Jebidiah's Change Bk. 01 Ch. 11

Welcome back gentle reader

Fair warning, there is no sex in this chapter, simply too much else going on and if I threw in sex, that's all it would be, thrown in. I warned at the start in chapter 1 that I would only add the sex in where it made sense. On another set of stories I follow on here, someone in the comments brought up how the latest submission lacked much sex and this is literotica. I like characters, I like plot lines, I love philosophy and politics, but find a way to throw good sex into that mix and it's more like wrapping bacon around something already delicious. Do I always need bacon? No. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Once again the standard disclaimer, multiply ages by roughly two to get equivalent Earth ages.

-- Chapter 11: Ruins of Valor City --

-- Second Tenday of Yantaen 813 AGR --

Better to have one woman on your side than ten men.

- Jordan

"Things could be worse, maybe, probably not," Jebidiah thought to himself as another wave of ghouls crested the remains of the keep's walls. Jebidiah, Crystal, Tenner, Greta, and Mila fed a steady stream of fire and acid into the advancing ghouls. Jebidiah's concern grew as, unlike the goblins who raged against the shield wall of his armswomen arrayed behind him, the ghouls took several hits to put down and even then some rose once again. The scariest part of it all was the two things truly holding the rest of the ghouls at bay were a walking lizard and an animated bronze statue, built by the Ancients, they had found in a secret room hidden three stories underground. He had no idea how or why it had decided to come to life and what it's intentions were. If either of the two turned on them before the ghoul supply ran low, it would be a close call betting on who survived.

Reinforcements arrived in the form of the returning First guards Jebidiah had sent after the other group members at the pack wagons. Six more Bh'orel First with the addition of Stern, Dana, and Joy proved more than enough to turn the tide. Soon close to thirty twice or even thrice dead ghouls lay in and around the inner courtyard they had defended. Even though the immediate combat had ended he found he was able to keep his hyper focused state going. "Yantzee, take your men and help support the company. Stern, Crystal, Mila, you are with me, the rest go help drive off the goblins." Yantzee and the other corporals saluted and ran off to join the main fighting. Jebidiah turned toward the two newcomers, "Time to find out what's with these two."

The lizard dropped down to slump against the wall in apparent exhaustion, its hide was covered in several long gashes and a not insignificant amount of blood leaked here and there to create small pools on the ground. The statue however, was smooth and intact without any signs of scratching or dents, casually walking to meet Jebidiah halfway.

"Project [******] [******] report [******] [******] dead." The smooth feminine voice had a distinct metallic tinge to it, sort of hollow, like someone speaking through a copper tube. A majority of its words were gibberish.

Jebidiah let his instincts take over once again "We mean you no harm. We cannot understand most of your words, are you damaged?"

"Damage [******] fully [******] [******]. Language [******]"

Frustrated, Jebidiah said "We need to stick to simple words. Do you know Yes and No?"

"Yes. Of course. Simple is fine."

"Are you friend or foe?"

"Unknown. [******] required."

Unknown. Great, so possibly, that sounds comforting, thought Jebidiah. He pointed to the resting lizard. "Friend or foe?"

"[******] [******] status unknown. [******] [******] [******] status unknown."

"This is going to take a while. You," he pointed directly at the statue for emphasis, "statue, whatever your name is, stay. Just stay right there. Stern, keep an eye on it. Crystal, Mila, let's check out our other guest."

The lizard looked up as they approached, but otherwise hardly moved. The injuries looked even worse upon closer inspection and still leaked a steady flow of blood. Jebidiah held out a hand in what he hoped was a non-threatening manner and sidled closer to the lizard. When it made no hostile move he spoke, without looking away or otherwise breaking eye contact with the lizard. "Mila, can you find either the corpswoman or some bandages and bring them back here." He heard her "yep" in response and waited, trying to talk soothingly to the lizard. "Not sure who you are but we do not want to fight you."

[click tsk sssss pop] The lizard responded in a series of hisses, grunts, and growls. "You don't happen to know commonspeak?" More of the same came from the lizard. Jebidiah's frustration grew, not fully the result of the current communication issues though. It grew equally from his realization of how sheltered and uncultured he had been, only needing a single language in the capital, while the world has hundreds of spoken languages. He had been so sure of his comfort he handicapped his own future.

"May I speak, sir?"

The statue's question broke his musing.

"What? Oh, you have permission to speak if we can understand you." he answered in a manner he hoped conveyed that his people were in charge. He looked to the defensive line and noticed some soldiers were now down and being pulled from the line.

"The more you speak, the more I understand what [******] your words [******] from. Speech will improve in time."

"What is your name?" Jebidiah asked, if it could talk now, maybe he could use it.

"I do not [******] a name. I have a [******] of sift. It is an [******] for [******] [******] [******] [******]"

"Great, we will come back to that. What did you want to say?"

"The [******] is injured and in pain, she will cease funcion."

"Well that's obvious. Wait, she? How can you tell?" Crystal was shooting occasional arrows of flame where she could and made no contribution to the conversation. Stern watched the line while fidgeting with his sword, in obvious desire to join the fighting.

"Her name [******] to 'Kelek' with [******] on [******] to make [******] sounds."

"You understand it? I mean, her?"

"I understand her words. I may not comprehend her meaning. Her [******] is [******] to my [******]."

"Your comprehension of her is probably better than my comprehension of you." Jebidiah sighed, "what else has she said?"

"She does not wish to die."

"Pragmatic. Can you speak back to her? Will she understand you?"

"I can speak any language I come into contact with. My [******] is without peer."

"Humble as well." Their conversation was interrupted when Mila returned with one of the guards.

"Are you injured, my Lord?" She asked, examining him with her eyes.

"I need you to stabilize this, well, her." He pointed to the lizard.

"Well, magic doesn't often care about form, let's see if this works." She cast a spell of healing and Kelek's serious bleeding stopped but many wounds remained criss-crossing her body. "It will need some bandages and poultice to help the rest of the way until we get our seriously injured taken care of." A scream from the defensive line captured her attention as another soldier collapsed. "If that is all, my Lord, I am needed."

"Go with my thanks. Carry on." Turning back to the statue, "Statue, whatever your name is, can you ask her if she feels better."

"Sift. You may use my [******], Sift." The statue went on to make hissing and growls. The lizard looked up and made a gesture, not quite a nod but more a diagonal motion, with her head and answered the statue.

"She is better and gives thanks but expresses her displeasure."

"Sift." Jebidiah said, testing.

"Sir." the statue responded.

"You respond to Sift?"

"It is my [******]."

"So it is your name."

"No, it is my [******]. It is [******] [******] [******] [******]."

Jebidiah sighed. "I am calling it your name now. Can you help the other humans out there fight off the goblins?"

"Primary defense is restricted to the project [******]. Violence is not allowed except in life [******] situations."

At least more words were becoming clear as they talked. "You can only defend something? What are you defending?"

"You. You are the project [******]."

"Those goblins out there, the little green guys, they want to kill me."

"This one as well?" Sift pointed at Crystal. That got Crystal's attention.

"No, Crystal must be protected. Those goblins attacking humans are the ones trying to kill me."

"You are safe here. The primary line of defense is holding. What [******] do you desire for the humans the goblins give aid to?"

"Only this goblin here aids our humans." Jebidiah looked intently at the horde ranged against his soldiers. "I see no humans on their side."

"[******] [******] still active in the area. There is a group of humans [******] [******] due [******] from here, heading [******]."

"We'll deal with that as we need to." The lizard was wearily watching them, even though it lacked human features, the apprehension was easy to see.

Mila spoke up then. "Sift, which way the other humans?"

Sift pointed toward the direction the ghouls had come from. "[******] [******] meters in that direction"

Mila smirked, "Helpful. I'll be back." She turned invisible and Jebidiah watched her gray form climb back over the wall the ghouls had come from.

"Sift, what can you tell me about Kelek?" Crystal asked, taking a break for her taxed magical abilities.

While Crystal dealt with the lack of communication with Sift, Jebidiah moved back toward the front of the keep to get an idea of how the battle was progressing. He debated charging into the line so Sift would join the effort but Yantzee's admonishment about distracting the troop's line of battle won out. He was concerned that Foreman had not returned with the Captain, or at the least a message from the Captain. He lacked information about basic things, where was the Captain, where was the other platoon, what trouble was Mila going to run into, how many goblins were they engaging, were their provisions and supplies protected or destroyed. If they lost their supplies, winning the battle might only mean dying of thirst later.

He discarded the idea of moving out to find more information, the people who he needed that information from should come to his location. Moving would only add to the confusion when they did not find him where he was supposed to be. His level of frustration kept building. The bards described battles as grand, heroic affairs where generals led their troops exactly where they needed to be, when they needed to be there, swinging their swords to cleave the enemy leader and save the day. This battle lacked any resemblance to any story he had read or heard. Jebidiah felt as useful as a whitewashed window pane in a sandstorm.

He spotted Yantzee and the rest of the First on the front line, engaged fully with the goblins. There was a certain amount of grace with which they dispatched the enemy before them. Where the armswomen relied heavily on their shield and used spears to stab, the First relied on their sabers and shortswords to slash through the enemy, only bringing the shields into play when required. The armswomen's shields were larger, medium to large sized shields, that they would brace before them and, when a goblin tried to breach her defense, she would shove hard, using the shield as a battering ram to force the goblin back just enough to bring her spear into play. The First's swordplay looked more like a fluid dance, graceful movements where momentum from one attack would carry to the next in a continuous flow.

Their movements were almost mesmerizing, distracting Jebidiah enough that he missed the first magic missile that slammed into the front of his left shoulder. "Mother fucker!" He yelled through the pain as he turned his body to move with the force of the impact, hoping he would stay standing. He twisted enough to maintain his balance, keeping his body in the perfect position to catch the second magic missile on the back of the same shoulder. He had not braced for that second impact and found himself on the ground, face down, yelling in pain and frustration.

Sift's reaction was immediate as she started her movement the same time the first missile struck. She bolted past Jebidiah and leapt in the air to clear both sides of the combatants on the battle line, moving in a graceful arc that lifted her feet nearly twice the height of the tallest human on the line, landing a full fifteen feet behind the goblins just in time to impact a bolt of lightning racing toward Jebidiah, setting off it's discharge early. The blast of electricity knocked Sift back into the nearest goblins, the now manifested bolt of electricity followed, throwing goblins and Bh'orel guard left and right but stopped short of where Jebidiah lay in pain. Sift's triggering the discharge early was the only thing that saved Jebidiah's life.

Crystal and Stern ran up to help Jebidiah regain his feet, anger that bordered on blind rage roiled inside him as he staggered toward the broken line. There was at least ten feet of cleared space, previously occupied by combatants who were now either laying dead or thrown to the sides, groaning or, more often than not, screaming in pain. He saw a large goblin, easily the largest he had encountered thus far, with two more naked female goblins in front of him, bedecked in feather headdresses and bones tied to strings everywhere about their bodies. The two began waving their hands drawing red threads to them as they cast their next spells.

Jebidiah concentrated on increasing his focus even more, to slow his surroundings as much as he could. Even so he knew he would not be able to fully handle both incoming spells at the same time as fast as they hurtled toward him. The first he did not catch but instead shunted to the side, like an unarmed combat move he had witnessed where the defender uses the attackers momentum against them. The red blob of the spell moved off to his left and up into the air as he shoved his left hand against it. The second he caught with his right hand and swung it around, in an arc behind him, away from the attacking mages, continuing the arc until he let loose the spell back in the direction of his attackers. He was deprived seeing the looks of surprise when their fireball he had just thrown back at them exploded, completely obscuring them and knocking them to the ground.

Anger still driving him, Jebidiah drew his sword and charged toward the impact site. One of the females was either knocked out or dead, the other struggled to move, unable to put out the flames consuming her hair. The large goblin was regaining his feet, on his knees with one hand on the ground before him and the other instinctively raised, waving useless in the air before him. He was likely trying to find something solid to grab for leverage to raise his bulk but could not see anything was there. His position stopped him from raising his head. Jebidiah used the speed of his rush to back his first slice and cut the raised arm off, a clean cut a few inches above the elbow. The goblin bellowed in pain and fell forward again, dark blood spurting in a spray from the stump of his arm. Without hesitation Jebidiah brought his sword down twice on the back of the goblin's neck, fully decapitating it on the second swing. He reached down and grabbed the hair, lifting it into the air while planting a foot upon the downed goblin's back. He used his cantrip to amplify his voice and roared his challenge.

His primal yell of rage drowned out the other cries around him, drawing all nearby eyes to him. In front of him was Stern, who had followed his charge, lifting one of the female goblin mages into the air. The goblins who saw the severed head cried in anger and fear. When Stern smashed the broken, burnt form he held over his head into the struggling female goblin crawling by his feet, the goblin forces finally broke. They withdrew so fast it left the defenders in a daze. The goblins melted away like rushing water, leaving the battle with yelps and cries and their dead, wounded, and abandoned weapons their parting gift. When they passed goblins further away it became a complete route, Jebidiah's troops had won.

His rage now diminished, Jebidiah threw the head to the side and looked for the struggling female mage Stern had pommeled. Crystal had joined as well and was examining the mages and let out a cry of wonder. "This one lives." She began to tie the captive as Jebidiah numbly went to see how Sift was doing.

He found Sift lying on her back, limbs akimbo, but she looked fully intact and unhurt otherwise. A stray thought found it amusing he was so easily referring to Sift as a 'her'. Tapping her forehead brought no response, so he attempted to wrap on her torso. Nothing. Moving her limbs proved fruitless, her form was solid as, well, solid metal. She was too heavy to lift so he left her and went back to Crystal and Stern.

"I'll take her from here, love." Jebidiah bent down to pick up the goblin and throw her over his shoulder. In hindsight it was not a brilliant move, the goblin was about as unclean as they came and her cunt, situated next to his head as her waist was bent over his shoulder, was rank enough to draw tears. He mused about using her nether region to wake the unconscious. He carried the captive back to his original position, where the rest of his group and all their guards now waited, watching his approach.

"Normally I would offer some form of reprimand for doing exactly what I asked you not to do, " Yantzee started, "but that was well played. You took out whatever chieftain that was, even though he was strong enough to band this many tribes together. We had only spotted two of their shamans, you made quick work of the others. That is what salvaged what victory we have. It came at a high cost though."

"How bad is it?" Jebidiah asked, afraid of the answer. He dropped the goblin he carried to the ground and noticed that the lizard was gone.

"Most of the 1001st are effectively gone, we know of twelve dead so far and we have at least eight dead from the other two platons including Lt Heller's Staff Sergeant and guide. None of the 1001st we have found are unwounded and two are still missing. Captain Gentry and Gunny Henderson are wounded, Supply Sergeant Kong is dead as well. Two of the supply carts he was defending were destroyed. Humble has the Company in hand. We'll know more as the recovery effort finishes."

"So we got our ass kicked. What did you say, twenty dead here, two from the last attack, two missing here and one from before, twenty five killed out of how many did we bring, 120 total? If the ratios hold, we probably have close to 50% casualties with the wounded? Close to a third casualty rate in leadership? Hell, I'm wounded and nearly died out there." His voice continued to rise as his rant lengthened. "This was a fucking disaster, Hiro."

Dana tried to sooth his rising anger. "We made it through being hit by the Divine knows how many goblins and a random gaggle of ghouls thrown in for fun, Jeb. It wasn't a disaster."

"It was Dana, I was as useful as a limp dick in a brothel. I had no idea what was happening past what I could see, while gridlocked in indecision. I still don't know what the fuck is out there! Why the fuck isn't Mila back from checking out the humans working with the goblins? We find a fucking living weapon of the Ancients and I probably got it fucking killed! And where the ever loving fuck is Kelek at?"

His rage had become so volatile that those brave enough to be in the immediate vicinity physically flinched. The fear that came flooding into the bond was like a hard open handed slap to the face. It was fear of him and at a level of fear that wasn't present during the worst of the battle. His anger collapsed and he deflated with a feeble apology. "Please forgive my outburst."