Chapter 140

Brenna

The Last Villager

Even just seeing the boy’s skinny frame caused waves of pain to shoot down Brenna’s body. Her mind didn’t even have to latch onto his to explain the situation. The boy was half starved and scared to death of the world around him. Something had spooked the boy so badly that he had defecated himself and would rather rot away in the abandoned stump of a tree than forage for food.

Then Lykan gave his warning, two quick taps of his staff. A sign that he was aware of threats. The way he kept staring at her, and the way his mind buzzed with anticipation it was clear he had spotted a threat, or maybe multiple threats far earlier.

She knew he had been testing her and that she had been failing, but she couldn’t for the life of her find out what Lykan was observing. Up until the point of finding the boys near frantic mind calling out in fear for help was the first mind she had noticed.

Even when running with the boy, she only felt Lykan’s mind. Then when he struck out, ghostly figures would appear. Grizzly visages of monsters wearing human sacs of skin. These were monsters that had no mind, or rather their minds were so minor that they were practically voids in space, versus those used by sentient creatures.

The way they continued forward after the three of them, especially with Lykan providing rear guard was evident enough of their stupidity. Even the dumbest of monsters learned to avoid the death wielder while he was in action. Still the monsters came, and still they fell to his massive strikes.

The fact that he offered a retreat also spoke volumes about how they were deep within enemy territory. Knowing Lykan, had it just been the two of them he likely would have stayed. As it was, one look at the emaciated boy caused Lykan’s entire plan to change. Rather than staying to fight, despite the numbers Lykan provided cover as he ensured their safe passage.

Only once Brenna got to the campsite the two had used the night before did she stop. This was far enough away that she could notice any creature coming. Also, she felt this would be a place where Lykan would be able to find her. Though he had so many different skills and abilities that she figured that he could likely track her halfway across the continent by now.

She had to admit that her own connection to Lykan had also grown as she could easily distinguish his mind from kilometers away. In fact, she had never found a recent distance where his mind was not within her reach. This was both a calming effect and something that frightened her.

She knew deep down that this was a crutch, her dependency on Lykan, to always feel his mind. She knew that if she told Lykan about this, he would want to train away this bad habit, that it was a vulnerability that could be exploited later. She knew all of this, and still couldn’t bear to be away from him. So, she opted to never bring up the fact.

Still, she knew it would be obvious. At least she had seen similar signs of dependency in Lykan towards her. Dependencies that she tried to readily encourage.

Cough. Cough.

The boy coughed, as she gently placed him on the ground. “OOWWWW.” His body let out a long slow moan as his body slowly relaxed, letting his muscles that had been held tight together, to slowly relax.

He looked almost like old depictions of groaning undead coming to life. Looking at him, his body was close to stopping. Taking a quick moment to check her surroundings and ensure no monsters followed. She pulled out her waterskin and began gently pouring some of the liquid into the boy. This liquid was qi infused water, which Brenna hoped would help with the boy’s recovery time. Along with helping to restore minerals to the boy’s badly depleted body.

Instantly the boy came to life, as his body greedily ate at the water. He tried to reach for more, but the moment his shaky hand reached up for the water skin, she pulled it away. She wasn’t the best on healing techniques, but had received enough of the basics from Lykan. She knew that water was the most important resource for a body. That other resources could be denied for longer, but three days was the most a normal body could go before losing a lot of functionality.

From the look of the boy, it was clear he was nearing the three day mark, if not well past it. The minute the enriched liquid hit the boy’s stomach, his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out from exhaustion.

Brenna for her part stood overwatch, over the boy, her battle-axe drawn. Until finally a few minutes later, Lykan returned covered in black tar, and a dense cloud of black smoke rising high in the night sky.

Looking at the smoke, and smelling the thick scents coming off of Lykan, she just raised an eyebrow.

“Dark qi. I’ve never seen anything like it. The creatures acted like they had no sense of pain, nor sense of self preservation. They just had a target and continued hounding that one target relentlessly.” He said.

Hearing this Brenna nodded. Then turned her attention back to the boy. “Can you check on him?”

With that, Lykan nodded and carefully went over to the boy. He lay his long staff down on the ground while he placed two fingers on the boy’s neck. Then after a few seconds he pulled at the skin on the boy’s arm. Then tapped on the boy’s stomach. There was a slight gurgling sound as the sac that had been completely empty moments ago now held content.

“Qi water?” He asked, looking at the boy.

Brenna nodded.

“That’s good. We will need to slowly get him back to foods. It is not the worst case I’ve seen, but he is awfully small.” There is a slight pause, as he then turns to Brenna. “How is his mind?”

“Not good. He was frantic that monsters were going to find him. I would have thought he was being paranoid if it hadn’t been for your constant glances letting me know I was missing something. Then after hearing about the dark qi in their bodies, I almost wonder if that helps shield the minds of the creatures.”

“Either it shields the minds, or there were no minds to speak of. Those ghouls had hollow sunken eyes and seemed to be possessed.”

Hearing that, Brenna nodded in complete agreement. For a moment she paused almost wondering if he had in fact read her mind, as that was what she had been thinking about earlier.

“So what do we do?”

Pausing Lykan looked at the boy for a long moment. Then looked at Brenna.

“I would like you to stay here and watch over him. When he wakes up try to feed him more water. Then if he still does well with that, slowly feed him smaller portions of plants. Then more complex meats later on. We should likely avoid qi dense foods for the moment, as his body isn’t capable of handling such resources currently.”

Hearing all this Brenna only nodded in agreement. Inwardly she was amazed at the level of insight he was able to provide from just a simple glance at the boy. Here he was, able to see the core cultivation path of the boy and was even able to recognize the subtle signs of qi infused water inside the boy.

“While you wait with him, I will go out and scout out the village. It is likely that the village has been overrun with whatever those monsters were.”

The plan wasn’t the most optimal, at least not for Brenna as it meant that once again, he would go off without her. This would make the second time when she would be left alone before a major operation. The first had been during the leviathan fight, this would be the second time in as many weeks. While she understood the rationale behind their roles. She couldn’t help but feel she was not fulfilling her end of the deal.

They should be partners, but it was clear he was able to identify these monsters far sooner than she was. While there was a logistical reason for her to be left behind, so that she could care for and nurse this survivor back to health. She couldn’t help but feel somewhat marginalized by the whole situation.

With a crisp nod, Lykan went about gathering a few items. He gathered herbs and plants that he then grounded together into different pastes. One was for the rashes he suffered from having to be in his own filth for so long. The other was for him to take when he was ready to try something firmer than water.

With the two poultices created, he quickly headed off. His visage blurring at the exact moment a gust of wind could be seen blowing through the tree branches. For anyone else, they might interpret the act as a gust of wind. For Brenna, she knew differently. She knew the gust of wind for what it truly was, the speedy lift off Lykan into the night sky.

In his mind, she could still feel his thoughts turning. It was clear he knew what might have caused this carnage. That or if he didn’t know outright, he had a very strong opinion on what might have caused this whole mess.

The further away he went, the thinner their connection became. As he moved away, he received less and less information. Until all she got was just a faint little prick, letting her know that he was still there.

Just when she was about to let her mind fully give way to the gravity that his mind being so far away truly frightened her. As she wondered if their connection could be snapped? Then if it was snapped, what would happen once he came back? Would the connection reappear? Or would it be something that was lost forever. Or worse, would it be something that she would have to explain, before forcing another such connection. Then there was always the problem of how she had managed to create the connection in the first place. At the very least she knew that part of this improbably connection had to have been initiated, at least in part, by Lykan himself.

So, it only stood to reason that if she wished to restore the connection, if it were to break, then he would need to once again be a willing participant in the operations. But that was a level of commitment that she knew would scare away most people. Fortunately for Brenna, before she could let her mind spiral too far down the webs and spirals of fear, the boy awoke.

Cough. Cough.

The lungs still sounded poor, but they seemed to be better than they were earlier.

“Are you okay?” Brenna asked, in the local Sidherthan tongue that seemed to be a widespread commerce tongue, even in the north. Fortunately, Brenna guessed correctly, as the boy nodded.

“Y,yes.” He stammered.

“Are you still thirsty?” She asked.

He nodded vigorously. Seeing his reaction, caused a smile to form on Brenna’s lips. With that she handed over the waterskin. Seeing that his hands were a little less shaky this time. She still helped pour the bag slowly, but he managed to finish the contents of the skin easily. Then when that was done, she fed him the poultice that Lykan had made. Again, he ate it greedily. Eating so quickly that he began to hiccup from the food.

Seeing this, Brenna offered a second water skin and had him slowly sip until his hiccups went away. Only once he was fully calm and seeming to be in a better state of mind did she decide to ask, “What happened?”

The boy was silent for a moment, before he finally looked up and locked eyes with Brenna. “Vampires.”

“Vampires?” Brenna asked, having never heard this word before, at least it was not any name for a monster she had heard. Maybe a foreign force?

“Yes, they drained all the blood from the parents first. Then came after us kids. I hid. I could hear the others cry out as they were slowly ca…caught…” The boy was crying by now, as the guilt of his memories came flooding back. “They cried out for help, but I was so frightened. I just hid, closing my eyes, but still they screamed…”

Hearing this, and feeling the boy’s disturbed thoughts, Brenna did all she could. She held the boy tightly and began gently patting his back. “Don’t worry. I sent the best vampire hunter alive after these monsters.”

Hearing this, the boy paused from crying long enough to lock eyes with Brenna. Reading his emotions, she clearly understood his question, who?

With that Brenna smiled, “the great vampire hunter, Lykan is looking into them now.”

Hearing that the boy shook his head, a sombre tone filling his voice. “One man won’t be enough. They have the entire village.”

“They will need that and more to stop Lykan, you will see.” Brenna said, as she still patted the boy. Then after some time offered more of the food paste to the boy. The boy ate in silence as he contemplated what was happening.