Chapter 20 Wonders of Nature

Josiah was carrying four weapons: his favorite sword that Mirild gave him; the level 14 dagger; the short rapier The Magistrate handed him, now almost level 12, and he carried a short level 6 ax on his belt, in case everything else failed.

The rapier had the interesting property of accelerating one’s bloodstream. Josiah could confirm that by the times he used it against creatures over the years, it always made him feel warmer and hot-headed. In a sense, it could be used to enhance his bloodbound properties with his other weapons. After all, the good blood condition was essential for a good usage of that kind of things.

“Now I know why people always carry a factory of blades together with them whenever they are going to the battlefield...” He commented as he struggled his path climbing the western mountains. That amount of steel was already starting to get to him.

“Uff, I’m beaten. I should find a place to rest before I continue…” He said as he was under the scalding sun, after a long climb. The trees weren’t growing at that height anymore. Josiah could see the forest all the way down by turning his head back.

“What am I saying? If I could find a place to rest in this middle of nowhere, I would have reached my destination and wouldn’t need to continue. Finding the vurdum’s cave is everything I need…”

Josiah crawled his heavy body down for a while as he contemplated the environment around.

‘Lenny said about cliffs? If the caverns are carved on cliffs, like that one in the forest, I should strive to search for small forest passages in between the hills, not follow the actual trail…’

Josiah switched his strategy and started walking along those cliffs instead. But the vegetation was dense and the terrain hard to walk on, it ended up tiring him even more.

“Gosh. If I keep at this pace I’m going to die!” Josiah stopped leaning his back on a cliff, trying to clean the sweat out of his forehead.

‘Funny. I used to go on this kind of mountain climbing when on vacation, back when I lived on Earth. But I was an adult. Now I have the body of an eight-year-old. Is that why I’m so tired…? But then what about those years of constant physical training…?’

Josiah’s tummy let out a loud noise.

‘Great. And now I’m getting hungry.’

The noise came out even bigger.

‘Ok, ok, stomach. I heard you. Can you please stop?’

The noise got even louder.

“Wait, is that actually my belly?”

Josiah noticed a big shadow overcame the place where he was standing. He looked up and saw the face of a huge monster.

Just like Lenny had described, the monster was similar to a bear. Mostly in the shape and in the way it walked, but it had the difference that it had six arms instead of four, and the face seemed far more angered and threatening. And it was far bigger as well.

Summing the fact that it was staring at him pretty close and that he had the body of an eight-year-old, the size alone was enough to engrave an irrational fear inside him.

“Wooah!”

Josiah should have stood quietly, as the creature hadn’t quite spotted him yet, but that was an inevitable scream of scaredness.

The beast let its belly roar once more before it jumped from above the cliff to the spot where Josiah was. The monster itself didn’t make any sound with its enormous mouth.

‘And now of all times!? Look at this cr*ppy situation! There are trees all over, the soil is falling apart, I’m tired as f*ck…’

Josiah drew his sword and held it with both hands.

‘This little one is at level 16. Even on a creature this size, it should be able to make a clear cut. Don’t be alarmed. It’s just an oversized bear.’

The vurdum took impulse on its back legs and charged forward.

The speed was far greater than Josiah was anticipating. He was willing to strike when the thing was in mid-air, but it charged so fats Josiah gave up and rolled to the side instead.

Josiah quickly recomposed himself and stood up.

‘If there’s something I’ve learned from all those years with the old man that’s getting up after a fall’ He thought. ‘I should run. Better to lure this thing to a more open arena.’

Realizing he wouldn’t be able to outrun the beast climbing up, Josiah started heading down, to the woods. Any flat surface would be better than engaging a fight with wildlife in that place.

The beast saw Josiah running down and didn’t follow him immediately. It first waited a couple of seconds before walking slowly behind, in the direction the boy went.

‘Strange nature. Is it a calm animal?’ Josiah thought. ‘Either way, I’m going to keep running.’

Josiah reached the bottom of that small hill and it turns out the path was blocked. A lot of thick and wide trunks had been piled up forming an artificial barrier, and behind the barrier, there was a deep hole carved in the grass, more than three meters deep.

‘That can’t be good…’ Josiah observed, as his body was stopping before it collided onto the trunk barrier. He looked around and the combo barrier/hole was circumventing the whole place. It was a dead end.

‘Who did this? That can’t be natural.’

He finally heard the monster roar behind him. It was a loud, deep roar that overcame all the surroundings.

“It was you!”

Josiah wielded the dagger in one hand and the sword in the other.

‘At least this area is flatter. I should be able to beat it now. Follow the same strategy as always.’

The good thing about the dagger is that he could use it to direct a hidden attack together with the sword. Most of the time the creatures would react to the sword range but would fail to realize the dagger was also directing a hit from distance. That was Josiah’s signature move since the fight against The Magistrate.

As expected, the vurdum bounced its massive body after the sword attack, but when Josiah was waiting for the dagger’s unleashed attack to cause the effect and take the opportunity to strike, he heard a sound of metal clashing.

It took a moment for Josiah to notice his dagger had fallen off his left hand.

“What?”

He looked back at the vurdum and could see it moving one of its middle legs back to the place. That leg had a bracelet around it. A metal bracelet, similar to the one his mother would use to parry attacks from the soldiers back in that day inside the castle.

‘He can use that!!?’

The dagger got thrown all the way near the barrier behind him.

‘Crap! Now I’m cornered here, I’m tired, and I cannot use my distance attacks… What should I do?’