Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Шестая глава

Chapter 6

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:36

Three days later, I was sure that our company had been forgotten. Or they didn't care. In any case, no one was attacking us, no one was chasing us, no one was poking us with sharp objects, and no one was trying to make stew out of us. On the one hand, this was good, but on the other hand, I was beginning to worry - we were too easily forgotten. So easily, that it was suspicious.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:40

My recovery was over in a couple of days, leaving only a couple of unpleasant marks on my back that had been struck by the discharges. The first thing I did after regaining my ability to control energy was to start playing with the shadows, enjoying the new possibilities. And there were possibilities!

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:41

For starters, I found it easy to control shadows, both near and far. So easy that it was only a small step to the point where hitting with a shadow would be easier than hitting with a fist. But it was the increased materiality of the shadows that was the main advantage. They didn't just become thicker, no. Now I was a hundred percent sure that they were not the usual manipulators for magical effects, like telekinesis.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:43

My shadows have become pits, wounds on the body of reality, doors that lead somewhere else. If I pack more shadows into a small area, concentrate and energize them as much as possible, the resulting hole would begin to feel real. It is as if you step into it and fall somewhere to the bottom of the universe. It's a disgusting feeling, very disgusting. I tried to calm myself down, but I was stupid enough to throw the mouse I had caught into the hole.
T.N. https://youtu.be/9v0_fID_jvA

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:46

I wish I hadn't done that, because the mouse just disappeared. And in the depths of the door, I had created, I could have sworn I saw something blurry, but very, very real. At the sight of this f*cking thing, my cowardly little soul signed a leave of absence and hid in the area of my heels, starting to build the Great Wall of China out of the bricks my ass produced. Trying to keep the panic at bay, I slowly unraveled the structure, and moved about two hundred meters away, just in case.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:52

Since then, I have tried not to collect many shadows in one area, practicing multitasking and subtlety of action. The increased energy and the perk gained helped in both cases, simplifying control and strengthening the resulting shadows. In theory, I could even make a shadow monster with shadows instead of tentacles. There aren't any meguka around, but the possibility is there, which can't help but be symbolic.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:54

Communication with Hans and Losij was over, along with my injuries. I couldn't keep up a normal conversation for fear of getting caught up in some unimportant detail, and being in hiding all the time made it hard to have fun conversations. And telling jokes was even more dangerous for disguise - it's hard to hide when you're laughing too hard.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:56

Both men had cheered up considerably since the escape, seemingly convinced that we had succeeded in breaking through. There was that ephemeral substance in their demeanor that is called confidence in the future. We may still be in the middle of nowhere, and we do not know if we will ever come out to people, but at least the executioner's axe is not hanging over our heads, and the noose is not tightening around our necks.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:58

We're actually in luck, for all the experience of the locals tells us that the greenskins are very reluctant to leave the humans they hate alone. They pursue only elves of all kinds with greater fury, fighting realistically to the last living fighter. Except that no matter how confident the two experienced warriors are in their luck, something tells me that the sudden loss of interest in us can only mean one thing.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:58

They came up with something that will kill us much more effectively than direct pursuit. And that already makes me a little uneasy. Just a little, but enough to use my dreamwalker abilities every night and minimize my sleep time, expecting something very bad and definitely deadly.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 08:59

Call it isekai intuition or paranoid delusion, but I wasn't about to give up my opinion, night after night staring into the darkness.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:05

That's what saved our lives when my theory - what a surprise! - was not even a hundred percent true, but a hundred and sixty percent true, beating the electoral vote in the last election.
T.N.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:11

I noticed something wrong three seconds after the first ringing of the bell. The ringing was, pardon the silly pun, complete and utter silence among the forest fauna. The crickets were silent, the birds were silent, the animals stopped roaming. In my shadow perception, I watched as all the living things either began to increase their distance from the limits of my perception with all their limbs or froze like statues, afraid to even move. Such behavior among the forest dwellers could only mean one thing: some kind of fucked-up thing was coming. And my ass was telling me that it was coming for us.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:12

As soon as I realized this simple truth, I understood that my gut was telling me that trouble was coming with a big, spiky club behind me, and if I wanted to keep my asshole virgin, I had to either run away or get ready to meet the dear guests.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:14

I stood silently and kicked first Hans and then Losij. The first just wakes up, cursing softly, but the second immediately rolls to the side and is already holding a dagger and a sword. This is what a high level means!

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:15

Without saying a word, I press my finger to my lips. When I realized that my gesture had been seen, I said it with one mouth:

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:29

"Listen."

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:29

Hans is the first to get it - a pathfinder, after all - but it doesn't take long for Losij to puzzle himself with the question, either. Within seconds, the three of us are on our feet, armed and ready to fight or flee.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:30

The forest was still silent.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:31

The silence did not disappear, the shadows did not show anything in the radius available to me, but my gut was screaming like a rocker at a concert, indicating that danger was approaching.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:32

I concentrated harder and harder on the shadows, trying to feel the threat. And I got a huge, mammoth shit-encrusted "nothing. The forest is like a forest, and if it weren't for the behavior of the animals, I would have suspected my gut was malfunctioning. But the forest is silent, only the noise of the trees and the wind, and the ass is literally on fire, like cleric forum after post with abortion clinic ads.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:34

"Tin, what are you..."

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:34

I interrupted Hans with a wave of my hand and concentrated on the shadows until my temples hurt, trying to sense something, something unusual, something incomprehensible, something at least. Because if I don't, there's a good chance that they'll do to me the same trick I used to do to the local savages: stab me in the throat and walk away.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 09:36

Heartbeat.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:44

The shadows lie silent on the ground in the light of the moons. They are indifferent and static, alien to all human experience. They are only shadows, a meeting place of light and darkness, a scratch on the body of reality.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:46

Heartbeat.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:44

There is not a single movement, only the wind rustling the leaves, whispering its song to the forest. Quiet rustles that could tell you anything, if only there was someone who could understand them.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:46

Heartbeat.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:44

And then I notice a discrepancy. At the very top, in the treetops, something touches the leaves, making them move out of tune with the wind. The creature doesn't make a sound, it doesn't cast shadows, it's not even material in the full meaning of the word. But its movements cause the other shadows to shift slightly. Just a little, barely, so tiny an impact that you wouldn't be able to notice it without putting your best foot forward.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:47

But I did.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:48

And at the last moment, I managed to push myself and my companions out from under the impact with shadows, missing the extremely unpleasant fate by just a few centimeters. One heartbeat.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:49

Hans and Losij began to rise with a wild screech, and I was already frozen in a lower stance, ready to deflect a blow from any direction. Now there are no more leaves, because something has already fallen below the crowns, being in a relatively free space.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:50

Hans's cursing becomes quite wicked and panicky when he sees the long hole in the middle of where the three of us were standing. And I realize that's it. If I can't spot the next attack, I'll just die.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:52

With all the power I have, I ask my shadows and, with a flash of wild migraine and blood dripping from my left nostril, it's like I'm opening my eyes. The enlarged sphere of perception hits my vestibular apparatus a little, but that's not important.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:55

The most important thing is that I see something.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:55

It is weightless and invisible, it leaves no shadows, but those that already exist feel its presence. Like a feather flickering over the skin, like someone else's breath over the ear.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:57

I knelt from the sensory overload and, without turning around, attacked the fuzzy silhouette of the enemy, circling around the three of us, already at our backs. The shadow that had fallen from my palm was not the sharp ribbon I was used to fighting, but rather a lump of viscous mass that constrained my movements.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 10:59

My attack saves Hans's life, causing the creature to fall out of the stealth and squeal wildly. The screech literally screws into my skull, making me freeze in horror, hesitate, make a mistake, but, as with the bear, the moment of panic is washed away by a wave of calm from my title. And everything becomes abundantly clear.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:00

There is me, and there is the enemy.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:00

And one of us will disappear tonight.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:01

The creature that had broken the distance froze in place, causing Losij, who had managed to turn his head in its direction, to exhale loudly. And there was a reason for that, you had to admit.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:03

Imagine that all the skin was removed from a person and then cut into small segments. Two on the forearm, one on the hand, one on each finger, three on the shoulder, and so on. Now imagine leaving palm-wide gaps between these pieces of skin, but sewing the pieces together with veins removed from the body. Now imagine a kind of skin armor that has been filled with something transparent and fuzzy, but deadly.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:04

Oh yeah!

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:04

The victim's face was intact and, in a way, alive, so that the three of us could admire the flour-distorted face of Gummy, who apparently served as the material for the creation of this... vessel. All my gut is screaming that the human-skinned creature is only kept real by the costume. That it's too strong to be in our world all the time, and that's why it's drawn back to the stinkhole from which it came.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:05

It's also intelligent.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:05

Very, very intelligent, perhaps even smarter than me. In this thing's eyes, the eyes it had stolen, there was intelligence as alien as it was malicious.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:06

And I'm beginning to wonder how that cunt was even forced to come after us in the first place. It's stronger than ordinary orcs and goblins. Even a chief I killed would have been eaten by it just as easily as I break the necks of goblins. Maybe that's the reason why no one messes with these greenlings. They're weak themselves, but they can sell their holes to pay for summoning mass pussyfucking into enemy territory?

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:09

They wouldn't let me think it through. The creature had had enough of playing peek-a-boo when it realized it couldn't stun me, as it had done to the frozen Hans and Losij, who now need to be covered up, too.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:10

The creature stayed where it was, at least I could see it there, but the shadows, my faithful allies, and servants felt an instant tug in an arc, with a step to the side of the poor isekai. So fast that I looked like a snail in comparison, if not a snail, then a slowpoke.

Camrad_RIP 10.12.21 в 11:20