Chapter 53: Piecers

Magic detection doesn’t extend very far in places like this, but I can sense we’re being stalked. Inside my range, there are three creatures, and they’re walking on two feet. They’re larger than the bigfoots I found above Albert, and they give off way more magic. Within 50 meters, I’d feel their magic even if I wasn’t looking for it. This could be fun.

“Miss Celeste, is it true that you can join the church after spending enough time here?” I ask, breaking the long-held silence.

“Hmm, sort of, you have to bring back a novel monster corpse for them to study if you want to be considered part of the church,” Celeste responds thoughtfully.

“I see.. is that everyone’s goal in coming here?” I ask.

Celeste looks at the back of Spike’s head before she answers.

“Some of us have that goal, but most of us want to better our reputation so we’ll get more side jobs from the church. They’re the largest employer of adventurers anywhere,” she says.

Spike throws his hand up and freezes. Norman silently repositions himself to Spike’s side, and I hear Jack unsheathe a sword behind me. The creatures that have been stalking us are behind the foliage around 60 meters ahead, but their dark fur shows through in spots and stands out against the all-green jungle.

“Celeste,” Spike whispers just loud enough for her to hear, “destroy the bushes ahead and prepare for an attack.”

“On it,” she responds softly, but her red eyes are on fire. She pushes magic out from her body and starts to form a fireball overhead when the brush tears open.

“INCOMING!” Spike shouts.

The beasts destroy the ground at their feet as they charge us. They’re all black and over three meters tall. Their muscles look like braided metal cables moving beneath the skin as they gallop towards our group, but their tusks are truly menacing. They’re long enough to pierce a human head.

Jack leaps past our midline and readies his shield on Spike’s free side. Celeste releases a fireball that’s half the size of the monsters. It flies towards them and slams the middle one.

“GREEEEEEEEEE,” it cries and falls behind the other two, then resumes its charge.

Jack and Norman collect magic in their feet as the mutated and tusked bigfoots reach our line – the men lunge forward to meet the advance with heavy shields.

“RAHHHH”

“FUCK YOUUU”

Jack’s shield meets his target and smashes its face. A tusk breaks off and flies through the air as the two are blown in opposite directions. Norman’s shield connects with his ape’s chest and left arm. The beast stumbles, but Norman is blown off the trail we’re on and into a tree.

“GUH”

He groans as Spike readies a counterattack. The ape Norman, knocked off balance, is in striking range. Spike lunges with his sword straight out and pierces the ape’s neck. It knocks his sword out of the wound and flails wildly until it falls off the trail. The two remaining beasts regroup to charge together as Jack and Spike do the same. Celeste steps forward and fires several small fireballs at the creatures, and one connects with an eye, but that just enrages it.

“”ROOOOOOOHH””

The beasts growl as they reach our line again. An arm the size of a tree swings down on Jack and cracks his shield.

“ARGHHH,” he groans and bends his knees to absorb the impact.

The one-eyed beast swings its arm horizontally at Spike. He raises his sword to lop the animal’s arm off with its own force, but the sword sticks halfway into its bicep.

“GREEEEEEH”

It cries and pulls its arm back, flinging Spike behind the beast and breaking our line.

Balls, do they need help in their first fight?

Celeste steps forward and fires tens of fireballs at the beast that sent Spike flying, but more are coming from behind us. There are two running in line. I spin around and grab my sword, then accelerate towards them. I swing from my right and slice the first beast’s head off at its ear line. I let the force of my swing turn my entire body. I raise my left foot and slam it through the second beast’s tusk and into its head. Its skull craters as it flies into a tree on the edge of the trail.

I turn to check on the group. Spike has his sword lodged in the back of the beast that threw him, while Celeste peppers its front with fire magic. Jack is playing the mole in whack-a-mole with his target, but his shield meets every blow.

Spike pulls his sword from the dying animal between him and Celeste as the two focus on rescuing Jack from his hell. The three encircle the animal as Celeste and Spike throw their best offense forth, burning and slicing the beast’s skin all over.

“GREEEEEEEEEH”

It cries and flails its arms wildly. Jack’s strength finally gives out as a swinging arm sends him flying backward, almost crashing into Seira.

“BLIND IT!” Spike screams at Celeste. She readies numerous fireballs and fires them at the creature’s face. The beast brings its hands up to cover its face, and Spike swings his sword into the base of its neck, killing it instantly.

Celeste turns her head on a swivel to check for more monsters, then turns to the trail where I’ve rejoined Seira.

“Are you two alright?” she asks.

“Fuck if they’re alright – I thought you were a good swordsman, newbie, we could’ve used some help!” Spike screams as he dislodges his sword and marches towards me.

I step to the side, allowing him to see the two dead beasts behind us.

“I held our back line quite well,” I reply calmly.

Spike’s eyes grow wide as he stops his march.

“Norman!” Seira yelps.

Norman has crawled back onto the trail, but his mouth is fauceting blood. Seira and Celeste rush to his side.

“Nice job,” Spike says quietly before he turns to check on Jack, who’s still lying on the ground.

I walk over to join Seira and Celeste. We pull off Norman’s chest armor, revealing a bruise that spans nearly his whole torso. Seira weaves her magic into the energy in the air roughly, then pushes it into Norman’s chest. I discreetly do the same and start searching for damage. Six broken ribs, one collapsed lung, and a terribly swollen esophagus. Seira’s magic is starting to mend his ribs, so I focus on the lung and esophagus.

“GAH.. HIKC.. it hurts..”

Norman groans as the bones heal, but the lung and esophagus mend quickly, and blood stops pouring from his mouth. I drop the pack from my back and make a spatial opening inside. I pull out bread and fatty jerky before re-slinging the pack.

Spike and Jack join the group and stand over us.

“How does it look, Seira?” Spike asks.

Sweat streams down her face as she uses her magic.

“He won’t die.. but I think he broke multiple ribs,” she replies through ragged breaths, “if I can’t mend them all.. he won’t be able to fight.”

Spike grimaces at the prognosis while Celeste starts softly caressing Seira’s back. She’s sweating so hard that her purple cloak is starting to stick to her, but the treatment should be nearly finished.

“D-Done..” Seira says as she collapses into Celeste’s arms.

“Seira..” Celeste says as she wraps her arms around the young girl.

“Fuck.. Jack needs to be looked at too,” Spike groans.

“I’m fine, Spike HURGH,” Jack tries to speak, but Spike lightly taps his chest, causing him to double over.

Spike sighs and crouches down to hold his head in his hands.

“No one’s run into piecers so close to the shore before,” he grumbles.

Hmm, I can’t have us fall apart just yet. I need the information that will come out after I cook everyone a delicious dinner.

I raise my hand to get Spike’s attention.

“I’m not an expert, but I can use healing magic a bit.. I can help Jack if his injuries aren’t too severe,” I say.

Spike’s head whips up out of his hands.

“Wha- lead with that!” he yells, “Jack, get over here.”

I stand and help Jack remove his armor, then weave more healing magic. His ribs are only cracked, but he’s holding his arm funny.

“Does your left arm hurt?” I ask Jack.

He nods shamefully and holds it up. I fill it with healing magic and find that the smaller of the two forearm bones is shattered. Fuck. I heal his ribs while he grimaces, then turn to Spike.

“His arm is bad.. you’ll need to hold him down while I heal it,” I say.

“Hold him down?” Spike asks with a tilted head.

I roll Jack’s sleeve up while he winces and reveal a deeply dented forearm.

“Fuck,” Spike says as his face crumples, “can that even be healed?” he asks and turns to me.

“Healing it isn’t actually that hard, but it will be the worst pain of his life, and if he moves while I’m healing, it won’t set right,” I explain.

Jack hangs his head as Spike puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Sorry, buddy,” Spike says, then he throws a vicious right hook that folds Jack like a lawn chair. He catches Jack and lays him down on the ground.

“C’mon! Before he wakes up,” Spike calls to me while waving me on.

Jesus, this guy is more of an ape than I am. I’ll have to heal his jaw when I’m done..

I drop to my knees next to Jack and fill his arm with healing magic. I condense several fine points of magic and move the shattered bone fragments into position like I’m assembling a puzzle, then accelerate Jack’s healing to fuse the pieces and fill the cracks. I look up and side-eye the red-haired beast.

“His arm will be fine, but I should probably look at his head now,” I say.

I heal Jack’s cracked jaw before standing and turning to face the rest of the group. Seira is on wobbly legs and leaning against Celeste, but Norman is standing and moving around well, considering how bad his injuries were.

“How are you feeling, Norman?” I ask.

“Like a carriage ran me over..” he mumbles.

“That.. makes sense,” I reply, “oh, I pulled out some food for you, being healed drains your body, so you should eat,” I add while handing over some bread and fatty jerky.

“Right, thanks, Sio,” he says quietly and accepts the food.

“What about you Mis- sorry, Seira?” I ask and lean down a bit.

“I’m alright.. thank you for helping with my job,” she replies pitifully.

“Get up, moron, you’re fine now!” Spike screams at Jack behind us.

“Wha! Piecers!” Jack sits up abruptly and looks at Spike, “prick, what’d you hit me for?” he asks and rubs the jaw I just healed.

“AHAHA, see you’re good as new,” Spike says with a chuckle, then helps Jack to his feet. The two walk over and finish forming a circle of the orphan crew plus Sio.

“What do you think, Spike, can we still make camp by dark?” Celeste asks calmly.

“If we run into more piecers, we’ll be in trouble, but they’re aggressive and should’ve killed anything else in the area,” he says. “Seira, can you walk?” he asks.

Seira stumbles away from Celeste, who has been holding her up. Her legs are wobbly, but she stays upright.

“I’ll be fine,” she says quietly, but there’s no color in her face.

Spike’s face contorts as he lifts a hand to his cheek. He might call this off..

“I’ll carry her,” I say.

“Newb-“ Spike tries to speak, but Celeste interrupts.

“Sio, you can’t carry a person and our pack,” she says calmly.

“You guys must not hunt much. I carry more than this all the time, and Seira is small,” I reply, “it’d be difficult to carry someone covered in armor, but this will be fine,” I add with a reassuring smile.

The group exchange glances, but everyone’s eyes settle on Spike.

“He took out two piecers by himself,” Spike says with a shrug, “either his sword is a relic, or he’s strong, and by the look of his sword, I’d say he’s strong,” he adds, evaluating the situation and looking over my equipment.

“It’s decided, Seira, would you mind if I carried you?” I ask while looking at the wobbly girl.

“No.. I’m sorry, Sio,” she answers shamefully.

“Don’t be sorry,” I say and swoop Seira up into a bridal carry.

“EEP,” she squeaks.

“Aha, you’re a good one, newbie – onward!” Spike shouts and does an about-face to walk down the trail. Everyone falls in line behind him. Besides Celeste and me, everyone is worse for wear compared to when we started, but I’ll keep the monster attacks at bay while we walk.

“Seira,” I say and look down at the girl in my arms, “you call those beasts piecers?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says quietly, “they’re savage and rip their prey into pieces to eat them, hence the name,” she adds with a grimace.

“But they’re not normally in this area?” I ask.

“Monsters get stronger as you go further into the continent. This wooded area typically has smaller ones,” Seira explains, “but we always have bad luck here.”

“I see,” I reply.

There’s a piecer in my detection range, it’s coming up behind us slowly. It tucks behind a large tree 70 meters back, and I activate earth magic. A stone spear rockets out of the ground and skewers the animal from asshole to tusk in an instant.

We continue on the trail, and I discreetly impale two more piecers before we reach our destination.

“AHAHA, we made it!” Spike shouts and throws his hands up. There’s a structure built into the jungle. There are stone pillars in a circle around a large platform that the jungle is trying to swallow with vines and other vegetation. Atop the platform is a small stone shack – but I don’t think six of us can fit in there..

“It’s a bit small for all of us..” I say.

Spike turns around with a beaming smile on his face.

“You’ll change your mind in a minute, newbie!” he says excitedly.

Spike pulls a small red spell stone from his pocket and walks up to the nearest stone pillar. There’s so much magic spread around from the beasts here I hadn’t noticed, but the pillar has a steady flow of magic in it. Spike presses the stone into a small concave spot in the pillar, and the stone activates its spell. A wall of compressed magic wraps around the area in line with the stone pillars.

“Whoa,” I say as I watch the barrier go up. It’s not as red as the barriers I make, it’s more of a sunset co-

Spike’s hand grabs me by the shoulder and spins me around to face him.

“What the hell was that?” he asks with intense eyes.

“What?” I ask, “I’ve never seen a spell stone with that kind of magic in it,” I add.

Is a man not allowed to be surprised?

“Don’t react like that to magic,” Spike says, his intensity not waning, “not in front of anyone here or anywhere – is that clear?” he asks.

“Sure.. I’ll contain my surprise,” I reply, genuinely confused as to what the big deal is.

Spike removes his hand from my shoulder and marches into the stone structure to join the rest of the orphan crew. I follow them inside and down a staircase that leads to a larger room underground. The walls are littered with letters and words I don’t understand – but I have seen them before. Bigfoot’s lair above Albert had the same writing, and the center of the room is lit with spell stones, creating small flames. This place is far smaller than the ruins I explored back then, but there must be more to this structure.

The outer walls are lined with beds that everyone is staking their claim to, but against the rear wall is a small kitchen. I walk over to examine it – spell stone burners and an oven, plenty of pots and pans, it’s even got utensils for cooking and eating. I drop the pack to the floor and pull out some vegetables, rice, and dried meat. I slice and sauté the vegetables while the rice boils. Before long, the underground space smells wonderful.

Celeste’s bed is the closest, and she walks over to join me.

“Smells nice, Sio, do you like cooking?” she asks. Her voice is always calm and soft, it sounds like how a mother talks to their child when putting them down for a nap.

“Yes, I do,” I reply with a small smile as I move the vegetables around their pan, “I didn’t think to ask earlier – but are the monsters here edible?” I ask.

Celeste grimaces slightly.

“Some adventurers see eating monster meat as a rite of passage.. but I’ve heard it can make you quite ill,” she replies, “we typically sustain ourselves with dried meats and small game like rabbits and birds.”

“So, there are normal animals here as well?” I ask.

“Smaller ones, yes, the church tried bringing larger animals to breed here, but they were all eaten,” Celeste answers flatly.

“I see, I’ll have to keep an eye out for small game then,” I say as I add the dried meat to the vegetables. I’ve experimented with a lot of cooking sauces, but nothing has come out better than the simple sweet onion sauce Ricardo taught me back home. I need to find soybeans and anchovies to really up my game.

The rice boils to a perfectly sticky finish, and I start packing large bowls for everyone.

“Foods ready!” I call out to the scattered group.

Celeste nearly teleports to my side to take hers while Jack and Norman sprint across the room. Seira lumbers over behind the pack while Spike watches her closely. We all sit down on beds near each other to eat.

“Thanks for the food, Sio!” Norman says as he stuffs his face.

“It’s good, Sio, the sweet sauce goes well over the white grain.” Celeste gives her review in her typical calm fashion.

Jack and Seira wolf their portions down silently, but Spike is hardly touching his.

“Is it not to your liking, Spike?” I ask.

He shakes his head.

“It’s fine, but I didn’t pack most of this,” he says quietly.

“I brought my own food,” I reply, “I get sick of bread and dried meat day after day,” I add with a warm smile, but Spike’s mood has been weird since earlier.

Seira finishes first, and she lies back across her bed.

“I needed that, Sio,” she says sleepily, “thanks for coming..” she adds as she closes her eyes.

Jack smiles and nods as he finishes his portion.

It wasn’t fine dining, but they should be willing to talk a little.

“I’ve been meaning to ask – what kind of jobs do you normally take?” I ask while running my eyes across everyone.

“We take anything,” Jack says curtly.

“Wild beasts, the occasional humanoid monster in the north, and church dirty work – we do it all,” Norman adds while chewing.

“The church has dirty work?” I ask, genuinely surprised it would be contracted to adventures.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds, Sio, even the great Human Divinity church has enemies,” Celeste interjects, “we simply stop those enemies from hurting the church and its followers,” she adds with a warm smile.

Anything sounds good when she says it, but fuck, that sounds suspicious.

“We can gossip on the boat ride home. Everyone needs to get their rest,” Spike says as he stands and collects everyone’s dirty dishes. “We’ll be taking a mountain pass that none of us have traversed tomorrow. Sleep while you can,” he adds, then walks away.

The group starts to disperse until only Celeste and I remain across from a sleeping Seira. Celeste seems to sense my unease at Spike’s disposition as she scoots closer to me.

“Don’t let his attitude bother you,” she says, “we struggled more than we should have today, he’s just worried,” she adds.

I smile and release some tension from my face.

“Thanks, Miss Celeste, I’m sure tomorrow will be easier,” I reply as Celeste gets up and moves to her own bed. I lie down in the bed I ate on and send off a large wave of magic to scan for other rooms. The kitchen is blocking a swinging door that leads to a little room below. There aren’t any bookshelves, but there’s a large flow of magic, likely from one of those green gems. I could go through a spatial opening to explore it, but I doubt it’s anything new, and I don’t like moving through them in potentially dangerous areas. The moment of disconnect when I step through is the largest gap in my defense.

Guess I’ll sleep.