Chapter 7

I hung upside down off the cliff, hanging onto the overhang with my legs. My hands were splayed wide and they fluttered in the wind, threatening to tear me from my precarious perch. I smiled down on the world, it all looked so small and funny from up here, the big blue under me and the wide green fields and trees above.

A giggle escaped my lips as I saw my best friend Edmond next to my legs. I pulled myself up and cupped him in my hands. “I know that Eduardo. Yeah it would be kinda funny wouldn’t it.” I snorted at his wit.

Edward was my best friend in the whole wide world, he kept me company and told me jokes. He didn’t get along with the voice, but the voice was being rude lately. The voice wasn’t answering my calls and I was getting lonely, good thing Eddison was here for me. I put Edwick back in my pocket and ran my fingers over his cold hard surface, it was comforting.

My clothes had long since deserted me, which was rude considering I was on a mountain. Its pretty cold up there. I was nearing the south eastern edge of the mountain again, the same area I had first come to, though this time I was much higher up. The wind was chilling and cut straight to the bone. The sparse plant life below was nearly non existent up here, replaced with snow and tears.

It had been a boring couple of days since my last satisfying kill, the cat who’s heart got popped. Eddy whispered to me from my pocket, I took him out and help him in front of my face, staring intently. “What do you mean I suck at this? I’ll have you know I’ve hunted multiple monsters. I’d also like to remind you I could drop you off the side of the cliff and you couldn’t stop me.” I said with a smug grin, “Of course I’d do it, just watch, one of these days Ed, bing, bang, zoom, and off you go.”

After I silenced Ed I walked to a small uninhabited cave I had commandeered from an uncooperative previous tenant, he hadn’t taken kindly to me. I still had the scars to prove it. I hadn’t been just hunting and sleeping, though mostly that was my main routine. By the firelight in that small cave I had practiced using my miasma and Center energy. I had refined my control over the miasma and could create single claws on specific fingers instead of whole hand transformation.

I had tried more to transform my body into the monster form in only specific parts, with limited success. While I couldn’t just change my hand, I had managed to change everything but my hand. One could say that was progress. My physical skills were still improving with leaps and bounds, but my fighting abilities were still limited to wild flailing and subterfuge.

It was gonna get dark soon so I decided to practice with my sword knowledge and develop it into a usable skill. I had all of this information from my meals but I hadn’t learned to translate it yet. But tonight that was going to change. I set Ed down on the far side of the cave near a nice patch of mushrooms, he likes those, and took out my sword. The blade shimmered in the firelight.

I dropped into a ready stance and held my blade out parallel to my front foot. I went through basic attacks I had learned from the first mountain meals. I could translate some of my practical knowledge with knife fighting to the basics of sword fighting. The basic slash, thrust, and parry came easily since I technically already knew how to do them, and had done in some fashion with the knife. I spent nearly the entire night drilling myself with basic sword forms and attacks. I drilled until sweat dripped down my body in streams and my legs buckled with exhaustion, and only then did I rest.

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I woke to sunlight pounding on my eyelids, I woke on the cold stone ground temporarily blinded by midday’s light. I turned over back towards where Ed was, and what do you know. The lazy bastard was still there, in the same spot as before, he hadn’t even moved an inch. “You know, it would be nice, just once, to wake to you cooking me something nice.” I sat up and yawned, “What do you mean I don’t cook for you? You don’t even eat.”

I grabbed my sword and sheathed it in its scabbard. My sword belt was hanging on by a thread, the same went for my pants. I had a pair of rags for a shirt, and I seriously felt deep down that if I was welcome in civilized company some lucky tailor would make a fortune off me. I tucked Ed into his small pouch on my belt and went out of the cave to brave the morning.

I looked out over the valley and forest, peering further towards the nearby city of Valinwoode. A procession of people had left it several days ago, some couple dozen strong. They had slowly made their way towards the mountain range, cutting down wildlife as they went.

Their armor glinted in the sunlight, marking them as soldiers or adventurers. My bet was on adventurers because some of them had truly spectacular looking weaponry. Swords as large as two men were tall, or staves with some precious gem or other on top. They looked ready to sack a large town, I really felt bad for whatever they were after.

Putting them out of my mind I made my up the mountain, through winding paths and precarious overhang, slowly making my way towards the hunting ground. The whole way I circulated energy from my Center around my body, refining my control and strengthening it like a muscle. I did the same for the miasma energy, switching back and forth from man to monster.

As I entered the clearing I had scouted out yesterday Ed picked that moment to make a joke, “Shhhh!” I whispered, worrying someone had heard him. The joke wasn’t even his best work, sometimes I wondered at his sanity. The clearing ahead of me was made of stone similar to the stone everywhere else, but here there was clear signs of wildlife passing.

Small tracks in the light amount of snow, followed by larger tracks and the sudden disappearance of the smaller tracks. This alone was enough to tell me that something hunted here, and nothing got my blood pumping like hunting a hunter. I also needed something to test my new sword skills on. Whatever was here wasn’t a pushover as I could see some tracks of dangerous animals that suddenly disappeared in the snow.

I couldn’t tell what it was that prowled this area, but it was large. The tracks it had left were large and had four huge toes, tipped in large claws. It looked like it was four legged, maybe a cat or wolf creature that had gorged itself on other magical creatures. I decided to find a small rock topped with snow to hide behind.

I peered over the top of my hidey rock, occasionally smacking Ed when he got too rowdy. The plain clearing had several large rocks scattered around, this area was secreted away off a small path I had found when stalking a weird cat with a eyes atop small stalks. The area was vaguely circular, surrounded by sheer stone, the only openings were the one I came through and the larger path that came from somewhere else on the opposite side.

I had waited for a pretty long time, or at least it felt like it, until from the other side of the clearing came a giant ugly head. It had a beak like a bird, though it obviously wasn’t, the rest of its body was absolutely massive. It had wings that were folded on its back, small blue veins criss crossing the leathery wings. It had two massive eyes, with piercing yellow pupils that seemed to shift in size and shape, its body was covered in fur and under the surface was a surplus of muscle.

The thing stomped into the clearing, its four massive clawed feet digging through the snow and into the stone. It was similar to a hunting cat in shape, but that was where the similarities ended. I was here to test my sword skills, I was going to attempt this fight without sneaky underhanded tactics, although I did like those. I felt I needed to push myself, testing my limits. Today wasn’t a hunt as I had been doing before, stalking and then killing abruptly, today was a battle.

I looked towards Ed secreted away inside a pouch on my belt, his stoic unchanging expression bolstering my resolve. I drew my sword and stepped into the clearing, “Ed that’s rude, just because he looks like a deformed monstrosity, doesn’t mean you can just call him names.” the strange monster looked over to me, and roared, spraying spittle all over my rags, “On second thought, maybe he does deserve it.”

I stepped forwards, snow crunching under my bare feet. I circled around it slowly to the right, the creature seemed cautious. Probably because all of its prey fled, and now when faced with this strange looking creature it was stumped. Why doesn’t the smelly two legs run? It was probably thinking, making fun of me. I was definitely getting tired of how rude everyone was, even Ed was rude to me sometimes.

I sighed to myself, as me and the bird but not bird continued to circle each other. I made the first move, dashing towards its stomach with my sword ready to catch in its flesh. The creature leapt back, using its wings to propel itself further. As soon as it landed it used its powerful back legs and wings to launch itself at me, attempting to skewer me on its beak.

I rolled to the side, lashing out with my sword towards its leg, it connected, but just barely. The blade only managed to scratch its thigh. But that was enough to make it mad. The thing reared up on its hind legs like a horse and slammed down, the ground around me shook and I lost balance. As I toppled back the creature used its wings again to propel itself, flying towards me at incredible speeds.

I rolled desperately to the side and barely managed to dodge its beak, but its foreleg managed to claw out at me. I didn’t manage to dodge that. Its leg scored a long set of four deep cuts on my back, spaced at even intervals. My back bled profusely onto the white snow, but if I had learned one thing in the mountains, it was that hesitation led to death.

I rolled back onto my feet, staggering slightly. I turned towards where the wannabe bird flew past me, and was greeted with the sight of it loping towards me. I lowered myself closer to the ground and prepared to dodge, its front claws lashed out in a series of wild slashes. Each one coming within inches of me. I only managed to dodge thanks to my recent diet of powerful creatures.

As a heavy overhand paw swipe split the air towards me I rolled back and lashed out with my sword. This time the blade connected solidly, splitting one of the creatures toes in half. The thing roared at me again and leapt back again. I sighed, this was getting annoying, any time I made progress the thing just ran.

I needed to take the wings out first if I wanted any chance at killing it before I bled out. I knew I could probably kill it with my monster form but I was here to get better with my blade. I ran at the creature and leapt towards it while it was still recovering. The thing was not used to being wounded by its prey and I managed to take advantage of it.

I landed on its right shoulder and climbed up. I heaved myself onto its back, clinging to the dirty fur. I stabbed randomly around, attempting to hit something important while the thing spun wildly and attempted to buck me off. I held on tight with one arm and swung like a madman with my other. I felt resistance, then warmth and I cut near the base of one of its wings.

The wound erupted in hot red blood, showering me and clinging to my skin. The creature redoubled its attempts to shake me off. I swung around like a child clinging a horse for the first time, nearly losing my grip as I kept at my savage hacking. My blade bit deep into the things flesh, causing more blood to pour down onto me. Blood seeped between my fingers, loosening my grip until I couldn’t hold on.

I went flying through the air, pinwheeling as I went while gravity had no hold on me. I was abruptly snatched back down to earth by a solid rock wall. A pile of snow shook itself loose and landed on my head, knocking me to the ground. I managed to stand up, swaying like a drunk. I had lost my sword when I landed. I looked around for it until I saw a piece of metal glinting under a snow pile.

I stumbled towards it, lost in a haze until I heard a familiar angry roar. The creature had evidently decided that it was done writhing on the ground, and now it had its sight set on me. I wasn’t close enough to grab my sword before the weird bird arrived, and I didn’t wanna use my powers. So I decided to let Ed have a go, maybe he could hold him off until I got my sword.

I reached into my pouch and withdrew my bestest of friends, his solid form cool to the touch. I cocked my arm back and threw him with all my might, which was a considerable amount. He flew through the air, and whether by skill or luck, he landed square in one of its eyes. The creature stopped its sudden forward charge and skidded to a halt. It was only seven or so feet away and my sword was at hand.

I reached into the snow pile and withderew the blade. The creature was roaring and clawing at its eye, attempting to extradite Ed from his new abode. I stalked towards the beast and thrust my blade into its open maw, piercing through the roof of its mouth and into whatever served as its brain. It fell to the ground in a heap, the snow around it got blown away. I reached into the eye socket and pulled out my steadfast companion, secreting him away in his pouch.

“Great work Ed, if you had a mouth, or stomach, or a digestion system in general, I’d share. But as it is, I think it’s all for me.” I cracked my knuckles and settled in for my lunch.

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“Why are we going to Mount Lurin again?” asked a short bearded dwarf, though his scales on his skin spoke otherwise.

“Do you even listen, or is your head hollow. I’ve told you twelve times already, we are tracing its mana signature.” replied an exacerbated man.

“Yea, but, how do you know it’s the right signature?”

“Because the creature’s description matches that of a man who supposedly turned into a dall’in. And the creature we are hunting was reported as looking like a dall’in, ya know, razor teeth, eating human flesh. The works.”

“Sure, sure I get that. But how do we know that this is the creature, I mean there could be dozens of monsters matching that description out here.”

“I seriously doubt that you get it, but the only way to know for sure if this is the right one is to go there now isn’t it.”

“I guess so.”

The pair was walking in the center of a group of nearly three dozen adventurers. The Count had offered a sizable sum of gold along with a choice of magical weapons in his treasury to the one that brings home his son's killer, preferably alive.

The group of adventurers arrived at the bottom of Mount Lurin. Many of the more physically keen ones began to climb, while the less physical more magical individuals floated up using various means. Some flew, other were carried by huge birds made of smoke, and one even used a magical carpet.

They all arrived at a plateau and arrayed themselves out, talking amongst themselves. The mage trackers told everyone where to go. In front of them was a cave, and there were paths to either side. The magical tracking spells they used gave a general sense of the direction they needed to go. That was how they arrived at the mountain, but now they were here they needed a more fine tuned way of tracking.

Spells were used to follow the path their quarry had taken, this led them straight ahead towards the cave. Many of the mages were thankful this creature didn’t know how to hide his mana signature, or else they might not even be able to find him at all. They discussed amongst themselves, excluding the non magical adventurers from their dialogue, while the non magical people did the same.

“Why are we all here, I could kill any beast in these mountains on my own.” said one of the more muscle bound warriors as he traveled through the cave entrance.

“Just because you passed your B rank test, it doesn’t mean you’re hot shit. And anyway, if we were all commissioned then there has to be a reason they sent all of us.” replied another more portly individual.

“Don’t make fun of me again, or I swear on all the gods you will regret it.” growled the first warrior.

“Truly I am sorry, my words were not my own. Forgive me, please I beseach you.” said the other with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

The huge warrior laughed, but it sounded fake as it left his lips, “Tell me your name and we can settle this later, pig.”

“Oh deary me, I didn’t realise I was speaking with a master of verbal wit. I am but a humble warrior by the name of Ched, please do forgive my transgression young master.”

A vein leaped out of the warriors forehead, and his face turned beet red with barely constrained rage. He turned away and walked further ahead in the column, but not before saying “My name is Reddik. Remember it.”

Ched chuckled to himself as he walked through the cave, but his laugh along with all conversation halted as they entered a circular room. All eyes were trained on the floor, at the bones scattered around. They lay in mounds and piles, crushed underfoot by something massive. Many bones were obviously humanoid, and many of the more weak willed adventurers had to focus on keeping their lunch.