A Long Time from Home Ch. 29

The only chance I had was to parry for my life, while I used Ars Mentalis on myself to become stronger and faster. Then I could go on the offensive.

Another parry and then mental energy surged through my body, making me stronger as a claw ripped the other side of my jacket, but didn't connect with my skin.

It also threw my attack off target, and the creature easily avoided it.

More mental power ran through me, this time making me faster.

Remembering Shadow Fang's power, I channeled mental energy into the sword, and I could feel the blade contract as it got sharper.

Now I was ready and as I dodged the next attack instead of parrying it, the adrenalin hit my nerve system.

Shadow Fang moved in a blur and I hit the creature in the leg, cutting right through it. It still managed to launch an attack. A claw came close to taking my eyes out, but I retaliated by hitting it squarely in the head. The force from the blow drove Shadow Fang right through the skull and it dropped to the ground trashing.

I whirled around and faced the other creature. Unfortunately, it dodged my attack, and while I succeeded in parrying its claw, the force from the blow sent me reeling back.

It leaped after me, but I rolled to the left, forcing the creature to go around a tree, which gave me enough time to catch my footing again.

This time I timed the attack with another whirl to get out of the way, as I hit the arm and cut it clean off.

Any normal creature would have screamed or shown some signs of being wounded, but the Nequam just darted in with a bite instead.

I quickly dodged to the side and attacked. It had to extend the neck to bite at me and the blow landed exactly where neck and head connected. A moment later, the head of the Nequam rolled down the hill, while the body lay trashing on the ground.

I didn't have time to feel any triumph at that, because right at that moment a claw hit me in the back, cutting through the rest of jacket and deep into the flesh.

I could hear several ribs crack even before I was thrown to the ground by the force of the blow. Desperately I rolled forward, ignoring the spike of pain from the wound, but the moment I stood up, another claw hit me across the chest, ripping the rest of the jacked completely off and made three long bleeding wounds.

Running on mental power and adrenalin as I was, I ignored the wound and dodged the next attack.

Then I concentrated on my sword and said, "Verum Forma." (Baylon: 'True Form')

Vis energy flowed from me to the sword as time seemingly stood still for a heartbeat. The sword changed into its true form as it contracted yet again, and the hand guard changed from oval to two claws with a skull in the middle.

The world returned to the slow crawl of Mutatur Tempus Mente as the creature attacked again. Adrenalin hit my system and in a moving blur, I dodged under the arm and cut deep into the creature's leg before I moved away from the following bite.

It didn't kill the creature, but the leg strike had slowed down a bit, which gave me an idea. I moved to the attack again and when it tried to dodge out of the way, I changed direction of the cut in the last moment, hitting it right in the knee of the unwounded leg. The knee shattered and gave away, which made the creature stumble.

For a few heartbeats, its speed was gone, and I used the time to hit it in the head. The sword went right through and sent the upper part of the skull flying. It went down.

I took a few steps back to avoid being hit by the trashing body and glanced into the clearing to see how the trio was doing.

To my surprise, all three were alive and were fighting a single Nequam. The two other Nequams lay still on the ground. One of them with the head bashed in from what looked like a double blow from two war hammers, while the other was just hacked up.

Suddenly, my senses screamed that a blow was incoming and with lightning speed I dodged and turned at the same time. It wasn't fast enough as a long slim blade flickered through the air, cutting my throat.

Reacting on instinct, I counter-attacked, going for the head in the belief that it was yet another Nequam, and recognizing the face of the Angular Guy a fraction of a heartbeat before Shadow Fang split the head in two.

Blood gushed from the cut in my throat and I couldn't breathe. Thankfully my dodge had caused his blade to miss the big veins, giving me a little time before my body started to shut down to minimize blood loss.

Using an Ars Mentalis trick, I teleported to a spot some hundred paces away and let myself fall into the cover of some bushes, where I would be harder for the trio to find.

My consciousness was fading fast and with the last ounce of willpower, I reached out with my mind "< Inquisitor down. Throat cut! >"

Then the world faded into black.

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The feeling of someone stepping on me, followed by the words. "Found him, but I think that he's dead, sir." brought me back to reality.

There was a disbelieving snort and then I heard Verina's voice say: "Not a chance. Not only is he a Mentat Healer, but dead people don't heal themselves. Take a closer look at his wounds."

I heard somebody kneel beside me. "They are not bleeding, sir. "

"Exactly." Said Verina. "And yes, I know that dead people don't bleed, but I can see blood where there's no wound and that means that there was a wound and that he has healed it himself."

"Yes, sir."

"You might be mistaken, Inquisitor." Said a respectful voice that I recognized as belonging to Sergeant Varus. "I can't detect any signs of life."

"When healers are seriously wounded, they go into a coma so deep that life can be hard to detect." Said Verina and vent into command mode. "I'll levitate him, so we can take him with us to the Healers." There was a slight pause. "Trooper. Take his sword, but for the love of the Goddess, don't touch the hilt."

"Yes, sir." Said an unknown male voice. "Sir, what are those creatures? Besides being magical creations, I mean. With no eyes, ears and nose they can't be natural."

"Flaming dangerous, that's what they are!" Inserted Sergeant Varus. "I looked at the tracks and they moved like a tornado. They must a nightmare to fight against."

"They are." Confirmed Verina and continued. "They're Nequam: The finest magical guard dogs of the Ordo Mechanicus. Incredible fast, strong, deadly and resistant to magic, they're designed to kill any humanoid they encounter."

"Which apparently included Inquisitor Spectre." Said the unknown male voice.

"No." Said Varina calmly. "If you look at the combat scene, Spectre took out two of them, before he was attacked from behind, and had his throat cut, by the dead guy." She paused and then continued. "A guy that didn't leave tracks, which makes me wonder about his training."

It was clear that the thought didn't sit well with her.

"Anyway. Lets get Spectre back to the healers and then you guys can examine the area for more clues."

"Yes, sir."

Verina, I owe you so many kisses that I can't even begin to count them, I thought and faded into unconsciousness again.

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The words "I think that he's dead, Sir." Brought me back to reality.

This time it wasn't a voice that I recognized, but the words made me feel like someone had implanted a memory in my head and programmed it to repeat over and over again.

"Yes, you're right." Another voice said, older than the first "A bit of a shame, really. So young and so full of promise."

I'm not fucking dead! I tried to shout, but not a word came out. I tried to reach out with my mind to contact them, but without luck. I must have used all my mental energy on healing.

The elderly one spoke again. "But with a wound like that, there wasn't much we could do."

"Nobody blames you, Master Healer." Said the younger voice again. "His family was notified yesterday."

Unless you wake me up and start healing me, I will blame you! I thought. Now get your ass in gear and start doing your job.

"Thank you. Will you please make sure that the body is disposed of in the normal way?"

"That has already been arranged." Said the younger of the two voices.

You don't flaming dare burning my body before I'm done with it! I thought with a raising sense of panic.

"Good. Now let's see the next one."

"Yes, sir." There was the sound of two people walking and to my surprise the sound came towards me.

The young voice spoke again "This patient is.." there was a rattle of paper. ".. Ivan Emilian from Securitas Interna."

"Ah yes." The elderly voice said. "How is the patient doing?"

"Perfectly, Sir. " Answered the younger voice. "He's a Mentat Healer and had pretty much healed himself, so we're just watching and waiting for him to wake up."

"Good, good. Let's go on then."

I stopped listing as the footsteps faded away. Instead, I passed out from sheer relief.

The dream blurred, flickered, and disappeared as the darkness came back.