Chapter 17: Escalation

Escalation

 

As Logan stewed in the recesses of his own mind, tiny pricks of light began to appear in the distance. It wasn’t long before he became cognizant and when Logan did he recognized where he was. The Void.

 

Once again, Logan found the strange non-substance welcomed his presence and he basked in its energies. Power unrivaled flowed through him, drenching through his pores, into his bones and blood. It felt so good to relax in peace, that Logan closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. Logan hadn’t realized, but he had been pushing himself incessantly.

 

Something about the wide open space of the Void made Logan feel comfortable. Maybe it was that it reminded him of that period of time after he died, where Logan had truly felt safe. But that didn’t seem quite right, it was more as if Logan were slowly dissolving away…

 

When he had that thought, his eyes shot open, and immediately made out the state of his body. It had begun to drift apart, pulled to shreds by the forces of the Void. But the Void was Logan’s force, and he made it obey his will. The pieces slowly unseparated themselves, building out Logan once more until he was whole.

 

That’s when the panic hit. Logan had no idea if this were a dream or not, but the stakes felt real, and Logan had almost died without resisting. A shiver went down his spine, as he thought about it.

 

Then he shivered again, and became aware that he wasn’t alone. Someone, no, something was watching him, the same being from his last vision. He knew then, that even the Gods must be infants to whatever he was encountering. Just its sheer presence caused the weight of ages to drag on him, like time was a force like gravity.

 

That wasn’t what unnerved him though. What caused Logan to break out in shakes was the intent he received from the being. It was… pleased… with him.

As Gregor stood in protection of their fallen comrade, Amar stepped to his side. Her stark white hair whipped in the low prairie winds, and for a second Gregor got distracted. The spiders attempted to push to punish, but the woman next to him had other plans.

 

The grass reached up as a yellow-greenish wall and locked down one of his would-be attackers, as the other got a glowing Bear Claw to its head. The damage was brutal, as multiple of the spiders deformed back legs getting hacked off. The stumps sprayed sordid blood, already dark and congealing.

 

“Looks like we should pair off, will you be ok if I leave that one to you?” Amar said smugly as she looked back at him. Gregor scoffed.

 

“If you’re talking like that, you better kill yours before Logan here wakes up. Would be embarrassing to only present him with one of the pair.”

 

“Oh ok then, you’re on chump.” Amar turned back to the spider and began engaging it again.

 

Gregor laughed. He knew there was something he had liked about this girl and now he knew what. Gregor had never met a girl who would go into battle with him. He felt lovestruck.

 

Then the spider broke free of its restraints and actually struck him across the face. Gregor didn’t think many people had been hit by an around 200 lb. spider before, but safe to say it wasn’t pleasant. Not only did it hit like a truck going over the speed limit, but it also had grossly thick hair on its legs that got in Gregor's mouth.

 

Thoughts of romance had literally been wiped from his head, and now Gregor was focused. This spider had ruined enough of the festival, it was time to end it.

Logan jolted back awake. The roar of the fires blazed all around, getting smoke in his eyes as soon as they opened. Luckily, Logan was able to make out that the fires weren’t directly next to him when his sight cleared.

 

Around him, Amar and Gregor fought back the two spiders in bursts of movement that hurt Logan’s head. Everything swayed as if Logan were watching it from under the sea, fractal and fluid. Suddenly he became aware of a furious burning in his wrists, as if a swarm of fire ants were excavating a nest in his bones.

 

Logan wanted to say he was proud for not screaming out… but it was mostly as a result of falling face first into the dirt and getting a mouthful in the process. He could barely pay attention as the fire settled in his wrists. It was pure agony, clearing out Logan’s top ten worst experience list with ease. The beating of his heart sounded like being too close to a helicopter.

 

Then, just as Logan thought he might pass out again, the pain subsided. It didn’t simply stop, but drained out over a period of five seconds. If anything, it felt like his body had adjusted to whatever had triggered the fit. Which, considering what he had just done, Logan assumed was the Fire Breathing Blessing.

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Which raised the question, why did his wrists hurt? For Logan, there was only one way to find out. He stood, raised his hand, instinctually triggered the newest addition to his soul.

 

Logan’s hand spasmed and his wrist flicked back. Logan felt something new flex, and then a large orange spray burst from the recently opened apertures on the base of his palm. The spray wasn’t as large as the spiders’ but still sizable and it burst into flames only 4-5 feet from Logan’s position.

 

“Holy shit, I’m the American Military’s dream version of Spiderman!” It wasn’t quite the iconic fireball, but it was definitely a whole level more destructive than anything Logan could have managed before. Logan couldn’t help it, and let out an involuntary cackle

 

As he laughed for a couple seconds, Logan realized the noise had settled to just wild whooshing of flame, all noises of combat suspiciously absent. When Logan opened his eyes, he found that both Gregor and Amar had finished their respective battles, with twitching spider corpses clearly evident behind them.

 

“Oh, I guess I’m a little late for the fun…”

 

Gregor just gave him a look, and said “Yes.”

Unfortunately, Logan was too late for the fun, and just in time for the truly life threatening battle. Just as Gregor was opening his mouth to continue, five more spiders came from the Forest, and they weren’t alone. The mother of all spiders came lumbering along behind them.

 

The monstrosity was easily three of four times larger than its compatriots, and it was clearly a mother. This was because its deformed back legs clutched at a massive sac full of eggs. Some of which had clearly already hatched, as baby versions of the abominations crawled along the webbed package.

 

“...Or maybe not, you guys may wanna check this out.”

 

Logan couldn’t see their faces as they turned around, but he could hear their reactions. They were audible, and depressing. 

 

“Oh Churau…”

 

“We need to evacuate the village.” Gregor said. The tone of his voice brooked no argument.

 

“Alright, I’ll go get people moving, try and find some way to stall them out. I’m not sure how long it will take people to gather.”

 

Gregor had a wry smile on his face, that confused Logan given the circumstances.

 

“I don’t think that will be an issue, at least right now.”

 

Amar looked over, and gave a nod.

 

“It is that time of the night. If you go to the town square now you should be able to catch everyone.”

 

Logan was confused. What reason would the entire town have to gather in the square if they saw fires out in the fields. Wouldn’t they go and try to put them out instead? Logan didn’t know the answer, but they made it sound like it was time sensitive.

 

“Alright, I’ll be back as quick as I can, just stay alive you hear me?” Logan had rather enjoyed meeting the two people around his age, even if circumstances were a bit dire. Having them die before they could make an adventurer’s party or something seemed like a waste to him. With that, Logan teleported off towards the town.

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