Chapter 24: The Long Road

Chapter 24: The Long Road

Travel to Shoutwell was decently eventful. There, of course, were monster attacks, often leaving them a hair away from death. They came from the trees or hid within the streams, often surprising the group from decisive flanks. But the simple monster was no match for Leland, Jude, and Glenny.

Jude and Glenny were simply impossible for the monsters to ever touch, and if one ever bit or mauled Leland, the others would wreak havoc upon its life. And that was a large if. Leland’s magic proved quite adept at simply stopping monsters from charging. Randomly breaking bones and a twenty percent slowed movement had only failed him once.

It was at night and Jude was supposed to be on watch. But instead he was practicing the harmonica silently, oblivious to the outside threats. The monsters came in a single circular wave, stretching the length of the tree line and blocking any advance and retreat.

Goblins.

Relatively smart fiends, goblins were considered a scourge to human life all across the continent. Growing in massive nests, goblins moved across the countryside, pillaging any and everything. More lives were lost to goblin kind every year than any other monster. With a Royal kill on sight decree, many made names for themselves taking out entire conclaves.

A snap broke Jude from his harmonica practice, pulling his attention like an owl scouting a dark field. His head popped up, his hearing strained, he even sniffed the air.

“Wake up!” he bellowed, rousing his three traveling companions.

A whistle screaming through the air forced him to act, pulling at his tattoo and summoning forth his blood stained battle axe. Using the weapon like a shield, Jude stopped the arrow cold. It ricocheted off the steel, bouncing harmlessly to the ground. It was then he smelled it.

“Poison arrows!”

The call put Leland and Glenny into motion, the latter of whom shifted invisible and rushed out. A deep purple halo blazed into life with a powerful roar, a slight amethyst hue radiated out and illuminated their camp.

“Fracture, Slow, Maul,” Leland unleashed his spell arsenal, spinning in a circle and spreading his influence wide across the encroaching goblin party.

The smoldering embers of the dead campfire then burst into life with a great blue-black flame. A flume of fake heat and power reached the height of the nearest trees, then like a blowtorch calibration, the spectacle receded back to red hot charcoal.

Alkin huffed with sweat dripping from his forehead, his entire mana pool spent for a single illusion.

Meanwhile, Jude and Glenny bisected or gutted every target they came across. Volcanoes of blood and muscle splattered into the gravel road, spines and dismembered appendages were left in a wide wake.

Some goblins screamed in retreat, rushing back to the tree line or regrouping with the stronger few. The boys pushed the advantage, breaking their formation into a tactician’s worst nightmare. That was, until the snarling appeared.

From the trees and under the cover of darkness, six yellow glowing orbs stalked around the camp. With only a failing fire and purple halo as light, the boys failed to notice the initial charge. A bola flew through the air, wrapping around and stopping Jude from retreating back to Leland.

Leland dug deep and pushed his mental fatigue, curses flying left and right. Fracture after Fracture while a murder of crows dive bombed with great urgency wasn’t enough to stop the assault. The razor sharp teeth of a dire wolf tore through his mage robes, ripping into his flesh and pinning him to the ground.

“Leland!” Jude shouted as he yanked the bola from around his ankles.

A crude spear then stabbed into the ground beside the Lord of Curses’ head. Eyes wide and scared, Leland then saw the goblin leader riding atop the wolf.

Still, one early morning before Alkin returned from washing in a nearby steam, a conversation was held about Jude.

“No more fighting until you figure yourself out,” Glenny said.

Leland agreed.

“It's not that simple, guys,” Jude replied with large dark bags under his eyes. “I can’t not fight. It’s a part of the Legacy of the Lord of Berserkers. It’s in my blood.”

“What do you suggest we do then? Because we can’t go through another significant fight where we don’t know if you will turn on us.”

“I won’t turn on you guys.”

“You already have! In the dungeon!”

Jude’s shoulders fell. “Oh right.” He shook his head. “My mom said she had to ‘go on a journey into her own mind,’ to not lose herself. Whatever that means.”

Leland spoke up, trying to be as still as possible. “It means you need to meditate and learn to control your rage. Honestly, it sounds similar to how a mage has to focus to cast spells. If their concentration is broken, the spell fails and fizzles.”

“We could also, you know, contact your mom and explain the situation,” said Glenny.

“NO!” Jude yelled before his eyelids slammed down and his face wrinkled. He groaned in pain, his hand rubbing his temples.

“It’s getting worse. The rage is getting to you,” Leland said plainly. “We will hold off on contacting her for now, but if it gets worse...”

Jude nodded. “I can do this, please trust me.”

“We do, we just don’t want to see you hurt.”

Leland then had a thought, one he smirked at. “We are a day away from a decently large port city. I’m sure we could find a book on Berserker Syndrome.”

That got another groan from Jude. “You know I hate reading.”

Glenny rolled his eyes. “Then I’ll read it to you.”

Jude thought about it for a moment. “Do you think they will have books about harmonicas? I might read one of those.”