Fell Champions

“Are you insane?” Rua hissed, grabbing Otter by the wrist.

 

“Hey, offensive. Don’t stigmatise my mental health issues.”

 

Rua made a frustrated noise, but made no move to let go of Otter’s wrist. “You can’t just use that skill every time you meet a pretty girl. We still don’t even know what it does fully.”

 

“I can make a few guesses.” She didn’t quite want to vocalize her theory it might be a weird Harem no Jutsu. But it definitely had other uses. “But based on what it did to us, I think it might help her.”

 

“It might. But also remember, when you used it last time, it put us both on the floor. For a long time. And it’s almost night.”

 

“No, we have to–”

 

There was the sound of breaking branches, and then a high-pitched shriek. Otter felt herself freeze up, before casting her gaze in every direction, looking for the source of the sound.

 

“Get the helmet back on,” Rua said in a hushed voice, pulling a hatchet from underneath her poncho.

 

Otter didn’t waste any more time arguing. Their window had passed. She dismissed her Thread of Fate, relieved to see the reserved Will did not take effect yet, and scrambled for the suit’s helmet. She jammed it back on, and as quietly as she could, began to twist it back into place.

 

The entire time, the metal squealed in protest, and that wooden scream from deep in the marsh responded in kind. 

 

“How do we kill one of these Cutting things?”

 

“If it’s one, with a lot of chopping,” Rua said. “If it’s more than one, we don’t. We either run and hope it doesn’t follow, or we die.”

 

“Great. How smart are they?”

 

“They aren’t. They just kill anything they perceive as an intruder. They’ll always use the shortest route to their objective.”

 

“That’s something at least.”

 

Otter heaved a few more times at the helmet. It wasn’t all the way back on, but it refused to budge any further. It’d have to do. 

 

She scrambled away from the suit of armour, grabbed the bucket from Rua, and they both ran. The mud churned under their feet as they did, slowing their progress. The last time she’d been in this exact situation, she’d just been afraid of being kicked out of a beta test. Now it was with the knowledge that her actual life was on the line.

 

She stumbled once, but Rua was there, steadying her. Behind them, Otter could hear footsteps splashing in water not far behind them. 

 

She still had her Thread of the Scourge active, wrapped around her wrist. It was faintly glowing, and likely acting as a beacon for the Cutting chasing them. She cast her hand upwards, the thread extending and reaching for a branch. When it looped around, Otter released it from her wrist, and then sent a command to make a noose.

 

Rua gave her a questioning look, and then nodded. Together, they stopped after running a few more metres, and turned to face what was coming. 

 

After all this time, Otter wasn’t sure what to expect from an Ashborne Cutting, but somehow it fit neatly into her projections anyway. When it charged into the light made from her Thread of the Scourge, she saw that it had the form of a bipedal tree. It was twisted, and made from wood, and had no anatomy save for three grasping arms and two legs to support it, all gnarled and covered in jagged bark. It paused when it saw them, though it had no eyes she could discern, and when it did, its chest opened into a cavity that could only be a mouth and screamed the sound of broken branches and tortured souls.

 

It charged, throwing itself forward in a mad dash that was heedless of its own safety. It slipped in the mud, stumbled, and didn’t seem to care that its own haste was slowing its progress.

 

“Do you know what a pinata is?” Otter asked.

 

“No, but I get the feeling you’re about to show me.”

 

The Cutting scrambled forward, not paying attention to the noose it passed under, heedless of the danger. Otter sent a mental command, and the noose reached down, looping itself around one of its arms, and yanked the Cutting off its feet and upwards.

 

“Hit it until candy comes out!”

 

Rua was already moving, her hatchet swinging in a clean arc and sinking into wood. Even bound and hanging from the tree, the Cutting still tried to get at her any way it could, chomping at the air and lashing out with its arms and legs. Rua’s axe came down many times, chunks of wood flying from the Cutting, but it was heedless of the damage, not caring that large sections of it were being hewn from it. 

 

“How much damage can these things take?” Otter muttered.

 

“It’s like felling a tree,” Rua said. “You don’t kill it. You cut it down.”

 

Rua chopped with workmanlike precision. There was no technique, only repeated strikes. She cleanly took off two arms, and both legs, only leaving the limb it was bound by. After, she moved in for the trunk-like torso, cleaving bark and wood away until a cavity had formed, and a pulsing heart was revealed. 

 

Even without appendages, the Cutting still shook its stumps at her, questing with limbs that were no longer there. 

 

Rua handed Otter the hatchet handle-first. “Kill it.”

 

“Why me?”

 

“Because if I kill it, the soul crystal will only work for me. And while I rarely turn down more power, you’re the weaker of us right now. I want out of this swamp. And I need you to be closer to where I am in terms of power in order to get us out of here.”

 

“You still haven’t told me why you’re in this swamp.”

 

“You haven’t asked.”

 

“I like to respect boundaries.”

 

“Well, respect them at home. Chop out the heart.”

 

“Work, work.”

 

Otter took the axe, trading the bucket for the weapon, and lined up her swing. She hesitated for a second, remembering doing this to Nightmare just hours ago. But she steeled herself, and swung into the heart, cleaving out the arteries in a series of chops. The Cutting stopped moving, going limp.

 

Otter pulled the heart from the cavity, and the two fled back to the cabin. In the distance, there was another scream from a Cutting, but it was well behind them. When they made it back home, Rua threw a latch bar into place on the door, locking it, and moved to close all the shutters, something she hadn’t done before.

 

“Will they follow us here?” Otter asked.

 

“They shouldn’t. The cabin was built in the centre of the Ebb. Ashborne’s influence is at its weakest here. They shouldn’t have the strength to function here. Still, it’s better to be safe.”

 

“Wait. Who even built this cabin?” she asked, setting the wooden heart she collected down on the kitchen counter. 

 

“Ah, finally thought to ask. It wasn’t me. It was owned by a… friend. No one’s used it in years, not since the Criobani tried using this island as a staging area and kicking up a feud with Ashborne.”

 

“Wait, the whole island is like this? This isn’t a death swamp, it’s a death island?”

 

“No. Once we leave the swamp, we’re out of Ashborne’s influence, but there’s nothing else on the island to stick around for. Once we leave the swamp, we’ll be leaving the island.”

 

“Oh, you have a boat just lying around?”

 

“A boat? Why would we use a boat? We’ll just get a soo-meng.”

 

“Okay, you’re not allowed to pretend I speak gibberish all the time when you do it right back.”

 

“You don’t know what a soo-meng is? How do people get around where you’re from?”

 

“Honestly, that’s a good question with how bad traffic is these days. A lot of ride sharing.”

 

Otter dismissed her previous Thread of the Scourge that was still holding up the mangled corpse of the Cutting in the woods, and got to the business of stripping down to take a bath. She had nothing to change into, but that was all part of her master plan.

 

She made sure to disrobe in Rua’s line of sight, bending over just so that her best asset was on full display when she pulled her pants off, and to be facing Rua as she pulled off her shirt. She set all her clothes in a bundle, wrapped in the cloak she had conjured back in the arena battle.

 

She set the glyph stones in the bath ro conjuring hot water, making sure to stretch and bend more than was necessary. She couldn’t see Rua, but she knew she was watching.

 

Otter reached down into the tub, running her fingers through the water. She let out an entirely unnecessary groan of satisfaction. She kept it tasteful. No need for porn acting. Not too much. Just enough.

 

“I’m going to wash,” she said. “I’m covered in filth.”

 

“I… I know what you’re doing,” Rua said, her voice weak and wavering.

 

Otter turned to look over her shoulder, giving a faintly sultry look. “I know. And that’s why it’s going to work.”

 

Poor Rua looked like a mouse cornered by a cat, frozen between the desire to hide or run away.

 

“Remember our first night?” Otter said. “How often did you think of joining me, that first time I was washing myself?”

 

“I… I didn’t.”

 

Otter faintly wondered if Rua was immune to her own lies. “Then your will’s stronger than mine. I wanted you the moment we first met eyes.”

 

Rua’s cheeks burned like the sun.

 

“Why don’t you come here,” Otter said, “and help scrub my back. I promise, when I do bite, you’ll enjoy it.”

 

Otter stepped into the tub, not taking her eyes off Rua, and sank into the hot water. She stretched as much as she could once fully submerged, making herself as comfortable as possible. 

 

“Okay,” Rua whispered, and moved into the washroom to join her.