Bloodstained Blade-Chapter 33 - Unavoidable
The four of them made good time, and though the Ebon Blade wasn’t very comfortable with traveling with strangers, after a few hours, it got used to it. Even with the elven woman’s lingering gaze, it wasn’t much worse than being in town after a few hours.
If anything, Ivarr took to the group even faster than that, showing just how lonely he’d been out here by himself. The blade couldn’t sympathize. It couldn’t feel lonely any more than it could feel cold or smell the scent of rotting corpses. It just saw other people as possible hindrances or avenues of betrayal. I didn’t need friends, only soldiers and followers.
Still, this group didn’t seem like dead weight. The holy man didn’t have an obvious weapon, and neither did the mage, though in her case, she was the weapon. It had no clear memories of fighting mages, but it knew they were bad news, and even the nearly 700 Life Force it currently contained might not be enough to save Ivarr if she decided she wanted him dead.
It considered nibbling at her Life Force to see if she would notice but decided that it didn’t want to provoke a conflict. While it could tolerate its wielder fighting beside others, it would be better if those others were simple warriors like him rather than people with a firm mastery of magic.
She can probably read the words on my blade, it thought, trying to decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It couldn’t say since it had no idea what they were.
All of those concerns fell away, though, when they were crossing through a meadow on the far side of the valley from the ogre cave. There, they almost ran directly into the beast they’d been avoiding for so long when it came crashing out of the woods on the other side of the meadow. One second, the four of them had been talking about how quickly Kalraka was rebuilding while all of them did their level best to avoid certain topics.
Ivarr changed the subject when the conversation drifted toward his sword, and the mage clammed up whenever the ruins came up, forcing all of them to stick to more mundane topics. When the giant, 12-foot-tall beast that was more monster than man came out of the trees, though, those pleasant conversations about what meal they were most looking forward to eating when they reached civilization quickly transformed into screams and shouts.
“We need to run!” Dero shouted.
“Over open ground? Never going to happen!” Elom shouted back as he started to run toward the giant’s right side. “Ivarr! You take left, I’ll take a right. We’ll buy time!” As the other warrior did so, he drew his own weapon for the first time. “Altharia, you handle it. You’re only going to get one shot!”
It wasn’t a longsword like the Ebon Blade, but it was a hexblade. That was apparent by the way that the claymore glowed an angry red as soon as he was unsheathed.
Ivarrr started running toward the beast as he was told, but it was clear to the blade that he had no idea what he was being asked to do, so the blade explained, The other warrior doesn’t want you to fight and die. He knows you can’t kill it any more than he can, but the mage can. She just needs time, which you will buy by fighting defensively.
She can? Ivarr asked silently as he unsheathed his own weapon and mirrored Trav’s movements. Do you know what that red sword does?
It’s impossible to say for sure, the Ebon Blade answered warily, But it’s likely that its almost the opposite of my power. It doesn’t heal you with the life force harvested from your enemies. It uses the life force of the wielder to strengthen their blows.
The blade hadn’t realized that it knew all of that until it said so, but it was all true. As it reflected on it, it realized that most magical weapons were like that, which made its own nature that much more anomalous.
Why was I made this way? It wondered as its wielder moved into position.
The only advantage that the group had was that the ogre was unarmed. If it had been carrying a tree trunk as a club, its reach would have been insurmountable. Still, it was confused. The blade could see it was more used to chasing down prey than it was to having men rush it, and it took a few ineffectual swipes in an effort to establish its reach as it bellowed at them.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The other warrior darted in first, lashing out high and fast, making the thing step back from the glowing weapon so quickly that it almost trampled Ivarr. The young man managed to avoid being crushed to death with the blade’s help, but even so, it spoiled his attack, and his slash at the thing’s calf barely made it through the skin instead of crippling it like he’d been trying to do.
+17 Life Force.
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+2 Life Force.
The ogre didn’t notice such an ineffective strike and continued to focus on the glowing blade that swung toward it again and again. This was enough to frustrate the beast, and eventually, it kicked out hard, catching Elom full in the chest and making the monster laugh with violent delight as it turned to face Ivarr. That was its only real mistake.
+1 Life Force.
The entire time the three of them had been fighting, the mage’s power had been building. From such a distance, the blade could only see it as a faint glow, but closer, the intricacy of such delicate structures would have been unmistakable. The ogre must have been just as myopic as it was because it didn’t notice anything until there was a final flare, and a lance of molten lightning pierced through the air in a straight line between where it and the mage stood.
+1 Life Force.
It had time to turn and face her, but the only difference that made was in where the wound was struck. It could see that she’d been aiming for the thing’s heart, but when it turned and straightened, it struck right through the thing's guts, coming within inches of severing the ogre’s spinal cord. That bony column stood there scorched and exposed even as blood and ichor poured out of the cracks in the otherwise charred and cauterized wound which gaped before them.
The smoking hole in the ogre was the size of a large tree stump, and Ivarr could have easily climbed through it, not that anyone would ever want to do that. For a moment, Ivarr, the blade, and even the ogre stood there, stunned by what had happened.
Then, it bellowed in rage and pain so loudly that Ivarr took a step back. The blade was ready to force its wielder to move, if need be, from some vicious backhand or counterstrike, but that never came. Instead, the giant, lumbering monster charged the woman who had injured it so grievously.
+2 Life Force.
Ivarr sprang into motion then, charging right after it. It was stupid. He should have used the moment to escape. In its rage, the monster was even stronger than it had been before, and the other warrior still had not risen from where he lay in the grass after a single blow had knocked him back. Its wielder was courting death, and yet, for some reason, the blade was loath to stop him.
Is that because someone else will be here to pick me up if he perishes? The blade wondered, or do I just want to see what he’s capable of?
Either way, it let him charge the beast. It could see in his mind that Ivarr wanted to leap onto its back, but there was no way that was going to happen. What he should have done was hack at its Achilles tendon to make it stumble. Instead, he stored up all of his strength and then sprang explosively forward, hacking away at the exposed lumbar spine in a vicious, midair blow.
+18 Life Force.
+1 Life Force.
It landed, and the Ebon Blade felt and heard the bone’s crack beneath its blade. For a moment, nothing happened after that besides Ivarr falling into the grass and struggling to get to his feet. The ogre still roared and charged forward, and for a few seconds, it looked like it was going to reach its target and tear the fragile elf to bloody shreds. The priest was brave enough to stand at her side with a little mace he’d produced from somewhere, but he could do nothing to stop three-quarters of a ton of enraged flesh from doing whatever it wanted.
Then, the thing stumbled. Even as Ivarr rose, it tripped and fell on its face. Its angry bellow was gone. It had been replaced by more confused sounds as it discovered it could no longer move its legs.
The neck! The blade called out finally. Strike its neck and finish it while you can!
+1 Life Force.
At this point, the thing was all but finished already, but the blade had no interest in letting the mage or blood loss finish it off. It would not waste this opportunity, not when its wielder could pry one more soul free for it.
Ivarr didn’t hesitate. He charged up the thing’s back and then brought the Ebon blade down, point first, with all his might. His first strike glanced off of one of the ogre’s thick cervical vertebrae and did almost nothing, but the second one sank deep between them, severing the spinal cord completely in a single motion.
+14 Life Force.
You have received a greater monster soul!
Just like that, it was over, and the light in its eyes went out forever. Ivarr looked up just in time to see the half-finished spell of the elven mage slowly fading away. For a moment, both he and the blade had the same thought. She was about to cut him in two with a similar spell. It had just enough time to wonder if it was possible to parry such a thing, but instead, it evaporated.
