Accidental Hunting – 18
638 6 29
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

Eight days, it’s been eight days since I took out the first of those fucking plant monsters and I keep running into them.

I haven’t even been looking for them, I just stumble across them while I wander in an approximately straight line trying to find a beehive; they’re everywhere in this patch of the woods.

At first, I tried just walking away like I saw nothing, but if you try that they tend to get violent; nothing quite like having something that looks and sounds like a young Shirley Temple trying to stab you in the neck while screeching like a banshee.

Yeah, that’s gonna stick with me for a while.

So, I’ve had to follow through on my word and kill every single one I meet, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it; I’ve killed thirty of them so far and Its gotten to the point that I can pick them out by smell.

If you’re gonna go hunting these motherfuckers, I have two tips for you:

First, their weak points are those little green stones buried in their weird pasty human shaped root bodies; you gotta dig through the pile of bones they hide in to get at their real bodies but that’s what you need to kill.

Second, have no mercy; it might look like a kid or a rock star or your high school crush, but it isn’t and it has no qualms about trying to stab you in the neck with a thorn or choke you out if you don’t go easily.

Ever since I shook off that first one talking in my head I’ve haven’t had a whole lot of difficulty ignoring them when they try that, but I can still hear it and it is still the most vile feeling I’ve ever experienced.

It’s like they hijack your inner monologue and fill in whatever they feel like; sometimes I almost follow through with it, but I’ve had voices in my head tell me to do stupid things before so now that I’m on guard I can generally push it aside.

They really expect you to be completely under their control if you get in close and that leaves a perfect window to strike.

Just like I’m about to do now.


“Why yes, I’d love to come in and have a coffee, esteemed actor Patrick Stewart, why don’t you tell me all about why you opened a Starbucks in the woods here?”

It’s a good imitation, I have to admit; I figure it has to be because it’s probably being tugged right from my memories.

“Yes, it’s really quite the tale…”

The fake Patrick Stewart starts rattling off some unbelievable nonsense in a smooth and measured voice and I just nod along as I walk closer, ignoring it and instead focusing on keeping my thoughts straight.

Things go the same as the last thirty times, that heavy floral scent surrounds me and the illusion dissolves into nothing revealing another dead patch of forest.

I very nearly climb into the flower but manage to nip that in the bud and instead just approach slowly, keeping a stupefied look on my face the entire time.

I don’t even bother with the featureless green fake body and instead get to the meat of things, the moment I’m within half a meter I just book it forward and start pulling away at the heap of bones.

It only takes a few seconds to reveal the ugly humanoid root and make the correct cuts; the little green stone is either in the ‘head’ where you’d expect to find the brain or buried in its ‘chest’ about where a human’s heart would be.

It’s come to the point that it’s almost mundane, I guess correctly this time and tear a marble sized green stone out of the thing’s stringy white flesh, it screams some unholy loud cry before going limp like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Thirty-one…”

With that out of the way, I settled down in the relative safety of the dead clearing to take stock of my belongings and available goods.

No animals come close to the dead patches left behind by the giant plant monsters, something I confirmed the other day with the help of another blink hog (thankfully much smaller than the first one I encountered); that pig ran away squealing the moment I crossed the invisible line into what I assume is their usual reach.

As convenient as that was, I found that my situation was not improving.

“Shit… maybe three days of food left if I’m willing to eat aloe leaves, water is down to a minimum.”

“Barely used any of the alchemy shit, the dead patches around those plant monsters look like they’d go up like kindling with a spark; no way I’m gonna drop a firebomb there, little too nervous to use the acid again and I’m nervous about the frost bomb too, doesn't have the best track record.”

“I’m taking to myself again…”

I’m starting to wish I’d ditched some of this equipment and carried more food and water because I’m getting desperate; yesterday I tried cooking a chunk of plant monster but one bite was enough to give me stomach cramps and some weird as hell dreams.

So yeah, not in the best situation on that front; I can’t even eat what I kill.

Doesn’t help that my armor got torn to shreds a few days ago, now I’m wearing the few scraps I could salvage strapped to me with rope and plant vines.

At least I’ve improved some of its defenses by tying down a layer of bones from the refuse heaps I keep finding; some of these bones are so hard that I can’t break them even with my full body weight, just goes to show how tough the creatures around here are.

I spend a lot of time in my head just thinking and I’m seriously scared.

My infection hasn’t been getting better either, my whole body feels feverish and those streaks of red seem to be spreading, we’re officially at the point where I might just drop dead if I’m not careful.

There’s still no sign of bees and I really hope they actually exist in this universe, I’d been taking for granted that they do because a lot of things look familiar, but who’s to say?

“Nothing to do but keep moving…”


Elsewhere in The Ficklewood a more desperate battle is fought.

The best laid plans may go awry and what lead to this situation was not the best laid plan.

“[Mountain Breaker]!”

Elcan Devsol’s hammer comes down like the fist of god onto a monstrous wolf’s back, glowing with an aura of scarlet power as it brutally snaps the hound in half.

He turns and surveys the field of battle, spotting another of the wolves baring down on his vulnerable [Scholar] ally and reacting with superhuman speed.

“[Castling]!”

His body moves as if possessed and he interposes himself and his immense wall of a shield between the aggressor and Imir at the last second, a the dull clang ringing through the clearing like a gong and mingling with the sounds of combat surrounding them.

“Imir! Status report!” He commands, voice firm and sure as the ground beneath their feet

“Yes Guildmaster! [Imperial Measure] tells me that over half of our squadrons are at 40% health or less, should we retreat?” The scholar communicates clearly, but fear hides beneath the calm surface of his demeanor; how could it not?

A pack of thirty [Razorfang Hunters] made a dreadfully well coordinated ambush against them, far more than they were hoping for.

Elcan responds as he swings his hammer low to try and sweep the legs out from under the hound “Not yet, if we run without causing enough casualties, the pack will simply track us,” beyond that, half of their gear was on the ground. In this particular circumstance, to run was to die.

The wolf deftly leaps over the hammerblow and takes a backstep, responding with a howl that slowly becomes a deep and hollow gust of frigid wind. Carried on that blast of frosty air razor sharp flakes of ice rush past Elcan’s shield and slash at the few patches of exposed skin on the [Living Aegis] as he holds back the beast.

“Gah, dammit! I officially authorize the use of emergency potions and AOE heals, we need to hold out long enough to rout them!”

“Yes sir!” Imir immediately began his chant, he was possibly the fastest caster in the raid team and his words came out swiftly but well enunciated.

“Oh wind! Hear my voice and carry my message to the four corners of the world, let the birds sing of my word and and the reeds rustle with the truth of it.”

“[Whispergust]!”

<”All Squadrons, emergency potions and high level heals authorized, no mana constraints; push them back and keep on your feet!”>

Imir’s voice rings out to the ears of each and every member of the squadron and the tides begin to turn; but not quickly enough.

Elcan soon realizes why, his health is ticking down at a startling rate as the cold of that wind bitterly stabs at him.

“Imir, these wolves can inflict [Chilled] and [Frostbite], we need to use the scroll!”

“Yes Guildmaster!”

Imir’s hands are frantic as he reaches into his bag, swiftly he unseals a spell scroll worth more than all of his equipment combined and begins to read.

“Oh green life that brings aid to adherents of the true path, grant succor to us who stumble as we walk your verdant way! So plead I, Imir Sandaval, humble keeper of The Oaken Oath!”

“[Mass Rejuvenate]!”

The [Druid] chants and the world around him is dyed the perfect gold of a summer afternoon, the sheet of ancient parchment bursts into verdant flame that shapes into swirling script of the ancient druidic tongue, writing itself in vibrant green circles...

“[Spellshatter]”

a voice bitter and wrathful but calm as a still lake ripples through the minds of all in the field and the spell simply dissolves into nothing.

The fighting stops.

All turn to see the source of that dreadful display of power, their eyes start low before trailing up and up and up; necks straining to take in the foe that effortlessly dismissed a tier 6 spell.

“Where…”

This time the speech comes naturally from the mouth of the beast in the tongue of men, blasphemy of blasphemies for believers in Usvalen.

“Where is she?!”

The great she-wolf howls and frost bursts free with her breath in a cone of icy wrath, freezing the trees and shattering those close to her.

“Where is the daughter of men who dared harm my child? Answer me and you may die painlessly.”

“Well?!”

The lesser monsters flee the field, the wrath of their monarch driving them to seek safety as the adventurers stand like statues, held in place by fear.

Elcan is the first to shake the sense of terror brought on by the monster towering over the canopy.

“Hold your ground men, we can t-”

“No sir, we… we can’t.”

Voice breaking with terror, Imir interrupts his superior, before his eyes are the results of his [Taxonomy] ability, information full of holes and errors.

[Lupine Empress]

[Bestial Monarch]
[Mother of Multitudes]
[Forest Guardian]

Health - 9Ä+♠┘Æ/?8?εž6
Stamina 
- ?3ÄA4○§♀/Ä☼?1?9? 
Mana
- ?7]°♪╨/└╫6→~4

Phys Def: 5?1?
Mag Def: 7?3
Mt Def: 1??


Consti8žMŽ¿â\ 9¹gcc"!-à dyïØw
/·Or3 IPdÖÌ9Û–å
8žMŽ¿â\ê╬╒↔

Your intellect is insufficient to comprehend this monster.

“Imir?”

“[Taxonomy] says it’s a… it’s a [Lupine Empress], more of the the field reports were lies than we thought. I… I can’t even read her statistics.”

The she-wolf narrows her eyes and prepares to strike again but Elcan responds first.

“[Aura of Menace]!”

He slams his hammer to his shield and a wave of orange light pulses out preventing the [Lupine Empress] from attacking anyone but him.

Her wrath is funneled towards him into a snarl that rips the air and decapitates three trees on it’s way down to strike at him.

“[Fortress of Iron]!”

A flash of white shimmers over him and his skin turns the color of cast iron; his trump card defensive skill is barely enough to hold her assault back, the slash scattering sparks as it breaks across his hardened form.

“All tanks to the front, hold aggro and let the rear-guard retreat! Someone needs to carry the message home!”

He turns to see his men still frozen in terror.

“GO DAMMIT, THAT'S AN ORDER!”

With that, they scatter; a scant few tanks join him on the front line with the knowledge that they will almost surely die, each of them individuals he had a hand in training and raising through the guild.

Still, Elcan speaks to keep morale up, perhaps for those joining him in that sacrifice and perhaps for those leaving them behind

“We’ll regroup at the rendezvous point, everyone else stick together and run! We’ll catch up later!”

The warrior plants his feet and grits his teeth, gripping his shield and hammer so hard that his  knuckles turn white from the tension… and laughs.

“What are we men?”

“The first and last line of defense!”

“And what will we do!?”

“Hold the line!”

“You’re DAMN right!”

The mantra of the Main Tank.


This day just keeps getting better, not three hours after the last encounter with one of those plant motherfuckers I see another, only this time it’s actually already caught something.

Now, under normal circumstances… I might’ve used this chance to slip on past without notice, but it’s catch was something I’ve been searching these godforsaken woods for over the past week and a half; the damn thing caught a bee.

Makes sense… carnivorous flowers going after insects; maybe that title does work.

I sigh and take in the scene, I need to make a plan.

I was right about one thing, the bees are huge, just straight up immense; the petals of the carnivorous flower are struggling to close over the thrashing insect which seems to still be resisting.

The weird bipedal thing that comes paired with the flower is just… standing there.

This is the first time I’ve seen one of these plants busy with prey already, but I’d guess it’s going to be a bit more on guard; I need to move in and take it out fast, release the bee and then shadow it back to its hive.

The question is... how to do this?

"Fuck it, shock and awe."


Despite their apparent capacity for communication, alarune are simple things. They lure creatures in with illusion, entrap them with mind influencing magic and then devour them, piling up the bones that remain to hide their roots.

A rare few develop intellect and ego beyond these instinctual actions, but the subject we focus on now is not quite at that level yet.

In as much as it could think, it thought today was wonderful; a great catch and a lot of sunshine would allow it to grow larger and seed. It’s seeds would then grow, catch food and absorb sunshine and then seed themselves.

The cycle would continue, just as soon as it gets its meal under control.

Its catch today was one of the great buzzing things that often came to it, it’d grown fat off of them but found their propensity for resisting its allure to be frustrating.

Yes, everything was going well until it wasn’t.

Its false body saw something with it’s simple eyes, a figure rushing through the brush that seemed made of bone howling like a wolf as it dashed forward; it screamed a terrible cry before throwing something.

Winter! The bone creature had thrown winter at the alarune and it could feel the chill in its roots, it’s thoughts and movements grew slow despite the panic filling it!

It was not time for winter, winter had just ended; but this did not matter to the bone monster, it rushed in and ignored the now frozen false body!

The alarune lashed vines as quickly as it could, but many of them were already occupied holding down the meal and several were frozen to the ground by the nonsensical change of seasons.

The bone monster dug through its protective heap of refuse and revealed its pale weak body to the light.

Through eyes that were never meant to see the sun, the Alarune saw the glint of steel descend and then… nothing.


For a while I sit panting on the ground, some blow back from the bottle of alchemical frost splashed me and I felt glad for my makeshift covering of bones and uncured hide, several chunks had crumbled to a white frosty powder and I could just imagine what the stuff would do to raw skin.

“Fuck, hardest I’ve had to work to kill one of those in a while…”

Above me, the bee thrashes about, still caught up in the vines and the vice like grip of the flower’s petals.

I climbed up the pile of bones to get a better look at the situation and ducked just in time to avoid taking a stinger longer than my dagger in the face, the thrashing insect’s form was tangled in the vines and it was lashing out in any way it could.

Several of its limbs are fractured or missing and half of its wings have been ripped off.

It’s...  no, she is scared.

“Hey hey, shhhh, calm down… I’m here to help.”

Her wings beat wildly and the sound was less of a buzz and more of a bass vibration that I could feel in my chest.

“I’m Amber, I don’t know if you can understand me but I’m trying to get you free; I’m going to help you if you can stay calm, but I need your help too.”

Her struggles slow and she wiggles her antennae at me in what I assume to be curiosity.

I take the chance to begin cutting away the entangling vines; one at a time they snap away and she seems to realize what’s happening, renewing her attempts at escape now that she’s got help.

The moment the last vine is cut she practically tackles me to the ground and begins rubbing her big fluffy body against me, twitching antennae prodding at my face; it startled me at first but it just seems like she’s really friendly.

“Oof, ahaha!~ Hey, hey you’re welcome and all of that but you’re kind of heavy and that really tickles!”

She climbs off of me but her investigation continues, her antennae poke and prod me curiously as I just lay there feeling exhausted.

“I’ve never felt this happy to be wrong… I guess they are friendly.”

When she gets to my abdomen her manner becomes a lot more frantic, she’s dreadfully injured herself but it seems my own wounds are more concerning; and I began to realize why; the cold sensation in my extremities isn’t from the frost bomb.

“I feel sort of… woozy”

Relief is the deadliest of poisons when the only thing keeping you upright is stress.

I’d been searching all this time for an uncertain fix to my problems, and now I see it in reach the strength is leaving my body all at once along with the tension that had been keeping me on my feet.

Everything becomes a swirl of color and sound and incomprehensible sensations; the deep thrumming buzz of wings beating carries through me as I feel the wind and the sun against my skin.

What I see is unreal, like a palace of gold in a field of blossoms; smeared and impressionistic as if viewed through the eyes of Van Gogh or Cezanne.

“What a beautiful view…”

Here it is, on time yet again! Chapter 18!

I'm starting to get the hang of this, if things keep going this well I might be able to release extra chapters every now and then moving forward!

As usual, I stayed up all night making the final tweaks and I have no doubt that it's just choc full of errors that will become apparent only after I wake up this afternoon!

Anyway, we're getting some action again, Amber is throwing hands with every Alarune she comes across even if she doesn't know what they're called and the guys from the Investigative Squadron seem to have made something of a tactical blunder that they're definitely paying for (with interest from our heroine's own careless actions)

There are so many pans on the fire right now though that I almost can't keep track!

I must confess that I know almost as much as y'all do about where things are going, I mean honestly its almost the biggest driving force behind my writing!

What is Sobrak up to? How about the Goblin Scavenger? Will Elcan Survive?! Find out the answer to these questions and more next time on Chronicles of Aonus!

Seriously though, I'm excited to see how this stuff develops.

Anyway, this is Roxy signing off, I'm gonna eat Breakfast/Dinner and go to bed.

29