Last Life

SOFTLY HOPPING to the ground, like a silent shadow I dashed toward the dead body of a crab all stuffed with spears and arrows. I had the steel bar on my back, tied up with thin vines on both ends.

Pulling back on one of the spears, I gave it a cursory survey. The tip was intact. Pulling out another few short spears and throwing aside the ones with no tips, I stole up after the giant crab, which had already started storming the fence.

Clicking my tongue, I touched a few hard crystals in my cheek. Two crimson bruts and two emerald. With my hands occupied, it was the best way to keep them quickly accessible.

The cries of the defenders, hissing of burning monsters, and cracking of bones all blended together into a solid din.

When I reached the optimal distance to the monster, I switched to true vision. Scanning revealed several black spots on the monster’s body. They were old wounds that had healed over, but still would be vulnerable. One was on its back. Where the back and abdominal armor plates met, I saw a small crack.

I also discovered that it had a two-color energy system powered by a pair of bruts — one crimson and one brown. When I saw the two crystals the size of large apples, my lips spread into a satisfied smile.

I went up closer and stopped, waiting for a good opportunity. And finally, one presented itself. The creature sagely lowered its huge pincer into the crowd of defenders, plucked a screaming and writhing archer out and, moving its sharp appendages unhurriedly, took a few steps back. With a loud pincer clack, the monster’s victim fell silent.

I stood up and, sticking to the shadows, slowly walked closer. Paying no attention to the small fire on its back or the spears and arrows sticking out of its shell, the crab was busy eating the poor woman and thus practically not moving.

The ghastly crunching of bones and vile slurping drowned out my soft footsteps. Standing to my full height in the tall grass, I whipped a spear into the exact middle of the dark spot on the monster’s body and somersaulted away. Hiding behind the corpse of one of the giant’s brethren, I watched the aftermath of my attack with a smile.

Mad with pain, the giant crab raced around the meadow, its sharp appendages turning the earth, bushes, grass and body parts around it into a slurry of blood.

Glancing out at the natives looking on stunned at the scene, I winced. Instead of continuing to pelt the creature with spears and arrows, they were standing with their mouths agape in stunned silence.

Finally, with its claws splayed, the monster froze for a few seconds. Seizing on the opportunity, I hopped to my feet and threw another spear at a different black spot in the middle of the creature’s left pincer. And straight away, wasting no time, I jumped and ran a few steps to the left, hiding behind the smoldering body of another dead crab.

The loud angry hiss made it clear that my throw had hit its target. I quickly glanced out from behind the semicircular shell and nodded to myself. The spear had successfully gone into the gap in the monster’s chitin armor and struck a nerve. As a result, its heavy left claw was hanging limp like a marionette with its strings cut.

The crab hissed out ferociously and, clearly having fairly judged that the source of its troubles were the soft bodied bipeds, covered its face with its right claw and stumbled toward the village defenders.

It had yet to so much as guess I existed. Which was its fatal error. Taking advantage of the fact that the monster was completely focused on the village, I hopped out of my cover and ran forward. My target was a small black spot on the crab’s left side. When the monster was just a few steps away from me, I pulled back on the spear in my right hand. Energy circulated through my body in a hot stream.

But I was too late throwing the spear. I was prevented... by a flurry of arrows racing my way. I hopped aside. The village defenders had finally spotted me and immediately loosed their bows. One arrow I easily flicked away with my spear. Then I dodged toward the archers, who were stunned by my speed and, making an angry face, threatened them with a fist.

The defenders didn’t like that and, while the rest shouted, another few arrows came flying my direction. I had to dive into the grass and crawl a bit back into the darkness. Otherwise I would either have been trampled by the pain maddened crab or turned into a pincushion by the natives who were crapping their pants in fear.

Lying in the grass, I caught my breath and watched the monster’s attack, scanning its carcass for more vulnerable points. And in the end, I was able to spot one more.

My eyes lit up. It was a small narrow black strip next to the creature’s right eye. At first, I didn’t realize it was even an energy spot, taking it for a simple scratch in its shell but, upon closer inspection, I concluded it was the single most vulnerable spot on the monster’s body. If I could hit there, I would end the battle in a single blow. Based on how saturated the dot looked, it was a wound the monster had taken very recently. The shell over the crab’s brain had not fully grown back its chitin cover.

The main problem was the small size of the crack, which meant I would have to get right up next to the monster.

While I waited for it to turn around and expose its side, I pulled out another few spears. Only two of them had intact tips. The others had either cracked or gotten stuck in the dead crabs’ bodies.

Just when I started thinking I’d have to distract the mad giant crab myself, it took a few steps back, clumsily swaying. Then its whole body shuddered. It had just taken a firebomb straight to the mouth from the defenders who were able to hold it back beyond the fence.

Hissing, squeaking, and blinded by the ball of flame, the crab held its claw out in front. And that was right when I jumped out and, pushing a small ball of mana through all my energy channels, threw the spear.

As if able to sense the danger, the monster gave a twitch and turned slightly. The razor-sharp stone tip just glanced off the chitin growths and the spear flew off somewhere into the grass.

With muted cursing, I swan dived out of the way onto a belly-up dead crab, but I was not fast enough to hide. The giant crustacean monster finally spotted me and, not thinking for long, went racing forward.

“Damnation!” I barked, when the giant pincer deflected my second spear as I tried to poke it into the creature’s mouth dripping with thick black liquid.

In a single motion, I pulled the steel bar off my back and took position opposite the monster. A wave of emerald energy passed through my body, accelerating the mana circulation in my energy system. The monster’s movements slowed somewhat. It became clumsier. The crab’s claw came at my face so slowly it seemed to be punching through thick gauze and merely growing larger.

I pushed my head between my shoulders and ducked beneath the great big appendage, feeling the hair on my head rustle. My body shivered with strain. It felt like the energy bubbling in my reservoir was going to tear me to shreds.

In two jumps, I practically flew onto the creature’s back. Pushing a large mass of mana through the channels of my right hand, I splashed it into my weapon. In true vision, the sharp end of the steel bar lit up like a torch. Barking loudly, I jammed the bar full force into the dark narrow crack on the monster’s shell. The tip, flickering with energy, sank into the crab’s body like a red-hot knife through butter.

A moment later, a flash of magic stung my eyes, and I flew off the creature’s back like a fleck of dust in a shockwave. Quickly regrouping, I landed on all fours like an animal.

The creature’s appendages buckled, and it fell heavily onto its abdomen. In place of its mouth, there was now just a yawning pitch-black hole. I meanwhile was standing a few steps away from its giant body staring at the dumbstruck natives.

After that, in complete silence, I got up onto the monster’s flat back shell and, lying on my stomach, started prying the bruts from its body. Meanwhile, I was watching the defenders out of the corner of my eye.

But alas, the steel bar couldn’t hold up to my mistreatment. A few large fragments stuck out of the black edges of the wound. With both crystals in hand, I jumped down to the ground and stared again at the unspeaking natives.

And that was finally when a few of them came to their senses, raised their bows and spears, and got ready to attack their new adversary. But a moment later, I heard an authoritative shout. The defenders lowered their weapons despite themselves and made way. The familiar mage appeared next to the fence.

We met eyes. For a little while, we stared each other down before the old man nimbly climbed over the fence and came toward me. The others tried to follow, but he shouted again to stop them.

I should note that what the old man was doing surprised me as well. It was quite rash on his part. Smeared in ant acid and the poison slime of the giant toad, with dry grass, leaves and gods knew what other junk all stuck to my crab-blood encrusted body, I most likely looked like a forest monster from the distance. But the old man came calmly in my direction nevertheless. His bravery was either folly or self-confidence, I could not say. And to be frank, I did not care. All that mattered to me was that I was making first contact with the natives. As for me... I scanned the old man’s body and concluded that he was no match for me.

Stopping five steps away, the old mage surveyed me from head to toe with a look of astonishment. The two large bruts I’d extracted from the crab merited extra attention. Then he said something in his language.

In response, I shrugged my shoulders and said in Vestonian:

“I do not understand you.”

The old man shuddered and looked even more awestruck. Perhaps because the unknown creature in front of him had just spoken. Then he asked another question.

I repeated my answer in every language I knew in this world. Then I gave it some thought and tried three languages from my old world.

The man shook his head “no.” Hm... But following the logic that they descended from people who once inhabited this area before the Shadow, they should have retained Vestonian. Or at least some dialect based on it.

With a heavy sigh, the mage tried speaking again. I shook my head and... Wait! I heard something I actually understood. But that...

“Do you understand me?” I asked in the witching tongue.

The old man’s eyes crawled up into his forehead.

“You know the true speech?”

He said with a ghastly accent, butchering the word endings, but I understood him perfectly.

“Yes,” I nodded. “It was my first language. I learned it from my mother.”

“Who are you?” the old man lit up. “Why have you come to the lands of the Lao?”

“My name is Max Renard. I am a peaceful traveler who got lost. Please forgive me for intruding upon your lands.”

“Why did you help us?” the mage asked, nodding at the crab I’d slain. “The earth beetle could have killed you.”

“I heard the sounds of a fight, then I saw the monsters attacking your settlement. I saw that your warriors were dying and decided to help.”

“Did you come to harvest stones of power?” the old man cast a gaze at the bruts in my hands.

I could tell it was a trick question. The man just looked painfully tense. His knuckles were all white. He was a hair from crushing his own staff.

“Sometimes I go hunting and find stones of power in the monsters’ bodies, sure,” I shrugged. “What am I supposed to do? Throw them away?”

My response seemed satisfactory to the old man. He calmed down noticeably, placed his hand to his chest and said:

“I am Mongwo, spirit-talker of the Lao tribe. You have my gratitude Mah-kuh-suh... Renard for helping my people. Please be our guest. It would be our honor to host a hunter as great as yourself!”

The old man essentially had to sound out my first name, while Renard caused him no issues.

“You have my gratitude, Mongwo spirit-talker of the Lao tribe,” I said with a slight bow. “It would be my honor to call myself your guest!”

“Then let’s go and share a meal at my fire,” Mongwo smiled and extended a hand to shake. While observing the natives, I saw that they were familiar with the gesture.

I mechanically extended a hand but pulled it back quickly.

The old man looked tense and frowned.

“What happened, Mak Renard?”

I ran my fingers over my chest and showed him the brown slime I was coated with.

“This is poison.”

The old man’s eyes yet again crept up into his forehead. He gulped loudly. Then he took a step forward and gave a sniff. A look of recognition flashed on his face, followed by fear. The mage jumped back sharply.

“That is wood toad poison! One drop is enough to kill an earth beetle! Why are you still alive?”

“I’m not all that easy to kill,” I chuckled. “May I wash off the poison in your lake?”

The old man nodded mechanically, then warned:

“Be careful. The waters bear many dangers.”

I thanked him for the concern and walked briskly toward the lake. Once I had some distance from the village, I started to get undressed. Before entering the water, I scanned the shoreline. My arrival had caused several long dark silhouettes to drift slowly toward the shoreline in the water. Fish or crocodiles? They didn’t look much like snakes. Let’s see how they like toad poison.

Stopping a few steps from the water, I picked up a handful of sand and rubbed down my chest and stomach. Then, the resulting mixture I tossed straight at the lurking dark shadows.

With a loud splash, circles ran over the water. A few moments later, every living thing in a fifteen-yard radius was racing away from it. A few of the lake creatures were not so lucky. They turned from hunters into prey. Big huge fish started to float belly-up to the surface of the water.

Boldly walking in, I pulled three long bodies covered in matte gray scales up onto shore. The lake monsters’ mouths were impressive. A juggernaut like this could leave me legless in one chomp.

I was unable to detect any magic or poison in them. But their energy system glowed with a dark turquoise color. And that meant there was something feeding the aquatic creatures magic in the lake.

At any rate, I could figure that out later. Now was time to get myself in order.

For the next few minutes, the village’s entire population stood in the rays of the rising shadow sun watching in stunned silence as I swam in their lake with a happy smile. The poison in the water created an exclusion zone around me, which gave me an idea to test out later.

After I washed all the dirt off, I felt like I was reborn. A few minutes later, I came out of the water. Mongwo was already getting impatient, shifting from foot to foot.

Walking on the bottom, I looked over at my loincloth lying in a dirty stinking heap and winced.

The old man saw me and said something to a woman standing next to him, who handed him something. I saw a leather bundle in the hands of the mage walking toward me. Standing a few yards from shore, Mongwo set the bundle on the ground and gave an inviting nod.

It was apparently a gown like the one the old mage wore. With a grateful nod back, I put on my new clothing in silence. The dark gray leather had no smell and was very light and soft. Luckily, it also had a few hidden pockets where I placed all my bruts after washing the dirt and dried poison off them with sand and water.

The dirty grass pile my loincloth had become I tossed away into the lake.

A few minutes later, I was standing opposite the old mage with a happy smile.

“Let’s go, Max Renard,” he came, looking at my clean face curiously. “We have a lot to talk about.”