NOVEL NEXT 7: Strategy
This was hell. It had to be.
That was the only explanation Tom had left. His situation, or rather the implications of it, had taken a while to dawn upon him. The saying ‘ignorance is bliss,’ had never been more accurate— as he ran away from the sight of his encounter with the [Ankra Beast], he realized how close he had come to dying.
However, it was not the [Ankra Beast] itself that was the source of his fear. No, what truly terrified Tom was the possibility of sustaining an injury. His shoes had protected him from the worst of the flames the beast had sustained upon him, but what if they hadn’t?
What would he do with a hobbled leg in the middle of a forest full of hostile monsters with magical powers?
Die, that’s what.
He had no means to heal, or for that matter, even seal a wound. His medical training was non-existent and as for magical means… the [Divine System] conveniently seemed to have left that part out. Perhaps he could fashion a gauze out of animal hide if he managed to kill another beast, the thought not exactly striking him back when he’d just finished a deadly battle…. but for all he knew it would infect his wound and only kill him faster. The thing did bleed yellow ichor after all.
Come to think of it, the whole reason why he’d been sent to Artezia didn’t make sense either. The bearded man had claimed that everyone didn’t have a powerful Soul Card, making them sound incredibly valuable but… the very first beast he’d killed had dropped one. Would he really travel through the space-time continuum to give him a [Card] that projected scary illusions? Tom was certain that the bearded man, no matter how strong or mysterious, couldn’t pierce through [The Fool’s] concealment.
Nothing seemed to make sense.
A flash of movement flickered in the corner of his eye, but when he pivoted to face it, it only revealed a broad-faced leaf shimmying through the air. Another ten minutes later he heard a sound that he mistook for a solitary footstep, only to see a collapsed branch laying haplessly upon the ground.
Paranoia assailed his senses, his every breath strained whilst his mind betrayed his cause, amplifying a harmless sound into the low growl of a monster, envisioning the gaze of a terrifying beast trained upon his person, watching him bumble through the forest as it positioned itself to strike.
The only thing that gave Tom the courage to keep going was the rapier clenched in his right hand and [The Flame] card in his left. He had come close to firing off a gout of flames in a moment of paranoia, but thankfully that disaster had been averted in the last second.
He had to find a way to ease his nerves, or his anxiety would finish him off before any monster did.
Shit. The dagger.
Tom had completely forgotten about the [Ankra Bone Dagger] he’d received from the beast. The ensuing situation didn’t exactly give him a lot of time to study it, but it might just be the confidence boost he was looking for.
Scanning his surroundings, the forest seemed to be as vast and endless as it felt before but the wide trees did serve the purpose of providing him momentary cover.
Huddled behind one such tree was Tom, hastily scanning the surroundings one more time before he mentally called for his [Inventory].
A rent in the void before him crackled open; the whole process startling him, but only by a little. Tom gingerly reached his hand forward, and waited as a three dimensional image came to life in his mind’s eye.
The small…. ‘spatial’ room that was empty before now had two new additions, or perhaps three, depending on how you looked at it. Two cuts of rancid-looking yellow meat strung together by a small string floated at the north-eastern corner of the room. Right next to it, a double-edged white bone dagger floated in the air… or perhaps void, it’s edges tapering to meet at a single, sharp point. The crossguard just seemed to be a straightened chip of bone, but atleast the hilt had light criss-crossing cuts carved into it for additional grip.
Tom thought about the dagger, beckoning it, and it began to slowly hover towards him. A slightly cold sensation welcomed him as he wrapped his right hand around it before yanking it out.
He held the dagger aloft, marvelling it for a few seconds before he gently ran it along the tree’s bark. A light incision was left behind wherever the dagger had made contact with the bark, and Tom had barely applied any strength at all.
Tom thought about it, and its specifications popped up via a blue screen.
[Ankra Bone Dagger, Common.
Requirements: Physical 3, Proprioception 2.
Description: Crafted from the remains of a Level 1 Ankra Beast, the knife is sharp and resilent.]
Tom was unsure how to feel about the dagger. On one hand, it was wickedly sharp and the Divine System had called it resilient, so it shouldn’t easily warp or chip on him.
On the other hand, when your opponents had magical cards that let them breathe fire at you, it seemed less reassuring.
He now faced another conundrum. He didn’t have a sheathe for his rapier, and Tom refused to not have [The Flame] card in his left hand. So he had to make a choice between the dagger and the rapier. It’s additional range allowed him to clinch victory over the [Ankra Beast], but… he had another powerful weapon now, with a greater reach.
A strategy began to form in Tom’s mind.
He had no military training. Tom acknowledged that. He was not chosen one. He acknowledged that too. The only thing he was right now was high-strung and any strategy that involved complicated pirouttes or over-ambitious maneovres was likely to fail right off the bat.
No he’d keep it rough and simple.
If something came too close to him, or was charging towards him, he’d blast it with fire and run if it didn’t immediately die. If it continued to chase him again, he’d unleash his flames again and again, until it either died or gave up. In the worst case scenario, if it managed to either evade or run through his flames, the dagger was the only weapon in his possession wiith which he could imagine killing in a single blow.
If it still didn’t die…. well….
He gave his rapier a wistful look before tossing it inside the crack in space. With another thought, his [Inventory] winked out of existence.
When Tom got up again, there was something resembling determination reflected in his pupils. Surprisingly his anxiety had begun to recede, now that he had a plan in mind, a new weapon that was wickedly sharp and his own personal flamethrower.
He did not run any longer, for that was foolish— his footfall, despite his efforts to move stealthily, would still probably be audible to any beast that was listening. Thus he moved slowly and cautiously from one tree’s cover to the next, progressing in the same direction he’d chosen to run in the first place. Logic dictated that eventually the forest would end… well that was Earth’s logic, but he’d take it.
An hour had passed eventlessly, and Tom’s guard was beginning to get laxer when he heard not one, but two animalistic grunts.
His reaction was much faster this time, as he instinctively threw himself behind a thick clump of light blue shrubbery, hoping it wasn’t poisonous to his skin.
Thankful for the body of a teenager, he managed to conceal in what he believed was the nick of time, but his [The Flame] card was ready to go off at a moment’s notice.
The grunts drew closer.