Chương 44: Chapter 43: Kitchen Chaos

As the fight raged around me, as charge and counter-charge ravaged ghost and gourd alike, white motes that were the blood and essence of ghosts and chunks of vegetable matter intermingled, splashed around the kitchen I found myself in like some kind of horrifying stew. I found myself wondering how in the name of all that was good my life became... this? Ever have a moment like that?

I could feel the weight of the woman on my back, manifesting and fighting with me, I could see the grim determination of wounded shades and damaged skeletons, I could see the bitter resolve in the faces of our enemies, but that didn't change the fact that we were fighting VEGETABLES - magical, murderous veggies, sure, but they weren't even traditional MONSTERS or anything! Yet, this was seemingly only passing strangeness to the people around me and at my side.

I was more or less a Knight - the title of Hound was mine, and the people who fought at my side were probably my responsibility. I was also a massive monster, wholly inhuman with physical powers of might and healing, claws and fangs, and burning red-hot instincts that I could only barely contain inside me as wounds inflicted on my form healed and my health points replenished, bit by bit.

How could this be me, when barely more than a week ago I was dying in some hole of a city from radiation poisoning and my biggest concerns were getting enough to eat that wouldn't just get me sicker and keeping what I had from the raiders that wanted to take it? What was I doing here? How did I get here exactly? A cleaver flew across the room and directly towards my left eye before it was snapped out of the air by a furious parry from the woman on my back.

"Head in the fight, Goldtail!" Gelidia said, and I actually physically shook the thought off to refocus on the situation at hand. I reared up to my hind legs and stood fully, affording me some height and looked around at the fight raging all around us.

I was no expert, but Sohei understood this kind of fight well enough to realize that we were in trouble; our core group had charged into the fray, led by the encouragement of my Howl, but now the Potators were getting reinforcements from a squad of Gnarlics deeper in the kitchens. Worse, they were being accompanied by a very. very large round orange fellow who looked...

more or less like a giant jack-o-lantern with burning white triangular eyes and a jagged mouth seemingly full of fire, and he wasn't just using kitchen utensils to fight, but a proper battleaxe held in two stocky green arms that bulged with root strength as beady white eyes glowered at me from across the battlefield. With a low snarl, I activated my Insight skill and poured some mana into it, sacrificing some of my precious energy in the process as my eyes lit up.

Great Gourdon Warlord, Level 8, Determined, Healthy 💀 [Health: 380/380] [Stamina: 220/220] [Mana: 100/100] That was a big pumpkin. What's more, it was higher level than me! On top of all that, it was also being followed by a LOT of really mean looking veggie monsters that clearly had havoc in mind. Worse? We were badly outnumbered - the cooking staff was putting out a good showing, but there were fewer and fewer of them, and the ones that were still standing were almost universally injured.

With his axe on his shoulder, the Great Gourdon was simply striding directly towards Cook and I, parting the sea of his comrades like a prophet as he bee-lined his way towards me. At first, it was at a more reasonable pace. Then, he raised his weapon and bellowed a challenge, one that was taken up by his comrades as they rushed at us as one force. You have heard the cry of a powerful adversary! Your courage is questioned!

I felt a quiver of a familiar feeling in my heart, and I could see several of the wounded staff taking a step backward after that sound and at the sight of fresh enemies joining in. Terror gripped me for a moment, but... Wolf wasn't frightened. Wolf, in my breast, burned even brighter and dragged me forward with her, snarling with pure defiance! I felt Gelidia with me, saw her with my senses as her jaw clenched and fist tightened on in my mane, and my wolf loosed a long, low growl from my throat.

In slow motion in my own perceptions, I felt the tide begin to turn against my companions and I as death came for us. What did I still have? What strength did I have left? I checked my status. [Health: 184/220] [Stamina: 110/250] [Mana: 40/100] I was low on mana - losing 20 points of it from attuning my collar really hurt, and I'd just used 10 mana to scan my new enemy to get a status check on him. I'd also healed myself several times from blows, spending even more. I was below half on stamina, and health?

I was healing very, very quickly. I wasn't even injured anymore really - any cuts were already healed. I was just a little sore where wounds had stained my golden fur crimson. Gelidia hadn't taken hits though - I'd made sure of that. If I could take a hit for her, get hurt or fall so she would not, I surely would choose to do so. Apart from myself, and her, the man simply known as Cook stood with me. Cook was a hell of a fighter, turned out.

This didn't seem like anything new to him, and as the Great Gourdon appeared, and cried out with a savage laugh that clearly made vegetable blood run cold while his staff took a step back. The wounded skeleton, wrapped in the shade of his former self as he was like a suit of armor, snarled at them!

"Cowards!" Then turned his face forward again.

"BRING YOUR RIND TO ME, PUMPKIN! I will make SOUP tonight!" he roared, and deftly parried a Potator's spear, bringing his second blade around to carve directly into the side of the thing's head to send it down about half a foot shorter, pink-white flesh exposed to the air. He was a huge man, and apparently tireless in his resolve, but even he was dwarfed by the murder-minded pumpkin bearing down on him and gaining speed.

I loosed a ripping battle snarl, and put a surge of stamina into my legs, jerking forward to charge the front line to back up Cook. He matched my momentum, and the pair of us, with Gelidia at my back and loosing a battle cry of her own that sounded equal parts terrified and defiant, rushed to meet the superior force head on.

I was faster than Cook, and actually left the ground as I blurred towards the great big pumpkin boss, landing on the thing's chest and sinking claws and fangs into it faster than it could actually react to me, sinking my fangs into his side and gripping into his tough hide with rending claws. I hardly had it all my own way, even as I ripped into him and tore out seeds and stringy pumpkin bits.

Though I'd managed to get onto him before he could swing to hit me with his heavy weapon, it was coming around at my side and no strength of Gelidia's could even possibly hope to stop the blow though she tried.

I hardened myself with another surge of Stamina, and put my arm out to try and baffle him a bit, but all I managed was not to simply get cut in half as the mighty blow CHOPPED into my side with a coughing cry as my wind was knocked out and scored against and between my ribs, doing things that were probably far from healthy to my body before transferring all the force of the blow into me, knocking me off of him and sending me flying.

[Health: 104/220] Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. [Stamina: 95/250] [Mana: 40/100] Gelidia parted from my back with a cry as I pushed her loose before I could fall on her, and I struck the floor savagely on my back with a yelp and another five points of health lost, bouncing and rolling to all fours in a rumbling slide, my claws sparking the masonry beneath me as I went.

My Lady got quickly to her feet and parried a blow from a Gnarlic wielding a cleaver, then simply extended a hand in a fist towards the monster. With an expression of magic that not only struck the creature but sent her skidding backward towards me in time to avoid a follow-up blow from the Great Gourdon and his chums. I was badly hurt, my breath wasn't coming right, and blood filled my mouth - my blood - but I rose to her defense with a coughing wet snarl of defiance that sounded awful in my ears.

I brought my massive paw around to intercept and swat a too-aggressive Potator who tried to chase her down, scalloping him nicely on the spot! Gelidia, beneath me and recovering, caught drips of my blood on her shocked face and chest, horror at the state of my body and how badly wounded I was filling her face. Were I a human, were I the woman I was before I was a Beast, I'd be out of the fight now.

Even as I fought for breath it came easier, and I spat blood as the terrible wound I'd been dealt visibly healed before my Lady's eyes. Cook threw one of his cleavers into the pumpkin monster's face, and with a SHUNK And a bellow of pain, it sank to the handle into his tough orange hide before the mighty master chef threw all his weight into a kick to follow up, striking the gourd with a loud meaty BONK that sent the boss tumbling.

It left the man with only one cleaver though, and wide open to the counter attack of a trio of Gnarlics. Wide open, that is, until I reached down past Gelidia and savagely ripped a flagstone out of the ground and flung it like a frisbee! It narrowly missed Cook, and actually embedded itself into one of the Gnarlics that had been attacking him, sending him flying into one of his fellows.

The third struck the Cook in the gut, but the massive man simply scooped up the startled monster and dashed it onto the ground before following up with a savage downward chop as I at last fought to my feet fully and forced them to carry me to back him up! There our enemy met us, and there they held us at bay, encircling us as we shifted to stand back to back.

Spears were held in defensive, fearful postures and nobody quite wanted to be the first to try something as Cook and I tried to keep as many of them in our gaze as we could. We were cut off from all backup, and Gelidia was being helped to her feet again by another of the shades of the cooking staff, bought a moment of reprieve by our overextension.

"Aw hell." Cook cursed, and spat a little white spectral blood, his face creased in a grimace of rage in my Wolf-Ren. I let out a low, savage growl - I was ok with them wasting time like this. After all, I could use that time to recover! If they just dog-piled on us we'd be finished but... fear was temporarily outweighing their resolve. The balance would tip soon, and we might even die when it did, but... not yet. Not yet.

"Yer a brave one, Hound.

'Tis an honor, to die with you at my back." Cook said, and I bludgeoned him a little with my tail. I could see his savage grin in my Wolf-Ren, and checked my status again. [Health: 129/220] [Stamina: 130/250] [Mana: 50/100]"COME ON THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Cook thundered, and the Great Gourdon, sneering and visibly damaged by the Cook's attack, pushed his way to the front again.

"NO FRIENDS LEFT! NOW ONLY MONSTERS, COOK MAN AND STUPID DOG!" the monstrous pumpkin roared.

"WHAT DO? WHAT DO NOW?" he cackled, spittle and seeds flying from his jagged mouth full of burning light! Around him, the smaller Potators and Gnarlics laughed viciously, savoring their imminent victory. My ear twitched as I heard a familiar noise and for a moment I saw the action of a machine in the distance, heard over all this distance, then... a ruffling sound, drawing closer at a fantastic speed. Then...

a crossbow bolt struck the Great Gourdon, hit him perfectly in the eye, sending him reeling backward and clutching at his face as he coughed and staggered, too shocked with pain and surprise to say another word! And then came the most beautiful noise I think I'd ever heard, proving the Great Gourdon completely wrong: An orcish shield-maiden's ululating war-cry, terminating in a howl of"BROTHERS, CHARGE! FOR THE ANCESTORS!"

Roxala's thundering bellow came and she, two spectral orcish knights that I could only assume were her Brothers, Torch with his sword flicking out of its sheathe nimbly, and a host of Windbinder guardsmen and retainers joined the fray! Wolf and I felt our jaws sag open in a savage grin, and I saw a wild hope on the face of Cook and then as Roxala powered aside startled and uncoordinated veggie rebels, we turned the fight into a proper battle once again.

Gelidia, charging a beat behind the group, delivered a telling blow that felled a Potator as she made it to my side once again to saddle up upon my back, making me swoon a little as my wounds, though mostly healed, ached terribly. With Torch and Roxala at our side, and with the Water Sage Felorikaan readying a spell as he advanced at a much steadier pace behind us, we rushed at the now furious and frightened Great Gourdon. He was stronger than me, but he wasn't stronger than Roxala outright.

The inn doors closed with a crash as a squad of Potatorrs and Gnarlics formed a spear wall, the two doors the Orc Shieldmaiden wielded becoming a plow before her as shoddy spears and improvised weapons bounced off them. Immedately in her wake, Torch cut down a gnarlic into cloves and with incredible grace, actually jumped over a swing from a Potator's hammer in order to kick the thing and remove its head below the eyes.

With a savage ferocity, Roxala's spectral brothers followed in her wake, one with a felling axe and a shield, the other wielding some creature's skull on a staff like a warhammer, each delivering telling blows to the horde of monsters that had arrayed themselves against us. Several of them were washed away by cleansing walls of water, cutting off Potators and Gnarlics from their fellows in a surge of magic from Felorikaan's hand and dashing them against stone walls like a badassed soup.

I loosed a cry of my own, and joined the fray once again, bringing claw and fang to bear against our enemies. A cursed cry pierces the night! The enemies of the House of Windbinder shall know fear! Green light surrounded Roxala's head, and those of her phantasmal brothers. Gelidia's blade hissed with lightning, and she laughed out loud in feral joy as light surged around her head as well!

Cook, once again cloaked in that light himself, seemed to get even angrier, reclaiming one of the cleavers from the Potators by taking it from the thing's twitching corpse. Every single retainer and man-at-arms of the House of Windbinder who were in that fight let out a surging roar, and the battle which had once been desperate... turned into a rout. As the Great Gourdon tried to retain order, as he tried to direct the vegetables into a more concerted effort, Cook and I made it to him at last.

"NO! DIE NOW!" the monster roared, bringing his axe around at me. Screw that, I didn't try to block it or dodge it. Instead... I tried to grab it. Time slowed to my perceptions, as it had before, and the patient teacher of Sohei guided my hand to dart forward, bid me not to try and snatch it... but wait for it to come to my hand. My palm clapped onto the weapon below the eye, and I felt muscles start to bunch as the much larger, much stronger creature's momentum began to win out.

In the moment of slowed, crystallized time, I heard my body ask... how much? Twenty. The axe stopped dead, and so did the Great Gourdon's arm, his entire momentum arrested in an instant as my eyes blazed. He tried to move - with my feet planted, and my strength surging as it was, he might as well have tried to move an iron bar in concrete - it didn't budge an inch.

"No, YOU!" Gelidia cried upon my back! Fear at last fully filled the Great Gourdon's remaining eye, until a thrust from Gelidia's sword took it from him, burying itself to the hilt in his face even as lightning crackled and spat as it seared his flesh and did terrible things for what probably passed for the creature's brain.

With a savage kick, still holding his hand locked to the axe, I ripped several of the pumpkin monster's fingers off, and used his own axe to cleave him neatly in two and embed it in the stone of the floor, splattering myself in stringy pumpkin bits and gourd gore. Wolf surged inside me - and I didn't fight her at all as our voice raised in a victory howl, covered as I was in quivering pumpkin guts and seeds.

The cry literally shook the air around me, made every surface quiver as it reverberated through the house, and Gelidia joined in it though her howl was more wild exultation and laughter than bestial cry! The battle was ours.