Chương 28: Day After Day

Ch. 28 - Day After Day This time, Ivarr aimed to go deeper into the mountains. Rather than stay on the slopes where he could still see the city, he aimed for the closest ridge and, eventually, the valleys beyond. That journey was a slow one, though. It should have taken three days to reach that point, but each day, they found something to kill, and that slowed them down. On that first night, it was a handful of goblins. They attempted to ambush him while he was cooking dinner. They were ended swiftly.

Ivarr got eight ears to show for it, and the Ebon Blade received 126 Life Force after it burned all of their lesser souls. That wasn't huge progress, but there also hadn't been any substantial risk, either. The second night, as they reached the tree line, though, the smoke from their campfire drew something much worse. This time, Ivarr had already gone to bed, and the blade was using the time to contemplate what it knew of its existence when it noticed movement at the hazy limits of its own strange perception.

At first, the blade thought that the hulking form that barged out of the shadows was a grizzly bear. It was only when it screeched that it realized its mistake. It was an owlbear, and Ivarr only just had time to get to his feet before the thing dashed through his fire, sending embers everywhere. The battle that followed was brief and vicious. The blade assisted its wielder, but unlike the fight with the minotaur, it didn't simply take control.

The lad suffered for that and incurred a couple deep wounds that healed almost instantly, but in the end, thanks to using the trunks of the pine trees around him as cover he managed to come out on top. +1 Life Force. +16 Life Force. +2 Life Force.

Ivarr wasn't strong enough to parry the thing's terrible talons or its razor beak, but he was quick enough to dart from tree to tree, letting it spend its strength on ripping away bark and smashing wood to flinders before lashing out with a quick thrust and retreating again. +1 Life Force. +19 Life Force. +2 Life Force. +2 Life Force. +14 Life Force. +2 Life Force. The fight only took a few minutes, but the blade had no doubt that it was the drain effects of its own strange magic that won the day.

None of the wounds that its wielder had inflicted were deep enough to do real damage, and it had felt only muscle and fat on the thrusts that penerated the creature's hide. Its wielder had never struck bone or organs in his efforts. The blood was only just starting to accumulate on the churned earth that had once been their campsite when the seven-foot-tall beast finally keeled over.

That gave the blade its second greater monster soul, but even that was not enough to stop it from berating Ivarr for failing to follow through properly. Each blow you made could have been your last if the tree you hid behind hadn't held, it reminded its wielder. You should have made more of each strike. The only way to kill beasts of the size you seek is through blood loss or a vital strike. The young man had clearly been expecting praise and was visibly disappointed when he didn't get it.

The Ebon Blade had considered it but decided he had a ways to go before a compliment was justified. Instead, it followed that conversation up with the suggestion that they should establish camp far from the corpse once he'd taken its beak. Still, once Ivarr was on the move, it was able to happily reflect on the events.

Despite bleeding over a dozen Life Energy from the wounds that had sliced right through the young man's armor and nicked his ribs, it was over 850 Life Force now, and it had another greater monster soul. That was how their second expedition into the mountains went. The days were mostly quiet, but almost every night was punctuated with some form of violence. That only intensified when they reached the first valley, where they found signs that an ogre or a hill giant lived somewhere near there.

They spent four days there, avoiding the lair of the giant beast as they searched for other, more manageable targets. They spent four days hunting small bands of goat men, and once, they found a den of angry kobolds. Those tiny lizards were no challenge at all, which was good because Ivarr wasn't even sure if there was a proper bounty on them.

+99 Life Force +10 lesser monster souls"I mean, I've heard of them, but I didn't think they lived near Kalraka," Ivarr said as he decided to take their long tails as trophies. Kobolds exist anywhere man isn't, the blade said. If we go much further, I'm sure you'll find even stranger things, too. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. It almost immediately regretted making that statement because only two hours later, they found a dryad.

Well, really, the dryad found them. The leaf-clad woman was more wood than flesh, and it was impossible not to hear her coming as she crashed through the woods they were exploring like a storm wind. That one surprised the blade, given how rare they were in its experience. It couldn't remember if it had actually fought one before or if it had only heard about them. It didn't matter. Her thick bark skin protected her only slightly more than its surprise from its icy touch, and she went down fast.

Even better, when she died, she yielded up another greater monster soul, so it didn't mind. Of all the creatures so far that they'd fought, she was the strangest. That was doubly true when she wilted and blackened after she died. To the Ebon Blade, her existence was even stranger than the dragon it had already slain, if only for the wounds she left on its wielder. For the next three days, Ivarr's wounds drained its Life Force levels, keeping them just below 1000 when it should have been above 1100.

That was frustrating, but for once, he didn't blame or begrudge its wielder the energy. It had no idea that the creature they'd fought had left seeds in the ugly slashing wounds she'd left on him with her wooden claws. They tried to sprout for days despite its healing, and eventually, Ivarr had to strip to the waist and dig them out with his knife one bloody abscess at a time as he plucked the seedlings free. Still, in spite of that, he insisted on continuing.

"I'm not going back empty-handed this time," he promised the blade.

"This time, when I tell my story, everyone will believe me." The blade considered warning the young man about the dangers of pride but decided against it. Pride was the prerogative of young men. Rather than do that, it warned him that the farther we stray from civilization, the more likely we are to find creatures that consider you to be the prey rather than a hunter, the blade cautioned him. Remember that. Ivarr promised that he would, and the further they went, the more his life depended on it.

They quickly left beast men behind and moved on to other, more dangerous monsters. This was orc country, and they, along with the animals that preyed on them, were even more dangerous than anything that Ivarr had seen so far. The first time he saw a group of them, he didn't even engage. He simply hid in the bushes and waited for them to pass. That might not have been the bravery that the blade was used to seeing, but in this case it was the wise choice.

It thought that the odds he'd be able to take five of them were pretty low. Their weapons were crude, but each of them was a head taller than he was, and the way their olive skin rippled with muscles made it clear that they could split him in two with those crude stone weapons without too much trouble. When the manticore flew over them on their third afternoon in that wild place, the blade even suggested that they head back.

It couldn't see it as more than a smudge in the sky, of course, but once its wielder had finished describing it, it was sure. That beast is bigger than a wagon, and if it catches your scent, it will devour you without much difficulty, it explained. Its wielder said nothing, but it could feel Ivarr's fear in that moment. They never fought the manticore or even the wyvern they saw the following day. Their final opponent before they returned was a pair of orcs.

More than anything, it was those two that convinced Ivarr he'd got too deep into the wild places. One bore only a giant club, while the other had a stone-tipped spear and a hide shield. Neither of them was half the warrior that Ivarr was, either, and yet they both almost killed the man. Once, when he attempted to parry the club and misjudged the strength of the blow, he paid for it by breaking half a dozen ribs. That knocked Ivarr off his feet and, worse, sent the Ebon blade flying from his hand.

That would have been the end for him, except for the two brutes laughed about it long enough for its wielder to crawl across the ground and seize the blade again. -8 Life Force. +1 Life Force. +2 Life Force. As Ivarr lay there gasping, his injuries were extensive, and he drained thirty-four life force in seconds just to regain his footing. Even then, though, he didn't run. Instead, he charged, dealing several heedless blows to his surprised opponents. -34 Life Force. +1 Life Force. +1 Life Force.

Surprise only lasts a moment, though, and he outstayed that window, taking a spear through the guts as a result. Even that didn't stop him. The blade was almost proud of him for that. It would have been if it wasn't watching its Life Force totals go down in real-time as he charged up the spear to hack his opponent to pieces. +18 Life Force. -13 Life Force. +2 Life Force. +1 Life Force. -15 Life Force.

The pain was so bad that the blade could feel it passing through the link that the two of them shared, but in spite of that, the young man never wavered. He just turned to the second opponent, dodged the first strike with the club, and then impaled the giant green bastard through the heart. +16 Life Force. -15 Life Force. +1 Life Force. The orc struggled after that, but as long as Ivarr refused to let go, there was little it could do.

It cast its weapon aside and tried to run, but it couldn't escape Ivarr any more than its wielder could escape the spear in his belly. When its most vital organ stopped and froze while the Ebon Blade leached every last drop of life from it, the orc fell over backward, taking Ivarr with it. For a few seconds, all he could do was lay there gasping as he gripped the hilt like his life depended on it. +14 Life Force. -6 Life Force. +2 Life Force.

"You're right," he gasped after he removed the spear and lay on the ground, healing.

"I might have a little more learning to do before we come back here." The blade didn't respond. The best lessons were the ones that were learned the hard way, and there was nothing like being gutted to learn something for the rest of your life.