Chapter 3: Adrenaline Rush
Ted raised his hammer again, ready to crush me with it.
Without further thinking, I roared and leapt into the air. My back let out an audible snap as I jumped, but there was something more important than my injury. I had to finish this fight as fast as possible.
Practically falling down, I stared into Ted's eyes before driving the pointed end of my broken staff into one of them.
Ted let out a loud roar as crimson liquid gushed out from his left eye and trickled down his cheek. He was now panic, which was probably his reaction towards blood and pain.
"Get off me!" he called out, tottering wildly whilst squinting.
But he failed to drive me back. As he moved around vigorously, I was just swaying slightly whilst gripping the brass stake.
Quickly, I pulled out the stick and remained airborne. I raised my bloodstained broken rod, ready to impale him through his skull. If I were successful, then everything should be over.
As I thrust the brass cane, a steel-clad arm met my chest, sending me smashing into a tree. I screamed in pain as my backside hit the tree trunk. Now, I could only sit still. It hurt even to stand up.
Wincing, I could see Ted rushing towards me with his hammer. Surprisingly, he was fast despite being a fatso.
"Sieg always tells us not to kill if possible, but you're too dangerous if you're alive!" Ted roared, stopping abruptly in front of me before raising his hammer.
I immediately threw my broken rod at him, hoping that the pointy end would stab and kill him.
Yes, the brass stake was now transfixed on his flabby belly.
But Ted was unfazed. Letting out an ear-splitting battle cry, he brought his hammer coming down on me.
Was it the end?
Nope. I raised my hands and caught the huge metallic hammerhead in my grip. It was just a few inches above my head, which seemed to be much smaller when compared to the incoming lump of iron.
"How the hell can you do that?" Ted asked, struggling to press the hammer down on my head. "Impossible!"
I did not answer him. It was unnecessary for him to know that putting logic aside to make the impossible possible was something common for me.
Gritting my teeth, I tried to push the hammerhead back with my hands. The muscles on my arms were burning and aching, but this was the only thing I could to if I wished not to have my skull smashed.
There was a moment of struggle. There were times I managed to push the hammerhead back, but most of the time, Ted nearly landed his hammer on my head.
But soon, Ted pulled back his gigantic gavel.
At this, I lowered my arms and panted. My arms were aching, while my back kept stinging me with sharp pain.
"You're so stubborn," Ted growled, raising his left leg as he brought his hammer resting behind his back. "I'm gonna crush you to bits!"
Looking at his stance, it appeared that he would be swinging his gavel this time. If he did, it would be very hard to capture the hammerhead with bare hands. It was not only the size that bothered me, but it was also because the force might hurt my back as I caught the weapon.
Now, there was only one last option: casting a spell. It was slow, but something was better than nothing.
I remained silent as I emptied my mind from the heat of the battle. Focusing on my heartbeat and breathing, I could feel that my surrounding was growing cold. Now, in this relaxed state, I channeled shadow energy to my right hand.
"Be gone!" Ted roared, swinging his hammer.
I swung my hand, tossing a sphere of writhing darkness towards him.
Just like I thought; magic was slower than physical attack. Before having the shadow orb engulfing his head, Ted had managed to crush my chest with his hammer.
For a moment, my mouth tasted like metal as I coughed out blood.
At the same time, I felt as if there were needles stabbing my lungs. Every time I breathe, that sensation hurt me. The deeper I inhaled, the more painful I felt.
The difficulty in breathing also led to another consequence. Lacking of oxygen in my head, my vision became blurry. I was just a few steps away from blacking out.
But I would not give up. Now, from what I saw, I had a good chance to finish Ted off. He had dropped his hammer, so that he could smack the black orb repeatedly with both of his big hands.
Clenching my right hand, I kept quiet and closed my eyes. With my vision all black, calmness enveloped my mind as I readied myself to channel lightning energy to my arm.
As crackling sounds came from my right side, I opened my eyes and stared at Ted, preparing for a kill. This should be easy, because the shadow orb had not left that fatso's head. It forced him to stand still whilst growling and smacking his shadow-wrapped face with his hands.
"You're dead," I said, thrusting my right arm. A purple bolt of lightning leapt from my forearm and hurtled towards Ted.
It was only a matter of seconds until the thunderbolt hit him on his stomach and sent electric currents spreading to his entire body. I could hear his muffled scream for a short while as the small arcs of lightning burnt his skin and left charred lines behind.
Soon, it was over. His massive body slumped as the electric currents were fading along with the black orb on his head.
As his stomach hit the ground with a thud, I looked at his motionless body. His face – which was pale with the eyes wide open and the mouth ajar – signified that he had died an uncomfortable death. My lightning bolt might have hurt him too much, in addition to my shadow sphere suffocating him.
Well, I had no reason to show any sympathy or such. Now was the time to approach Master Gogh with the proof that I was worthy of becoming his bodyguard. Hopefully, he would hire me, so that I could soon afford a ferry ticket to Medina.
I placed my palms on the ground, supporting myself to stand up…but I failed. As I stretched my body, my back let out a loud crack and shocked me with sharp pain.
I fell back in the moment of shock. Sitting still, I had to figure out how to get out of this fast. What for if I could not return to Termina after killing my prey?
Termina… Ah, I remembered something. I had bought a Capsule element and kept it in my sleeve. It should be able to ease my pain.
I inserted my right hand into my left sleeve, before taking a small yellow orb out of it. Gripping it firmly, I crushed it, which resulted in tawny threads of smoke coming out of my fist. After swirling around me for a moment, they entered my body from the front and back side.
As they did, I felt warmth on my whole body. It was as if I had applied some heating pads on my torso. The burning, yet soothing feeling trumped the sharp pain.
Soon, the sensation vanished, and I could confirm that the Capsule element had done well in healing me. Supporting myself with both of my arms, I managed to get up without any backache. In addition, I could breathe deeper without suffering a chest pain.
However, it appeared to have a side effect. I felt that I was not in the mood of working. My body only desired to lie on a comfy bed.
No, I should not think about that. My goal of hunting down the Radical Dreamers was so that I could earn money from Master Gogh and afford a ferry ticket to Medina. Besides, I had to be fast if I wished to be his bodyguard.
I hunched and grabbed Ted's steel-clad arm with both of my hands before turning around. Gnashing my teeth forcefully, I struggled to lift him up, but he barely budged. He was too heavy.
Unfortunately, this also meant that I could not fly back to Termina. It was impossible to fly with something heavy weighing me down.
Impossible? Nah, I never liked that term. I hadn't even tried carrying Ted with the best of my ability.
Holding Ted's arm, I jumped into the air and bent my right leg. I flicked my feet in an attempt to fly higher, but I felt like something was keeping me back.
I had to try harder if I wished to go beyond the impossible!
I roared and flicked my feet even faster. With a tremendous amount of force, I pulled Ted's arm as if I were to tear it off from his body.
As silly as it sounded, it worked. Ted's weight was still holding me back, but I had managed to fly higher.
Everything should be fine by now.
"Just like I thought; I knew that there was a stalker around when we were talking, but that stupid Sieg just didn't listen to me."
That creaky voice sounded familiar! Could it be-
All of a sudden, a foot landed on my masked face. The blow didn't hurt, but I lost my grip on Ted's arm because of it.
I made a quick descent to the earth. Landing steadily with both of feet, I looked around only to find another human around.
It was not an ordinary person; indeed, it was another guy from the Radical Dreamers. Maroon hair. A scabbard on each side. Gangly appearance. This guy was no other than Rai, the red-headed thief I came to know from the eavesdropping earlier.
"You're coming for our heads? I'm gonna take yours instead! And your money too!"
What a boast!
Without answering, I punched him directly on his face.
That was what I considered as a good reply to his drivel.
"Bah, I haven't started yet," Rai murmured, placing his hands on the hilts of his daggers.
It was only a matter of a second when he suddenly vanished.
I glanced around frantically to find him, but to no avail.
But soon, I sensed the stench of rusted iron as I felt something wet streaming down my chest. Looking down, I found that my blood had stained my white coat red.
Rai was so fast that I didn't see him carving a bloody X on my torso!
WHOOOOSH!
Time was valuable indeed. Spending just a moment focusing on my injury had led me to an unpleasant consequence. Now, I felt that my legs were too weak to support my posture. It seemed that Rai had sliced the muscles on my lower limbs.
The pain had triggered an adrenaline rush within my body. My heart was beating faster. Beads of sweat were trickling down my neck. I was feeling breathless right now, but somehow I felt more powerful and less painful.
"Yeah, now for the finisher, I'm gonna plunge my knife into your heart! You can't dodge it with those injuries on your legs!"
Into my heart? Unable to dodge?
That sparked me an idea.
"Ta-daa!" Rai suddenly appeared in front of me and pulled back his right hand.
The knife came, and as expected, he was aiming for the left side of my body. I raised my left arm, and let the dirk pierce through the back of my hand.
I winced momentarily from the pain, but now, I had an advantage.
I delivered a chop into Rai's right wrist, which prompted him to release his dagger from his grip.
"Trust me; your end is nigh," I said calmly, pulling out the knife out of my palm with my other hand. It hurt like hell for a moment, but I could neglect the pain with the thought of how close victory was to me.
"What an idiot!" Rai spat out. "Pulling out a knife like that? I bet ya wanna bleed to death or lose a hand!"
Oh, shut up!
Or was this a chance?
Yes, there was nothing wrong with attacking while the foe was blathering unaware. It was the opponent's fault for wasting his time, like what happened to me earlier.
I immediately drove the jagged end of the knife into the left side of Rai's chest. Blood gushed out as the dagger bore a hole on his body.
In a flash, I pulled the knife out.
Rai was still standing before me, but it was not long until his limp body slumped to the ground and remained motionless.
He was dead.
The fight had ended, and so had my adrenaline rush. My injured and trembling legs were unable to support my body anymore. My vision too, was rather shaky now.
And so I collapsed.
Yet I refused to lose my consciousness. Succumbing to my injuries before completing something important was silly; how troublesome could bleeding wounds be for a mage? I knew no healing spells, but I could just burn them all shut.
Using my right hand and my left elbow as a support, I got up to take off all my clothing to the point I was only on my boxers.
This way, I could begin cauterizing my injuries.
Sitting on the floor, I held the bloody dagger I used to dispatch Rai over my injured palm. I bent my fingers upwards and remained silent.
It only took a few seconds of concentrating until my fingertips let out small jets of flame. They remained still over my fingers, heating the knife's blade until it was red and smoldering.
After that, I flicked my left hand. I put out the fire that way, but I had just realized that this was a silly thing to do. Such movement did not only hurt my hand, but it also caused the wound on it to bleed more.
Hmph, that was easily forgettable. I had better seal all the wounds fast, so that I could stop the bleeding and continue thinking how I could return to Termina.
Wound cauterization was not something enjoyable. As I touched the gash on my left palm with the flat side of the smoldering blade, the pain shocked me. I dropped the knife and hissed as a result.
Damn, just endure the pain, could you? If you gave up this fast, you'd never be able to find Master Janus!
I growled and picked up the dagger with my good hand. Immediately, I brought the flat side of the blade touching the edge gaping wound on my palm. With an eye screwed shut and teeth gritted, I moved the knife from one side to another side slowly.
I did that on all the injuries I could find on my body. For sure, I knew that I did scream once in a while and nearly blacked out a few times as I sealed my wounds shut this way.
But there was no other way to prevent myself from losing more blood right now.
Soon, the 'torment' was over. Thick black crusts were now visible on my wounds instead of gaping gashes. They still sent pain off across my body, but everything should be fine for now.
Standing up, I picked up my bloodstained clothes. I had better wash them, as wearing such dirty attire would not give a good image to a rich man like Master Gogh.
Hmm, I couldn't leave the corpses of my prey here either. This was a forest, and of course, scavengers existed. They might eat these bodies while I was away. I had to bring them along with me as I searched for a river…
Nope. I didn't think I need these bodies. I could make money by selling their weapons. Rai's daggers should worth some money, while Ted's giant hammer should be expensive as it was something unique.
Sounded like it was a sudden change of heart, wasn't it? After all, I just wanted the money from this, nothing else. Besides, I didn't really like Master Gogh.
I hunched and grabbed all the weapons I could find: a pair of daggers and a giant hammer. With them and my clothes in my hand, I leapt into the air and flew away. Yes, I still had to wash everything, because I was going to see a smithy in a town. Wouldn't it make a better impression to the blacksmith if I wore something clean?
It took about fifteen minutes until I found a river. It was neither because of my injuries nor the weight of Ted's giant hammer; instead, I was slow because I didn't know where the river was. I had to pace around while focusing on the surrounding with heightened senses. That was a fruitful attempt anyway; I managed to catch the roar of water current in my ears, which was an obvious clue that a stream was nearby.
I put down everything on the ground save for my clothes, before I sat on the riverbank and began the 'laundry work'.
I soaked my trousers in the water. Sure, without some sort of detergent, there would still be several blotches of light red and brown on it, but this was better than having stains of crimson on its surface.
After that, I wrung it to force water out from the cloth. I didn't feel comfortable working with my injured hand though, but there was no other way. Besides, it was just a moment of discomfort, not something life-threatening.
Then I did the same thing on my coat: soaking it in the water for a moment before wringing it.
Everything was done in five minutes, and now all I had to do was waiting for a moment until they were not too wet anymore.
I put them down on the dry ground and waited. This should be a long, tedious moment.
Hmm, perhaps looking around would kill my boredom. Who knew that there would be some tasty birds or little critters to snack on?
I began scanning the area, and soon, I spotted something interesting. A silhouette of a human-like figure was heading in my direction slowly. As it came closer, the sound of clattering metal grew clearer amidst the roaring water current.
Was that the last member of the Radical Dreamers or somebody else?