Chương 11: Chapter Eleven: In Which She Is Very Stupid and Also Very Brave

The north section of the marsh ran denser, and Alice walked into it with only some measure of a plan. She held onto the unlit lantern in her left hand and the knife in her right, and she watched the ground. She didn't have any experience in hunting, animals or otherwise. But she tried hard to look for any reasonable signs that something had come across this way or that. It took some time walking about, noticing anything that seemed strange or that stood out.

She apparently was trying too hard as she did gain a level in [Notice Detail], which was not exactly what she had been looking for, but better than nothing. She had gone deep enough that she could no longer see any signs of Londinium, but she was still within the reed beds. Sudden bout of bravery aside, Alice was not about to push her luck too much. At some point, she noticed something.

There were pressed ovals in the grass, and an odd flattening in the reed stems that seemed to suggest that something had passed through. Skill created: [Track] Excellent." Track," she whispered quickly. [Track] – Active. It was a bit of strange feeling, because, rather than the visual clarity she had thought she'd gain from the skill, she received something more like perceptual certainty. As in she knew she was on the right track, these were the right signs to follow. She just needed to keep following them.

And all in just one second of active skill use. It became much easier from then on. She followed the tracks northeast and received several level up notifications for the skill. It took her twelve minutes to find two Boggarts in the shadow of a dense reed grouping, standing rather still, as if in wait. You have encountered two [Lesser Boggarts]." Hide," she said softly. [Hide] – Active. Lv.

1 [Hide] was surprisingly useful, even though it felt, to her eyes and ears, like she was standing very still and hoping for the best. But she moved behind the dense marsh reeds, slow and deliberate, placing each foot carefully to make as little noise as possible, and counted her seconds. One. Two. The nearest Boggart's ear flickered again and settled. God, active skills were like cheating. Skill [Hide] has leveled up. Lv. 2 was marginally better. Vigour Lv. 3 (7/30) Alright, she had 7 points in Vigour left.

But before she could continue, both heads came up. And then a third pair of amber eyes appeared from the reeds behind the first two. You have encountered a [Marsh Boggart]. Alice stopped moving entirely. There were too many. Not to mention that this one was bigger and uglier. It was like a small wolf, both in size and in proportion, its weight no longer concentrated only in the shoulders and jaw but distributed all around.

Its fur was thicker, darker, with bare patches along the shoulders and forearms where old scarring had stopped the hair growing back. Its jaw didn't quite close; the lower canines sat outside the upper lip at rest, giving it a permanently exposed look, like something that had grown past the face it started with. She stood in the partial concealment of [Hide] and thought quickly. Vigour Lv. 3 (6/30) Fighting one this morning had taken tremendous effort without active skills.

Taking on two simultaneously seemed idiotic but her plan of strategically using active [Strike] with the knife could still be doable, though somewhat reckless as she didn't have enough Vigour to afford to gamble with. Three Boggarts however? It was suicide. There was no way she could win three to one. She needed them apart. Vigour Lv. 3 (5/30) Alice took two careful steps back, keeping her weight low, not looking away from the cluster, and turned off [Hide]. Neither Boggart had moved.

She stood for a moment and looked at the ground around her, firm earth to her left where the bank had eroded, a scatter of small stones at its base. She crouched and picked up two. The first she tossed underarm into the reeds about fifteen feet east of the cluster. It went in with a soft rustle and a small splash. Nothing. The nearest Boggart's ear turned. That was all. She waited thirty seconds and tried the second stone, harder, further east.

One of the two smaller Boggarts uncurled from its position, rose, and moved east toward the sound, pushing through the reeds with its shoulder. It didn't seem alarmed, just investigating a noise that was not very threatening. She waited until the reeds had closed behind it completely. And then ten more seconds to make sure it wouldn't suddenly turn back." Hide," she mumbled. [Hide] – Active. She moved as quick as she could south, gave the original cluster a wide berth, then stopped using the skill. Vigour Lv.

3 (4/30) Then she came back around through the cover until she was approaching the third Boggart from the north, but didn't bother wasting her points here. [Hide] – Passive. How helpful, she thought, wishing there was someone she could roll her eyes against. It was nosing at the reeds where the stone had gone in when she found it, still unconcerned. The lantern was in her left hand and the knife in her right. She didn't attempt [Hide] this time.

She was close enough that the moment she activated it the Vigour cost would start running and she'd rather spend it on the fight than the approach. She came in steadily and let the iron do its work. It turned when she was six feet out. She was ready for that. It predictably jumped unhesitant toward her as the other Boggart had and the lantern caught it across the muzzle and it recoiled with a scream that startled every bird within thirty feet.

She pressed, lantern first, and then followed with the knife before it could react. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website." Strike!" she whisper-yelled. [Strike] – Active. It screeched even worse at the touch of the knife, seeming almost paralyzed with pain but Alice drove it in with practically supernatural force, before the Boggart pushed her off and took several steps back.

It seemed wobbly on its legs, scratching at the wounds, hoping to dislodge the knife, but every movement seemed to leach off its remaining energy. Then it dropped on the ground and the screaming stopped. [Lesser Boggart] killed. Combat event logged. She stood shocked at how well that had worked. The two remaining Boggarts were, as she took a moment to listen, not yet coming. The commotion had probably carried. She dearly hoped Boggarts were not pack animals, but she wasn't going to wait here and figure it out.

Alice quickly picked up her lantern and pulled out the knife from the body, when she felt herself freeze. [Threat Detection] – Passive. She felt an alarming sense of fear go down her spine, and she knew something large and something hungry was looking at her. She turned her head slowly. Amber eyes looked back from the shade between the grass. There lay the Marsh Boggart. She could not move and it did not charge. That was the first wrong thing. It sat, eyes tracking her every move, but focused on her hands.

On the knife. It had watched her kill the lesser one. The Boggart she had killed that morning had come through the reeds immediately, with mostly instinctual violence. This one walked toward her from the shade, amber eyes level, its shoulders rolling slowly as if it knew it could take its time. Alice tried to take control of her limbs but did not yet move. She had three points of Vigour left, and she needed to make every single one of them count, if she wanted to come out of this alive.

She held the lantern in front of her as if it were a shield encased in iron. The Marsh Boggart slowed. She watched its jaw tighten and its amber eyes narrow. The slight check in its movement forward confirmed all of Alice's doubts. It knew her weapons were made of iron. It was intelligent, and it did not stop. This was going to be different, she thought. Not a moment later, it came in faster than she expected and she immediately realized its size alone could kill her.

When it hit her, it wasn't the shoulder-check of a large dog, it was the mass of something that outweighed her considerably, and the impact took her completely off her feet. She went backwards into the reeds and lost the lantern. She rolled right on instinct as it came in again. Its jaws closed on the back of her left arm rather than her throat, which was the only good thing she could say about the next two seconds. The teeth went through the coat sleeve and through the skin beneath it, and the pain was immediate.

She drove the knife into its flank. It released her arm and screamed, and she scrambled to put distance between them, her left arm leaving a dark line in the grass. The lantern was three feet away. She grabbed it. Got upright. The Marsh Boggart was bleeding from the flank. It was still between her and the dry ground. Its amber eyes had not left her. Alice ran. She said the only word she had energy for.

"Sprint." [Sprint] – Active.

Vigour Lv. 3 (2/30) Her Vigour made it very clear that she was screwed. The reeds closed around her and she ran through them without grace, crashing through the stems with her good arm up to protect her face, the lantern swinging. She could hear it behind her, not running yet, but moving, and the sound of the reeds parting for something larger. She needed higher ground. She needed to stop being in the water. There! The bank. Firm earth, northern end. She had noticed it on the walk in.

She banked left and came through the tall reeds into the open section, and the ground under her feet went from sucking mud to packed earth, and she turned. The Marsh Boggart came through the reeds after her. She had barely anything left and whether she lived or died would probably be decided in the next thirty seconds. She forced herself to breathe. Her left arm was bleeding and she could not afford to think about that now. The Boggart was slowing as it cleared the reeds, taking in the open ground, reassessing.

Its caution of iron gave Alice some breathing room. It moved left. She moved with it, keeping herself between it and the narrow gap in the reed line. Not for any good reason. Just to make it come at her the way she wanted. It lunged. This was the chance. She ran forward, inside the arc of its jaws, lower than it expected, her right shoulder dropping to clear the bite. She drove the knife upward. The angle was wrong.

The first attempt skidded across the ridge of its brow and she lost her grip on the knife for a terrible half-second before her hand found it again,"Strike!" she yelled and drove it in properly, into the socket above the left amber eye, and the iron went in. [Strike] – Active. The noise it made was not like the other screams. Lower. Longer. The whole body went into it with a convulsion that threw her sideways and tore the knife from her hand.

She hit the ground hard on her injured and dislocated arm and the world went white at the edges. The screaming went on for four seconds. Five. Then it stopped. She lay on the bank and looked at the sky. [Marsh Boggart] killed. Combat event logged.

Progression threshold met. You have leveled up!

Progression threshold met. You have leveled up! Level 6. Level 7. She had done it. Attributes Vigour Lv. 3 (1/30) Acuity Lv. 6 (12/60) Vigour 1 out 30? Oh dear, she was barely alive. Her shoulder was dislocated, her arm was bleeding heavily, was lacerated, bruised and hurting all over. And she was filthy with mud and wet and felt disgusting. She looked at the waiting notifications for a moment, then pushed herself upright.

The Marsh Boggart lay still with the knife in its eye socket, which was where she was going to leave it for a moment while she caught her breath. Then she became aware that she was being watched again. The second Lesser Boggart, the one she'd ignored and which she had assumed was long gone, was sitting at the edge of the reed line. Amber eyes. Very still. She had no Vigour to spend. No plan. Nothing useful left. Alice looked at it. Why had [Threat Detection] not notified her?

Was the System trying to get her killed? She looked at it for a moment, and god, she was pissed.

"Fuck off," she hissed and forced herself to stand up, ready to [Sprint] for the knife and fucking gamble on whether 0 Vigour would kill her. The Lesser Boggart looked back for one more second before looking at the corpse of a creature twice its size laid at her feet. Skill created: [Intimidation] Then it turned and went back into the reeds, whining these low little sounds until it went completely out of sight and earshot. Alice didn't have the energy to even feel grateful for the new skill.

She just stood next to the body and pulled the knife free, before cleaning it on the grass, just in case something showed up again. She sat for a while, and started tying the cloth from her bag around her arm, enough for it to stop bleeding at the speed it had been bleeding. It was not entirely stopped, but manageable. She bound it with the last of the cloth once more and checked herself all over She felt as if she was running entirely on fumes, which turned out to be enough to stand on, if barely.

Alice grit her teeth and walked. If she stopped here to rest, her Vigour might increase, but she might also pass out and die.

The walk back was slower and quieter. The marsh thinned, and the gate came into view, and the officer glanced at her bloodied sleeve, but made no comment and marked his ledger and she went through. Usually, she would have found this terribly odd, but she was barely hanging on, so she was just grateful to be done with the so-called inspections so quickly. There was a pump on the way and she managed to wash her arm a little bit, the water running pink for a while before it ran clear.

She straightened up and the world tilted forcing her to hold onto the pump for balance on her only good arm. Pell Street was at a more reasonable distance. Hyde's surgery on Crane Street was not. But she didn't really have a choice, did she? She went to Crane Street. The walk took longer than it should have. She became very aware of this as the light-headedness continued stronger with every step.

The gas lamps had come on by the time she reached the door, which told her it was later than she'd thought or she was starting to see bright things in her vision that were not there, and she knocked with her good hand and waited. The door opened a bit. Hyde looked at her dressed obviously in home-clothes and an additional robe put quickly on top. He took in the blood, the pallor, the general situation of her clothes immediately and quickly opened the door wider.

"I made it back," she said. He put his arm under her, propriety be damned apparently, and brought her through the door, carrying most of her weight. He said nothing at all.