Chapter 34:

Fear is the original sin. Almost all of the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something.It is a cold slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading. - Lucy Maud Montgomery

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Few Moments Later:

Current Year: 1261

"Awooooooo!" A few white wolves howled at me. They gnashed their blood soaked teeth in anger at my current actions.

Right now, I was in the middle of trying to destroy the third and last of the Leshen's totems. It was something I needed to do in order to summon the creature to fight. It was going quite smoothly until these wolves, obviously under the control of the spirit, had shown up to try and stop me. My witcher training had only been 'mostly' completed, so this upcoming fight might be a bit tough. If I hadn't taken my magic lessons under Mousesack, I wouldn't have had the confidence to even try and face off against a beast as powerful as a Leshen.

"Sorry my canine friends, but I have a job to do." I stated while summoning a steel sword from inside my 'little trinket' to my hand. I wasn't going to waste my chaos on spells to defeat some wolves. I might be a source, but if I overextend myself too much… Well, let's just say it won't be pretty for the surrounding area I'm in. At least, that's what Mousesack told me.

I dashed into the fray with a swift roll. I came up to the side of the wolf that was closest to me. I used my inhuman speed to my advantage and jammed my sword right into its throat before it could react. The wolf whimpered for a moment in shock, but soon died nearly painlessly. I don't like to be needlessly cruel to animals, that's not my style.

The other two wolves saw my actions and decided that after seeing their fallen brother get killed, it was time to pounce. One of them came up from my right, attempting to take a nice chunk out of my forearm. The other attempted to move in on my left to try and sink his teeth into my torso.

I smacked the wolf to my right away with a mighty backhand, it went flying several meters before rolling into the nearby grass. As I did that, I grabbed the throat of the wolf to my left. It whimpered for a moment within my mutated arms, but I just brought up my other hand and soundlessly cracked its neck. Its limp body fell to the ground, its life had already been extinguished.

The wolf I had smacked away earlier was trying to make it's way towards me. However, I could tell that it was slightly limping. Either it's leg had been injured when I pushed it away, or it had received some brain damage from my backhand. I didn't know the answer and I didn't really care too.

The wolf was too damaged to do anything to me, so I just took out one of my throwing knives and hurled it at the beast. The blade flew through the air rapidly before making its way into the beast's eye. The wolf's four legged form fell over and toppled to the ground. The incredibly short battle had been won.

"Now then, it's time to get rid of you." I said while staring at the tribal totem before me. "However… Not before I make some 'preparations' for our big fight."

I walked away from the totem and began to put my plan into motion. I brought several steel rods out of my 'little trinket' and began placing them in various places across this section of the forest. I summoned a silver sword that I had gotten made earlier this year to my hand. It wasn't anything special, but it would get the job done. As I was waiting, I finely applied some relict oil to the blade in my hands. It never hurts to be too prepared. While I was at it, I also grabbed a few potions that I would be using for this fight.

Unlike Geralt, my body has not yet been mutated enough to consume more than around four or five potions before going into cardiac arrest. I might need some healing done after this fight, so my limit for consuming potions is actually only limited to around three. I chose my few substances carefully. Tawny Owl, so I can keep my stamina up. Maribor Forest, so I can keep my adrenaline flowing and to generally just get me in the mood to fight. The final potion I had decided on was a Full Moon. It essentially just makes me 'healthier' for a short while.

I quickly consumed these three potions one after the other. Unlike what the games would have you believe, there is usually no chugging drinks in the middle of combat. Drinking a swallow potion can sometimes make a witcher feel extremely drained. Drinking it would simply get you killed in actual battle. It needed to be drunk after the fight was already over and you were in a place that was safe from harm.

My preparations were complete, all I had to do was destroy this totem. I walked over to the object in question and upon reaching it, formed a simple Igni sign. A mild gust of flame later and the totem had been set alight.

I heard a large… sound… I don't know how exactly you would describe it, but it was very unnerving. It had an almost otherworldly feel to it. I felt a slight wind pressure bearing down on my back from behind. I quickly turned my body to see that a giant monster with a deer skull for a head was coming into creation. It's body coalesced from black smoke that was swirling along the ground. It's tree-like appearance was incredibly sinister looking, capable of making anyone believe that this being was the will of mother nature herself. Five wolves were summoned behind it, looking just as hungry as their brethren from earlier.

"...What now, you piece of filth?" I yelled out the iconic phrase before this legendary battle began.

The Leshen in front of me let out a loud groan while holding its arms into the air. The wolves that were waiting patiently behind the powerful monster suddenly moved into action. They all started to run at me, intent on ripping apart my flesh as an offering to their master. I was not going to allow that to happen and immediately created some distance by backing farther away. I kept my eyes mainly focused on the Leshen in front of me the whole time, just in case he tries to teleport.

During this time, the wolves were making significant progress on closing the distance between us. One of them had reached my side and was attempting to gnaw on my free hand. I brought down my sword over the wolf's head in a ruthless manner, bisecting it's skull and the squishy brain matter inside of it in half. I was no longer capable of showing any mercy for the wolves, fighting the monster came first.

The Leshen took this chance to teleport, I could see its form beginning to turn into9 shadows from where I was standing. The beast appeared to the right of me, the teleportation ability it had used was insanely quick. Good thing the Leshen's body doesn't share that same trait. An incredibly long wooden claw came swiping at me from the right. The Leshen's tree-like appendage expanded for a moment, it's claws extending right out at me.

"Sorry, mate." I spoke to the creature while dodging the strike in question. "I don't plan on dying to an angry plant in this lifetime."

My 'tree friend', as I've taken to calling him, wasn't too happy at my little taunt. I could tell that he was planning another large attack, so I rapidly moved my feet backwards to create some distance. A huge form of crows suddenly bellowed out of his large physique. They swarmed around him for a moment before setting their sights on their target. That target obviously being myself. They began to zoom towards me with a ferocity that was atypically found in most crows. They approached rapidly, but I kept my calm composure up just fine.

My face had formed into a smirk when my 'tree friend' summoned his tiny little bird warriors. I had actually wanted him to do it from the start of this battle. In my opinion, summoning them was one of his most dangerous abilities. Several, possibly even hundred, of enemies attacking you is exponentially more dangerous than one.

"Teacht le chéile agus iad a scriosadh síos!" I screamed out at the beasts in the elder speech.

My left hand glowed with a fearsome red light while my magic did it's work. The iron rods that I had placed along the battlefield earlier lit up in a wild dark blue color. The spell had been formed and my chaos was drawn out of my body to complete it. Lightning started to sprout out from wherever the rods were placed on the ground. Before the birds could even touch me, they were all zapped out of the air. Large swarms of the crows fell to the ground in a mere few moments. Their smouldering feathered carcasses were all that remained of them.

The Leshen let out a large howl at the fact that his minions were being killed by the dozen. It teleported in front of me and dug its hands into the ground. I wanted to slash down at the monster in question, but my torso would be destroyed by the roots in the process. I tried to move myself out of the way, but one of the wolves from earlier had bumped into me at the exactly wrong moment.

"Shit!" I yelled out. I didn't have time to dodge the strike anymore. My hand glowed red once more in preparation for the fearsome blow that was about to sprout out of the ground.

Roots started to sprout out from the ground, making their way towards me in an extremely swift fashion. My facial expression formed into an unnatural grimace as the attack approached me. My left hand glowed with an even fiercer light then before, hastening the spell in question.

"COSAIN Ó FHÓRSA!" I screamed out just before the spikes coming out of the ground managed to reach me.

A red tinted vibrating shield appeared around me just as the attack landed. The roots slammed against the shield with paramount brutality, but it was to no avail. The Leshen wasn't intelligent enough to realize this and continued to slam against my shield for a few more moments before the roots he commanded retreated back into the ground. My 'tree-like' friend screamed out in anger once more, frustrated that its attack had failed.

"You like my shield, monster?" I asked while taunting the beast. I was happy that I had managed to avoid getting skewered during that last attack. "I just made it recently. It's not perfect yet, but I sure am glad you're not a monster that uses a more magical form of attack. If you had used some sort of fire related ability, then I would be a blazing corpse by now."

There was some good news, that last attack by the Leshen had managed to kill the wolves that remained at his disposal. It looks like he didn't care too much about friendly fire. As I was thinking these thoughts, I allowed the Leshen to silently walk towards me in a menacing manner. As soon as it reached me, It made another sweeping strike with its long claws towards my stomach. My shield activated once more to protect me from the strike. The Leshen's long blade like appendages couldn't manage to penetrate through the spell.

I was starting to get fatigued from the Leshen slamming down on my magic, but I managed to move through the exhaustion. Despite my slight weariness, I took this opportunity while the beast was occupied with trying to rip out my organs to land a strike of my own. I angled my sword down at the fearsome creature in front of me, intent on landing a hit near it's elbow. My attack succeeded and I managed to remove its forearm from the rest of its body.

"AHHHoahHAHHH" The creature yelled out while clutching the stump of it's now missing limb with its other hand.

"You know…" I said while the beast continued to howl in pain. "I've been trying my best to come up with a clever name for an amputee support group… But so far, I'm stumped."