NOVEL FROG Chapter 73: Goodbye.
“I have an idea,” Moonwash said evenly, and then promptly slashed my palm.
“AaaaAAAaAaaAAaAHHHhHhHHHHHhh!!!”
She suddenly pulled back, a frown on her face. “Haell, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
“Oh shit, I only meant it as a joke, Moonwash! Don’t feel bad!”
“Are you sure?” Her expression shifted back to neutral. “Does it not hurt?”
“Oh, it definitely does.” I nodded. “But you know that already! You couldn’t have seriously expected that slashing me wouldn’t hurt, did you?”
“That is true. It is just that I’ve done it many times for our experiments so I thought you were fine with it, especially when you gave me your hand.”
“And you were correct! I am fine with it!”
“Really? But didn’t you just say that it did hurt?” She paused for a moment, which I knew meant she was thinking. “Is this one of those things where you’re just trying to make me feel better?”
“No, no. Not at all. It is painful, of course. You slashed my hand and drew blood, lots of it. But that’s nothing to me, I’m used to at least this much. I only shrieked like a banshee earlier because I thought it would be funny.”
“I didn’t find it funny. I still don’t.”
I clutched my heart with my bleeding hand, before falling and writhing on the floor. “You have killed me, Moonwash. This is the one pain I cannot cope with. I have died.”
“Oh no,” she deadpanned.
~~~
“They’re here,” Luine said. Her voice came from outside the entrance to our paint-riddled base. I and Moonwash had just been filling up balloons with my blood before she arrived.
“We have to go,” Luine continued, striding towards us. “I found their forward scouts. The expedition must be getting close. We’ve dallied for too long already.”
Instead of sighing, I met Moonwash’s eyes as we gave each other a firm nod. Baston stood up with a small pack on his back already, meanwhile Moonnwash stashed away the balloons that we’d already filled. The cut on my palm had to be reapplied many times throughout the process because it just kept on healing back up thanks to my regen heart.
We didn’t have any more luggage, the majority of our things had been safely sent back to our first home long ago.
“RESPECT!” I shouted as I stood at the mouth of our hidden cave. “You have been a home to us! You have let us rest within your confines! You were an ally in all the battles that we’ve had!”
I took a deep breath, and then released it slowly as my posture relaxed.
“Now rest.”
Baston and Luine looked at me oddly, but Moonwash immediately followed in my lead.
“You were our home for the past few years. I learned so much as I experimented and forged by taking advantage of your amenities. I decorated your walls, I created so much art in your embrace. Your final form is a collaboration of the love and camaraderie between us.”
Moonwash paused, taking a good look at the rainbow-covered walls below the stairs leading down. “You have been a wonderful friend and companion to us. Now rest.”
We both looked at Baston and Luine expectantly. Baston gave a little sigh and scratched his head.
“Well, uh. I made plants inside you. I hid you away with trees and made you pretty. It was fun, to just be away from all the expectations of society. I truly appreciate the time we had together. Now rest.”
He had started off unsure, but his words became more confident as he neared the finish of his parting speech.
Now it was Luine’s turn. She glanced at Baston, and then shrugged.
“You have hidden us away. You have made sure we remained undiscovered by our many enemies. You allowed Haell and even the rest of us to grow in safety. For that, I thank you. New Grandera thanks you. Now rest.”
There was a moment of silence after that. None of us had anyone to pray to, I reckoned, but we wished our friend well into the afterlife regardless. That at least, I was confident existed in some form.
Perhaps our secret would be reincarnated into a life where it wouldn’t have a need to remain secret any longer. Where it could stand proud and tall for thousands of years, granting its warmth and protection to a family that would love it just as much.
I gave one last longing stare at our home as we left the place for the final time. My chest tightened once again at all the memories that we had made here, but I stood strong. The paint that covered every surface made me smile.
And then I set it all on fire.
The paint proved flammable against my fireballs. Luine and Moonwash helped and did the same thing, as even the rooms at the back were not spared from our final goodbye. It all burned away, closing this chapter of our lives with a final bang.
A single tear still made its way past my cheek as I left it all behind.
~~~
Baston collapsed the hill above our secret base once we were fully sure that only ashes remained. We began running before the earth was even done collapsing as we’d already stayed for longer than we should’ve. Even with our precautions and the use of wind magic, the smoke would’ve attracted some of the scouts in the general area.
The forest blurred as we dove deeper in. Luine killed the few monsters that barred our way, leaving little behind for the rest of us. That was fine for once, I wasn’t totally in the mood for a fight. A rare occurrence nowadays.
I still wanted to get violent of course, once we were able to take a break and stop.
“Moonwash, let’s go try that thingy we made earlier!” I forced myself to be cheerful for only a few seconds. It soon became genuine as I was always excited to discover new ways to use my powers and magic.
“Okay. Here.” She grabbed a blood balloon from her bag, and I immediately whirled around to face the brown-green tiger that was creeping upon us from behind. I didn’t think it had any intention of attacking to begin with, but it had flown too close to the sun.
Me. Us. We’re the sun.
The animal looked at me in shock for only a split second, before I then threw the ball of blood right in its face.
I missed.
“Aaahhh Moonwash! Another one!”
I kicked the beast away when it tried to charge at me, and then grabbed another balloon. I tossed it at my opponent, and this time I hit it right in the face.
The tiger growled, confused, shaking its head in an attempt to get rid of the liquid. Blood near its mouth must typically be a good thing, but not this time.
I activated the curse and performed the miniature ritual. The tiger’s face immediately contorted into pain as it withered and bled under the weight of destruction.
And then nothing more happened. The enemy was hurt, but it remained standing, alive. That was a far less drastic effect than what I was hoping for.
The creature growled again, this time foregoing all its caution in favor of the rage. I met its pounce with my own, drawing my greatsword and slamming it across my opponent’s body.
I laughed as the tiger went sailing away, nearly cut in twain, its claws having missed me entirely. My blood churned at the violence I inflicted, the power coursing through my veins rising as I approached my whimpering foe. It’s been a fucking while since I got to go wild, this is the proper way to get over my grief!
But this opponent of mine wouldn’t allow that. It was too weak. The tiger was already dead, it would bleed out soon, it couldn’t even move any longer.
I took pity upon the creature, and put an end to its suffering.
“That was weaker than expected. Did the blood in the balloon contain less mana than usual?” Moonwash asked.
“No. Of course I filled it to the brim.”
“That was what I felt too.” Moonwash paused for a second, thinking.
I beat her to it.
“My connection to the blood did feel weaker, faint. I think if I didn’t evolve it to specifically remain connected to me, then I wouldn’t have been able to activate a semi-ritual with it at all. There could also be a problem with preparing it in advance, like how rituals rapidly lose power if you just let them rest.”
“That is interesting. I think that’s the first time you mentioned the connection to your blood feeling weaker. However, for the mini-ritual to lose power over time like a normal ritual, I know that you sometimes wait for a bit before activating a mini-ritual as a sort of trap during combat. It’s not much, but that amount of time is usually enough to sap away at a ritual’s power.”
“Now that you mention it, it is at full power regardless…” I rubbed my hands across my scalp and chuckled. “I still can’t understand how this shit works!”
“Vague and esoteric forces are work. We can observe what happens, but the why is often subjective.”
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing. I just didn’t expect you to give up.”
“That’s because I didn’t.” I imagined there was just a small amount of bite in her voice. “If it’s subjective, then I will examine and interpret that subjective meaning to the best of my ability. I will never stop doing that. I just understand that there’s no 100% correct answer.”
“So what you’re saying is… I’m always at least a little bit correct? At least 1%?”
“No.” She paused. “Maybe.”
“Hell yeah!”
~~~
We didn’t get to experiment much more after that as our group was making a beeline for the village of Adora. The nearby settlements were all involved in the expedition to the wonderzone in some way, so we were going to meet up with my parents elsewhere just in case. Not that it was likely, but none of us wanted to potentially get involved with all that bullshit. The places were likely to be simultaneously super busy and kind of deserted anyway. A bad time for tourism.
We didn’t use the established roads and instead moved through the wilderness, once again coming across very little obstacle thanks to Luine and Baston’s navigating. The damned killjoys.
Thankfully, I did get to fight two largess boars for lunch. They were both as tall as a horse and much wider, their levels in the mid level 10s.
Easy prey, in other words.
I taunted and shouted at the two faraway animals. Their ears twitched as they twisted around, a look of anger crossing their face at the mere sight of me. That was very rude, so I decided to be even ruder back, by weaving together confusion bullets and shooting the things right at them!
With a squeal of rage, one of them charged, followed by the other. I raised my sword and narrowed my eyes at their approach, the ground trembling slightly from the sheer force of their bodies. They were large, they were heavy, and they were powerful. Their stampede could trample me like a ragdoll without even slowing.
But it wouldn’t, for I was better. I dodged at the very last moment, and swung my greatsword with all my might and more. The lead boar stumbled and roared in pain, its front right leg hanging by only sparse ropes of muscle. The second boar that followed squealed in alarm and tried to stop and change course, but it couldn’t. Not entirely. These animals might have been able to do more damage than I, but their builds were stupid. Their weight and momentum made them even worse at stopping and turning than other charging creatures, including me!
The trees shook and the birds fled as the second boar crashed into both its comrade and the nearby plantlife. It immediately tried to get up, but I was already circling around from behind. My arms ached from how much I powered it up with menace mana earlier, but I used that exact same magic to force it to move once more. I swung with great force before the remaining mobile enemy could even think to attack me, and my slash bit deeply into one of its back legs. I didn’t try to chop it off in one go this time, but still the pain in my arms worsened. I didn’t let the pain bother me and did the same thing again, always staying behind my enemy as it thrashed, until finally the leg could function no longer, and the boar could only limp and stumble after me.
I allowed my arms to heal after that strong opening attack. I led the two boars around as they tried desperately to maneuver with one missing leg. They already weren’t able to catch me with all four, what more could they do now?
My arms were eventually repaired back to a usable and comfortable level. I didn’t waste any more time and started maiming the remaining legs of my enemies as they finally tried to flee. Not that they were any more successful at that than everything else they’ve tried.
Their every squeal of pain was like a shot of ecstasy into both of my beating hearts, and I couldn’t help but grin happily as I continued my bloody work. I briefly considered if I could torture and force the animals to die from sheer shock. Would our stronger minds and bodies even allow for that?
I banished the thought. That wasn’t the experiment I wished to perform. Moonwash’s love for science must’ve been rubbing off on me more than I thought. But I was better than that, I was better than my urges and my instincts. I was their master and not the other way around.
Once I’d hacked off enough limbs and robbed these poor creatures of their ability to ever walk again, it was finally time to do some more experiments and test out Moonwash’s latest idea. These two monsters I caught were very close in level, so hopefully they would serve as good test subjects for direct comparisons.
“Can I stab you and then drain your blood?” Moonwash asked me, this time with precise and exacting language.
“Why, Moonwash. I thought you’d never ask!” I laughed and gave her my palm.
“That’s a yes, right?”
“Of course it is,” I chuckled, keeping the smile on my face even when Moonwash did stab me and drain my blood into a balloon. I watched it fill up with fascination, and then promptly threw it on the face of the first boar! Or maybe it was boar #2… I think I might’ve lost track.
Whichever one that was, I drenched the other boar with my blood all the same, but this time straight from the source. It was very hard to get the amount right, but I stopped when Moonwash told me to, and I resolved to blame her if she was wrong.
I activated the mini rituals. The one splashed with fresh blood screamed louder in pain and then fell unconscious, while the other whimpered and groaned, but ultimately survived. That confirmed to us that it was the blood balloon in specific that made the mini ritual less potent. Exploits were not appreciated by magic, it was the spirit that mattered, and not the letter of the law.
I allowed the one that remained conscious to bite me and draw blood, just to confirm that the prior mini-rituals were indeed even weaker because they were missing the vengeance aspect of an enemy having caused the injury that resulted in my blood spilling out.
Satisfied with my experimentation, I killed the both of them, and then had them for lunch.
It was a lot of meat, but that was fine. I had to eat a lot. My body was essentially in a near constant state of damage and regeneration, at least whenever I was being truly active. If I didn’t devour entire feasts, then my body would devour itself instead. I’d become malnourished and die.
~~~
Moonwash still had a good stash of condiments that she always kept on her, so the meal ended up being delicious like always. We didn’t bother harvesting any of the materials save for the meat we ate as we were just on a journey home. Maybe if we found something truly high level and worth it, but even level 40s were rare. They were considered elite creatures.
I found something cute but probably dangerous nearby just when we were about to leave. It was a bitebit the size of a common hound, and colored a chocolate-brown. It was a size that shouldn’t be threatening, but I knew that these monsters were typically fist-sized fuzzy tree-climbers. That meant that this individual was high level, it had to be to achieve this kind of size.
I focused on the creature, finding it harder than usual to tell what its level was. Something felt off, but my level sense was soon able to tell that the bitebit was over level 20. I expected at least that much.
It will be a good post-meal workout. I grinned, ready to have a difficult battle, but I instead found myself violently yanked back.
“Wha–”
The question died in my throat as Luine rushed forward, daggers drawn. She clashed with the level 20 creature, and was… pushed back? Outsped? What? How is that possible?
My friend and mentor slashed at the brown bundle of fur as it darted around her. Her daggers bit into the creature’s flesh, but didn’t penetrate all the way. The bitebit, meanwhile, dodged most of her strikes while scoring deep gouges with its claws in retaliation. Luine’s arm bled, but she made sure to at least keep away from the beast’s massive maw that was concealed by the green fuzz.
The creature circled around her, and then chose to go for a weaker target, namely myself. I was still confused by this sudden turn of events, but my mind cleared with a fury, focusing on the moment once I decided it was time to fight.
My menace mana responded to my will, rising in power with a haste that could only be borne out of years of practice and obsession. Waves of menace magic formed and crashed in front of the bitebit’s path. The enemy immediately paused and looked for another way, no doubt alerted to my magic by both its instincts and the purple fog. It only took it a split second for it to be gaining on me again, but I bought myself another moment of not being dead by swinging my sword forward. The monster pulled back a hair, and was promptly stabbed deeply in the back by two of Luine’s daggers.
The bitebit hardly made a sound even then, but it hurriedly pulled away from the blades buried at its back. I made it pause once more using both a second wave of menace magic and my demonic eyes. That single fleeting instant was all that was needed to seal its fate. Baston had finished casting and vines wrapped up the creature in quick succession.
The bitebit could escape of course, but not quick enough. Luine stabbed the monster a dozen times in a single second while it tried to free itself. Moonwash followed up with her own white-hot fireball, setting the vines and the enemy alight.
That was the final burning nail in the coffin, and the creature promptly died.
