Born a Monster

Chapter 83: Born A Monster, Chapter 83 – Cracks

Born A Monster

Chapter 83

Cracks

“So they say there’s something called Protection mana that you can make.” Agnopos told me.

“Not enough to matter.” I said. “Not on this scale. Besides, I don’t know the formula. Without knowing exactly how the concepts mix...”

[Protection Mana Formula Acquired. You have received 5XP for Mystic Research. After divisor, 1XP has been received.]

Ditto Shaman. It was so easy... so simple...

.....

[Tier two spells unlocked. Maximum tier for Arcane Caster unlocked. Maximum tier for Divine Caster unlocked.]

[Support Magic unlocked. You can now develop and cast support-type spells.]

Agh, so much new stuff! I don’t have time to read this! Put it into a System list!

[Functionality not yet unlocked. To unlock for sixty development points, focus on this message.]

Like I’d ever have sixty development points.

Of the three Protection mana I could attempt to mix, only one of them held together. Channeling that to the wall spirits worked, at least.

“They say you’re really bad at mixing mana and faith together.”

“Thank them, but yes, I’ve noticed.”

The sun had begun passing the horizon when I was done, and the wall where we were had already grown dark.

The enemy was forming up, and their archers were almost hyperactive.

“Oh, oh, this looks like it’s going to be bad!”

“Stay with us. Remain calm.” I reached up to grab his shoulder. “Look at me. Remain calm. This is the exciting part of the day.”

“I’ll stick to the boring part!”

I spat over the crenelation; it was nearly bisected by an incoming arrow. “I don’t think they’re giving us a choice.”

BOOM, BOOM came from different points among the walls, but mostly from and around the gate.

We grabbed our forked pole and waited for the ladders to show up. Lit torches were brought to points along the top of the wall to help us see them.

A glare of daylight hovered in the air about two hundred yards out from the lip of the wall.

It always amazes me how all goblin-kind is called ‘greenskins’ by racists. There was a mix of green, grey, brown, and even pale yellow. The predominant hair color was definitely black, but there were others, include a poorly groomed mane of green.

Must have been natural; I couldn’t imagine anyone going through the trouble to dye their hair that color and then not even bind it.

That said, watching a massive army advance on a position I was defending? So glad I’d thought to purchase Resolve first.

An arrow resounded off the helmet I was wearing. I was going to miss my chainmail, and the textured surface of pine against my left arm was less comforting than I remembered.

But we glanced when we could, and when the arrows stopped, we knew the ladders were up; it was just a matter of finding them and pushing them away.

One ladder was even shattered by their own siege. They threw everything against the wall and its wards that first night.

#

Other than nearly taking a hurled spear up the nostril, and a streak of red across the left side of my torso, I came through the night relatively unscathed. The same could not be said of the wall. A section closer to the gatehouse showed a missing crenelation, although the ward hadn’t completely failed there yet.

In front of the walls, there were over three hundred dead and dying. Uruk would carry wounded Uruk back to the trenches, and goblins would carry goblins, men and hobgoblins would carry each other. But the divisions among the Red Tide showed.

Agnopos swears he saw one Uruk spear another; I wish that I too had witnessed that.

Our losses were ... many. In the west, a section of wall hadn’t pushed enough ladders away quickly enough, and there had been desperate fighting. Something like half the men assigned to that section had died.

“So I’m having to give up some of my veterans to make up the difference. You’re on night shift. Get some sleep.” Sergeant Gilean told me.

It wasn’t a hard order to follow. I moved my bunk upstairs, and fell right asleep.

Come to think of it, not every bunk in that room was occupied when I woke up, still dragging from the previous day.

“Come on, or you’ll miss breakfast.” One of them told me.

“Muryegeblech.” I told him.

“So’s yours.” He responded dully.

Wait, what had he THOUGHT I’d said, or was trying to say?

I pulled on my gambeson, my helmet, my shield. The condition on my shield was poor; I needed to ask for another one.

Night shift had reversed meals; hearty stew at the start of our shift, grain and gruel at the end.

There were no pairs on night shift; each man had their own pole, their own section of wall.

“Day shift didn’t even pick up the arrows.” Ketalamus said.

“Skeleton crew.” Corporal Thomas replied. “They’ll be fighting with us tonight, more like than not.”

I hazarded a look over the wall. “Looks like.” I said, taking cover before the arrows reached that spot.

“Boy,” Ketalamus said, “that is NOT the way to become a veteran.”

Corporal Thomas spat into the town. “Well, go let the sergeant know, then. Same tonight as last.”

As the short one, it made sense to send me. We got four men normally on day shift, and the other side of the tower got the others.

It made sense they’d get more; they were closer to the gate, and thus more in need of men.

Most of them never made the top of the wall, but there was one kobold. Sneaky bugger. He charged me, I charged him.

[You have learned about a new move: Hip Throw. 1XP for Pankratios has been earned. After divisor, you have gained 1XP.]

I was FALLING. Inside the wall, yes. But I. Was. Falling.

In a bardic tale, this is where I would develop some manner of ability that saved my life.

[You have taken 24 points of Concussive damage; after armor, 24 points of damage have been taken. You have -4/20 health remaining.]

[You are at negative health and will experience a period of unconsciousness.]

#

When they found me, they thought I’d snapped my neck; easy enough mistake to make. I’d actually been saved by crashing into the slanted roof of an abandoned shanty, and only after that to the earth below.

Don’t ask me how I survived that. Dumb luck is the most likely.

I awoke four days later in the Guild hospital, at 4/20 health and a variety of broken bones and internal organ damage.

Something, or rather someone, struck me across the nose for no damage.

“Ow.” I said.

“You deserve that for making me worry.” Kismet said. “How do you feel?”

“I hurt everywhere except the small of my back and left hip.”

She punched me in my left hip. “Better?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“It is good to see you, Kismet.”

“It is good to be seen.” She was in a plain black dress with white highlights and buttons.

“How are you here? Don’t you have duties to your house?”

“House Fairfield can spare my services for a few days. I have a friend to stuff full of hay like a scarecrow.”

“Are we friends? You never write.”

NEVER SAY THAT. “Awug! My eye!” It’s amazing how much pain you can take from your eyeball and still have it intact afterward.

“Are you abusing my patient?” Sandru asked from the next room.

“Nope, he deserves every bit of this.”

“As long as you don’t hinder his recovery.”

She turned to me, smiling like she’d just eaten an entire bird. She lifted a fistful of hay. “Now, open wide.”

.....

She had smaller hands than I did; we managed to get about a third of the way through the bale before I was helping myself.

I needed an evolution that gave me more biomass or nutrition from hay. Maybe I should eat a horse? I was hungry enough to.

“So. Better?”

“Much better.” I said. “Thank you.”

“Uh-huh. Now this. Two sections of bone, with marrow.”

“Well, I need those nutrients, but where did you get-”

“Slaughterhouse. Where pigs, chickens, and sheep are turned into tasty meat.”

“Do you have any meat?”

“Nope. Wake up earlier next time.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“You know, you’ve given a lot of hope to local folks.”

“How? Most of what I’ve done is avoid dying. Ask Sandru.”

She threatened to paw me in my eye again. “There are heroes. Here. Because of you. Walking around and swearing they’ve killed some kind of cabal of wizards.”

“That’s a bit of exaggeration, but yes, that happened.”

“There are folks who say you’re a hero, too.”

I shook my head. “That happens at level ten.”

“Heh. Imagine what you’ll be capable of then.”

“Let’s keep me alive until level seven, first.”

“Deal.”

We shook on it, but no spit. Because that was gross.

#

One of my legs was broken. No sneaking out past Sandru until that healed.

“Sandru. Is there any chance of getting some manner of milk?”

“Sure. I’ll just go outside the walls and milk some of the sheep our attackers have already eaten.”

“What about more bones?”

“There are bones from the kitchen, but with them having been already boiled for broth, they have no nutritional value.”

“Those will do just fine.”

I could easily get the biomass to speed up healing on those broken bones, but the nutrients were another matter. The easiest way to get the materials to build bone was to just digest bone.

Well, milk and cheese and other dairy (and for some reason, cauliflower) were almost as good, and digested much quicker. But, due to the siege, they were unavailable.

Within a week, I could make my way around on a child’s crutch. I fell over often on that first day, but managed not to break anything new.

Why was this so hard? Hadn’t I gotten around just fine without all these limbs?

Well, no. I might be as slow or slower on crutches, but I wasn’t ready to ditch the limbs just yet.

The streets were only lightly trafficked, and the people fearful.

The wall looked terrible. There were missing crenelations on the gatehouse, and a section of the wall to the left looked like a small giant had taken a bite out of it.

But I was sure the attackers had paid a hefty price, as well.

I wasn’t ready to face stairs, yet.

So I spent the rest of the day hobbling and resting my way way to the inn.

“Hail, lizard-kin.” Awta said.

“How go the preparations?”

She shrugged. “Done. We wait for our true enemy to show himself, and lament at the watered-down drinks.”

“I’ve seen the walls. It won’t be much longer.”

“Until he finishes the gate off, or until there are ten thousand Uruk walking the streets?”

“There were only two thousand or so when I last saw them; they have to have taken casualties in their last attack.”

“Two thousand or ten, if they attack without Rakkal, then I do not see a successful completion of this quest. It has eaten time, and coins, and even that Achmed.”

“We have all lost much.” I said. “The quest continues?”

“If we don’t die of old age first.” She moaned.

“Thank you, Awta.”

I won’t dignify her response by attempting to translate it.

There was a message waiting for me when I returned to the guild. Was I in trouble for not reporting to the tower? I was hardly fit for any manner of duty.

THE TENT WITH WINGS HAS RETURNED.

Oh.

“I need to return to the inn at once.” I said.

“You won’t live through the night if you push yourself like that.” Sandru said.

“We might not any of us survive the night. Rakkal has arrived.”

#