Chapter Eleven
Joe woke with the morning and stretched in bed. His back ached a bit from the hard bed, but more than anything it was the feeling of quiet satisfaction suffusing him that let him know today would be a good day. Joe enjoyed the morning breakfast with Gardenell with a bit of leisure and relaxation. Although Joe wanted to get out to the drunk priest and out into the forest with a different job, Joe was feeling excited about yesterday and felt he deserved a bit of a rest day. He still didn't linger too long and was finishing up his al when Joe stopped, startled. Shouts and screams erupted from outside east of the village, and when Joe turned, he saw Garnedell already sprinting out the front door with the other custors and the large matron waddling rapidly out the door. Joe blinked with so surprise, then followed as well, pulling out his bow and knocking an arrow when he made the street.
He followed the streaming crowds towards the screams, now greatly outweighing the shouts, coming out onto the fields overwheld by a chaotic dispersion of people. Several n dashed forward holding various cudgels of differing links while others scattered in fear from an absolutely monstrous sli almost triple the size of what he was used to fighting out in the forest.
"What is that!"
Garnedell shouted back but Joe didn't understand anything and closed with the sli at a run, dropping his bow and relaxing his pull on the arrow, but kept it nocked. As he ca close, he considered bringing up his bow again, but noticed sothing strange floating within the sli. He holstered the bow and placed the arrow back in the quiver as he quickly pulled out his spear. He didn't have his wooden stake, but given the size of this sli, he was pretty sure a stake wouldn't be enough. When he got close, he saw several different blobs inside, but the one that caught his eye the quickest was the sight of a young man who floated inside the body of the sli, still struggling desperately. Joe ran forward past the line of n who were preparing to hold the line against the sli and charged at the sli. As with other slis, it locked on him almost imdiately even as he ca within a fifty ter range. He continued his sprint forward, but had to dive under the sli in surprise when it leapt towards him almost ten ters further away than he was expecting. Wow! OK. Bigger ans a bigger jump then too, huh. Joe grunted in surprise even as it slipped only a foot or two over his head even as he tumbled under the sli in a roll.
He leapt to his feet and charged back towards the sli and prepared even as it landed, knowing that he was now well within the range of a larger sli's charging jump attack. He readied his spear and looked towards the sli, fixing the struggling young man's movents in his eye as he carefully chose a location to spike the sli to the ground. He tensed, the prepared to leap to the side as the sli also contracted, beginning it's leaping attack. As the sli ca flying towards him, Joe leaped to the side as always, then curled up in shock as he realized he had made a huge mistake. Shit! The thing is almost twice as wide as a normal sli! I didn't jump far enough to the side!
Joe whipped the butt of his spear around and brandished his spear shaft against the sli in a block more than a thrust, angling it slightly. The sli hit him like a runaway train, and Joe spun away from the sli, luckily bouncing off of it instead of being absorbed, the spear shaft helping him push himself just slightly further off to the side. He tumbled across the soft turned dirt of the grain field and was able to pull the spear shaft up against his body horizontally so he didn't accidently stab himself. He leapt to his feet once again and didn't even look, knowing that his tumble had taken too long and he took a diving roll at a ninety degree angle to where he believed the sli would have already launched its attack. He felt the swoosh of air whirl over his back even as he rolled and ca up again, turning back towards where the sli was landing. He was able to catch it even as it landed, and Joe squared his stance towards the giant sli, prepping himself. He once again took in the sight of the squirming boy, his movents now much more frantic, and Joe placed the boy's location in relation to his needed jump to spike the sli. He flipped the spear's direction so that the spear head was correctly aligned for the soon to co sli attack.
As expected, it hit the ground and imdiately contracted, leaping back towards him. This ti he leapt to the side opposite of where the boy was, making sure the leap was much larger. Joe swept the spear around and into the sli's body firmly, thrusting the shaft as high as he could and down into the body of the sli towards the earth. But almost imdiately, Joe realized things were much different, the sli's mass was significantly greater and he felt his whole torso pinwheel around, the shaft as the center of the spin and the sli's body as the counter weight to Joe. The spin twisted him almost ninety degrees from his original facing, but he was still able to bring the sli's leaping motion to a stop, although the body deford horribly even as he spiked it into the earth. The sli body bulged outward, the weight of the drowning young man adding to its forward motion before it ca wobbling back, desperately attempting to maintain its huge form.
Even as the oversized sli wobbled back to equilibrium, Joe gained his feet and pulled out his spoon spear and stabbed the butt of the spear into slis body and arms bulged as he slamd the spear shaft into the boy's torso before ripping him from the slis body, goop splashing out of the sli and leaving the young man scrambling to clean his mouth and nose to catch a breath. Joe pointed at the young man even as he yelled out to Garnedell.
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"Garnedell! Help the guy."
Garnedell yelled back in acknowledgent and charged across the field towards the sli covered man while Joe turned towards the much reduced sli, whipping his spoon spear down and across in a wide arc to spray off the sli ooze. He stepped up to the sli and searched for the sli gem, then frowned as he saw what appeared to be two sli gems orbiting each other. Joe stabbed his spoon spear in and tried to slide the reverse bowl up against the gems, but the gems would always slide to the side. Joe looked toward his good spear, and saw that the sli had oozed off it almost half way. Frustrated worry overca him, and Joe spun the spoon spear until the bowl was faced up to scoop both gems. His arms bulged again and scooped the dual gems out. Man! Is the fluid even more viscous? He was able to scoop the two gems out along with a large gloop of ooze as it flew up and over the back of his head. The large blob of ooze in front of him splashed to the ground and seeped across it even as Joe ripped his good spear out of the ground and sprinted in the direction where he had thrown the double gems.
It arced across the sky and splatted on the ground just as Joe threw his spear. Joe was only ten feet or so away and was fairly certain of the throw. The spear struck true, if a little off center, but enough to pin it to the ground. Joe was able to co to a stop and square his stance carefully so as to properly finish the sli. The spoon spear entered the reduced sli and Joe positioned it well underneath the double gems before whipping it up and out, the two gems orbiting each other into the sky, tied together by the tiniest string of sli. Joe turned to follow the arcing gems and walked towards them as they tumbled across the turned soil. He squatted and brought out his whisk, flipping off the ooze with the practiced ease of thousands of tis practiced. The flush of the status gain swept through him, and he was sure the sli was dead, but he still turned to carefully look around the field to make sure there were no more threats. He pulled out his good spear and swung his spoon spear onto his shoulder even as he glanced around.
After seeing nothing else attacking, Joe turned towards the sli covered man and sprinted towards him. The man was sitting up, gasping with loud full gulps. Joe looked towards Garnedell and then pointed to the man, asking if he was alright with a questioning thumbs up. Garnedell nodded in return so Joe quickly helped the man up from to his feet and led him to the lake before helping him into the water. The man looked at him gratefully, even as his skin was now turning a bit red and so blisters had started to form from the sli's digestive fluids. The man quickly imrsed himself in the water and cleansed himself, even as Joe took the ti to clean his two spears.
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Kargallen had run forward at the first sign of cries of alarm. The yells of monster had co quickly, and he had brought his hamr from the anvil, one of the few tools he could hold and possibly use as a weapon. He sprinted after the crowd and ca upon the n doubling as militia, forming up an impromptu defensive line. He settled in the line, near the center as he was considered one of the strongest n amongst the villagers. The line ford quickly as the last of the defenders joined, and Kargallen called out orders to form up, firming the line. Even as they watched, one of the young farrs was engulfed by the great sli, and Kargallen grimaced as his face blanched. A great sli! This… this will be bloody! There was little they could do for any in the field, the great sli would need everyone working together, and even then, several would likely die; none here were adventurers, let alone great warriors.
The last of the villagers and farrs fled back past the line and Kargallen started calling out the ti, asuring their timing as they pushed forward in step. But even as the line began moving, the foreigner sped past them at amazing speed, holding a gorgeous magical spear and his poor imitation effort that looked like a giant spoon with a tiny spoon bowl. Kargallen shouted out, hoping to gain the help of the foreign warrior, but the man seed to not even hear them and sped across the field.
What followed was a fight that was the stuff of legends. The foreigner seed to dance across the field, the great sli completely unable to connect with the foreigner. He seed more like an acrobat than a combatant, his leaps and tumbles having him clear the great sli's attacks by hairbreadths. Suddenly, the foreigner seed to have the sli spiked to the ground, its movents curtailed as the foreigner quickly freed the trapped farr before shouting in his strange language, mixed with so few words he understood, for Garnedell and pointing at the downed farr. Seconds later, he killed the sli in a matter of only another three strikes: his poorly made spoon spear ejected the distinctive double core from the great sli, followed by an extraordinary throw spiking the small sli left behind utilizing his magical spear, and finally finished off the sli with a last core ejection with this spoon spear. The man sped to the double core and did sothing with a strange stick before pocketing it and turning to sprint towards the farr that had been eaten by the great sli.
Kargallen and the line stopped, stunned. They watched as the man helped the eaten farr to the lake where the man cleansed himself before the poisons of the sli could do worse. As they watched the foreigner helping the man, the line glanced towards each other and said nothing for several monts, shock freezing voices from speaking before the whole line broke into excited chatter.
"Did you see that? By Tyr's horns, the man ended the great sli with three strikes!"
"Tyr's horns? More like Sors' great luck!"
"That was no luck! That was Thur's blessing! No man moves in such ways without Thur's blessing! He was dancing across the sky as the very incarnation of Thur himself!"
"Boys, this was a fight of legends, make no mistake, but this was a fight of nothing more than warriors. He is only a man," Kargallen replied with so moderation but still could not deny the ns' instincts, "but still an astounding one!"
The n continued their conversation as they broke up in pairs and triplets to head back to the village. Kargallen decided he would head towards the foreign adventurer to thank him for his help, but then saw him get into a significant conversation with the boy, so did not wish to interrupt his apprenticeship. I'll thank him later. He will need to stop by soon to repair his blades. Kargallen heaved a great sigh of relieve as he headed back to his forge. At least we have a great hero to protect us.
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