Chương 146: Benjamin, Part 2

Out of the frying pan and into the goddamn fire. Two gigantic Wyrdwood monstrosities shouldn't be as big of a deal as eight Wyrdwood-using psychopaths, but just from their first steps alone I could tell this was a different ballpark. That multi-headed one, Garmr, lunged first. It was a straight shot, so I didn't even bother paying attention to what Quercus was doing. I just threw myself off to the right, the side he wasn't on so the big wolf would be between the two of us.

I tried to swing for that central head on the beast, but one of the heads on its side immediately snapped for my arm, causing me to recoil the limb away. Wasn't going to give up an arm for it. As I skid against the dirt, I yelled out "Shivvy!" and the clearly still "tired" metal slinked as fast as it could to me, sliding and coiling around my right arm in wait of a command. The issue was I couldn't think of any good command I could use.

If Garmr healed as fast as the wolves it was made of, Shivvy could still lose that fight. He wasn't going to be super useful as a weapon. As a defensive item he could maybe work away weapons. There was a throbbing starting to form around the back of my head, near the base of my skull. Put in too much focus on using my powers as gravity without really trying to pay attention. Keeping it rolling for split seconds at a time could still get me strong defensive results. But for hitting hard, I'd have to keep it light.

I was swinging at maybe eighty, ninety percent for those heavier strikes before. Was going to have to pull it down to somewhere around sixty percent. Maybe Shivvy could help there.

"Round," I muttered, and as Shivvy began to tighten into a sphere, I grabbed at him and squeezed. His spherical form bubbled over my fist. Makeshift boxing glove. If he hardened at the right time, he could compensate for that missing forty percent, may- Quercus. He was even faster in this form. Those giant, clawed and barbed hands were about to come clamping down at me from either side. Like the maw of a beast. Instinctively I tightened my body together, before whipping my right fist up for an uppercut.

Maybe half-power, but with Shivvy there it seemed to be enough to carve a thick gouge through both hands at once when they collided, effectively tearing his fingers off. Didn't mean much however, as the barky digits were already forming out. Shivvy wasn't proving useful. Lunging back again, I tried to piece some thoughts together. Eating those Wyrdwood hearts turned Assacu and Socratea almost feral, it seemed like. They didn't talk, they just acted. Tactically, but without any sort of banter or insults or threats.

That told me there was a clear decline in thoughts when they ate those hearts. Maybe their personalities burnt out in favor of being better at fighting. I considered the vision Gleditsia put in my head. How the Wyrdwood took shapes based on thoughts, how people would have to give it their own thoughts. Maybe that's what was happening here. Burning up all their normal thoughts to have more effective weapons. Huh.

Kind of like how my mind kept burning up my focus and thoughts whenever I was too caught up in a fight and using my powers. Well, when I do that, I'm still tactical. I can still focus on how to move, react, inflict harm. The things I forget are normally language and sometimes collateral. My senses burn out too. If his are burning out similarly, maybe I could wait until his have gone out. But how would I know if he were, say, blinded? Wasn't a worthwhile vector. Needed something else.

No more time to keep focusing on that, I spent too much time thinking. On my left side was Quercus lunging towards me like a pouncing animal, even his horns all thrusting out towards me to pincushion me. On my right was Garmr, mouths wide and ready to make a meal out of me. Going up wouldn't work. Back would just give them a straight line to come at me with right next to each other. Either side would put me directly in the way of one of them.

Instead I rushed forward, the two of them skidding across each other behind me before turning and beginning another charge. They were animals. All they could do was charge. Now I understood how easy of an enemy I was to fight when all I kept doing was that. Garmr was faster, already much further ahead of Quercus, which meant that wolf was first in line. I didn't have to worry about my arm being bitten off thanks to Shivvy at minimum being a deterrent. I knew it'd anticipate another dodge to the right.

So I took to the left, cocking my fist down and throwing a relatively weak uppercut into the wolf's central jaw. It wasn't the right move, however, as its left head got a mouthful on my shoulder, immediately yanking me from the ground and costing me my balance. While I was busy being disoriented by the movement, occasionally Quercus would flicker into my vision.

I could see him grabbing at his wide-spanning set of horns and antlers and ripping them free to produce what looked to be a set of multiple axes carried in both hands. Each one sat between a finger. The disorientation ended as Garmr flung me into the air, and now I could see Quercus' plan as he reared an arm back and flung a fistful of those Wyrdwood axes at me. I was in midair, so dodging wasn't an option. Trying to use Shivvy as a platform to leap off was a bad idea, since it'd leave me unarmed.

But they were projectiles. I thrust the fist holding Shivvy out and yelled "Wide!" - and to my benefit, he managed to span out without letting go of my fist, catching two of the axes and absorbing them with little issue. The rest flew past me. That solved one issue. That didn't solve the problem of me already falling back down to the giant multi-headed wolf, however.

Had to put a bit more gravity into this as I rolled through the air and reared back my fist- THOOM Thankfully Shivvy was able to handle being right there in the middle of that punch, because Garmr sure wasn't. The center head on the wolf had shattered into splinters and formed a crack going down along the back. As I stood back up, vines and roots were already pouring into the stump to reform the middle head. Off to my side, I could see Quercus rushing me again.

I needed him busy and I was already letting myself fire on all cylinders a bit. I was gonna regret it, especially with that throbbing in the back of my head, but it needed to be done. I recalled how I dealt with the tidal wave flung by the giant crab. We were on dirt ground. That was loose enough. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Jamming the side of my foot into the ground, I swung my leg forward and kicked up a pile of dirt about as tall as Quercus and flying so damn fast it tore off portions of his horns and bits of his skin. All of it was regrowing already, but it slowed him down enough that I could reposition right as the reformed middle head on Garmr attempted to bite me. I pulled off to the left, keeping the wolf between me and Quercus again.

I could capitalize on the over extension here to throw out another punch, this one taking off the head of the wolf's right shoulder, though it was already starting to reform. That was fine, it meant he had to turn to face me, likely expecting me to take another step back. But no, I came forward, throwing out another punch and shattering the center head as well. Splinters and fibers flew from the force of the impact.

And now with two of the heads gone for a moment, I was able to grab a hold of the beast without interruption by getting bit. Not for long, of course, since I had a reason to grab Garmr. He made for a great projectile to hurl at Quercus. With that much mass slamming into him, it interrupted another charge from the giant and put them both in an off-position that they couldn't immediately start attacking from. I was reminded of bullfights I saw on TV.

Just constant relocations and distraction from the charging masses of raw force that'd kill me the second they got their hands on me if I didn't keep evading and resisting. But with them still untangling themselves from each other, Garmr in particular due to having to regrow a head, that gave me an open opportunity to retaliate. Take the fight to them and make them play by my rules instead of theirs. Launching off from my feet with a thunderous boom behind me, I reared my fist back.

I was willing to put about eighty percent into this one, just to try and guarantee a down here- THOOM The force was enough to cause trees behind Quercus to fall over, cracking and popping from their inability to support their own weight after so much force split them at their trunks. With that amount of power, I was hoping to at least pick off the wolf. But much to my surprise, it was already mending itself back together.

Quercus' skin was sheared off from the force again, but this time instead of regrowing skin it was reforming as thick Wyrdwood bark. It was like he was turning into one of those tree men more directly. As I was caught up in that recognition, Quercus thrust a barbed fist out at me and sent me hurtling back, my lowered guard leaving me vulnerable to the impact enough that there was no real resisting it. I had at least managed to recover and land on my feet, but that wasn't really what mattered.

I could get up at any point. What mattered was I still just wasn't doing any serious damage. I needed some way to finish them. I had to kill them and I just wasn't sure what would work. The one damn time I was ready to kill, even after hesitating in the first round with this asshole, and I just couldn't figure it out. How could I make him and the wolf die? Shivvy suddenly lost his spherical surface tension, filling my hand and beginning to extend out where my grip was on him.

I wasn't sure what came over him to do this, but from the extension, his form began to widen and span out across one plane. Portions began to jut out in thick edges and spirals, forming a point at the tip. After what had to have been a few seconds I was worried about wasting, it seemed to coalesce into this absolutely massive sword. Garish, but easily the same size as the ones Gleditsia made out of Wyrdwood. If only I knew how to swing a damn sword. Wait. I don't need to know. Or, well, I did know.

Gleditsia swung his at me so often I could get the gist by just remembering how he did it. Wouldn't be the first time I just relied on knocking off someone else's style. My jab came from just watching how Jairo did it when he was shadowboxing. This wasn't any different. Besides the more material details, at least. Gleditsia never did any really complex moves with it. He would either raise it up and swing it down, thrust it forward, or swing it across. I just had to keep a grip on it and swing Shivvy in those ways.

Thankfully, Shivvy was very good at being holdable. Quercus and Garmr had gotten back to their feet. It was going to be another charge. I brought the sword to my right, the same side Garmr was on. I could see him getting low. Turning a bit towards my left. He was going to try and go for something cross body. Maybe smack me down with a paw or something before mauling me. If I adjusted my position, he'd change sides again.

That meant I just somehow had to be faster than an amped-up wolf that was naturally as fast as Jairo without the power-up. No, no, that was physically impossible. But I could try to predict it. Watch its paws dig into the dirt, drag slowly until they couldn't move any further back without leaving the ground. And right when I saw that paw start to snap forward, I swung.

I could feel Shivvy's blade digging into the side of Garmr, pushing further and further through as the wolf's own momentum basically fed the beast to Shivvy. At the end of its movement, it was split clean in half from the jaw down, portions of Shivvy being shaved off the blade and ravenously eating at its mass. What remained of Shivvy in my hands was significantly smaller, but still enough of a weapon for the charging Quercus. Shivvy was shaving off bits of himself specifically to counter their regeneration.

Probably burning himself out as much as I did. If I could just land a blow hard enough to incapacitate, I felt there was one possible option for a killing blow. Something about how Quercus sucked that heart into his neck instead of eating it. I wasn't sure, but I felt it was the best remaining option. Father Quercus was finally on approach with his own lunge. I swung to the side, and up, trying to maximize coverage with my weapon now that he was too small for one direction to be enough.

Blade met flesh and it became a fight to dig it through Quercus' body. Kicking his head off was easier. Shivvy effectively had to saw through his hip and towards his lower rib cage just to split him in half vertically. I had missed where I approximated the heart to be, but it still did the job I needed. The upper half of Quercus slammed full-force into the dirt, and the bits of Shivvy that came off to counter his regeneration were doing their job at keeping it from regrowing. He was as incapacitated as I could get.

But if he were left alive, he'd be a threat to the others. They wouldn't be able to stop him, I felt. He had to die. I could crush him into pulp. Make it easier for Shivvy to digest. … No. No, that wouldn't be the right method for him. I had to save it.

"Long," I commanded, and Shivvy reshaped himself into his rod form as I approached Quercus, his chest rising and falling. I climbed up on his stump of a body, remembering where the initial surge of Wyrdwood on his chest was. Back when his heart was a necklace. No reason for it to have moved even inside of him. I thrust Shivvy down, stabbing straight through his chest. The wince Quercus made was the signal to me that I hit something important.

The Father reached up towards me, but with a lack of strength to keep his arm up, it fell.

"There's only one man I'm going to kill with my bare hands." I pointed towards the tree. To the very peak of it.

"You don't deserve the luxury." I brought my focus to Shivvy.

"He's yours. The others too. Don't leave anything left." With that, I climbed off of Quercus, now bereft of any ally, and made my way towards the entrance of the Platanos. I knew it was going to be a lonely journey. I didn't know how long I would climb for. But I knew when I got to the top, I was going to kill Brother Gleditsia.