Chapter 39 Talpig

“At this rate, we’re going to reach there in a blink of an eye,” Watt commented when the sun rose again, after their first night.

“Yeah…” Josiah was still a bit sleepy.

“Hanging around in a pair is also good because we can just take turns on sleeping as we did. Let’s go! We don’t know exactly when they’re coming back. If we can almost reach it today, we won’t need to worry to be two of the thirty first ones after they arrive.”

Josiah was beaten. He used a lot of his rapier power when Reeve was hanging by the cliff, and after that, he had to use it several times, one for each attempt of placing the sword correctly above the floor from a distance.

‘My poor sword… It’s all worn out. I should find a smith after this all ends…’ Josiah thought, looking complacently to the blade of his mother’s last gift.

It took about half of the day using more and more his bloodbound power to build rope bridges until Josiah was all worn out and needed a rest. It was almost noon.

“Exhausting, huh?” Watt commented. They were sitting on the ground, leaning by a large boulder to protect from the scalding sun.

“Easy for you to speak like that.”

“Haha! I know you’re the one doing most of the work. But hey… Don’t be upset. We are almost there. The central mountain seems a lot bigger now.”

“Yeah…”

Josiah took out the last piece of food he had and started eating.

“Oh, you still have? I brought only a sandwich. I didn’t know we were going to a place without any food at all. Plus, we never get the chance to save food in the reserve.” Watt commented.

“Do you want some?”

“No… No… It’s yours. You need it more than I. I’m just gonna rest here.”

Watt pushed the boundary of his beret above his eyes and got more comfortable.

Then they heard a roaring noise, coming not from too far.

Josiah was the first one to get on an alert state, embracing the hilt of his sword and preparing to stand up.

“Think it’s some sort of animal?” Watt asked, “probably wants your food.”

“Sounds like a big one.”

The beast came from the ground near the wall. It was huge, about twice the size of a human. It had large claws made for digging and some sort of a pointed horn with a similar characteristic, resembling a screw. All its body was covered in spiky black fur. The head was the largest part of the body. Almost too disproportional. Like a seafish, its opened mouth covered almost its entire front size.

The beast dug its body out the wall but didn’t spot them immediately. It was moving its muzzle, trying to detect where the smell came from.

“Oh, sh*t! It’s a talpig! Let’s get out of here!” Watt exclaimed in a half-whispered half-shrieked voice.

“Run? We are in two! Let’s kill it.” Josiah whispered.

“Are you crazy? What level you think you are? 40?”

“I killed a vurdum once.” He declared proudly.

“Really, now? And these things might have two or three vurdums for dinner! There’s no other option. We need to get out of here!”

Watt tried to get up silently so that the thing wouldn’t see him.

But it was too late. The animal had spotted its food. It advanced toward Josiah, who was holding the lunch in his hands.

It was faster than everything he fought before. Faster than the vurdum; than The Magistrate’s blade; than Thomas; than Benson. The speed was so great there was barely time to dodge. Josiah dropped everything he was holding and had to throw his body in an uncomfortable way to the side.

“Argh!”

“Josiah!” Watt shouted.

The sword which was near Josiah had been thrown next to the mountain wall. Josiah was still trying to recover from the impact.

The animal opened the mouth and engulfed Josiah’s rest of lunch, together with a bunch of dirt.

Unlike human opponents, it wasn’t the type to wait for Josiah to get up and make fun of him. For the wildlife, there was no fair fight.

Watt rushed up and caught Josiah’s sword off the floor.

“Watch out!” He shouted at him.

Josiah once again used the roll forward jump while his body was curved and on the floor. He crawled himself at the start and guided the movement by the shadow of the beast on the floor. When it was closed enough he changed the direction, causing the thing to stomp its horn on the floor.

The strength of the impact cracked the floor and a giant hole was carved in. had it been Josiah he’d be thrown into bits now.

But the talpig was accustomed to walking inside the floor. Cracking a hole didn’t slow it much because of the way its claws and horn were designed. It turned its body so quickly Josiah couldn’t even think of his next move.

“Josiah! Here!” Watt shouted. His brain lagged and he actually turned his head around to Watt’s direction. At the same moment, he realized it wasn’t a good moment to get his attention diverged like that.

Watt tossed the sword at him; with the rope already tied in. In the breath time the sword was in the air the thoughts crossed Josiah’s mind:

‘I see. Watt wants to repeat the bridge plan and jump to the other mountain. We are going to have to act quickly. But it was a desperate plan. While I’m here looking at him, waiting for the sword to drop in my arms the thing is rushing toward me. Should I forget the sword and turn back to the talpig to see if I can dodge its leaping charge? Or should I wait for the sword? If I abandon the sword we are going to waste more time trying to grab it off the floor later. Did Watt think of what the thing would do while the sword was in the air? Damn it. What do I do now…?’

But Watt knew how the talpigs worked. At least to an extent. He whistled as loud and high-pitched as he could. It drew the beasts’ attention for a second. After it looked to his direction, he threw a stone at him to try and make it change target.

“Now!” Josiah’s questions were answered. He caught the sword in the air and began using his bloodbound power in order to throw it to the other side.

‘C’mon. I need to get this right the first time this time. We can’t waste three attempts here like yesterday. I’ve been training. It shouldn’t be hard… Just focus.’

While Watt was busy with the talpig’s dangerous attacks, Josiah breathed deeply and forcedly calmed his blood flow, as Thomas and instructor Tal had taught him. It took him a while, but he got it right. The sword toss was perfect; the blade felt with the tip on the ground of the mountain on the other side.

“…Siah!” Watt’s voice was engulfed, as he desperately tried to free his body from the thing’s claws. Josiah looked at him to see him fighting not to get engulfed by the giant mouth, waving his sword at him.

Josiah never whistled before. Not like that. He knew he wouldn’t draw the attention of the animal with a sound or a regular stone throw. Especially not when it was so close to biting Watt in half like that.

Josiah grabbed his dagger and cut a very large, deep bruise in his left arm. Then threw the dagger with the bloodblound power to hit the thing’s back.

As expected, the staggering effect didn’t work. But it at least felt some slight pain due to the dagger contact.

The purpose of the arm cut was to let out some blood scent. After the enemy felt it being attacked and its nose captured the blood scent, its attention got drawn to Josiah once again. The talpig stopped attacking Watt for a moment.

“Now! The stones!” Josiah shouted.

Watt caught the closest big boulder he could get and threw flawlessly above the sword to make the bridge.

This was the most rushed bridge of them all and the first one where they dared cross both at the same time on the same rope. But they had no other choice.

Luckily that went pretty well. Considering the whole situation, that is.

After the duo landed, they were sufficiently exhausted and hurt to let their bodies fall on the floor, begging for a rest.

“Uff! I told we should have run sooner when we first heard it.” Watt said.

“I didn’t know they were like that…” Josiah rebuked.

“Well, at least we crossed the stupid mountain. Let’s just hope nothing like this happens again on the way over there, ok?”