The Land: Alliances (Chaos Seeds Book 3)

CHAPTER 14

When Richter opened his eyes, it was still dark. The rain had stopped and the air was cool and wet. The trees were clustered closely enough that almost no moonlight filtered down to the forest floor. He looked around seeing if he could detect anything, but all he saw was blackness. Richter cast Night Vision.

He heard a faint thud. That noise was almost beneath his ability to hear, and that was when he realized it. Except for that faint sound, the night was completely still. There was no chittering of insects, no screeching of owls and no croaking of frogs. All of the animals of the forest had gone quiet. The only reason Richter knew that animals did that was… when a predator was in the area.

Richter looked around, but didn’t see Futen. Sending out a mental call, he dislodged Alma from his lap. She didn’t protest for once, feeling his apprehension. Richter duck walked a few feet to the edge of the tree’s cover and continued scanning. He heard another thud.

Richter’s heart began to beat faster. He thought the sound was coming from his front left somewhere, but he couldn’t be sure. He wanted to start buffing himself, but didn’t want the tell-tale flare of magic to give away his position. He was fairly certain this latest thud had been closer than the previous one, and he couldn’t risk being seen. The only reason he had been able to safely cast Night Vision was that it was a spell of Dark magic and the blackness that had momentarily outlined his hands would have been impossible to see at night.

*Do you sense anything?*, he thought to Alma.

*No, master. I fly into tree.* Alma launched into the air and up into the tree limbs.

Richter continued to look around. His gaze fell upon a pool of water left over from the rainstorm. He heard another thud. A series of ripples disturbed the surface of the water. The small waves propagated and diminished in one second. Their disappearance didn’t soothe him though. Quite the opposite.

“Okay,” Richter breathed softly to no one in particular. His nervousness was causing him to babble to himself in a vain effort to stay calm. “So as we all know from Jurassic Park, that was an impact tremor. Which means that something large like a T-Rex is coming this way. I totally agree with Jeff Goldblum now. Being fairly alarmed is an appropriate response to this situation.”

Richter calmed himself, realizing that speaking out loud, no matter how softly, was most likely not a good idea at this particular point in time. He heard another thud and the water rippled again. He hoped that the concealment properties of his cape would hide him. That brought his other options to mind and cursing himself for a fool, he activated Stealth. It was only fear and panic that had kept him from thinking of doing it immediately. He had to do better!

Richter kept looking around, still not seeing anything. He heard another thud and this time, it sounded a bit farther away. Richter exhaled softly. He just might make it through this!

“How can I help you, my Lord?” Futen asked phasing into view. His light was as soft as always, but in the darkness it seemed as bright as a lighthouse atop a cliff. It pained Richter’s enhanced vision, and he shut his eyes quickly. Richter saw the eye icon that had indicated his Stealth status go from closed to wide open!

“Stay in invisible and stay quiet!” he hissed. Futen immediately disappeared from view. Richter opened his eyes again, but his vision was still impaired. He blinked repeatedly to clear the spots that now floated across his field of view. Not trusting his vision, he listened, straining his ears. He didn’t hear anything though. Richter thanked god for small favors.

As he waited for his vision to recover, he received a frantic message from Alma.

*Master! It’s coming!*

*What is? What’s coming?*

*Something! Something big! Something very big!*

Alma sent him a vision of trees parting in a foretelling of the passage of something large and powerful. Whatever it was, it was moving quickly! Richter started hearing thuds coming in quick succession and they were getting louder by the second! Richter’s vision had finally improved enough to allow him to see. He looked back into the puddle now that he could see again and saw that impact tremors were shaking the water continuously now. This was bad!

The time for caution had passed. Richter held his bow in one hand, and with the other started casting buffs. Haste, Barkskin, and Minor Life Armor. In less than six seconds, he was down almost one hundred mana, but was faster, tougher and better armored. Alma did the same.

He then dismissed his Night Vision. Whatever was coming was big enough that his only hope would be to imbue his arrows. The explosion of light from when his strikes connected would blind him if his eyes were still overly sensitive to light. He cast Far Light a few times into some nearby trees. Then he nocked an arrow to his string and began imbuing it as he awaited whatever was about to attack him!

Richter heard a crack and a small nearby tree broke in half as a gigantic figure loomed into view! It was twenty feet tall if it was an inch. The balls of light illuminated skin that was dark grey and appeared rough to the touch like a cliff face. It wore absolutely no clothing and in addition to its massive stature it sported powerful muscles. Knobs of black rock protruded from its body at random positions, and three spikes of rock jutted up from its head like a crown. Its body was human in shape and overlarge genitalia swung freely between its legs. In one hand it held a small uprooted tree. Counting the tree hanging between its legs, that made… two trees!

Trying not to be distracted or emasculated, Richter quickly analyzed it.

Rock Giant Level 13. Health 1370. Mana 80. Stamina 1840. Disposition: Enmity. There are many different types of giants. Rock giants are solitary monsters unlike other giants which can have just as complex a social structure as average sized humanoids. What rock giants lack in social graces, they more than make up for in ferocity, malevolence and durability. Their skin acts like a formidable exoskeleton, blocking most damage.

Richter didn’t have time to read all of it. He basically got the gist, though. He was absotively, posolutely FUCKED! Richter released his imbued arrow into the monster’s face at no more than ten yards away. The arrow exploded against its head, and it elicited a roar of anger and pain. The giant faded back a step.

Richter smiled for a second, but that quickly fled as the monster turned its face back to face Richter. The arrow had only made a few cracks in its hard rocky exterior! In the illumination of his Far Light spell, it smiled at him. Richter could see its pewter colored teeth were flat like a human’s, but it also had large fangs in both its upper and lower jaw. For a second they just looked at each other, but then the giant flew into action!

It swung its tree sized club at him and it was only his increased speed that let him drop to the ground. He felt the passage of the huge weapon, as air ruffled his cloak, and a whistle split the air to mark its passage. Richter immediately rolled to the right and stood which was a good thing. Any who thought that the ‘rock’ appellation in the monster’s name would make it slow would have been wrong. Dead wrong.

Not overbalanced in the slightest by missing with its first swing, the giant swung its club high overhead. There was practically no loss of momentum at all as it cocked both of its arms back behind its head. Both of its tire sized hands grasped the tree and it swung straight downwards with a mighty bash!

Richter had rolled three times to the left. When he stopped, he was in a half pushup. He immediately started pushing himself up to stand. Before his arms were fully extended, there was a scream in his mind.

*Move to the left!*

Richter did as he was told, not wasting time on petty things like rational thought. After all, what was rational about a Mandingo rock monster trying to crush him with a tree?! He braced his arms for the briefest of split seconds and sprung left! The giant’s attack slammed into the ground scant inches from where he had been when he heard Alma’s warning. The tree sank five feet into the wet ground, leaving no mystery as to what would have happened if Richter had been beneath the fearsome blow.

As it was, the giant’s attack shook the ground. Richter had landed on all fours and even in that position he was knocked prone by the vibrations. He quickly tried to get his hands under him again, but he had left the dry area under the tree and was now lying in mud. In his haste he failed to find a proper hand hold. He slipped and face planted into the earth. The only thing that had saved him from becoming a Richter-pancake was that the giant had driven its weapon deep into the ground and the sucking mud was resisting its efforts to retrieve it.

Richter rolled over and got to his feet at the same time that he heard a sucking noise. The rock giant had liberated its weapon and was now reaching towards him with its free hand. Not knowing what else to do, Richter cast Cloying Darkness. The cone of thickened darkness enveloped the giant’s hand and reached it body. The monster roared in surprise at having its vision obscured.

Richter hopped backwards while pulling out his shadow high steel dagger with his left hand. He plunged the blade down into the giant’s questing hand. The special property of the weapon allowed him to ignore 10% of the monster’s armor. Where his imbued arrow had failed, the dagger penetrated the grey rocky skin ever so shallowly. The giant pulled back its hand quickly as the creature grunted in surprise. Richter knew that he couldn’t have done more than a few points of damage, but judging by the giant’s expression it was just confused by what had happened. It most likely had not suffered damage in some time.

Richter stared at the rock giant while it stared at its hand. He slowly backed away trying to put space between the two of them. Alma flew overhead and Futen floated somewhere somewhere in the night, invisible. The giant held its fist above its face staring, until a large oil colored droplet fell onto its lips. Its smoke colored tongue tasted the blood and it finally realized what this strange sensation was. The little man had hurt it! It roared louder than ever and then fixed Richter with a vengeful gaze. All Richter had time to do was think, ‘oh shit!’

It ran at him. Even though it was now slowed by his Dark spell, its large size still let it close with him quickly. Richter cast his hand forward and cast Charm, but the high mineral composition of the rock giant’s mind and body gave it a high natural resistance to the spell. The monster easily shrugged off the enchantment spell that was designed to target flesh and blood humanoids. He didn’t have time to waste being disappointed.

The giant threw a fist at him and followed it by what would have been a hilt strike if the tree it held were a sword. Richter dodged right and then left, bobbing and weaving like he was fighting Deebo. He avoided both of the monster’s strikes, but didn’t see the rock foot that came at him afterwards. The giant had followed its first two attacks with a front kick. Richter was struck head on by a rocky foot almost the size of his body and flew backwards more than twenty yards before slamming into the trunk of a large elm.

Richter struck hard against the tree, his body a good five feet off the ground. He fell to the earth, unconscious. The giant wasn’t done and started charging towards him with its tree raised. It resolved that its next strike would devastate the creature that had the audacity to draw its blood!

Once again, Alma saved her master’s life. Buzzing in from behind the giant, she struck with Psi Blast. The monster roared in pain from the attack, but was barely staggered. The attack was enough to arrest its forward movement, though. She had only intended to halt the giant’s progress. Her movements had purpose and her actions were governed by strategy. This level of thinking would not have been possible before her master had increased his Psi Bond with her. She wouldn’t let this monster hurt her Richter!

Capitalizing on the scant second she had before the giant recovered, her spell hastened body flew to her master. Blood leaked from his nose and his shoulder protruded forward in a way that didn’t look right to her. She cast Slow Heal. His nose stopped bleeding and some of the cuts on his face healed, but he still hadn’t awoken. Alma heard the first thud of the rock giant’s tread as it started back towards them. She didn’t know what else to do she laid her snout on his forehead and invoked Psi Blast!

Richter’s consciousness had been nestling in a comfortable blackness to protect itself from the real world trauma his body had just experienced. Her attack shredded that comforting cocoon and injected jagged pain into his brain. Though Richter would never remember this facet of the experience, his subconscious likened Alma’s attack to a bloodthirsty koala kicking in his mind’s door and then crapping a rainbow made of acid onto his most precious memories. Incidentally, this was also the moment that Richter began to have an irrational hatred of eucalyptus.

He sat up with a scream, one of his fists slamming into his head in a vain effort to attack his own brain because it was hurting him so much! His other arm didn’t seem to be working for some reason. He actually almost stabbed himself with his shadow dagger which was inexplicably still clasped in his hand somehow. The pain was not at all helped by Alma projecting the equivalent of a mental scream into his head.

*Get up! It’s coming! You have to move!*

Richter looked forward, conscious but still dazed, and saw a dark grey nightmare lumbering towards him with a roar issuing from its mouth. Barely able to comprehend what he was seeing he reacted on instinct to his favorite spell, Grease. His hand shot forward surrounded by a green glow. With an uttered word of power, his will manifested in the physical world. A circle of liquid the color and consistency of thanksgiving gravy appeared on the ground in front of the giant. His aim was off though! The rock monster was only caught in the edge of the spells AoE!

One of its legs did crumple and it fell to a knee, but the rock giant maintained the rest of its balance by putting its weight on the leg that was not within the bounds of Richter’s spell. It was going to keep coming, he realized with horror! His fear triggered a surge of adrenalin that jumpstarted his addled mind and he remembered his new ring!

Pointing his fist, he unleashed his stored spell!!!

Nothing happened.

Still staring at the monster that was almost back on its feet, he held his hand up in front of his face, shaking it in frustration. Why hadn’t the bloody ring worked? His mind clearing more by the second, he actually looked at his fingers and, with a flash, realized he had held the wrong hand forward. MotherFUCKER, he thought.

Quickly correcting his mistake, he used his good hand to grab and raise his injured arm. The movement drove lances of pain through his shoulder, up his neck and into his brain. Bile rose in the back of his throat and tears leaked from his eyes. When he heard his bones grinding together, he had to fight the sudden urge to vomit all over himself. He was able to raise his arm enough though and invoked the spell held in his new Ring of Spell Storage. A second ring of brown grease appeared and this time, both of the giant’s feet were firmly in the bullseye. As it was already off balance, its other leg slipped and then, with a loud crash, it fell to the forest floor. Its body was too large to be held completely with the spells 10 foot AoE though and its arms were well clear. Richter knew he had only seconds. He had to run!

Richter got to his feet, trying not to jostle his wounded shoulder. He was only partially successful and more tears sprung from his eyes unbidden and leaked down his dirty face. He was preparing to run in the opposite direction to the rock giant when he saw something illuminated by the balls of Far Light he had cast before starting the battle. His bow!

The only problem was that the rock giant was directly in line with his weapon. Not letting himself contemplate the stupidity of his next action, he started rushing towards the thrashing monster. His high Agility let him cross the distance to the giant before it could react. He didn’t have time to run around the grease that had a cumulative AoE of almost twenty yards so he took the only avenue open to him. With Alma’s disbelieving scream piercing his mind, he jumped onto the back of the rock giant, using it as a bridge over the slippery film.

The giant roared in disbelief. As he jumped from the giant’s back, Richter thought, I’ll give you something to yell about asshole. Not looking back, he uttered a word of power and threw his hand backwards. A red glow enveloped his fingers for the briefest of moments before a gout of flame shot forth. The jet of fire ignited the grease that the monster was lying in and for the first time, Richter heard it scream in pain. It was music to his ears

He didn’t waste time looking back, but just collected his bow from where he had dropped it. He quickly shoved it into his Bag of Holding, the space folding magic of the Bag allowing the large weapon to disappear into a much smaller space. Then he ran off into the night. Every step shot pain through his broken arm, but he dared not slow for he could already hear the thuds of the giant as it set off after him.

Alma flew above, mentally shouting invectives at him. He felt like he deserved it when she called him ‘stupid’ and ‘dummy.’ When she called him ‘pig fucking gyoti’ though, he started wondering if increasing ANY female’s ability to criticize him had really been a good life decision after all.