Curselock

Chapter 24: The Long Road

Travel to Shoutwell was decently eventful. There, of course, were monster attacks, often leaving them a hair away from death. They came from the trees or hid within the streams, often surprising the group from decisive flanks. But the simple monster was no match for Leland, Jude, and Glenny.

Jude and Glenny were simply impossible for the monsters to ever touch, and if one ever bit or mauled Leland, the others would wreak havoc upon its life. And that was a large if. Leland’s magic proved quite adept at simply stopping monsters from charging. Randomly breaking bones and a twenty percent slowed movement had only failed him once.

It was at night and Jude was supposed to be on watch. But instead he was practicing the harmonica silently, oblivious to the outside threats. The monsters came in a single circular wave, stretching the length of the tree line and blocking any advance and retreat.

Goblins.

Relatively smart fiends, goblins were considered a scourge to human life all across the continent. Growing in massive nests, goblins moved across the countryside, pillaging any and everything. More lives were lost to goblin kind every year than any other monster. With a Royal kill on sight decree, many made names for themselves taking out entire conclaves.

A snap broke Jude from his harmonica practice, pulling his attention like an owl scouting a dark field. His head popped up, his hearing strained, he even sniffed the air.

“Wake up!” he bellowed, rousing his three traveling companions.

A whistle screaming through the air forced him to act, pulling at his tattoo and summoning forth his blood stained battle axe. Using the weapon like a shield, Jude stopped the arrow cold. It ricocheted off the steel, bouncing harmlessly to the ground. It was then he smelled it.

“Poison arrows!”

The call put Leland and Glenny into motion, the latter of whom shifted invisible and rushed out. A deep purple halo blazed into life with a powerful roar, a slight amethyst hue radiated out and illuminated their camp.

“Fracture, Slow, Maul,” Leland unleashed his spell arsenal, spinning in a circle and spreading his influence wide across the encroaching goblin party.

The smoldering embers of the dead campfire then burst into life with a great blue-black flame. A flume of fake heat and power reached the height of the nearest trees, then like a blowtorch calibration, the spectacle receded back to red hot charcoal.

Alkin huffed with sweat dripping from his forehead, his entire mana pool spent for a single illusion.

Meanwhile, Jude and Glenny bisected or gutted every target they came across. Volcanoes of blood and muscle splattered into the gravel road, spines and dismembered appendages were left in a wide wake.

Some goblins screamed in retreat, rushing back to the tree line or regrouping with the stronger few. The boys pushed the advantage, breaking their formation into a tactician’s worst nightmare. That was, until the snarling appeared.

From the trees and under the cover of darkness, six yellow glowing orbs stalked around the camp. With only a failing fire and purple halo as light, the boys failed to notice the initial charge. A bola flew through the air, wrapping around and stopping Jude from retreating back to Leland.

Leland dug deep and pushed his mental fatigue, curses flying left and right. Fracture after Fracture while a murder of crows dive bombed with great urgency wasn’t enough to stop the assault. The razor sharp teeth of a dire wolf tore through his mage robes, ripping into his flesh and pinning him to the ground.

“Leland!” Jude shouted as he yanked the bola from around his ankles.

A crude spear then stabbed into the ground beside the Lord of Curses’ head. Eyes wide and scared, Leland then saw the goblin leader riding atop the wolf.

“Maul,” he yelled, pushing his whole flock onto the double enemy.

A snap sounded from Leland’s arm as his bones were crushed, a grunt escaped his lungs causing his next spell to fizzle into oblivion. The goblin thrusted its spear again only for it to be intercepted by a crossed pair of daggers.

“Fracture,”

A painful shriek sounded from the maw of the beast, loosening its grip just enough for Leland to reclaim his arm. He scurried back as Glenny’s tongue launched forward like a cannonball.

It collided against the goblin leader’s chest, doing nothing more than give the monster a slight whiplash. A sinful cackle escaped its lips as the pair jumped away and a second dire wolf took its place.

Jude entered the fray a moment later, fur glued to his hands and shoulders like a demented paper-mache with the corpse of the last wolf paces behind him. He took first initiative, his eyes going hollow as rage boiled over. He didn’t flinch when the beast bit into him, he didn’t blink when his chest bled into fleshy ribbons.

He only had one thing on his mind, to kill.

Glenny returned to the shadows with his invisibility activated. He first made sure no other goblins remained near the road then turned his sights to the leader. The wolf mount was licking its front paw, a slow trickle of blood leaking from protruding bone. The Legacy of the Chameleon smiled and took the kill shot.

Both daggers sunk in deep, passing through the wolf’s ribs like a shovel does clay. He twisted his hands and body, activating his gushing ability. Blood and bits of organs rocketed out, spraying like a broken water hose. Moving to a blind spot, he then stabbed again. Then a third time. And a fourth.

The wolf collapsed, sending its master to the dirt. Glenny didn’t give the goblin a chance to stand, a slit throat was enough to seal the deal.

“Jude, listen to me. Are you in there? Come back to us!” Leland’s cries for his friend were only rivaled by his cries of pain.

His mangled arm laid limp beside him, blood flowing like a waterfall. Skin and muscle were easily identified, as was the noble form of Alkin Onryo as he stepped between Jude and Leland.

Jude only breathed, his eyes long turned into something devoid of reason. Steam rose from his blood covered arms and back, the fury doing more than simply changing his headspace. It was eroding his body, killing it from the inside out.

Glenny returned to being invisible, stepping forward to potentially stop the berserker. Long ago, when Jude had his Dream Ceremony and chose the route of his mother, Jude’s father had contacted both Leland and Glenny.

They had been warned about the signs, they had been told about how Jude would degrade if left untreated. It was expected that this wouldn’t happen for a few years, giving Jude plenty of time to come to terms with the changes and overcome them. Evidently, they had pushed too far too fast with their adventuring.

“Come on Jude, fight it! You know what is going on! Fight it!”

Color came back to Jude’s eyes a moment before he blinked a few times and fell over. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

The days after the goblin battle were tense to say the least. With Leland’s arm held to his chest in a sling and his ring of regeneration on full blast, the party had to travel significantly slower. It also didn’t help that Jude had been quite nauseous, frequently needing to stop to expel his lunch or breakfast.

Still, one early morning before Alkin returned from washing in a nearby steam, a conversation was held about Jude.

“No more fighting until you figure yourself out,” Glenny said.

Leland agreed.

“It's not that simple, guys,” Jude replied with large dark bags under his eyes. “I can’t not fight. It’s a part of the Legacy of the Lord of Berserkers. It’s in my blood.”

“What do you suggest we do then? Because we can’t go through another significant fight where we don’t know if you will turn on us.”

“I won’t turn on you guys.”

“You already have! In the dungeon!”

Jude’s shoulders fell. “Oh right.” He shook his head. “My mom said she had to ‘go on a journey into her own mind,’ to not lose herself. Whatever that means.”

Leland spoke up, trying to be as still as possible. “It means you need to meditate and learn to control your rage. Honestly, it sounds similar to how a mage has to focus to cast spells. If their concentration is broken, the spell fails and fizzles.”

“We could also, you know, contact your mom and explain the situation,” said Glenny.

“NO!” Jude yelled before his eyelids slammed down and his face wrinkled. He groaned in pain, his hand rubbing his temples.

“It’s getting worse. The rage is getting to you,” Leland said plainly. “We will hold off on contacting her for now, but if it gets worse…”

Jude nodded. “I can do this, please trust me.”

“We do, we just don’t want to see you hurt.”

Leland then had a thought, one he smirked at. “We are a day away from a decently large port city. I’m sure we could find a book on Berserker Syndrome.”

That got another groan from Jude. “You know I hate reading.”

Glenny rolled his eyes. “Then I’ll read it to you.”

Jude thought about it for a moment. “Do you think they will have books about harmonicas? I might read one of those.”