As TJ slither sprinted into the bounds of Pine while carrying Stanton’s mostly limp body in his jaws, he Appraised every person that came into view.
Zealot, 2
Zealot, 1
Acolyte, 2
Acolyte, 2
Zealot, 3
Disciple, 5
His deade, he rushed towards the Disciple and tried to demand that she heal Stanton but couldn’t really speak with the bulk of the limp torso within his mouth. The Disciple, a maybe mid-30’s woman wearing a dirty tan pantsuit and practical fts, bnched, screamed, and fell ft on her ass as TJ approached. The other five looked pa each other before the level 2 Acolytes summoheir bows and tried to pull it back to shoot at TJ. He only then realized how it looked–a twenty or so foot long snake rushed into the town faster than Usain Bolt could sprint while carrying peared to be a human’s dead body in its jaws. Only barely with the st dregs of his MP only retly recovered did he mao call Wind Manipution fast enough to deflect the arrow that would have struck Stanton
“No!” TJ shouted as he dropped his Diviransformation. Fortunately, Stanton remained in his arms as he pleaded without walking any closer.
“I’m not hurting him! We were ambushed and he was injured so I transformed to carry him here to try to get him healed. Please! I think he’s still alive. I’m sure you heal him, right?” He gestured at the Disciple, desperation c every word.
TJ’s nearly unintelligible babble fused them enough that the Acolytes didn’t shoot again. A win, in his book. “Please. He’s dying. He o be healed. I’ll pay or whatever you need, just help.” The man’s voice cracked as he begged and tears bur the ers of his eyes. Only barely could TJ hear Stanton’s rasping breaths while his blood dripped to the asphalt underfoot.
The Disciple hesitated but stepped forward. The three Zealots stepped in front of her, and two of them were suddenly carrying thick iridest tower shields while the third was decked out in full mail and gred at the two interlopers half threateningly and half in terror. The near darkness from the setting sun obscured all their faces, but TJ didn’t care about what they looked like.
“No, Laura.” The level 3 Zealot said while gng around his shield at TJ and the slowly bleeding body of Stanton. “We ’t risk you.”
“I’m pretty sure they’re both humans.” The woman’s voice replied from behind the wall of shields. She peeked through the narro, her hazel eyes evaluating. “The snake one is a level 6 Neophyte, and the hurt one is a level 5 Acolyte.”
With that, she pushed through the shields, gasped, and averted her eyes before she id a hand on Stanton. A golden, somehow holy light flowed from her hand into his chest, and after a moment of fear, TJ felt the dying man’s breaths strengthen. After nearly a full minute of eling her Skill, the Disciple stepped back. She was slightly unsteady on her feet, but she nodded as she spoke.
“He’ll be fine. Needs food a, but he’ll pull through.” TJ didn’t look at her, instead watg Stanton’s face as his plexion improved and his breathing shifted from a bored fight to a more fortable sigh. Before TJ could look up at Stanton’s savior, the old man groaned and opened his eyes.
“Don’t let me do that again.” Stanton pined.
“Get ambushed?” TJ replied as he set the man down on his feet. He swiped at his eyes as he tinued, “Yeah, not a fan.”
Stanton was about to reply when he finally noticed the strangers surrounding them. He stood stiff and tall, his hand obviously itg to summon Suzie. Before he said anything, TJ began speaking again.
“These are the people in Pihat dy there saved your life. I’m sorry, what’s your name? I’m TJ, and this is Stanton.”
The Disciple nodded and stuck out a hand. “Laura McDougal. Gd you made it here safe. Is there anyone you were forced to leave behind?”
“No, it’s just been us for the st couple days. You’re the first people we’ve seen.” TJ said.
Stanton merely grunted in agreement.
“ you goat. At least tell her thank you.”
“I would have in its time. But thank you, missy. You saved my life. I appreciate it.”
“Of course. We’re happy to help everyone. I’m surprised that a man of ye made it this far.”
Stanton’s face dropped, but Laura bzed on with stoic perseverance, “Most of the senior citizens iy have o be taken care of at every step, so it’s great to see someone who stand on their own.”
“I’m only barely a senior. Don’t treat me like the rest just because I’m almost a fogey.”
“I apologize, Stanton. I was wrong. I merely wished to express my admiration for yrit and strength. Do you two need somewhere to sleep tonight? I don’t know if you realize this, but long term, you’ll probably want to be in town.” She spoke with an easy authority, though one of the Zealots, the level 3 who’d been vocal about keeping her back, didn’t like the instant invitation she’d given.
“The Tutorial wants us here, yeah.” TJ interjected. “And we lost our packs getting out of that ambush, so if we could get somewhere to sleep, that’d be great.”
“Gd to hear you know as much. If you o rest immediately, don’t hesitate, but we would appreciate a warning about whatever it was that reduced you two to that state if you give it.”
“I’ll sleep.” Stanton answered before TJ could. “I wasn’t scious for all of it. He tell the story better.”
Then, without any further ado or words, Stanton stumped over to the dark house. He stalked through the front door, smmed it closed, and, before long, the flickering lights of a fire peeked through the window fag the road.
“He’s like my Grandpa that way.” TJ mused aloud. “Just feels like it’s gotta be his way, but he’s trying to help everyone else out while he’s at it.”
“My dad was the same way.” Laura agreed. “Many good people are like them. Set in their ways. Now, would you join me in the hunters’ lodge over here as you tell your story? The people there will wele whatever you have to tell them.”
TJ nodded for her to lead the way, and it was only a dozeo reach the door to the antique shop that apparently was the lounge. All around outside were massive wood carvings, of bears and thick men and a dozen other things, though there were some spicuous vacies where something had been taken away. As he looked around, Laura leaned forward to kno the door, but before she could, a young woman’s voice called out, “e in!”
Laura pushed the door open aured for TJ to step inside. As he did so, his eyes gradually acclimated themselves to the warm light cast by the r fire in the ter of the room. A young couple, the woman maybe twenty and the man a couple years older than that, stood with their arms crossed in the ter of the room. The woman was just a couple hairs above five feet tall with unnaturally bright red hair. Both her ears were heavily pierced, bars and rings going from top to bottom, and she wore a Metallica tee with the sleeves cut off to expose the swirling ink on both arms. The man looked much like most metalheads in the midst of an adulthood-forced reing with professionalism–heavily tattooed arms under his short sleeves as well as a couple holes in his ears from piergs he’d removed, paired with a professional haircut and practical jeans.
“You’re a newer?” The vibrantly-haired woman asked.
“Just got in. Laura saved my friend’s life, and he went to rest in the house across the street.” TJ answered.
“Ok. What happened? One of the pukwudgies get him or something?” The man asked, his face armingly sober.
“Something like that.”
—----
Though they’d survived an ambush before, back then, their enemies numbered only maybe half as many pukwudgies, and on top of that, they weren’t surrounded when the first ambushers had attacked. The only upside was that at least they were in the middle of the road, and with thirty feet of asphalt between them and the ambusher. Even so, there wasn’t much time. Coyotes sprinted out of the forest while pukwudgies of various sizes and shapes approached. Uhe cover of their magical camoufge, it was nearly impossible to tell what they were intending to do.
TJ activated Diviransformation a his backpack fall behind him. If they could break the morale of their attackers, then they might be able to get through this without dying. It didn’t look good, but it was all they had. TJ rushed forward, a bde of wind prepared to shoot out whenever necessary. He heard Suzie fire owo, then three times. He couldn’t help but t down. 17 shots left without reloading.
The pukwudgie blurs atop the three closest coyotes fell to the highway behind their steeds. The st of their blood filled TJ’s head, and he khey were dead. Without riders, the coyotes posed less of a deadly threat, and TJ lu the first. His jaws found purchase on its throat and, instead to kill it immediately, he lifted it up. With the unnaturally rge e aloft, he swung it down at another of its panions. The coyote dodged away, but the one in his jaws smashed against the asphalt with a wet thud. A strangled yelp fought through the windpipe in TJ’s jaws. He merely hurled the mostly dead creature at the third. It tried to leap above but was too slow. Eight legs and two torsos collided with the sound of bones crag. The third coyote yelped and tried to catch itself. TJ ed his tail around its ned tracted.
It wheezed as he tio squeeze it. Its jaws scraped painfully across the scales on his back, but TJ twisted his body out of its reach. Then, he spun in a circle and smashed the coyote into the pukwudgie trying to stealthily stab him.
The pukwudgie screamed in agony as it was mostly crushed uhe rger coyote’s mass. TJ raised his living on aloft once more, and with a siing thud, he received the first death notification.
Pukwudgie, 4, sin. Experience gained.
Again, TJ threw the coyote he held towards the others. Again, they dodged out of its flight path, though another death notification came as the body rolled across the ground.
Coyote, 5, sin. Experience gained.
TJ could feel how close the level was, and decided to throw himself more recklessly forward. Three pukwudgies, uhe cover of their camoufge, were nearly bisected with his prepared bde of wind. Still, they hadn’t died, but TJ didn’t stop to finish them. Instead, he lu another, oempting to sneak past to Stanton. His coils ed around it, and as bones creaked, it became fully visible. Its too-wide mouth spread in a breathless scream. Before he could finish it off, two coyotes tore into him. Though his scales and Toughness preveheir teeth from shredding through him entirely, TJ’s blood flowed freely while the coyotes howled iement.
They pulled him from their master, but not before his jaws found its throat. The pukwudgie’s face, which had begun to show some sembnce of hope, went sck as his fangs ripped his throat from its body.
Pukwudgie, 5, sin. Experience gained.
He was so close. TJ khat only one or two more kills would bring him over the edge, so he recklessly prepared another, broader bde of wind. The headache appeared even before he emptied his MP, but still he pressed the wind into a long bde, nearly as long as he was. Fully half of his MP went into solidifying and refining the on, and just as his MP bottomed out, TJ sent the scythe forward into the de group of pukwudgies to reap lives.
8 Pukwudgies, level 4-6, sin. Experience gained.
Css: Neophyte has advao level 7. Attribute points allocated: Endurance +3, Vitality +3, Toughness +2, Wisdom +1, Intelligence +1, Perception +1, Willpower +2, Fixation +2, Free Points +1. Additional Free Points currently avaible.
The metaphorical glow suffused TJ’s body, and he prepared himself to leap bato battle as the coyotes’ teeth were forced out of his healing body. He slithered forward, jae and threatening while the coyotes began to question their move. That was when Stanton called out, “Help!”
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