Chương 23: Things That Go Bump in the Forest

Corruption came from the north. Andy felt it through his connection to the forest. Suddenly, his connection to his magical grove went dark. The energy that had filled him with warmth and comfort even in his loneliest days was no longer green and golden. It had become cold, and was a bruised, sickly violet the color of organic tissue going necrotic and dying. Andy's chest lurched. Something was wrong, very wrong. He needed to sever his connection to the grove.

He instinctually knew what and how he had to do it, but he did not want to. Before he could sever it Gustave sent an impression from his morning scouting." Something is wrong in the north. Animals are evacuating, something reeks of rot." From teeth he read a full bodied revulsion. She sent a full bodied recoil of a spirit creature who had encountered something antithetical to spirit. Andy's horn was flickering, it was becoming softer and sickly.

Where it normally shone a powerful gold and green it now was a gross and muted purple. He cut off his connection to the grove and fell to his knees as the connection and magic from the grove stopped flowing through him."

Andy!" Teeth rushed to his side supporting him as he struggled to his feet. [WARNING: CORRUPTED MAGICAL SIGNATURE DETECTED] [THREAT CLASSIFICATION: HIGH. RECOMMENDED ACTION: RETREAT OR PREPARE FOR CONFRONTATION.] [NOTE: YOUR HORN'S LIFE MAGIC IS PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST CORRUPTION-TYPE THREATS.] Andy read the notification and felt the sick certainty that nothing would be the same again. His grove, his forest, his clearing, his river, Barnacle. Everything was in danger.

"Party meeting," Andy sent. He didn't control his volume and so it was the equivalent of screaming in an elevator. Gustave visibly cringed from his branch he'd landed on when Andy fell.

"The System says it's North and closing. Gustave, I need eyes, what are we looking at?" The hawk was already back in the air. He'd launched with explosive acceleration, wind wrapping around him and carrying him faster than should even be possible. Within thirty seconds he was soaring above the canopy, circling, scanning. He sent back the report in impressions. A large hulking shape was moving through the forest headed this way from the north. It was lurching, being propelled by something outside its own body.

Something was inherently wrong with it, asymmetrical: a body that might have been feline, a head that seemed reptilian, wings (vestigial, torn and non functional) that might have been avian, and the whole assembly wreathed in dark-sickly-violet energy that clung to the creature like smoke clings to fire. [THREAT IDENTIFIED: CORRUPTED CHIMERA. TIER 6. FERAL.] [COMPOSITION: MULTIPLE SPECIES TRAITS, FORCIBLY COMBINED. MAGICAL CORRUPTION: SEVERE. BEHAVIOR: AGGRESSIVE, TERRITORIAL, CONSUMING AMBIENT LIFE MAGIC.] [NOTE: THIS CREATURE IS ONE TIER ABOVE YOUR CURRENT LEVEL. EXERCISE CAUTION.] Tier 6. One tier above him. Two above Gustave. This creature was broken, corrupted and feral. Somehow it had been made, forcibly combined. An amalgamation so horrific that nature itself was being corrupted just from being in its presence. His grove. It had killed his grove. Walked through and consumed the life magic and was coming south for the next largest source of life magic in this forest. Him.

"Options?" Andy sent. From Teeth, " Fight or retreat. If we retreat it consumes the forest, the clearing, the stream. It will establish itself here and the corruption will spread." Gustave chimed in, " We can't fight a tier 6. It's bigger, stronger and corrupted creatures don't feel pain normally.

"The System said my horn is effective against corruption."" Effective is not the same as sufficient." Teeth hissed,"I am not afraid. Even pony-boy is strong enough to take this threat on."

"Pony-boy? I mean, yeah! We can do this."

"That's exactly what I was hoping to hear," Gustave sent,"It'll be here in five minutes, prepare." It was the size of a dire wolf, which was at least twice Andy's body mass. Up close (which happened far faster than Andy wanted) wrongness poured off the creature in waves. It had been three creatures once, maybe more.

It's body was primarily feline, but it's head was reptilian, a blunt scaled thing with too many teeth and eyes that burned with violet dark energy and the vestigial ragged wings that sprouted from its shoulder blades moved with the jerky twitching of appendages being operated by a nervous system that didn't know how to use them. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. As bad as it looked, it smelled worse.

Organic decay, rotting flesh and something metallic and sweet that triggered the deep, pre-mammalian part of his brain that processed danger–do not let this thing touch you. It charged. Andy projected to the group, "Let's start with Weather or Not." Faster than size suggested, corrupted muscles fired without fear of tears or limits or pain.

Andy dodged, Graceful enough for an almost-horse with a ninety-four percent gallop efficiency: an explosive lateral movement, all four legs driving sideways, his body twisting with a force that his hooves could barely control. The chimera's teeth closed on empty air where his right flank had been half a second prior. Gustave struck. Cutting wind attacks hammered on the chimera drawing its attention and staggering it. While it was distracted Teeth unleashed her army of illusions.

Twelve foxes ran around the chimera, they ducked and dodged between trees and the chimera's legs. Each one feigned nipping at the chimera who was confused by the sudden onslaught of resistance. Andy's party was fighting, his ridiculous party, his fox, his hawk, and (somewhere downstream, contributing nothing, as was tradition) his Barnacle. They were fighting a creature above their level with a coordination they'd barely rehearsed.

The party bond strengthened their coordination and they could transmit their location, status and plans psychically as quickly as they could think it themselves. Andy struck, horn oriented toward the beast he charged. He filled his horn with life magic and ran as fast as he could toward the disoriented abomination. As Andy gored the neck of the beast he drew his head up flinging it backwards and into the air.

"Switch to Frequent Flyer" he projected. Not missing a beat Gustave pushed air through and elevated the chimera higher than it should have gone. Blades of wind hit it over and over juggling the beast as long as he could hold it. As it started to fall Andy about faced and used his powerful legs(He never missed leg day) to kick the chimera one last time up, It caught his leg with his paw as he did so. The chimera went flying and Andy went down.

Teeth didn't miss her queue though and when the chimera hit she had it surrounded by copies running circles around the chimera, each taking pot shots. Only the real Teeth's attacks actually did anything but the chaos was enough to keep the beast confused long enough for a few good bites and small psychic blasts. Andy staggered to his feet. He couldn't put any weight on his back leg.

"Don't–"He winced.

"Don't let it touch you." This time Gustave gave the order.

"Andrew, stay put, we will drive the beast to you. Let's finish it with the Tail and–" he paused, really not wanting to finish the name of the move and then added begrudgingly, "Horny Jail." Teeth released the circle she had drawn around the chimera and allowed her clones to spread out once more enraging the beast further. Gustave flew above the canopy, tucked his wings and dive bombed the chimera. Using the wind to propel himself faster he came in like an arrow.

His beak grazed and cut the chimera and then one more took to the sky. Teeth and her clones wove in and out, over and through grabbing the chimera's attention back after each subsequent hit from the hawk. The chimera screamed. Its cuts and torn skin and damage from all of the attacks began healing. It was pulling ambient magic out of the forest and repairing the damage in a way that made Andy's healing look glacial. In comparison, Andy was barely able to put weight on his hind leg.

Blood continued to puddle beneath his hoof in spite of attempting to heal. He turned up the volume on healing. The skin began to stitch closed, the corruption finally burning off and leaving his flesh. Increasing the output however, once again attracted the chimera's attention. Completely forgetting the divebombing hawk and the potshotting fox it turned and ran at Andy.

"Oh shh—" Andy dodged right, but the chimera anticipated it and swiped at him with a powerful feline paw. It hit. Hard. Andy grit his teeth and began calling the vines, they shot up from the ground around the chimera. The vines reached around and pulled it down toward the ground. The chimera thrashed and screamed at being restrained. Andy, Teeth and Gustave regrouped. All three were in various states of needing rest and healing.

"Okay, we should finish it o–" Andy started. The chimera began absorbing the ambient life out of the vines and roots. The vines began to dessicate, shrivelling and becoming brittle. Andy didn't think, he didn't have time to. He pointed his horn at the chimera. Life magic gathered at the tip with a pressure that was warm and ready. His friends were in danger, he was in danger. He needed to do something. He released. Light erupted from the tip of his horn, golden green and blinding.

A detonation of pure life aimed right at the corruption. His horn had never been this full of magic and had never released with such a force. Corruption screamed. This wasn't the anger and frustration that it had screamed before. This was the gut wrenching scream of pure despair. Pure pain. Of agony. Life magic was purifying the beast. It was stripping away the magic that held multiple beasts together and kept them alive. Dissolving the unnatural infection this creature had on the world.

But the sound wasn't coming from the chimera. Not really. It was coming from what the chimera had been. Andy knew in his heart, that he was doing the right thing. He was putting this poor creature out of its misery. Something he'd helped do countless times in another world, in another life. [PURIFICATION BLAST: ACTIVATED] [LIFE MAGIC EXPENDED: SIGNIFICANT. HORN RESERVES: 23%] [CORRUPTION DAMAGE: SEVERE. CORRUPTED CHIMERA: DESTABILIZED.] He had blown seventy-seven percent of the horn's load already.

The beast was thrashing on the ground. Clawing at its own head, trying to rip off the broken and useless wings. The life magic dimmed, and the chimera slowly got back to it's feet. And that's when he saw it, the eyes pleading from inside the chimera's skull. Please, help. Stop the pain. Had he imagined it? Or had whatever was still alive inside the chimera really spoken to him. (psychically of course) Andy felt sick. This creature was a victim. Something.

Someone had turned it into a monster and twisted it into something that consumed life instead of giving it. No matter what he had to help. He couldn't let it down, let it continue to suffer being trapped inside a monster. Andy closed his eyes for a moment, centering himself.

"Hey." Teeth demanded.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Andy didn't respond. He opened his eyes and poured every remaining bit of his twenty-three percent reserves into another purification blast. A white light engulfed the chimera and before he blacked out, he could've sworn he heard it thank him.