Fight or Flight - NaNoWriMo2019 11/22

Rest came uneasy to Annice, sleeping under the stars under any other circumstance would have been a serene way to spend the night, but this night it just made her feel exposed. The air was cold, the dirt hard, and whenever she shifted in a fitful sleep she was roused by the weight of the chainmail on her chest or the pinch of bracers digging into her skin. She could not make herself unaware of the fact she slept precariously on the side of a tall hill with three Ogres that could show up at any moment in the night and kill her and her companion before wither of them were awake enough to stand. What sleep she did get were full of terrible half waking nightmares of cowering under the wagon as the Ogre’s smashed it with their massive weapons. When she was finally woken by Wilhelm hours before dawn she let out a long groan and nearly tumbled down the hill as she struggled to stand.

Wilhelm returned to the path to check if it was cleared and to prep the horses for the days journey, Annice held back to do her morning prayer. The prayer was brief and the familiar warmth of Syrene’s love felt somehow colder than it usually did. It unsettled Annice as she called on her goddess to bless her with spells… Standing, new magic resting in her mind, she joined Wilhelm at the bottom of the hill. The gladiator nodded to her and swung onto his horse as she approached, eager to finish thos journey.

“We’re on the last leg of the race, Annice. You’ll be seein the smokes of chimney fires before dusk, I promise.” The man said to her as she mounted Kasimira.

“Syrene willing” She responded, and managed a small smile. She reached into her pack and pulled out a stick of jerky. She needed to chew on something to wake her up.

The two traveled into the dawn, which was pleasantly visible this time, the tall hills on this side of the path were mercifully shorter and allowed for more sunlight to actually reach the bottom of the valley. Annice’s mood lightened considerably as she felt the sun on her face, and she felt renewed optimism about reaching their destination alive. It seemed likely, now that they knew two of the Ogres occupied the same territory and that it was behind them, the mood of both travelers elevated, and they even started idle conversation as they rode. The hardship was over, they would reach civilization. It was a tragedy, then, when they both heard the holler of something large and angry.

“Shit.” Wilhelm said, eyes trailing up the side of the hills, there it was.

The third Ogre was much smaller than the first two but still a massive hulk of flesh compared to the human and half-elf. It stood next to a sort of hut, though that was a charitable description. A dozen or two trees that had been ripped from the ground roots and all and lashed together to form a crude at best shelter. But this was home to the creature which meant this was territory to be defended. The Ogre had watched the two riders come towards it, not so bright to realize they would likely have passed without even noticing the hovel and likely moved away faster even if they did, when they came too close it let out a bellow. It took seven great stomping strides before leaping, clearing half the distance between it and the two intruders and landed directly in the center of the path with a thunderous boom, dirt spraying the other side of the valley in a gout of unearthed dirt and stone. Wilhelm stared at this creature, and his eyes widened.

“Damn the gods it’s a female!” He hissed.

“Uh, is that bad?” Annice looked from Wilhelm to the Ogre and twisted her face into one of confusion… how could he even tell?

“It’s a woman who has to share it’s space with two men, tell me you wouldn’t be pissed off too!” He called, and pulled his maul from his back and slipped off of his horse. Wilhelm wasn’t a jouster, and as much as he didn’t want to fight this thing he saw no other option so he might as well die on his feet. “When I start swingin at it get outa here!”

“That thick skull of yours again!” Annice shouted, sliding from her own mount. “We’ve been over this I’m not leaving!” Wilhelm glared at her but Annice was not budging, she saw him spit a curse but he readied himself. The ogre charged.

The first ogre wielded the entire trunk of a tree as a weapon, the second a cudgeled together bunch of boards with sword stabbed through the wood, this beast wasn’t so boastful or ostentatious, she carried a boulder. It was simple, a big rock to hit things with, it worked for her. The creature closed the distance quite fast for one with such bulk, coming at Wilhelm as the only one who had drawn weapon against her she came down with the boulder in a long arcing motion, seeking to crush the interloper with a stone twice his size, he leapt back from the strike and was only showered with dirt from the effort. The gladiator took his chance and swung the massive maul, slamming it into one finger, knuckle crushed between metal and stone. The beast yelped and reacted faster than Wilhelm could predict, backhanding the human with her free arm. Wilhelm went flying some twenty feet and collided with the upturned slope of the hill, he grunted and rolled to the base.

“Wilhelm!” Annice cried out, worry in her brow, she threw out her hand and called a word of healing to activate her magic. Wilhelm’s body glowed with a holy light and he stirred.

Shaking his head, not certain why he was still breathing, he stood. The pain radiated through him, and he was already groggy after one blow. That was with Annice’s healing magic. Healing from a distance might have been less effective than touch magic, but this Ogre landed one blow, and Wilhelm was already nearly tapped. Wilhelm wiped his cheek on the back of his hand and took a breath… If this was his day to die, he was gonna make sure he went down leaving a mark.

Wilhelm roared and launched himself forward, the Ogre roared back and lifted the boulder again to crush the annoying man, she lurched forward to swing the massive stone down, and Wilhelm took a chance. He pitched down into a slide, under the boulder as opposed to avoiding it, and was nearly clipped by it. He stood, not in front of the beast he took not one breath before swinging his entire body in a hammer stroke, driving the head of the maul into the side of the Ogre’s knee. The creature buckled, and fell to the injured knee, letting out a howl. It responded in kind, once again swinging with the free hand, Wilhelm avoided the brunt of the blow, but was still caught in the shoulder and spun half a dozen times before collapsing to the ground, he let out a string of curses and clutched his shoulder. The rock was up before the man and it ready to come down as Wilhelm had only made it to one knee. Annice shouted and reached her hand out, pinky and ring drawn in while all other digits extended at their full length, a power word activated her magic and the Ogre was momentarily bemused by a sudden display of sparkling lights dancing in front of her face. The light’s sparkled for only a moment before exploding in a flash of blinding white light, the intensity causing the Ogre to reel and scream, falling onto her back. The stone was dropped and rolled some distance away as the massive creature clawed at her eyes.

Annice smiled for a moment, letting out a breath, but felt her face sallow as the Ogre rolled and pushed itself up and focus in on the Half-Elf. The ogre blinked it’s eyes, but could obviously see enough to know there was something in front of it that needed to be killed. A massive arm came up and a fist came soaring down to batter the Cleric, Annice shrieked as she saw her end come but was startled as Wilhelm bowled her over, suddenly standing between Annice and the Ogre, hands coming up in an instinctive, and futile, gesture of defense. Annice had half a second to react and reached out, grasping onto Wilhelm’s calf, praying she not be too late. There was a flash of holy light and the sound of colliding flesh.

Wilhelm stood, the Ogre’s arm resting between his crossed wrists. He stared in bewilderment.

“Wh..what?” He seemed to croak out.

“YOU’RE STRONG NOW!” Annice screamed at the man, scrambling to her feet. Wilhelm grinned.

The Ogre clearly did not understand why the puny human man was not jelly under her fist, the elf one screamed something, but the Ogre only understood the Ogre tongue. Whatever was said was lost from it’s mind as it was drawn back to the puny human one, who was now lifting her arm? The ogre drew back and reached back for it’s stone, but it was more than an arms length away. It snorted, and snarled, and let out another roar, lifting it’s leg to kick at the human one.

Wilhelm spun to one side before taking off into a charge. The maul was lost in the last blow he had taken but the Warhammer was still with him. Leaping up Wilhelm was amazed at the air he was able to clear, faltering for a moment as he soared, but he readjusted and came down hard. With the strength of a bull he brought his hammer down across the Ogre’s face, it let out a shrieking yelp, just as much in surprise as in pain, that actually hurt it.

“Annice!” Wilhelm called out, “Think I can do this now!”

“No!” She shouted from a distance Wilhelm didn’t expect. “No you can’! I made you stronger, but the Ogre is still stronger trust me!”

Wilhellm swallowed as worry filled him again. Okay, he understood, she gave him an edge but they were not going to be able to get out of this in a straight fight. He shouted as the Ogre came at him with a lumbering fist, however much he did hurt it, not enough. The blow struck him in the side and he rolled with it, landing in the dirt again. Good, not dead, he could take a hit from it now. Still hurt like the Hells. He stood up and charged back in.

“Any plans?!” He called out, unable to take his eyes off the battle to find Annice.

The Half-Elf did have a plan, but she was busy implementing it. She had already gotten to Kasimira, reigns in hand, and was on her way to grab Ale. The horses had galloped off when the fight had started and in the wrong direction to make it worse. Annice grasped the Clydesdale’s reigns in the same hand she held the quarter horse and the two beasts followed her, now for the hard part.

“Yeah, keep it busy while I get the horses past you two!” She called out, starting to lead the very distraught horses alongside the start of the hills, trying to keep as much distance from the melee as possible.

“Yeah, easy!” He cried out bitterly. “Any help would be appreciated!” The man was using the new power in his leads to leap clear of each of the Ogre’s enraged blows, each coming harder and faster than the last.

“Uh, okay!” She said, exasperated. She pointed, the gesture seemingly simple but not all somatic elements of spells trusted your fingers into pretzels.

The spell went off just as a rather nasty blow came down on Wilhelm, but before it connected it veered, sliding off something invisible and causing the Ogre to land into the dirt, confused. Wilhe;m laughed out loud as he saw, faintly in the air, that he was surrounded by a shimmering field of protective energy.  The Ogre’s eyes snapped to the man and a wild uppercut came at the man, it once again pressed into the nearly invisible field, it veered again but not as much and connected with the man’s shoulder, Wilhelm stumbled back. Okay, the field could be bypassed, but it did make him harder to hit. He lunged forward and swung his hammer into the beasts face.

Annice was tugging now on the reigns, the horse both rather reluctant to get closer to the fight, the crawl she was able to make them move caused her fear to tenfold itself, she needed to get these horses across this field! It was only a matter of time before the Ogre noticed them and realized that… The roar drew Annice’s attention, and she saw the Ogre staring at her, Wilhelm in the middle of recovering from another blow. She cursed silently to herself as the Ogre charged, the Cleric could not cast a spell as her hands were now tangled in the Reigns, if tugged at her arm to free it but found the leather strap wrapped around it twice over and two very frightened horse keeping them taught. She shrunk away from the coming blow but instead watched the Ogre collapse to the ground skidding face first in the dirt. Wilhelm’s hammer came thudding to the ground, hilt up, a moment later. Looking past the creature Annice saw Wilhelm, panting and arm extended in a completed throw. He groaned as he lifted himself up from the ground and took a moment to find the Maul he had dropped earlier before closing the distance between him and the ogre.

“Alright ma’am, the tussle’s been fun but it’s time to end this.” He said, walking around the beast towards it’s head. He was gonna finish this, bring the maul down on her head with all his might and finally take this thing out. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

The beast lashed out, and Wilhelm yelped in surprise at the creature’s possum, fat fingers the side of his wrist gripped his chest and the man was lifted into the air. He flailed helplessly before being brought down onto his back. The world spun for Wilhelm and he tried to shake his daze, but the ogre’s other hand down his face, and crushing digits wrapped around his head. He gripped the ogre at the wrist, but could not find the strength to get the arm free as the creature bore down on him. He hollered in pain as his chest and head were crushed, trying to rip the hand from his face and wildly kicking the ogre in the torso, nothing was happening. He felt the pressure in his skull rise and the intense pain of it drowned out the world, his entire head was about to pop and be crushed like a grape. He thought it did when the pressure stopped, he thought he died and was suddenly in the Three Heaven’s waiting room. It took him longer than he would ever be willing to admit to realize that the Ogre had simply vanished.

“It worked!” Annice shouted, hopping in the air in triumph.

“Wh…what?” Wilhelm stated, sitting up. The man gripped his head, feeling long trench marked in his skin, but noting that his skull was otherwise still the shape it always was. “What’d you do?”

“No time!” She said, rushing to him and helping him up. He managed to resist her insistent tugging long enough to grasp his hammers before she lead him to the horse. “We have to go, now.”

“Why, you got rid of the damn thing, right?” He asked.

“Yes and no.” She stated, getting onto her horse. “I just… Banished it.” She noted the look of confusion on Wilhelm’s face. “I shifted it onto another plane of existence, another realm. But not forever, it could come back at any moment! So, you know, go.”

“Why didn’t you do that when we saw the thing?!” He asked.

“Cause I can only do it once, it has a high chance of failure, and it basically saps my reserve of magic. If I had started with it, I wouldn’t have been able to cast the Healing, Strength, and Shield spell I used. However much magic I cast before the Banishment spell I’m only able to cast one more spell after, and it has to be a pretty basic spell then that’s it, I’m tapped!”

“Right, alright let’s get going!” Wilhelm mounted Ale.

“Full sprint, I’m not joking, the banishment spell can last for minutes at best, and seconds at worst.” Annice urged.

“Ale can’t keep up with that pace…” Wilhelm stated, and before he could suggest she go off without him, Annice laid her hand on Ale’s flank, a flash of light emanated from the horse’s side.

“Now he can. Let’s go.” Annice kicked off and Kasi sped down the path.

Wilhelm followed suit, shocked at Ale’s sudden ability to keep up with a Quarter horse. The two continued on at full sprint for a solid six minutes, it was about that time that Kasimira started to show signs of exhaustion. The two came to a stop and dismounted, having put what had to be a mile and a half between them and the female ogre. Even if the banishment had ended, the creature would have reappeared and found it’s quarry gone, and no signs of where they had headed. Annice gave Kasi water and food, stroking it’s mane and cooing loving compliments to the horse, thanking her for saving their lives.

The two allowed for an hours rest, to afford Kasimira the chance to regain strength. Wilhelm sat against a rock, bracing sore muscled against the solidness of the stone. Annice laid, splayed out, on a patch of grass staring into the sky. The time passed by with no words, there was nothing that could be said in the moment. The two had not yet processed what they had just encountered. They nearly died, neither of them under the impression they didn’t scrape by that entire encounter by the skin of their teeth. Judicious use of magic and a man’s skill of fighting was just enough to make it out alive. They were not exactly celebrating, small amount of talent, maybe the blessing of a goddess, and a lot of blind luck.

The two were back on their horses as soon as Kasimira seemed able to carry Annice’s weight and move forward without discomfort. They rode as a slower pace for the animal’s sake, but still made good time. Tears came to Annice’s eyes when she saw a barrier stretched across the path, a mirror to the one they had seen the previous day at the start of their trek on Lost Road. Annice glanced over and saw Wilhelm quietly wiping away his own tears. The man wasted no time, not bothering with pulling the barrier free this time, he took his maul and cracked the chain once, causing it to crumble, and then swung one more time in the barriers dead center, causing it to swing open wildly and finally release them from the path. Annice took a deep breath, and perked when she smelled smoke, staring into the distance her face lit up as in the distance, some miles away still but clearly visible, she saw barns and houses. She let out a long haggard breath, and leaned into Kasi as the strength left her body. They had made it.

Boughborn.