” She gasped. “Honey. You’re crushing me.”

I stepped closer, entranced. Her husband was dead, which meant she was mine, by her own admission. She wanted a real man. I’d be one for her.

She kept talking. “I should never have put on that ring. I should have never bound myself…”

I crossed the final ten feet between us. Her skin was like dark coffee mixed with fresh soil. Her curves pushed up creating a deep valley. Despite being alien I still found her absurdly attractive. I reached a hand in her direction before it dawned on me what was happening.

My approach must have given her a burst of strength. “I just wanted sex.” Her eyes closed slowly but she kept on babbling. “What’s the point of being married if my husband won’t put out? I wanted a man to touch me. Please. Please…” She was dying, at least I was fairly sure.

My body moved on its own to obey her demands. Fingers brushed against her cheek. The warmth of another human struck me. I hadn’t touched a person other than doctors in months. She smiled as her neck lost strength. Her face slammed down.

Her eyes stayed half open. In my head, that implied she was still alive and simply gathering her strength. I waited for her to get out from under the giant. She didn’t move. It took me a few minutes to realize she would never move again.

The fog clouding me drifted away. My jaws ached from smiling for too long. Small hurts all over my body reported in. I blinked and gave myself a once over, finding that my clothes had been completely shredded and pieces of metal were still stuck in my leg.

Then the real pain kicked in, and I screamed. I bit hard and got my tongue. Coppery tasting blood filled my mouth and my stomach threatened to retch. I scrambled for the bag and found my water bottle pierced but the pills were still intact. I gulped down two and pulled out the nails.

I vaguely remembered to bind the wound but blood flowed freely. It was nothing compared to the buckets which pooled under the giant. I pressed fingers over the wound and got ready to walk toward the house for a first aid kit.

Two steps later and my body went limp. Muscles felt dead. The flow around my fingers slowed. I stared at the two dead people while trying to move, but it proved impossible. Nothing responded. My legs didn’t kick.

Then I realized that maybe I’d been in a car wreck again. My legs might never work. I panicked and tried to yell, but my chest refused to move. That meant I couldn’t breathe either and would be dead soon. I couldn’t even feel myself panic anymore. Everything was numb.

The two dead people were nearby. Her cloudy eyes gazed at who knew what. She slowly turned into a ball of energy, brown this time. The giant turned into several huge balls of yellow. I’d claimed a prize, but not the one intended by the brown-skinned woman.

It made me sick in a way the mini-orc creatures couldn’t. They had been the most intelligent acting things I’d seen. They were also murderers. A honey trap, and giant man who probably ate people whole, were a terrible combination. Nausea washed over me and grew in strength. I swallowed back salt and metal tastes repeatedly.

Post Note: It didn’t even register that my muscle function was coming back. I blame it on the mind control and euphoria of staring at that woman.

Then I lost the battle. My legs worked enough to turn myself over. For half an hour my stomach contents, small though they were, emptied all over the pavement near the pool and tears ran from my eyes. With each convulsion the rest of my wounds cried out.

They weren’t bleeding anymore. Scabs had formed but my body still felt weak. Lifting my backpack took more effort than expected. I couldn’t even find the strength to lift my book and check for a new spell.

I quashed the terrible voice inside my head that threatened to giggle and staggered inside their house. She’d mentioned other prizes from dead people. Maybe they’d turned into energy just like those two. Maybe, when I died, I’d turn into a yellow ball too. I could even be lucky enough to be a pretty dim black orb like my book.

A small bubble of laughter escaped me anyway.