Brewing Bad Ch. 99-100

Ch. 99 - A Walk to Remember (part 2)

Lucas backed slowly away from the ugly pair, dragging Danaria with him. The two hobgoblins followed him, snarling and spreading out as they went. One only had its claws, and the other had a blade that was rusted and broken. Neither had half the reach of his sword. 

Each time one would get closer, he would swing his blade to ward them off. He had no doubt that he could beat them, but fighting them while he defended someone else was going to be a lot harder. 

He cursed himself for not bringing along anyone else with him. Even with the Greenwood largely purged of goblins, there were still spiders, owlbears, and whatever else rattling around here. You know that, he berated himself as he tried to figure out the best move. You send guards with your foraging parties to make sure people don’t disappear. His dumb ass had decided that all the monsters would just hibernate like bears when there was snow on the ground. 

Lucas looked left and right, trying to make sure there weren’t any more sneaking up on them. He couldn’t see anymore, but he could hear the sounds of crunching snow moving through the shadows when he finally decided the best way to handle this. 

“There,” he shouted, nodding his head to the side. “Climb that tree until this is done.”

“You want me to what?” Danaria gasped, scandalized. “Climb a tree?”

“It beats getting stabbed, doesn’t it?” Lucas shot back. 

A look of panic crossed her innocent face at that moment, and she turned and started climbing immediately. He was glad he’d chosen that word instead of other, more likely ones. 

These things had no interest in killing them. They didn’t want to rob them. They wanted to rip them to pieces and devour their still-steaming entrails. Those weren’t images that belonged in Danaria’s pretty little head, though. Let her worry about ruining her dress, he told himself as he fumbled with his pouch to pull out one of the boost potions he always carried with him. That can be the worst of it as far as she’s concerned. 

Long Lasting Combat Flask (2 doses): Agility 2, strength 1, poison 1, lasts for four hours. Unable to sleep for the duration of the effect.

No sooner had he drunk that and tossed the metal flask aside than a second group of two more joined the first, all but surrounding him. One of the newcomers carried a crude stone-tipped spear that he was sure it would hurt like hell to get stabbed with. 

The smart thing to do was run. He knew that. He was a foot or two taller than these things, and if they didn’t catch him with a surprise pounce at the very start, he’d leave them in the dust. With Danaria, though, there was no chance. Her skirts would drag in the snow, and they’d be on them in no time. 

So, he had to fight, but at least with her temporarily out of reach, he was free to move to the fullest, and he did. Lucas took a moment to stumble back, acting like he was afraid of the reinforcements; then, as soon as the closest two charged him, he whirled, gutting one as he felt the strength from his elixir start to flow through him.

Lucas had made a lot of progress toward mastering the blade in the last two seasons. Against a trained opponent, he still had a long way to go, as Sir Milen proved with regularity. Against these things, though, well, all they had on him was raw brutality. 

The first one staggered back when Lucas all but disemboweled it as it struggled to understand what just happened. The second tried to take advantage of Lucas’s distraction and attack his exposed right side under his guard. 

There was no way to bring his blade back around in time, so he brought his elbow down hard on its face. Then, while it was stunned, he kicked it as he retreated a step back. 

It charged a second time, with the other newcomers in pursuit, but this time, he was ready, and he brought his sword down, letting the thing impale itself on his blade as it charged, screaming a second time. 

Lucas smiled viciously, feeling pretty smart about that maneuver. The feeling only lasted as long as it took for him to realize he’d never get the blade free before the other two were on him. Cursing, he released it and drew the short four-inch knife that he carried for harvesting. 

This is exactly the wrong weapon to be fighting these animals with, he told himself, but there was nothing for it. He’d come back for the sword when they gave him an opening to.

They didn’t, though. For the next few minutes, all he could do was exhaust himself, with feint after wild slash after dodge as the one without weapons ran him ragged, and the one with the spear kept him hemmed in. 

Twice, they might have done more than shred his cloak or force him to retreat, though. Both times, he was saved as his foes were forced to retreat when an angry hawk dove at their faces. It was no mystery to Lucas that those bouts of luck were almost certainly Danaria’s doing, and he thanked her silently as he pressed the attack and looked to take advantage of those openings. 

He got a few stray hits in, but on the whole, he felt like he wasn’t doing much with just his knife. It was a nightmare situation. Eventually, he had to pop his flask of endurance, too, after a bit, just so he could keep this up. Lucas had no idea that he’d relied so much on reach up until this point, but apparently, he did. His long arms and his long sword let him dictate the conditions of the battle, but without it, he was just down to potions, or was he. 

During a vicious exchange with the panting hobgoblin, Lucas chose to take a series of gashes on his off arm instead of his face while he delivered a vicious stab to the thing's chest. Not even that was enough to stop it, but it did make it retreat for a moment. As his eyes looked past the blood, he noticed something he hadn’t thought about in a long time: the ring. 

“You mother bitch,” Lucas yelled, wondering how long he could wait to take a healing potion before that shit got infected. 

There’s no reason I can’t use this in a fight, right? He wondered, looking at it. The concentration would be a bitch, of course, but…

Lucas tensed up as if he was about to go right, then he willed the Ring of Vanishing to life. He flickered out of existence, but only for a moment. As soon as he juked left and his blade made contact with his enemy, he reappeared, but the instant was all he needed. Green blood sprayed across the snow as the hobgoblin’s head almost came off, and it collapsed in a heap. 

That was enough to make the last one growl warily as it tried to figure out what happened. “You like that, asshole?” Lucas laughed. “You’re next.”

With those words, Lucas concentrated again and winked out of existence. For a moment, he just stood there, trying to catch his breath while he watched his enemy spaz out. It started dodging, weaving, and, more than anything else, stabbing at midair. The thing whirled viciously, sure that Lucas was about to spring from nowhere, but all he was doing was catching his breath. 

He waited until the thing started to slow down and show signs of its own exhaustion. Then, he took two quick steps forward. Then he faded into view as he embedded the full length of his knife in the thing’s eye with one hand as he seized its spear with the other. Against a man, impaling its brain should have been a fatal blow, but apparently, hobgoblins didn’t need those. 

The hobgoblin turned around to run, but Lucas ran it through and pinned it to the ground with its own weapon. Then, he pulled out a lesser healing tincture to stop the bleeding and decided that it was time to retrieve his sword before there were any more surprises. 

“Is it safe to come down?” Danaria called out finally when the clearing was quiet. 

“Let me make sure no one is still breathing,” he called back, yanking his sword free from the hobgoblin body impaled on it. After that, he took his time to finish off each mutilated corpse just in case. 

It was only when he walked around the clearing that he saw just how bloody the fight had been. When they had started, the whole area had been pure white. Now, though, it was splattered in green. Here were light green flecks, and over there were dark green puddles. Here and there were a few drops of red where the critters had taken chunks out of him. Mostly, though, it was a slaughterhouse bathed in goblin blood, and the only thing he felt bad about was that Danaria had to see it. 

As he circled around and then helped her climb down the tree, though. She didn’t seem to be angry with him. He’d been planning to apologize for not being more prepared for what had happened, but when she clung to him, shaking like a leaf, all of his words fled him. 

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking into Lucas’s eyes then. He’d never seen her more vulnerable than in that moment, and it pulled at his heart as he realized he’d do anything to protect her. 

There, amongst the scattered bodies, was hardly the most romantic place he’d ever been, but he kissed Danaria anyway. He couldn’t help it.

She kissed him back immediately, without hesitation, as he pinned her hard against the tree that had saved her. This wasn’t their first kiss, but it might have been the first time that he really meant it. For just a moment, he’d thought he was going to lose her, and that moment, hand kindled something in him that wasn’t there before. 

That moment lingered longer than it should before he broke it. That obviously left Danaria wanting more. Lucas did, too, but they couldn’t stay out here. More critters would be drawn to the smell of blood, and the last thing he wanted to fight off was wolves or whatever else came next. 

“We should head back,” he said, and reluctantly, taking her hand in his before he bent to pick up the baskets they’d already filled with herbs and such. 

“Not yet,” she insisted. “First, we have to check on your—”

“I’m fine,” Lucas answered. His tone was harsher than he meant, but she was not dissuaded, and even as he tried to insist that he was fine, she was forcing back his cloak and his shirt to look at his wounds. 

When they were still oozing blood, Lucas said, “I can take another healing potion,” but she only shook her head at that. 

“These shouldn’t be healed until Cassara can look at them,” Danaria answered with a shake of her head. “We’ll bandage them until then.”

He didn’t have the strength left to oppose her after all of this, so he let her tear strips off her beautiful dress and do her best to take care of him. After that, she insisted on carrying the baskets while they made their way back to the horses.  

He wanted to skip that part because he was sure it wasn’t a pretty picture, but there were things they needed to take back with them, even if the mounts themselves would almost certainly need to be replaced.

Ch. 100 - The Last Day

The only positive part of their day was when they found their horses just after nightfall, not far from where they’d tied them up in the first place. They were even still breathing. Danaria’s mare was completely unharmed, but Lucas’s gelding had grizzly claw marks on one of its flanks. Still, he'd been sure that they would both be dead, so this was a real improvement. 

The two of them walked their mounts back, even though Danaria offered to let him ride her horse. Lucas wasn't about to show that sort of weakness in front of her, though. Instead, they walked home, causing an immediate uproar as soon as they walked into the yard. 

Lucas had planned to keep the whole thing kind of low-key, but as soon as the watch on the rear yard saw him returning injured, he sounded the alarm. Lucas couldn’t really blame the kid for that, he supposed. That was what they’d taught him to do. Just the same, he was more than a little annoyed as everyone sprang into action.

Kar’gandin immediately sent someone to the village for the herbalist and the veterinarian. Hura’gh wanted to send parties down to track the hobgoblins back to their source. Danaria insisted that he do nothing but change out of his bloody clothes and allow himself to be tended to. Worst of all of them, though, was Gerwin and the look that he gave Lucas when he saw the state of Danaria’s dress.

He immediately started to read Lucas the riot act for putting her life in danger, and honestly, Lucas didn’t even try to stop him. The old man was only saying exactly what he was feeling, and Lucas endured it with all the dignity he could muster.

Eventually, it was Danaria who stopped him. “I’m fine, Gerwin; I promise I am,” she explained. “Lucas was very valiant in his behavior; I wish you could have seen him.”

The servant sputtered but said nothing, which was enough to make Lucas laugh. That, in turn, opened up several of the shallower wounds on his chest again, causing Danaria herself to take a turn at chiding him. 

His favorite red-headed herbalist came within an hour, and after applying several very painful poultices to the worst of his wounds, she pronounced that he would be fine, “though he should spend the week in bed, just to be safe,” she clarified. 

“No, can do,” Lucas said, not bothering to sit up since he knew that one woman or the other would push him back down. “My carriage is coming the day after tomorrow to take me back, and before I do, we have to go out to look for more—”

“Out of the question,” Cassara said as Danaria almost yelled, “No way!” This time, it was Gerwin’s turn to smile before he left the room. 

Lucas tried to negotiate, but neither woman seemed especially interested in hearing it. Eventually, they agreed that he would probably still have to take the carriage back, but other people would have to gather any herbs that still needed to be gathered. 

“Fine,” Lucas sighed heavily. 

He didn’t like to be ordered around like this, but he remembered well how badly the healing process had set him back last time with the owlbear. So, he reluctantly went along with it this time, even if it was a waste. 

All he wanted to do was use his strange power to locate interesting ingredients, and now he was stuck describing the plants that he was most interested into his best gatherers. No one had a problem with that when he gathered them together later that evening, even if they thought it was pretty strange to be going out this time of year. 

“How’d you even find all this stuff under the snow anyway?” someone asked as Lucas went through his haul, instructing them.

That gave him pause, but only for a moment. “Man, you think the only way to find these things is by looking at them?” he lied. “With an attitude like that, I might as well promote you to guard duty. You should know the appropriate growing conditions for most of these plants by now. You should be looking there, at the right spot for them to exist, and most of the time, you’ll be right.”

It wasn’t true, of course, and now that it had been brought up, it made Lucas lower his expectations for the day’s haul even further. Everyone believed it, though, and that was the point. Still, as he lay there once everyone else had left, he reflected on the lost opportunity. 

By morning, Lucas felt a lot better and thought that the concern was entirely overrated. At least that was the case until Mort helped him change his bandages, and he saw how much puss came out of the wounds overnight. 

“Those things are disgusting,” Lucas said with a shake of his head. 

“Yeah, but better out than in, right?” Mort volunteered. 

“No, not the bandages,” Lucas laughed. “The hobgoblins. I can’t believe how filthy they are!”

Mort laughed at that, not sure what else to say. Lucas thought he was a fine kid, but he was a bit shy, and the whole encounter had thrown him off of his game. 

After that, he left to assist in the wild goose chase that Lucas had assigned all of them. Then, once Gerwin helped make Lucas decent and presentable, breakfast was brought to him, and eventually, Danaria joined him. 

Really, almost everyone joined him at one point or another that morning, except Adin. His absence was notable. That was not to say that was unwelcome or unexpected, but it was notable. Lucas could hear the man several times throughout the day from some other part of the house as he made the final preparations for his wedding. 

As far as Lucas was concerned, it was worth going back to Blackgate just to get out of that ceremony. The man was bad already, but the deeper his wife-to-be got her hooks into him, the worse he got. 

Lucas didn’t let himself be troubled by that too much, though. Instead, he took it easy, spent time with Danaria, and made arrangements with his other lieutenants. The dwarf suggested he start carrying more weapons just in case. “Ye seem to be one for attracting trouble, laddie. You might need to bring something with a bit more oomph next time. Like that potion, ye made for Hura’gh to bust us out.”

Lucas stifled a laugh at that and decided not to explain to him that the potion in question would have killed Lucas dead. Still, he restocked his boost and healing potions and replaced his discarded knife. He would practice enough to be formidable, but he was never going to be a legendary warrior or anything. He paid people for that. Hell, his system hadn’t even awarded him experience for killing the hobgoblins, though strangely enough, it did seem to have awarded him a little for drinking them.  

He tested that further, and by the end of the day, after two more healing potions, not only did he feel fine, but he did indeed confirm that the thing rewarded him for drinking potions. The only evidence that he’d ever been wounded were the bright red scars and some lingering stiffness. 

Despite that, his very pretty warden would not let him escape from his bed for very long, and truthfully, he really didn’t want to. At this moment, being in his lab wasn’t nearly as interesting as laying there, playing some simple board game with her, or even holding her hand.

Don’t go soft on me now, he chided himself that night. This isn’t like you. 

It wasn’t, but he still had no intentions of stopping all the same. He’d been single for a long time. Since long before coming to this world, and while he couldn’t exactly ask the pretty young noblewoman out on a date or start a friends-with-benefits sort of thing with her like he would have in his old life, she seemed like a perfectly reasonable match to settle down with. Except for the whole, you’re an awful drug dealer thing, he reminded himself. 

“I can work on that,” he told himself. “A little longer, and I won’t be a dealer; I’ll be an illicit alchemist working at the direction of the crown. I think it has a nice ring to it.”

It was a thin fig leaf, but it was the one he fell asleep thinking about. In the morning, all of his things were packed, and they were waiting in the grand hallway just as he’d requested when the carriage arrived. His goodbyes then were necessarily brief, but only because he didn’t want to give Danaria the chance to get emotional where others could see. 

“Remember,” he told her as they hugged one last time. “No letters for a while. Not until it gets warmer. Now that I know they aren’t abducting me, I’m sure they’ll let me send mail the normal way.”

“I promise,” she agreed. “No more cold nights out there. I’ll just have to practice my flying around here instead.”

“Good girl,” he said with a smile. Then he kissed her on the forehead and left before Gerwin could scold him for it. 

The ride back was just as it had been every other time that Lucas had ridden in this carriage. He was still guarded, the men were still quiet, and the road was still bumpy. This time, there wasn’t any fear or anticipation, though. He knew that he was in no danger. 

Really, these guys are more like Secret Service at this point, he decided after contemplating the issue. They just want to make sure that their golden goose doesn’t get got.  

That suited Lucas fine, of course. He didn’t want to get taken out either, though he didn’t think that there were many people interested in hurting him these days. The Blind and the Red Lantern gang were both pretty much toast and other than Adin’s new in-laws, he really didn’t have anyone that might be pissed at him. 

Well, except Adin, of course, he thought to himself, but he doesn’t have the balls to do anything like—

At the exact moment, somewhere deep in the woods, most of the way to Blackgate, while Lucas was sitting there, pondering how unnecessary these security precautions were, an explosion rocked the carriage. It was a powerful blast that sent him, along with everyone else who had been in the thing, flying in different directions. The screams of horses and men as parts of the carriage went in all directions. 

Lucas was spared the brunt of the blast by his seat, or maybe whatever piece of luggage was behind it. That wasn’t immediately clear. All he knew was that whatever had happened had occurred behind him or perhaps beneath him. 

Some motherfucker invented a car bomb before they invented a car? He thought to himself as he lay there, trying to tune out the ringing in his ears. 

Lucas’s first impulse was to rise and see if everyone else was okay, but his second was to lay there and play dead. He did just that for a moment while he slowly returned to his senses, and then he did one better and focused, fading from view as he heard the sound of footsteps crouching through the snow getting closer. 

Then, mindful not to lose his tenuous grip on that magic, he slowly rose to his feet and stumbled out of the flaming wreckage to try to determine what had just happened.