Tread Lightly – Among Monsters And Men

I watch petrified by guilt, shame, and self-hatred all at once as the old man who has given me so much is slowly drained of his life and falls onto his stomach facing me. A black stream, much more visible than the time the Ratbeak was killed by the Lily flows into me. And I have never hated the feeling of warmth and rejuvenation more than right now with what is currently flooding through my body.

And I can see that even though Edmund is being consumed by the shot from the Lily that I fired, his face while looking at me is devoid of hate or anger. Just sadness and acceptance. Then with what is probably the last of the energy within him not yet siphoned by the Lily, he mouths to me as he is unable to speak.

I can't quite catch all that he meant to say though and can only see his mouth move. Quiet words, each of which digs deep into my heart, stab at me.

“Sorry, I wasn’t...”

My mind shakes with the impact of Edmund's death as my body rapidly recovers. The shock of his death overwhelms me, and to make things even worse is the chuckle and derision that spews from Alexos.

“Ah! Isn’t this just wonderful! The little monster slays his teacher. It’s like an old literary tale I’ve once read. The Owl and the Ferret. The old ferret taught a young owl to hunt, but eventually, once the owl became self-sufficient, it grew hungry throughout the winter and ate the ferret. What a tragedy, indeed. Short and sweet.”

Despite this hateful thing that is occurring, I still notice that I am healing so much faster and being restored of more energy than any other time I’ve fired the Lily. And within five seconds of the trigger being pulled, I can already move again with my exhaustion subsiding greatly.

But before I can take advantage of this renewed strength, Alexos walks closer to me. Or at least what he is willing to show me walks to me. I think I vaguely understand how he does things. He never shows the real him. But maybe he will just before he kills me. That is his goal, right? Someone as confident and crazed as him will likely want to gloat. And I got one bullet left in the Lily.

I try to hide the Lily behind me as I cock the hammer back without looking. I pay super close attention to every action both Alexos and I take, for I have to be careful of what’s real and not. What is merely a figment of Alexos’ powers or reality?

Alexos then reaches me and kneels down to meet my eyes. He stares at me for a moment, and I do the same. Then out of nowhere a dagger appears and goes flying at my eye. I don’t flinch, but instead, immediately pull out the Lily and pull the trigger, hoping to kill him as I die.

As I see the knife grow exponentially larger in my left eye, in my other eye, I see the hammer of the Lily pull back as the barrel is pointed at him. And then, anticlimactically, nothing happens.

The dagger goes flying through my head like an illusion and the Lily doesn’t even fire. Shocked and confused I stare out the gun before it’s gradually replaced with a small ordinary tree root in front of my very eyes.

The all too familiar and hated laugh of a man I’ve quickly grown to despise chuckles once again, standing just a few feet away from me this time with a familiar gun in his hand, the Blooming Spider Lily.

“Ah, sorry bout’ that. I know that little gun you had there, and I just had to take it. Y’know it was your father’s. I saw him with it once. Only once, but that's enough to make it his. Crazy how many he must have killed to create the river of darkness within this thing. Oh, and I think I figured out what’s wrong with you, kid. You don’t seem to be afraid of me. Or even dying for that matter.”

What is he even talking about? Fear? How can I not feel fear? Is that not just similar to shock? I don’t understand. That and what’s he talking about my father killing people to make the Lily? I figured he found it during his travels.

Unable to help myself I ask Alexos.

“What do you mean by not feeling fear?”

He points at me with excitement.

“See! That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You are about to die and yet you still ask as if nothing is wrong. Tell me, do you know what it’s like to simply look at something and be paralyzed, unable to move because you know it can kill you in seconds? Or have your heartbeat soar and mind give up in the face of an unstoppable threat?”

What? No. Why would I be paralyzed just looking at something? Of course, I would act even if I’m likely to die. How could I just not do something? Not fight? I just don’t understand. Ma never taught me to back down from a fight.

Alexos breaks my train of thought abruptly with words that make my eyes widen first in relief then in shock.

“Oh, would you look at the time? The nearby Hunters have finally arrived. Too bad they most definitely saw you shoot Edmund with me nowhere to be seen. I hope you have fun explaining why you killed a decorated veteran. They seem decently competent, so if you somehow live through this, I’ll speak with you again. Ciao.”

And with his goodbye, he completely fades from my vision as I hear shouts and approaching footsteps to my right that are already way too close for me not to have heard previously. Damnit. His fucking illusions!

With little time to spare, I only take a short glance at the root in my hand before I throw it to the ground and draw my sword and knife. Then I look towards the new looming threat. I can’t believe I might have to fight Hunters. They’re the ones I wanted to join! Godamnit Alexos! Not to mention I haven’t even fully processed what just happened to Edmund. But he might still be alive somehow. I’ve only ever shot 1st Sigil and below things with the Lily, so he might be okay seeing as he was a 3rd Sigil. I hope. But despite my hope, I don’t have it in me to look at him right now.

I can ponder Edmund’s condition no longer as the approaching Hunters enter my vision in the dark forest. There are three of them, spread out into an arrowhead. Two guys and one girl with the girl in the lead. All with weapons already drawn.

The guy on the left of the arrow formation has a bow and an arrow already nocked as they come close enough to see through the thick trees. He also appears to be wearing a full camo suit but with the wrong camo for this environment, with it being more white and black than the green and brown for the current climate.

The girl in the middle has two twin daggers resting in her hands that curve like an adder’s fangs. She has her hair tied up in a ponytail and is wearing leather armor that doesn’t seem to restrict movement.

And lastly, the man on the right is a mountain of a man wielding a massive greatsword that fits his stature. He is definitely close to seven feet tall and looks quite bulky in his thick leather armor, with the armor being especially thick near his right shoulder.

They altogether assess me. And I just watch with my weapons drawn, waiting to see what they do first. And the first to act is the woman, who asks a question to the man with a bow as she looks at Edmund and then back to me.

“This the kid who shot the Bloodhound? You sure?”

The man with the bow replies clearly and briefly as he nods his head.

“Yes. Just him and the Bloodhound. No one else.”

I raise my hands and try to plead my case. I don’t want to fight these guys. They’ll probably kill me.

“I killed him, yes, but it was an accident. We were fighting the Phantom Pain and he made me shoot him in an illusion.”

And the faces of the three in front of me do not reflect what I just said. Instead, they twist into hate and disgust as they spread out further around me. Uh, what the hell just happened? I try again, growing increasingly worried that something is wrong.

“Uh hello? Did you not hear me? We were fighting the Phantom Pain. Illusions and shit?”

And they just speed up further as they close in on me, using hand signals to communicate instead of speaking. And I have no idea what they mean. But at least the confusion is cleared in just a short second as I hear a voice that makes me grit my teeth in anger.

“Ah, I couldn’t have this be all sunshines and rainbows. I wanna see you suffer, so I made a little change to what you said in their minds. Something… a little more psychotic. Have fun. I’ll be watching.”

That fucker. I twist my jaw even further in anger, but I can’t be distracted right now as the giant man with the greatsword approaches me. And before he reaches me, I rush deep into my mind and frantically force my dull and slow Ether into the stream of Physical Strengthening. I’m going to need every scrap of power I can for this as it seems they are hellbent on killing me. I almost regret using the skill as the headache that slightly subsided with my lack of Ether for a bit returns at full force plus some change.

I am thankful for my recent practice and almost constant use of the skill because I barely get it flowing before the man is upon me. He exhales a huge breath that is visible in the chilly autumn air before slamming a huge foot into the ground and swinging his greatsword at me dangerously. It comes in at a diagonal towards my right shoulder far too fast for a man of his stature.

I quickly go to dodge underneath the swing, but I see an arrow currently flying toward where I wish to dodge. Hoping my precision and speed will prevail, I swing my dagger trying to hit the arrow at the last moment while the air just above my head wails in turmoil.

I hit it, but only barely. My increased precision is just enough to knock it off of its target, my chest, and into my right shoulder. I grunt in pain before sidestepping further to get away from the big man, but I make sure to keep my body facing him in case of a follow-up attack.

I realize my focus on him alone was a mistake very quickly as I feel a sharp pain in the back of my left ankle as I lose balance. I turn back reflexively. It’s the woman with the daggers. She approached me without my notice and sliced my achilles tendon. I have to push the rest of my weight onto my right leg now, and my left refuses to hold even an ounce of weight without screaming in pain.

Their teamwork is incredible. Is this a normal hunting party? I really wish to stop and admire their efficacy at killing, but I cannot when that efficacy is directed toward me.

A short lull in the skirmish is made after my tendon is cut. The three reset their formation and this time, the archer nocks three arrows. I need to do better. I haven’t even hurt one of them yet, and I have an arrow in my shoulder with a disabled leg.

I have to take the initiative. Edmund used to say the few times we trained that I’m too reactive. So, I do as he advised. But just before doing so, I push my already withered Ether to branch into another stream, Chain Eyes. I gotta know what I’m working with here.

The man with the greatsword and the one with the bow have dull red chains surrounding them, similar to mine, while the woman with the daggers has a deep orange one. So, two 1st Sigils and a 2nd Sigil. This is gonna be rough. I ready my stance to be prepared for what's to come.

Then the big man charges me once more after the woman, who is probably the leader, gives him a hand signal that I have no clue what it means. But despite not knowing its meaning, I take his charge in stride as I go to meet him.

Limping heavily, but still faster than the man, I dart in with the rapier, trying to hide from the archer using his body. A get a quick stab in, and I try to replicate what the woman did to me by hitting vital points. He is too slow and bulky to stop a thin blade from entering his wrist accurately going around his gauntlet.

The blade tears a small hole into his wrist, which makes that arm unable to help wield his own enormous blade. But it doesn’t help me all that much as I curse because just hefts it with one hand and swings it at me anyway.

He only has one arm in the swing, though, and I’m close to half his size, so I take advantage of this. I know that my movement is hampered by a wounded leg, so I choose to use him as my cover fully. I leap up at him, trying to get too close for his blade to reach me, as I grab onto and wrap around the arm that is swinging at me with my whole body.

A huge force enters my body as I cough out all the air I just inhaled, but I dodged his blade. I must look like a small monkey on a normal man as I hold onto him. And ignoring the humorous position, I take my knife and try to stab him in the eye.

As I do so, I see him flinch and because of that, I hesitate. Do I really want to go in for the kill? I can’t. These people think I’m the bad guy. That I’m the murderer. They are just doing their jobs trying to help others.

My hesitation lasts long enough for the man to recover and for his archer to get into position. I hear a whistling arrow as well as see the mountain I’m currently climbing go to headbutt me. And in the corner of my eye, I can see that the arrow looks to be aimed to land behind my head. If I dodge back and try to jump off, the arrow will get me. If I try and turn to dodge the arrow, the headbutt will. So, I do the only thing I can think of in less than a second.

I wrap my legs around the man’s arms and let go with my own arms. Instantly gravity pulls me down from the man’s held-up arm and towards the ground. I dodge both the arrow and the headbutt. Taking this brief second falling, I come to a decision.

It’s my life or theirs. And I’m not gonna let Edmund die for no reason. These people don’t even know who really killed him. So, it’s gonna have to be them. Maybe I can wound them enough to try and explain myself. But no. That wouldn’t work because Alexos is still here. He’d ruin any chance of communication. These people must die, for I cannot.

Only now do I understand what Alexos meant about fear. Or at least partially. I’m not quite frozen in action, but I am hesitating. Is that because I’m unwilling to hurt them? Of the consequences that might occur? Or just guilty? I’m unsure what the difference is.

Anyway, my inner contemplation and conundrum come to a close with me slamming my knife into the back of the man’s knee as I spin towards the ground using his arm as leverage. What I didn’t expect, however, was that as he fell, me being upside down now, was the first to slam into the ground and I did so headfirst.

I roll away from the fallen man while I try to shake away the impact that shook my brain in its skull, but before I can recover, I see the woman go in to land a strike on me. With my still shaken mind, I attempt to scramble out of the way, but she catches me with one hand and nails my right arm holding my rapier into the ground with her dagger. I yell out in pain as I knee her in the stomach and force her off of me.

Then as I go to rip the serpentine dagger out of my arm, another arrow comes whistling at me. With no other choice, I let the arrow slam into my back causing another sprout of pain, thankfully lessened by Physical Strengthening. Using that pain as motivation, I rip the dagger out of my own arm as a large river of blood starts to pool out of the wound.

That’s way too big to be normal. Taking another look at the dagger, I can feel some Ether within it. Definitely a Claymore of some sort with an enhancement like my rapier but geared toward blood loss. I loop it onto my belt for now.

And with this increased blood loss, I’m really starting to feel woozy, even with Physical Enhancement still flowing through me. I take a look around me as the three of them back off a bit and the archer nocks another arrow. I then move into a kneel with the knee of my torn heel on the ground and the uninjured leg’s foot planted firmly into the dirt.

Then without giving them a chance to stop me, I close my eyes once more and force my Ether to flow once more, even if it may be the last.