The Last Heroes Before Judgement (36 page)

The weather turned ugly as soon as I left Embraun. My mood and my pace were unaffected because I had already accepted my fate. I was especially grateful for the new powder bags, as I dearly needed to keep the extra ones for water. Given the snow, I could have made my way back to Ram’s Peak and celebrated my bounty in two weeks or less. The thought of the journey, and the grey in the sky, made me sigh all day. The next day was worse. And, finally, when I reached Broad Wolf Crossing, I dropped to my knees and had a good long cry. Out in the open, days away from where anyone could see, I had a full on fit. I screamed at the gods, begged with my hilt, and destroyed the lid to the chest as best I could. I decided, on my final day, I would eat a hot meal of burnt fish.

When all seemed lost, the gods granted me a parting gift of three hearty fish with my first dive. Both fists were full, and the one in my mouth tried to wrestle my teeth out with a vengeance. I burned the smaller parts of the wooden chest as tinder for my fire. With the strong and reinforced shards, I cut into them with a pointed stone, hot from being stuck in the embers. I managed three strong points, tethered tight with wet bark peels, and glued with a baked clay resin from the bottom of the fire pit. By the time I had finished, the sun was down and the snow had stopped falling. I tied the bags of powder together and tossed them into a tree. Then I sighed once last time, and kicked wet dirt all over my only source of heat.

The trail of giant footprints had been mostly covered by the snow. They ended short, and led to signs of a struggle. Just as I had expected, the mass of the things was hidden elsewhere. The Opa War Chief had led his elites only so close to the road. They did a great job of hiding their movements through use of the canopy, so much so that I nodded.

“Impressive. Too bad, it doesn’t fool Matthius the Monster Hunter.”

Only the Scarlet Pines were strong enough at the top to be climbed so late in the season. The forest made many patchwork roads for them to follow but only one in the direction I was headed- due north. I meant to take the fight to their den, if it was the last thing I ever did. All the better, for it might have become a tale worthy of the barderies. I stayed low and quiet. When I set out, there was no moonlight from which to hide. After many hours of hiking in my best impression of an assassin, everything changed. The west side of the river finally turned into the wide lake that the Sheek-tee called Beaver City. The shoreline disappeared westward into their territory and the water was filled with the homes of the mega beavers, all reinforced for the coming freeze. However, something much different was happening in the north east, where the many waterfalls filled the air with a constant cover of hazy droplets and loud noises.

The green and pink lights played along the ice as far out as the eye could see. The moon glowed from the south east and the stars occasionally peeked through the clouds. In every way, the secret hovel of the monsters was backlit and profiled. From the sky, the eastern shoreline, and against the usual fog of warm water hitting cold air, no other human had ever noticed. All the power of the Lantos and their access to the Lexicon of Potentiality, yet never a mention.

“Smart- right under their noses...”

The Opa had to have felled more than a few trees to cross. I knew they could not swim, especially given their unhidden footprints in the muddy parts of the shore. They made it too easy for me to sneak up on them. Under the cover of darkness, all I needed to do was swim across. The water was only slightly warmer than the exposed air. I laid on my shell and tucked the chest under my chin. Some parts were shallow enough to push off with my spears, some places I had to row with my arms. I never dared to kick my feet once. Once I felt the cool rush of the underwater current, I knew I had passed over the deepest parts.

“Half way to the underworld. Anyone turning back?”

My shell splashed quietly as I was pulled inland with the tiny waves. Few parts of the hidden island came into view. Despite the drafting tide, the small overhang had to be climbed from the surface of the water to the top that disappeared in the darkness. It took some rearranging that I had no patience for. Eventually, I had the shell on my back with the spears tucked in the straps and the chest stuck behind my neck. There was no trail on my side of the stones, just random hand holds and the occasional fall in which I had to hold my breath to keep from screaming. Inside the gutted stone, the Opa slept in mounds. I could feel their heat and smell their spoiled egg breath. There was more movement on the higher tier inside their cave home. Luckily, I did not smell nearly as bad as they. Nor did I ever bathe, so I did not wreak of soap either. Better, they had no guards at all. Unfortunately, this made me overly confident. Once I reached the peak of the island, a southern tip raised off the plateau higher than the tallest tree. I jumped up onto it. I swung up and had barely rolled down before the thing could break off. It bounced off of the southern wall of the sleeping masses. Nearly to the bottom, the thing was moving so fast that it tore a protruding rock wall apart. The pointed stone and the rounded wall both split and exploded into rubble and dust.

A few Opa poked their heads out to look up at me in disbelief.

“Sorry!”

The high plateau, as it turned out, did indeed have an armed guard. They were not prepared to accept my apology, nor did they hesitate long enough for me to offer one. Reeds began bouncing off of my armor. The plateau had a large hole in the middle to allow for air to escape and all of the guards were sleeping about the warm opening- before I woke them. My heart was racing from the rush of surprise. An Opa grabbed my right arm with more strength than I had ever imagined a single hand could possess. He was also immune to being punched right in the face.

“Oh yea? You think you’re so tough?”

It roared back at me and into the air. His mates decided that I was effectively captured and his partner hopped along towards us on his knuckles in a happy mood. The thing that had my arm licked his lips and squealed the scrambled language of his man eating tribe. He waited for my rebuttal with bright and confident eyes.

“Yea, but, can you swim though?”

He did not understand. I might as well have been Kru explaining the many reasons why he had to pee on every tree. Realizing just how stupid the things truly were, I conjured the red shadow and gave him a good long roar. Then I speared him through the ribs and over the edge. The fool behind me was dumbstruck. I used his own reed to sweep his knees away. Before he could hit the ground, I swung the chest around, knocking him out over the edge to drown in the water below.

A shrill call shook the rock under my feet, and the elites retreated to find their War Chief.

“That’s right, flee! Send me your master so that we may die together.”

I had two spears left, and all the energy in the world. I tied my hair in a top knot and stretched, sure that the beast would be along soon. Instead, the taller and smarter elites had gone off to lead the breeders away from their den. Somehow, I felt bad for displacing them. The poor things would not have been a problem, if they simply would have stopped eating the Sheek-tee children. The red shadow dissipated in the absence of action. Feeling an ambush was likely, I made my way around the eastern lip of the hole to follow the Opa. That’s when their War Chief appeared. He did not stand tall and offer me a battle, he swung down from a tree and kicked me into the pit.

The fall was fast and nearly fatal. Besides the surprise snapping of my neck from the initial kick, the walls were lined with pointed sticks- as was the bottom. I had taught the Opa to hunt with a Nanu Trap, only to fall victim to it. I was not the first either. The bones of several creatures lay strewn about and human skulls were amongst them. My shell usually handled falls better, but the uneven slide caused me to spin and flail. Luckily, I held the box of explosives to my chest and it was impaled instead of my body. I stood more quickly than the Opa War Chief had expected.

“You missed- idiot!”

It screamed back. It was joined by many others. Then, the games began. An army of the Opa beat their hollow reeds on the lip of the stone hole. The echo was louder and more menacing than any drum. Trapped at the bottom of a pit, surrounded by spikes and skeletons, their music was a thing of pure evil. Perhaps, if I had strayed in town the way the Lantos had ordered me to, I would have been fighting the monsters under the light of the full moon. With only a sliver missing, the light did all it need do, which was to profile my enemies. What the Lantos failed to deduce from invading my memories was that I no longer needed the light to heal. I was in full control of the red shadow, and it was more than enough on its own.

“And you failed to deduce something much more important.”

The War Chief stepped up to the lip of the hole to growl at the noisy sea turtle. I painted his novice trap in red and kicked over the spike next to where I had landed.

“If you don’t tip your spikes with iron, they’re no good in the cold.”

They had all gone soggy and frozen in a repetitive cycle too many times to resist my heavy boot. Their master called for a barrage of reeds. When he was turned, I launched my spear at his head. It went high, but I made him fear me, which was of equal importance. I blocked incoming reeds and kicked down the spikes until I was out of breath and they were out of ammunition. I was too well armed for the beast to reveal his face again. Instead, he watched me pick off his mates one at a time. At some point, he lost his patience and began throwing them into the pit. They were much more of a threat up close, and the spikes made for brutish clubs.

They were, however, simple creatures that did not understand momentum. The faster they rushed in, the deeper their spent reeds punctured through their own torsos. The smell of blood was thick and suffocating, but I had only survived the first wave. They played games of hide and seek on my eyes, spearing me with reeds from every exposed angle they could manage. I was cut into with little circles, and crescent shaped cuts were left on my vest. I barely survived their second wave of attack. No matter, I was wheezing and bloodied and yelling for more. They knew better than to run away, though their master had to roar constantly to remind them. The price of retreat was death. Then, so became the price of staying.

“Matthius!”

“Major Swiftblade? I’m in the pit!”

“Don’t move.”

A single shot of the lightning infused fire blasted through the line on my left from the north. I could hear the Opa below screaming and getting their younglings to safety. The exodus had been reinitiated. Then the Swiftblade leapt into the hole on purpose.

“What are you doing down here?”

“That’s what I was going to ask you.”

“Now we’re both surrounded.”

“Good. You have a delivery for me?”

I shook his hand, bowing to his wisdom. I dumped the contents of the chest out for him and threw the hard wooden thing at the monsters. All they saw was desperation. The Chief called for another wave and even grabbed a reed for himself. Once the Swiftblade was reloaded, both sides opened fire. Reeds flew down from all sides and I did my best to block for Major Swiftblade. He was smart enough to keep that extra shell covering his face. He was protected from the heat of the fire and from incoming reeds. What neither of us expected, was the upgraded power of the new cartridges. For every spin of charge, the Drakkah cannon fired three shots in a row.

“Drakkah!”

Besides an inability to swim in water, the monsters had an uncontrollable fear of fire. Before long, they fled, and we gave chase. The Swiftblade blew apart a path in the wall spikes for us to climb. I could barely keep up with his pace as I had both hands full of his ammunition. They ran north, occasionally screaming from having fallen off the cliff. The water splashed but none of them ever screamed again. We chased through the thickest woods and the path circled back west. Down below, on the ground level, the Opa packs were splitting up and disappearing into the woods without their elite warrior class. It would make for a harsh winter, but, they stood a chance of escaping detection from no longer having the power to eat on man flesh. Major Swiftblade called for a reload half way through. Just in time, as the barrel had grown red hot. I followed, grabbing a reed in my open hand. Most of the trees on the plateau were already burning. To kill them all, we did not stop until the entire canopy was aflame and the Opa had nowhere else to hide.

The last group tried to surprise us and failed. I got the first with the last reed, while he was still in mid leap. The next ate the Swiftblade itself- literally. With his final shot, the Monster Hunter blew a whole straight through the chest of the last monster at point blank range. He blew back over the edge of the plateau into the dark night. We stood there panting for a moment, waiting for the splash. We both looked around to ensure the entire hive had been destroyed. On the southern tip, where the rock had fallen off, awaited the ever present phoenix. The king roared its head up in ecstasy like a mad goat, and I roared back. Major Swiftblade patted my shoulder. The red shadow faded away to nothing. Kane’s phoenix flew home to spread the word of our victory over the man eating monsters. Finally, I had won my honor.