Chapter 31
You know, despite becoming a Witcher there was still that primal fear of literally walking into the lair of a powerful monster with the intention of fighting it that has been with humans for a very long time. I'd like to think my nervousness is understandable considering what I was about the fight but I'd bet most people wouldn't think Witchers were capable of self-doubt of any kind.
It didn't help that all those potions I took were burning through my body and had turned me into a literal human-shaped sack of nervous energy ready to spring out at a moment's notice.
As I creeped deeper and deeper into the cave, doing what I could to hide my approach, the smell of blood and manticore was overpowering, along with what I was sure was wet chewing sounds coming from deeper within.
Eventually I put my back against a wall and turned my head slightly around the corner to look into a small cavern that was open a bit to the sky to find my prey.
Among the animal bones and other refuse I saw that the young manticore's back was to me as it was face deep into the horse rib cage, snacking away on meat and cracking bones to get at the marrow within. While not the size of a full grown lion it was certainly close, and it's wings and tail only made it appear larger.
Seeing as it was distracted this seemed like a good time to strike as any. So I did.
First I bring out and underhand toss a Samum so that it lands right in front of the beast. When it goes off I'm rewarded with a roar of shock and pain as the bomb temporarily blinds and deafens the creature, stumbling backwards in an effort to regain it's senses.
Next, as I am running towards it, I toss out an activated Yrden disc to land at its feet and watch as it's movements become noticeably slowed.
Now that my prey is both confused and trapped I start off with a strong thrust with my steel sword into its midsection, seeking to bypass it's ribcage and damage the vital organs within. This is something I repeat two times before the manticore finally breaks out of my Yrden and takes a wild swing at me with it's claws. Something which I easily back away from… but don't see the longer tail sting that follows it before it's too late.
Thankfully, having cast Quen beforehand, the strike merely bounces off my shield, throwing the manticore briefly off balance when faced with unexpected resistance, and allows me to counterattack with a few swings of my sword.
The manticore flares out its wings and gives a mighty flap that pushes me back a bit and launches it across the room to get some distance from me, and also finally lets it have a good look at its opponent. The roar it gives in anger and pain at me is loud. I'm sure if we weren't in a confined space the nose would carry quite a bit in all directions.
Following that we both stare each other down, sword and natural weapons on full display and waiting for one to make the next move. The only difference is that the manticore is bleeding quite a bit while I am not.
Being the patient sort I am, it's the manticore that makes the next move. Leaping into the air with a flap of its wings and fully seeking to land it's full weight upon me with teeth and claws. Not willing to test to see if my Quen can stand up to that entirely without breaking I roll to the side at the last second and whilst doing so I leave a Yrden upon the ground.
The manticore lands with a loud smash into my magical trap and is slowly attempting to turn while I complete my roll, get back on my feet, and close in to swing my blade at it.
This was a battle of skill over brute power, but also one of endurance since the manticore was a powerful monster that would not go down easily. So what followed was several minutes of rinse and repeat with me tanking light attacks and avoiding heavier ones whilst counter attacking with my sword as much as possible before backing off. Witcher mutations might turn ordinary men into Captain America, but it was the skill and knowledge beaten into them from youth that made them so dangerous against their preferred prey.
After what seems like hours, enough that some of my potions are wearing off, but I know was a tiny fraction of that I back off once again and look over the manticore, it was in a bad way and it knew it. Covered in bleeding cuts, several deeper ones in it's chest, it's tail barely hanging on after being subject to multiple sword blows, it was breathing quite heavily, and in general looking far from the fearsome creature it was just moments ago. From the look in it's eyes it also knew the state it was in and instinct was now screaming at it to- shit!
I ran forward as the flight instinct finally overcame the fight one and the manticore flapped its wings several times to become airborne, seeking to escape through the opening in the roof of the cave. Not wanting to risk it getting away to somewhere I could not follow and rushed forward with the aim of crippling one of its wings, but as it turned its back instead of stabbing down into leathery wing membrane I instead stabbed into shoulder muscle before my own iron grip betrayed me.
Namely, I quickly became airborne.
'This could have been thought out better.'
---
Dogmeat stay and guard spot like Master said to. She peed on tree nearby to let everyone else that spot belonged to them, well… her since Master did not pee himself strangely.
Dogmeat stayed when Master went into hole to fight stinky cat.
Dogmeat stayed when she hear loud sounds in hole, even though she wanted to help fight.
Dogmeat stayed when this kept happening for several dog hours.
Dogmeat did not stay when stinky cat flew out of top of hole and she saw Master on cat!
Dogmeat ran and followed as best she could as cat and Master flew like birds in sky, cat yelling all the while and flying weirdly. They not fly long.
Dogmeat ran out of forest into not forest full of big animals that 'moo'd' a lot and really tall grass.
Dogmeat watch as big cat and Master fall from sky and into tall grass!
Dogmeat run harder than Dogmeat ever had and smells around for stinky cat and Master!
Dogmeat finds Master! Dogmeat so happy she runs up to him and starts licking face lots, ignoring big hole he in next to stinky cat that now smells dead. Dogmeat keeps licking until Master finally starts moving slowly and reaches for smelly things he carries before drinking one, then another.
Master finally start to get up and give Dogmeat pets like she deserves for being good Dogmeat she is.
"Ohhh that stings like a bitch… good girl. You earned your pay and then some. Something is getting bacon tonight." her Master says with smile.
Dogmeat barks happily. Bacon tastes good and only for best packmates since Dogmeat never see Master give to loud one.
That means Dogmeat is best!
---
You know what they say, 'any landing you can walk away from is a good one'. Though I doubt anyone had that expression in mind when you are crash-landing a mortally wounded manticore into some poor farmer's field and have to down several healing potions to heal up numerous broken bones, punctured/ruptured organs, and who knows what else that should have by all rights kill any normal person outright but left little old Witcher me alive enough to use a broken but functional enough limb to grab several White Raffards to fix most of that.
I say most since I had the very unpleasant experience of pushing a piece of bone on my left leg back inside of me where it belonged before downing another potion to fix that. I turned and glared into the dead eyes of the manticore as Dogmeat was sniffing it all over, getting her nose a bit bloody in the process.
"I'll give you props, the first real damage you did to me in our fight nearly killed me outright. I've learned my lesson, no grabbing onto flying enemies and going down with them. I'll leave that crazy shit to Geralt." I complained as I slowly got up and walked over to take out my steel and silver sword from the beast's back. "It's a good thing I had a second one to stab into you or else I would have fallen off sooner." I muttered as I worked to pull them out of the corpse.
"By the gods! What the hell happened here?! What have you done to my field?! What the hell is that?! And who in the hell are you?!" a voice called out behind me and I turned to see an older man and two teenage aged boys who I assume were sons all staring gobsmacked at me.
"In order: I crashed landed a manticore, I used it as a landing field, this is said manticore, and I am Markus of Kovir and Poviss of the School of the Griffin Guild of Witchers." I explained as I finally yanked out my blades and inspected them, damn both were bent a little in the fall so will need to pay a blacksmith to straighten that out. Good thing I put all my potions in metal bottles or I am sure I would have lost all of them in the fall. Though, looking down at myself, armor was going to need some repairs at all and a good cleaning since it was covered in blood and dirt.
Lovely, I'm starting to think most pay Witchers' get is put mainly towards making sure their shit is in good enough order so they can even do future jobs. No wonder most of the time they were pretty poor.
"Witchers? You mean the monster slayers that steal youngins away?" one of the boys asked.
I turned to them with a sigh and sheathed my weapons.
"No, we don't steal anyone. Sure, when a client can't pay for our services it's tradition to invoke the Law of Surprise which sometimes leads to a child to be taken into our guild and trained to become Witchers themselves. Most often though we pick up orphans with nowhere to go and no future if they understand the risks of what it means to become a Witcher since it is not an easy path. The idea that we steal children is something that is blatantly untrue or is committed by a small fraction of Witchers in general that people take as the norm since it is a more interesting tale."
"Oh." was the intelligent response.
"I don't give a damn about that! All I care about is that you destroyed a part of my field killing this damned beast and I expect you to pay for damages!" the father yelled at me with a glare.
"Sure, don't thank me for killing an aggressive monster that was a short flight from your farm and could have easily carried off your livestock or a member of your family while nearly dying in the process and expecting me in that period of time to look for an uninhabited piece of land to crash instead. I expect nothing less honestly. How about this? I pay you a 100 crowns right now to cover damages and to shut the hell up about how I do my job. In fact, there is another 50 in it for you if you and your boys help me load this corpse onto a spare cart and take it to the Vegelbud estate. How's that sound?"
From the way the farmer and his sons shut up and rushed off to do just that I assume it sounded quite good.
---
"You rode upon a manticore?!" Ivar shouted in awe.
"Briefly, before crashing quite heavily back to earth. But yeah. I guess you can count having my swords stabbed into it while it was in its death throes and attempting to escape as riding it." I stated blandly as Ivar's, Luc's, Luc's workers, the farmer and his sons looked at me with jaws hanging open as people crowded around to look upon the dead manticore that was hanging slightly off the farmer's cart.
"... That is it. I will buy a full set of plate armor if it means I will be close to the action from here on out." Ivar declared seriously.
"You are better off with something light since knights train from childhood to wear heavy armor." I pointed out before turning towards Luc. "I believe this will do for proof of completion?"
"Ye-Yes, very much so. You have more than earned your pay and my riders and patrons will be quite happy to know the danger has passed and races can begin again quite soon. I'm also grateful that you collected Sam's body so that he might be put to rest properly." Luc says while staring at the other corpse on the cart that was being taken by some workers. This one was human shaped and wrapped tightly in a sheet.
"No problem. Unless people believe in that kinda thing, leaving him in the forest to rot seemed disrespectful and likely to attract necrophages if the vultures didn't pick him clean fast enough. Wasn't much of a hassle to backtrack to get him anyhow thanks to the hired help." I gestured at the farmer and his sons who seemed quite nervous being in front of the local nobility.
"Nevertheless, you have gone above and beyond the task you were hired for. If you hadn't been in the area I might have had to rely on mercs or hunters and I doubt they would have succeeded as rapidly as you have. Witchers are truly worth the gold spent for their expertise. In fact, I shall give you a 50 crown bonus for your deeds." Luc said and gestured for a nearby servant to come forward with a large coin purse, Luc himself dumping in some extra coin, and then handing it to me.
"Thanks, I aim to please."
"And that you have. Now, with the threat passed I must go and spread word that the races can continue while also making sure my aunt never hears of this. Good luck to you on the Path, Witcher." Luc said before walking off, servants and workers following suit.
I then turned to the farmer and his sons before dumping the agreed amount into his hands from the coin purse, still leaving me with a net profit of 500 crowns.
"Take care, and I hope you don't have to deal with anymore Witchers crashing monsters into your field again." I said.
"Tha-Thank you Master Witcher! Please forgive my earlier words for you have proven yourself honorable and true to your word." the farmer said with a slight bow.
"Don't worry about it, I would be mad too if I were in your shoes. You think you can help transfer the body onto my cart before you head off?"
"But of course! Boys! Let's make it so!" the farmer told his sons and all rushed off to get to work.
As they did that I turned to Ivar. "You think we can still make it to Oxenfurt before the day ends? It's only noon and I hope we can sell this whole thing off, barring the pieces I want, over there along with our other goods."
"Assuming there is no trouble on the road we should arrive around dinner. Now, I have a manticore to inspect and a victory speech to create to present to my rivals!" Ivar declared and ran off to get his supplies.
"Bark!" Dogmeat spoke up at my feet.
"Heh, yeah. You earned it." I said with a smile as I brought some dried bacon from my pack and handed it to her, which she snapped up greedily.
"Between you and me, I think I fear the scholars more than the manticore." I whispered to Dogmeat as I watched Ivar pry open the manticore's mouth to stare at its teeth.