Chapter 1: Forest Fight

 

“Ah! Get away from me!” I scream in panic, while swinging my staff at the mutant, a horrifying abomination in the shape of a rottweiler. I hit it in the head, but it shrugs it off. I take another step back –

And my vision turns skywards as I fall over something soft behind me. My head hits the ground, and I start to get a headache. “Ouch...”

The dog jumps on me, my trembling hands are pinned to the ground. Is this the end? I close my eyes...

 

A loud bang hurts my ears, and the dog goes slack on top of me. As I slowly open my eyes, I see a hole where it’s head once was.

“Damnit, Mehnia! Be careful!” Hira rushes over to me, the pistol in her hand smoking. “Lets get this off of you...” She pushes the dog from my chest, and takes my hand. I get up with her support, but am unable to stop my legs from trembling. Tears form in my eyes and cloud up my vision.

“Mehnia, Mehnia... everything is fine...” Hira comforts me, her arms wrapped around my shoulders.

“I am sho scared...” I cry into her arms.

The shot has alarmed the others who promptly rush over. “Where are the fuckers!” Weissy shouts in anger, while I feel Ben stroking the back of my head.

“Calm down, Edelweiss! It’s already dead.” Hira points at the corpse on the ground.

“Fucker...” He mumbles, and kicks the corpse a few meters into the forest.

At the same time, I feel my headache fading. Under Ben’s gentle hands, I slowly feel like not crying anymore. “Easy, Mehnia... You are fine... I healed your head for you...”

This whole situation is terrible. Why am I still so afraid of these mutants? Why is it always me that has to be saved? The others are so strong, so amazing, but I feel like dead weight. My eyes well up again...

 

A howl pierces through the night. Everyone gets tense again, and Kalotta vanishes. “Here they come...” Hira sighs, and readies her assault rifle.

Ben draws his knife and pistol, and speaks to me. “Mehnia, don’t panic now. You got this. Can you tell me how many there are? How far away?”

I wipe the tears from my eyes, and nod. “Okay...” If this is how I can be useful to them, I will give my best. I hold my staff in both hands, and begin to chant...

“Animals of the forest, and you wise and proud trees

Share with me your knowledge, I pledge to thee!”

Suddenly, I see through a thousand little eyes, and feel the worlds through a thousand skins. Vibrations are running through the tree roots a kilometre away, and are approaching us. I feel the pain of the bushes getting torn apart in their way. Through the excellent eyes of an startled owl, I see roughly twenty shapes running through the forest. They are dogs, just like the one that attacked me earlier.

 

Dog would be an insult to my cute Shiba though. Their skin is leathery and full with ulcers, and their eyes glow in a sulfuric yellow.  Their mouths drip of thick, black saliva, and their teeth are serrated like a saw.

Through the trees, I sense an even larger presence, but before I get a glimpse on it, one of the mutants leaps at the owl six meters in the air, and sends the shocking sensation of a stopping heart through my body.

I get forcefully ejected from their consciousness, and my muscles feel numb and weak. My staff falls out of my hands, and I fall onto my knees. Benjamin had expected that, and promptly heals me with his left hand.

“And?”

I point at the dog corpse. “Of those, roughly twenty. A big one, too... they are approaching fast.”

“Twenty? We need to stop them. They would wreak carnage in the village nearby. You did good, Mehnia. Rest now, we will protect you.” Benjamin takes stance, as do the other ones. We start hearing the stampede, and it is approaching fast.

Goddamnit... “I can fight!” I use my staff to support me while standing up. I can not just watch while they protect me.

“Mother Nature, hear my plea! Grant us cover from the vile tide!

Make it quick and snappy!”

Thick bramble starts sprouting in a circle around us, acting like a barbed wire fence. I smile, but as soon as the hedges were fully grown, my muscles grew heavy. I collapse on the spot. I am still too weak...

“Mehnia! Goddamnit, there is no time to heal you...” Benjamin’s gaze frantically switches between me and the dark forest. He is right. There is no time to heal me.

“COME AT ME, MUTANTS!” Weissy shouts into the forest, and gets a response in from of an eardrum-shattering howling.

Then, they get into vision, and hell breaks loose. Hira opens fire, and into the aggressive howling mixes a few yelps of pain. The first two get tangled up in the brambles, but soon they jump over it. Weissy uses his rapier to skewer the first one.

 

It is a blood bath. I lay there, watching horrified as the rest of Team Mavic fights with all they got. The corpses start piling up, and the comforting smell of forest soil gets replaced by the foul stench of blood.

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I don’t know what happened, but suddenly, one of the mutants stands five meters away from me. I want to shout, but my mouth won’t move. I look at the others in panic, but they are all occupied – Weissy splits a mutant in half, Hira stands back to a tree and drives bullet after bullet into an extra sturdy  mutant head, and Ben stabs time and time again into a dog he got pinned to the ground.

I try again, but no sound comes from my lips. The mutant runs at me, I see the hunger and madness in his eyes as he approaches at terrific speed. To horrified to even close my eyes, I can’t help but watch my impending doom.

A wolf-girl-shaped silhouette flashes into existence, and takes the dog into a chokehold from behind. As quick as it appeared, it is gone.

Moments later, a brutally cut up mutant corpse materialises out of thin air.

Finally able to speak, I whisper. “Thanks, Lotta...”

 

The last dog’s head rolls at the tip of Weissy’s sword. “That makes thirteen! How many did you get?”

“Edelweiss! Don’t celebrate just yet!” Ben steps through the corpses, as if something is amiss. He then steps to my side, and starts healing me. While he does so, the air next to him shimmers and white-haired Lotta pops into existence. “Mehnia, you said something of a big one, did you not?”

I nod while getting up with Ben’s help. “There definitely was one, the tree’s are never mistaken.”

 

Benjamin turns around to Hira and Weissy, who are already squabbling over who got the most. “Did you hear that, you two? Our job here is not done yet!”

A roar fills the air. It was a roar we heard earlier as well, but not that of a dog.

The earth begins to shake in rhythm. It almost sounds like...

“Over there! Take your guard up!” Benjamin holsters his small calibre pistol, and from his right holster draws the big iron.

Footsteps! They are footsteps!

“Oh, this is a big one!” Hira laughs, and draws the biggest rifle from her back.

 

The footsteps com closer and closer. Finally, they stop.

Absolute silence dominates the forest for a few seconds. Every animal that would normally make sounds fled the scene long ago.

Wood starts cracking, and a tree trunk comes flying into our direction. “Dodge!” Benjamin shouts and throws himself on the ground, but Weissy laughs. “Pathetic! Mavic Overdrive!” His armour starts glowing in a deep purple, and energy crackles in his joints. Then, he catches the tree, and throws it back. Weissy is so strong...

 

The tree hits something. However, it did nothing more than make it angry.

A giant bear comes rushing, its footsteps shaking the earth like the magnitude 7-Earthquakes we have. It is two meters tall, and its body is deformed in the same way as the dogs.

 

“ATTACK!” Benjamin screams, and shoots at the bear. Weissy charges with his two swords.

Ducking under the powerful paw swings that rip apart a tree further down the line, he slashes at arms.

Hira mounts her rifle to her shoulder, and shouts. “Pin it down for me! I will blast it’s head off!”

 

“Easier said then done!” Distracted by Hira, Weissy is unable to dodge and has to block with his two swords. However, even he is not strong enough to withstand it, and gets launched two meters backwards.

“NOO!” I shout. Quick, I have to do something... “Mother nature, you who you are gracious...” A hand appears from the void and holds my mouth shut.

“Save yourself up, Edelweiss can handle that much.” As quick as Lotta appeared, she disappears again. Indeed, Weissy flips over two times, but is then back on his feet and charging at the bear again. “You bastard! Had I known I would meet someone as ugly as you, I would have brought Siegesklinge!” Even fiercer than before, he starts attacking the bear again. His armour crackles with energy, and he actually pushes the bear backwards.

In a last-effort attempt to get the ferocious warrior away from it, the bear goes for a very low paw swing. However, Weissy jumps over that, and with his two swords nails the arm into the forest ground. He jumps away, and shouts: “NOW!”

 

Hira’s mouth curls to a smile, and her armour starts crackling with energy too. “Speed of Light, quarter power!” Leaving a blazing trail of air turned plasma, a bullet shoots from her rifle and blasts the bear’s head clean off.

“We did it...” I whisper.

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