Tread Lightly – Among Monsters And Men

Hundreds of deafening roars, screeches, howls, and war cries ring out from around Rustbank. Hura’s army of beasts and Outlaws lose their minds as they stampede toward us to level the entire town. As they do, gunfire resounds from around me from the men and women who bear Sigils and who have stood to fight.

I look back to Johnny who is the source of the most lead flying through the air. His hands move at a speed such that I can’t even see them. Only a blur exists as the man rapidly fires and simultaneously reloads his lever action rifle. The hand he uses to lever flings a bullet into the chamber just as fast as the bullets come out. The lead that exits his gun outdoes even that of a gatling gun.

Which I know for a fact as I hear one go off behind me. Glancing back, I see Earl on top of a brick building’s roof with Elizabeth and ten other gunmen. Good. He should be fine up there. I wave at him and Elizabeth returns the wave as Earl is busy shooting into the hoard.

I even hear a few cannons go off around us, the black powder staining my nose with its foul smell. Sadly, this isn’t Blackreach, there is not nearly enough artillery to protect us.

I begin to prepare to join the battle as I flow Ether into my body and shake out my tense muscles. With a short hop side to side, I start Adrenaline Surge. Then with another, I flow out a river of Ether for Strugglers Defiance. Once I’m done with those two skills I feel prepared. Strugglers Gasp is an emergency and Daydream is for only when I am about to die.

Even if I and the Bloody Palm are mostly together on this battle emotionally, I don’t trust it at all. We only ever seem to have the same goal when the pale lady wraps her knuckles around my throat. Other than that, I’m confident our goals will never align.

I get into a small crouch as I feel the rumbling of the horde. So many beasts, reptiles, birds, and just about everything I can think of come rushing down at us. The vastness of the wilds comes to mind. So many different species, monsters, and Sigils are before my eyes that it feels like a natural wonder. So many incredible creatures that I cannot even begin to name come at us as a single creature. Just one that is murderous and led by its nose by a demon who wants to kill me out of spite for my father.

Behind the vastness of the wilds, I see floating in the air, Hura. The Demon Of Storms.

As I get into this crouch, Johnny stops firing his gun for a moment. His lever action is smoking and the barrel of it is yellow-hot. Steam is constantly coming from the steel. He puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Rein in your anger for just a little longer. Let the gunmen clear out as many as they can before the horde gets here. Only then do we move. You will break a path straight toward Hura and I will be behind you shortly. Virgil should already be close to his position. But first, I shall help you a bit.”

I nod to him as I just focus on revolving the Ether through my body, keeping me permanently at my best state. He keeps speaking to me, however, despite my acknowledgment. The man squeezes my shoulder as he gives me a bit more encouragement, and from the voice accompanying the squeeze, I feel warmth enter my body. A warmth that energizes me even further.

I follow his words of advice as I realize he must have a Lawman Sigil as well because of how his voice affects me.

“You got this Wyatt. Ignore the difference in Sigil. Ignore the horde in front of you. Ignore all those around you. Zero in. Focus. Deep breath. In. Out. The only thing that exists is Hura. The demon is all that matters. You and him. A dance of death. His last dance, not yours. Feel the Fixation and don’t let it go.”

His words tunnel into my mind with the warmth, somehow making me focus just off of his words. My vision narrows and all that is around me turns black, indistinct, and incoherent. In front of me disappears, and only blurry see-through silhouettes of the monsters exist as my eyes bring Hura into focus.

My breath in makes my heart beat with incredible power and my lungs fuel that vigor with each breath I take afterward. My focus continues to narrow as I feel the familiar touch of Ironheart. And I indirectly learn of a new way of using the effect, I feel my entire body roar with the desire to fight.

Every muscle, every bone, every tendon, and every nerve vibrate in excitement as they fall in sync with my will. I even feel the subtle nodding of the Bloody Palm as it too listens to the voice. Everything disappears except for the enemy in front of me and the voice that enters my mind.

“Fixation shall let you and your artifact become one momentarily just as it does to me and my Colts, and so underneath a mountain of pressure, a true Wendigo shall rise. Not the strongest, but the first to still possess their mind. Show that demon something he was never expecting. He came for you, a young and useless Graves, but instead, he will meet a Wendigo.”

As he tells me that I and my artifact will become one, I feel a shift along my left arm. Flesh twists and turns as the Bloody Palm shifts into something resembling a small shield. A construct of blood, flesh, and bone is now in place of my left hand. I also feel a split in my vision as a second pair of eyes grow on the shield.

The vision is slightly disorienting for a moment and makes me feel sick, but quickly the focus from Johnny’s fixation erases any and all discomfort. At this moment it feels completely normal. Better than normal actually. All the quiet whispers that normally exist are completely gone, instead, streams of warm but dark Ether come from my left arm.

This energy goes around and supplements where I missed, patching holes in my skills I didn’t know I had. The unexpected connection to the Bloody Palm gives me the idea to release my Daydream, and I do slowly just in case. But even after the barrier is completely gone, the Bloody Palm doesn’t invade my mind.

Instead, a deep connection forms instantly between the two of us. A type of dynamic that feels unbreakable is formed by Ether from Johhny. This must be how Johnny controls his weapons so amazingly.

I turn my opened Daydream to the Bloody Palm, enhancing the effects of the artifact in turn for the aid it gave me. But I am careful not to give too much, Johnny did say this was temporary. The necromantic and disgusting thing that is now my left hand grows even larger. From a small bucker of flesh and bone grows a kite shield with spikes of bone on the outside.

Words from Johnny reach my focused mind once more.

“Count to five. Then go. I will be behind you shortly.”

For an incredibly brief moment, my focus doesn’t get distracted, but it expands to include Johnny. I notice that the man is shaking, his hand on my shoulder having blood vessels constantly bursting that cover us both in blood. Blood drips out of his mouth and streams from his nose, eyes, and ears. I recognize what’s happening to him.

Ether oversaturation. He’s gone beyond the edge? But how? We just started. All he did was shoot and give me Fixation… Oh…

That must be it. He gave me something he shouldn’t be able to with his amount of Ether or skill. He forced it through as I did before with Virgil. I hesitate in my movement, but I hear a sputter from Johnny as bloody words come from his mouth.

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

As these individuals' numbers come from his mouth, he pulls out a small syringe of liquid darker than the abyss and injects it into his neck. While he injects the liquid, he finishes his count, leaving me no choice but to go.

“Two.”

“One.”

When he has completely finished speaking, the liquid ends its journey from the syringe into his neck. I trust that he will be fine as I turn away from him and focus on the object of my Fixation. Johnny fades from me once more as I get low to the ground.

I hold onto Intervention, my new shotgun, in my right hand as my left shifts from the shield into claws. The claws of flesh, muscle, and bone grip onto the sandy ground perfectly. The second that I’m ready, I burst from my position in Bloodhound’s Step.

And like my teacher before me, I move with thunderous speed. As I do so, I instantly outpace and move beyond the rate at which Dakota could follow me. I’m sure the fox will try to catch up, but I trust it to be safe in my wake.

Instantly after I move, a beast that resembles a dire wolf appears before me, my eyes tell me it's a 2nd Sigil. I raise Intervention to blow it to smithereens, but before I can even pull the trigger, the Bloody Palm has removed its head. A thump resounds from the head hitting the ground and glee sends its way to my mind from the Bloody Palm.

The trivial nature of the 2nd Sigiled threat makes me realize why Wendigos are so feared. A single creature with a pair of separate Sigils is so much more powerful than one with only a single Sigil built alone within them.

The Bloody Palm and I continue forward as we push the body of the dire wolf-like thing to the side and move onward. The next creature of the horde in front of us is larger. A type of bear, again, I have no idea what it is, but the Bloody Palm and I burst toward it with the speed that I would have once thought impossible for me.

Somehow our connection allows me to control my body near perfectly, or maybe that is just a side effect of Fixation and Ironheart working together. I jump past the bear on the right of it as I let the Bloody Palm do its thing. If there is one thing I can trust it to do, that is kill.

A line of five lacerations as deep as my entire arm appears on the side of the bear’s body. The creature runs a few more steps unknowing of its injury before falling dead.

I don’t even look at it as I move forward toward Hura. The Demon of Storms is the only object in my mind. Everything else are merely distractions to be put down.

Several more monsters and beasts die to me and the Bloody Palm as we flit between the creatures of the horde forward, moving without stopping for even a single moment. I barely pay attention to them. Only the Outlaw riding an Uktena behind the horde brings any amount of effort from me.

I hear the man on the giant snake swear and curse loudly as he sees me, but while I hear it, I don’t listen. My mind doesn’t pick up what he says at all as I dart toward him and his snake.

“Look at that! This will be easy. Wh–! What the fuck is that! Go right, right, right! Right you damned thing!”

I see him begin to panic as the Bloody Palm latches its sharp claws onto the side of his snake and throws me up the massive side of the serpent. As I reach the top, I point Intervention at the man on top of the snake. The snake just continues onward to Rustbank with me atop it.

The second the sight is lined up with him, I pull the trigger. As I do so, though, he pushes out with his hands, creating a blast of air. The zephyr is so strong that it deflects all the flaming pellets from Intervention, sending them into the nearby monsters.

My eyes raise at the display of power, but I notice that he is breathing a bit heavily after deflecting a point-blank shotgun. So, I press him, and I continue to shoot the gun. He retreats down the back of the snake screaming for help as I rapidly press the trigger.

“Help! Pl–! Fuck. Please! Someone! Anyone! Save me from this MONSTER!”

Continuous bouts of force go through my arm from the recoil, but by the fifth shot, the man seems to be almost out of usable Ether. That and he seems to have given up hope of being helped.

I see him decide on his next course of action, which is no longer to run. He chooses to go beyond his limits of Ether and hit me with a blast of wind that he thinks will kill me. Unluckily for him, the sixth shot of Intervention is unlike any other.

Just as he pushes out his arms, summoning a visible torrent of air to send me flying, the sixth and final round of Intervention exits the cylinder. A blast of explosive fire more similar to an Old God’s retribution comes out of the barrel. This blast of fire offsets the blast of air perfectly like two balances shaking hands on a weight. The man’s face distorts at seeing his final push useless.

My brain doesn’t register the man whatsoever as I continue forward. The obsession Johnny planted in me is far too much for a single man to distract me for longer than a few seconds. The recoil, however, is so powerful that I feel my wrist crack and a bone juts out from my right hand.

The Bloody Palm quickly gets to healing it though as it also shoots out a piece of the claw into the exhausted man’s throat. He dies within seconds of the artifact laying its insatiable hunger on him. His body hollows out and turns dry as a river of blood flows back to me, replacing any I’ve lost. Which is a lot, actually, I just haven’t noticed.

My focus has been so resolute that any injury I’ve sustained has been completely ignored. Holes from stray bullets, cuts from claws, and bites from teeth heal completely, and the lost blood is restored from this man’s body.

I run forward past his body as the Bloody Palm extends a claw and cuts the back of the serpent along my run, leaving a huge gash on it by the time I jump off of its back.

When I land on the ground from its back, I notice several Uktena pass by me heading for the town. The old me would have done something about them, but now that I’m strangled by Fixation, they don’t even catch my eyes.

Instead, I continue onward, seemingly the only direction I can move at this point, toward Hura. But in the way of him remain obstacles. Obstacles that will likely be dropped by the six shells I put into Intervention. Only a few of these obstacles remain, however as most of his forces have circled all of Rustbank. It took about a few dozen monsters for me to kill to reach this far. Only a portion lies in any particular direction. This one has a male and female Outlaw who wield a lumberjack ax and a flintlock pistol respectively.

A small conversation comes out of the two of them, but my gaze only remains on Hura who watches the battle from the distance in the air.

“Is that him?”

“No way. He’s supposed to be a child, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what Hura said.”

“Must just be some mad dog they threw out after strapping an artifact to him. Well, let’s put this poor bastard out of his misery. Shit! Shoot him!”

I dart toward them both as the woman who has dark brown hair and a get-up more similar to a slave with ragged clothing pulls the flintlock up at me. The woman quickly pulls the trigger before I near them, and I just push through it as I put my arms over my head. My only weakness is my brain. Everywhere else I have confidence that the Bloody Palm can heal.

But I don’t have to worry as the artifact reshapes into a shield before the ball of steel slams into me. Instead of a hole being gored through me, the steel ball gets stuck in the shield of flesh and bone as fragments of it go everywhere.

I ignore the fact that what is being thrown everywhere is technically me as I focus on the woman, attacking her first. The two try to converse and use tactics, but I use brute force and speed to break them.

“What the fuck! He just blocked that!”

“Try again, I’ll try to get him off of you!”

The woman backs up rapidly as the man uses his Ether to create brambles around my legs to catch me. They only slow me down a bit as I pull myself through them with the claw that the Bloody Palm shifts back into.

However, just as I reach her, I feel piercing steel go flying through my back and out my front, barely missing my heart. I see the ball of steel flying through the air back toward me. The woman smiles a sly grin at her weapon in the air, but I ignore her confidence and charge again.

The steel ball comes back around again as I try to dodge to the side, getting my head away from the deadly metal. This time, it goes through my right leg, leaving a large hole in my thigh. But this is exactly why I practiced Bloodhound’s Step.

The lady takes a moment to rest as I fall toward the ground with my injured leg, but I catch myself with my arms. Then, I burst forward and jump toward her with my arms as I pull the trigger of the intervention at her. She screams at my threatening movement and a wall of thorns stops the gunfire. The wood however is rapidly burning.

I turn to look at the man behind me for a moment. He is panting and still chasing after me with his axe. I turn back after seeing how far he is, and I move toward the woman on all fours as I shoot my shotgun at her. I make just to the fifth shot before the wall of thorns falls as the man keeps continuously regenerating it. As it falls in fiery collapse, however, another ball of steel goes through my arm, the one holding Intervention. It destroyed the muscles that keep my hand gripping the shotgun tight.

Without the ability to hold the weapon deftly, I drop the shotgun as I give up on it and dash at her, swiping with the Bloody Palm. The artifact understands what I want and slashes out with a sharp whip from a finger that extends and slashes her across the throat. The woman drops to her knees holding her neck and gurgling blood.

The second I feel the resistance of her neck end, I feel something heavy sink into my back. I quickly turn my head to see the man behind me with bloodshot eyes forcing a woodcutting ax deep into my spine.

I try to order the Bloody Palm to grab the Intervention and shoot it backward as I feel my body become paralyzed, the ax cutting me off from my limbs. I quickly drop to blood covered floor as the Bloody Palm lashes out with another tendril of cartilage.

All it can do, however, is turn the Intervention toward the man who is pressing me into the dirt with extreme force using his ax. The transmuted artifact is nowhere near as dextrous as my real hands.

I feel a question come from it as the simple consciousness of the artifact asks me if it's alright to pull the trigger. The Bloody Palm is unsure of what to do, and for the first time, I get any type of higher-level intelligence showing from it.

I answer yes, using our temporary connection from Johnny.

And the next thing I see is endless white with roaring fire…