9 Chapter 9

The convoy moved at a rapid place. The carriage drivers displayed frequent grimaces as the wheels cracked and chipped under the intense strain.

Regardless of the damage, the crack of whips continued to ring through the forest and the horses galloped wildly.

"Faster! He's close by, we can make it!" The merchant yelled, his bloodshot eyes furiously scanning the forests behind.

Guards hung to the edges of the merchant's carriage. Their shaking hands showed that their swords provided them with scarce comfort.

The guard captain gritted his teeth and handed several vials of viscous yellow liquid to his men.

"Light the arrows!" The captain yelled.

The yellow liquid was obtained from the belly of a whale caught far from the shore. Its cost was extremely high, but at this moment the guard captain freely handed it to his men.

An unnatural groan echoed through the trees behind the carriage.

The huge and towering brown and green giants shook violently.

While the guards watched on in horror, slender branches began reaching torwards them like ghostly hands.

The speed of the branches was no less than an arrow in flight and the guards frantically lifted their weapons to parry the storm of attacks.

The unholy howl sounded again with increased ferocity and several guards struggled to hold their blades as their vision blurred and distorted .

Throwing open a hidden hatch on the ceiling of the carriage the merchant roared, "Wake up!"

The merchant's cry barely managed to rouse the guards from the howl's influence and they struggled to dodge the blows.

One guard who failed to react in time was brutally hurled from the carriage by a thick branch. His body cracked and spun wildly until he came to a stop. The light in his eyes flickered for a moment before disappearing.

The death of their companion filled the guards with fury.

Regardless of the risks they began striking back against the branches, trading injuries with every blow they landed.

"For Jeeves!" The captain yelled. The veins on his head bulged with such intensity that it appeared as if earthworms were crawling underneath his skin.

Wielding his sword with ferocity befitting a former soldier, the captain sliced apart the branches with lethal precision.

Sweet smelling sap spurted out from the gaping wounds his sword left on the branches and coated his armour.

The guards fought bravely, the crisis stimulated their swordsmanship to new heights and for a time the situation seemed to be tilting in their favour.

Then it appeared.

A deer's head jutted out from broad shoulders formed by tightly woven roots. It's eyes burned with sickly green flames and the teeth of countless animals dangled like spoils of war around its neck.

The soldiers finally saw what they were facing.

The hope in their hearts crumbled away.

Towering over the soldiers, the beast stared at them wrathfully. The dozens of thick and twisted tree roots that formed it's legs carried it forwards like a ship across the ocean.

Flowers of all shapes and colours bloomed crazily on its body before shrivelling and turning black in the seconds that followed.

The beast seemed to bend nature to it's will, wielding some torturous influence over the plants and animals of the forest.

Half rotten animal corpses stumbled behind it, crying out wildly with broken vocal chords as they were forced to move long after their deaths.

The most noticeable corpse was a huge brown bear. Half it's skull had been crushed and it's back leg was nothing more than a bleeding stump, aided by countless roots that pierced though the soil and pushed it on, it quickly began catching up with the fleeing carriage.

"No! No! No!" The merchant's scream cut through the chaotic scene. The nobility and elegance his words once held was replaced by helpless agony.

Abandoning the protection of his carriage, the merchant thrust his upper body out of the carriage and desperately swung a strange silver compass through the air.

"No, no, no!" The merchant yelled as fear consumed his sanity.

In the compass two small dots, one yellow and the other red were separated by just a few millimetres.

This distance would spell the death of the merchant and his party.

The merchant laughed crazily, his long black hair falling across his face and entering his mouth.

Spit spewed from his lips and his laugh took on an increasing madness.

"Fuck you Witcher! I curse you, I curse you with all my being." The merchant screamed.

Before the merchant truly lost his mind and became a madman, I decided to intervene.

'A leshen. I shall see how you taste!'

I bent my knees and jumped so high that I soared above the canopy.

Then I began to fall and as I plumetted downwards, my momentum grew.

I ignored the leaves and branches that obstructed my vision and focused my sight on the rampaging Leshen.

I became a black blur of death rapidly encroaching on the unsuspecting beast.

The leshen's eye sockets suddenly glowed brightly with green fire and it's head lifted upwards. Finally it had noticed my presence.

Though it had spotted me, the leshen's large and bulky body prevented it from reacting quickly enough to properly defend itself.

In less than a second I found myself eye to eye with the huge beast. The stench of its breath was overwhelming and rotten, but this had no effect upon my actions.

My claws raked down the centre of its skull, producing glowing red sparks that fell onto it's body and immediately caught alight.

The leshen howled with pain as the fire consumed it's body and thick greenish blood oozed out from the wounds left behind on its chest and head.

I took advantage of the leshen's instinctive fear of fire and swung my outstretched claws at it's chest.

Suddenly I found myself flying backwards through the air. A crushing pain in my chest followed afterwards.

The leshen had launched a powerful blow that had taken me by surprise and I hurriedly adjusted myself as I flew the air.

The enraged beast chased after me, in exchange for the surprise attack it had sacrificed much of its face; choosing to break its jaws in several places in order to allow a thick and gnarled root to burst out from it's open mouth.

I steadied myself against the trunk of a tree and solemnly observed the raging beast charging torwards me.

Roots shot out from the soil, aimed at my neck and eyes while branches furiously tried to wrap themselves around my limbs and restrict my movement.

Relying upon my sharp claws I sliced cleanly through everything the Leshen threw at me.

After several seconds of defending passively I finally found the opportunity I had been looking for.

I leapt onto a thick root extending directly from the leshen's shoulder for several meters.

I ran as fast as I could along the root, ignoring the leshen's attempts to shake me off.

The Leshen howled at me again, this time the sound waves contained a powerful magic that urged me to surrender to the forest.

Red energy surged outwards from my chest and immediately expelled the leshen's magic from my body.

Anger bloomed inside me and I screeched at the Leshen in a piercing pitch.

I attacked without mercy, urging the red energy to flow forth and continuously restore my stamina.

The Leshen defended itself desperately, but many of its attacks only ended up inflicting more harm upon itself.

I suddenly noticed a bright light approaching from a shadowy area.

Realising what it was, I chose to feign that I had lost my footing. The leshen was too consumed by rage to notice the trap and eagerly struck a powerful blow to my right arm.

For the first time, my carapace was unable to endure.

The armour I had thought unbreakable shattered in an instant and my now broken arm dangled usually at my side.

Fortunately my sacrifice was soon rewarded.

While it had been attacking my arm, the Leshen had forgotten to pay attention to it's surroundings.

This lapse in concentration allowed the human archers hiding in the forest to let loose several more burning arrows.

The arrows drew blazing arcs through the air, curving downwards at the Leshen's exposed back.

I grinned cruelly.

'Let there be light.'

The blazing arrows lodged themselves deeply in the countless wounds I had left in the Leshen's back.

The unique substance applied to the burning arrows acted as an extraordinarly powerful accelerant and the scorched areas of its body caused by the earlier sparks now caught ablaze once more with renewed fury.

The Leshen's spider like legs swung wildly in all directions. Whatever nervous system it possessed was being overwhelmed by the scorching flames that covered it's body.

The Leshen's fate was sealed.

In it's final moments it fixated it's sickly green eyes on me.

Then I saw it's charred begin to mouth move and it pronounced several unknown syllables in a strange rhythm. Prior to this the Leshen had shown no evidence of speaking any language.

As it spoke the final sylabble, the green flames in the leshen's eye sockets instantly extinguished.

I watched it's huge body fall forwards and felt the earth shake when it crashed to the floor.

The dying Leshen had used it's final breath to cast a powerful curse on me. Unfortunately for the vengeful beast, the red energy devoured the curse the second it entered my body.

I cast a glance at the humans hiding in the undergrowth nearby.

Their presence would not affect my actions.

Familiar red vessels crawled out from my mouth and plunged into the Leshen's corpse.

After a few minutes the process was complete. I chose to leave behind the majority of the bones behind, but took with me the half-shattered giant deer skull that once formed it's head.

I turned to the human party who had been raptly watching my every move.

I let out a low farewell chitter and then left the battleground.

'I must heal.' I thought, cradling my broken arm.

I would locate the unknown Witcher once my injuries had healed.

For the moment my priorities lay in restoring myself to full strength. With an abundant supply of red energy, this process would not take more than a day, but my instincts urged me to heal in a safe and secure space.

I began my search for a new den.