Chapter Seventeen: The Way Out Part Two

Let’s be honest here, I should have known he was going to do that. It’s not like a fall like this would kill me anyway, though it will hurt like hell. It’s just some not so friendly harassment. But falling all the way down that cliff seems like a hassle, and I’m kinda worried if my pets are alive or not. Yeah, yeah, I know that I haven’t thought about them recently, but I have been pretty preoccupied with being conscripted into helping Rashid, but I did leave…. Someone to look after them? Didn’t I? Who did I leave to look after them? Well shit, I gotta get back.

So let's not fall to the bottom of the cliff. I summon my Aura creating a shadowy mist over my body near instantly and, that fills me with more strength and power than before, invigorating me and washing away any tiredness from before. But I push it away and down, channeling it to my legs covering them till their almost unseeable, in the haze of amber power and they almost seem to form a shape. But it’s still just impossible to tell what, only looking like a blurry mirage.

I pull my legs into my chest and then lash out at the air beneath me with all my might, tearing through it till I feel enough resistants that my kick lands against it and launches myself upward.

I tear through the air like a wayward bullet soaring through the air. The stale air in the cave feels nice rushing past my face and I turn around seeing all of the Nameless City before me in all of its shadowy glory. I should come back here again, preferably without Rashid, maybe bring Julian, George, and Damon…. Should I bring Vanessa? Would she even like it down here? Eh, I’ll just bring her back to that bar again, she seemed to like it ok.

I look away from the city and look up, and see that I’m about to hit the roof of the ceiling of the cave. I flip myself around as I’m about to hit the ceiling, which doesn’t have any of that fungus that hangs over the city, and my feet hit the ceiling absorbing the impact.

With only a moment to decide where to jump next, I scan all the surrounding areas I mark out my next destination, managing to find the cave mouth where I see Rashid and pump my legs and launch off the ceiling before gravity can get its heavy grip on me.

I fly through the air flip and land right next to Rashid

I look over at Rashid and smile “Miss me?”

Rashid just lets out a belly-deep laugh “Haha, should have known that wasn’t going to kill you.”

“I thought you were only going to try and discipline me?”

“Nope, I also gotta keep you on your toes.”

A feral grin spreads over my mouth. “I wouldn’t want it any other way, but don’t forget this is a two-way street.”

He lets out another laugh, “Haha, never stop being you boy. C’mon lets get going.”

“Kay,” I respond.

Walking down the cave tunnels is a bit less boring than it was the first time, since I actually try to talk to Rashid this time, and as I am walking with him and pulling the cart a question pops into my mind that starts to bug me.

“Rashid, I’ve got a question for you.” I toss my words behind me and at him.

“Hmm.” He turns his head to me.

“Your not actually that mad at me for having you lose that bet are you.”

“That sounds more like a statement than a question.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. But answer me… please.”

He lets out a long sigh, “No, I didn’t think you could win…. You didn’t actually have a chance at all, you might be good but that was a rigged game from the start, she was going to outlast you and you don’t have a way to put her down for good.”

“So why have the bet in the first place if you’re not going to win it?”

“Eh, I, Hmmm,” He doesn’t say anything, and I hear him scratch his chin. “Well, I guess I wanted to see how well you would do, and how strong you are after some Aura training. You did better than I expected. Heck, maybe you could have put her down if I gave you some advice, but I doubt that. That Cain girl is abnormally strong for her age, especially her body control, regeneration, and technique. Give her a couple years and she’ll be a real force to reckon with. But then again I wonder how strong you’ll be by then..”

I cough “So, why wouldn’t you want any favors from her if she’ll be so strong?”

“She’s an idiot, and her father is the far more practical option. Anyway, I won that bet even if you lost it.”

“Kay.”

After a moment of silence “ Any more questions?” I hear Rashid ask.

A little taken aback I don’t say anything for a second, but eventually I stumble out “Yeah, I do. Who’s Old Man Hammucus?”

“It’s actually Old Man Hammuncus, and he was a god that used to be popular a while back.”

Confusion slides over my face, and I wonder what that word he just used is. I take a second to look back at Rashid and look him in the eyes “Rashid… What’s a god?”

He laughs at my words, but then gets a really faraway look in his eyes and he seems so much older at that moment like a mountain eroded to a hill by the wind. “A god? What a hard question to answer… How would one define a god? So many possible answers but none quite fit for what I’m looking for. Not that it really matters anymore I guess, not like there are any left around. But what you should know is that they’re all dead and gone, and should best be forgotten and left to senile old men..”

“That’s vague.”

“It’s meant to be.”

“Oh... can you tell me anything about him?”

“Old Man Hammuncus?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure why not, you might even learn something,” He coughs clearing his chest and takes a deep breath, “A long, long time ago”

“Sure you don’t need an extra long in that?”

“Ya want to hear the about him or not?” Rashid says sternly.

“Yes, sorry.” Not really I just want something to keep the silence away.

“So like I said a long, time ago when I was just a boy living in my home village at the base of a mountain, we had a ruler of types you could say. He owned the mountain, owned our village, and own the land surrounding the village too. That was Old Man Hammuncus, he was pretty mysterious only appearing so often to village and only one person at a time that we called the high priest, or at least usually unless there was danger that affected the whole village and mountainside like say a monster or an army, in that case, he would manifest as a giant rock golem and protect us.”

“But while he protected us it was not for free, he’d ask for sacrificing of excess livestock and food, precious gems and metals if we had it, and most of all those with magical talent was to join his clergy. Though this may seem a little much he was a pretty good god through and through, and there were much worse ones he protected us from. And for the most part sacrificing to him actually did more good than harm. Since he protected us and kept the land fertile, we usually had more food than we knew what to do with. Our village also had no use for money and such, so we did not mind giving him the metals and gems. Then the magical talents, they usually need to find something help train their talents or they tend to explode, so yeah. He probably didn’t need any sacrifices, but he probably did it to help keep peace in the village.”

“He also kept the peace in the village through his High Priest and Clergy and made sure to keep them in line too. He always watched the village and made sure that when we were healthy, we were healthy together and that when we suffered we did it together. He also settled dispute pretty fast, so yeah he was pretty good god as far as they went.”

“So, did he have he any bad qualities?” I ask, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Oh, tons. Like when we sacrificed cattle to him he would send a rockslide to crush it and blood would go everywhere and we would have to clean up the mess. Oh, and he also liked to deal with criminals like that. He also didn’t like travelers, his High Priest said that they need to pick a place and stay there. And that they upset the order of things or something. Oh, and he swore a lot.”

“That sounds... “

“Yeah, yeah, in the grand scheme of things it may have been stupid to worship him and not look after yourself, but what other options did we have?”

“So what happens to the Old Man.”

I hear a long sad sigh from behind me, and I wait a moment and hear him say “A magician came to our village. He became my best friend and most trusted ally. And..”

He doesn’t finish his sentence, and I know why.

There is an enormous presence here only a stone's throw away, maybe a couple hundred feet at most. It makes my hairs stand up on end, and my senses clock into overdrive trying to find where it is. My Aura over me in an instant, ready for combat, and excitement coursing through me.

Till I hear Rashid say. “Damn, it Bach. Boy, bring the cart we are going to need it.”

As he rushes down the tunnels before us.

A couple moments later, I find Rashid and the presence, and almost would have gaped in awe if I hadn’t been with Rashid or been my dad’s son.

For all that I can see in front of me, except for one spot, is bodies upon bodies of defiled, thousands upon thousands of them all dead and unmoving. Crushed into a dark, pulpy mess for thousands of feet all condensed like a jello.

But in the center I see the culprit next to Rashid based on the feeling of strength he’s giving out, vomiting his guts out.

I walk over to Rashid while admiring the man's handiwork along the way, it’s like he compressed the Defiled to the floor and then stomped them like grapes making for a horrible wine.

Once I reach the pair, I can get a good look at the man in front of us. It’s hard to tell his features since he’s absolutely coated in Defiled guts and blood, but not impossible.

This guy is only wearing pants, with an enormous beer gut that hangs far off his gut. But he’s heavily muscled otherwise and would probably come up to my chin if he wasn’t vomiting. His hair is also long, and dark, with a matching beard, but it’s all matted and dirty.

I turn to Rashid “So who’s he.”

He sighs “One of my former students along with Mars,” The man stops vomiting and he wipes off his face, revealing a fairly handsome man if not for the vomit in his beard.

“Bach Dionysus, nice to meet you!” Bach says before Rashid could finish. “I don’t know why I’m down here, no waitttt yeesss I do! Mark said there was a party down here, with plllleeeenty of booze for free! So I was like aw yeah, I’m going to get my freak on. But these guys,” He points to the corpse at our feets. “Were, is trying a little too hard to get their freak on with me. So I had to ya know, teach them to not be totally so rapey, so I push one and he pushes back, and then I’m like “Hey, there’s a keg down here, so let me go.” But there wasn’t and I got dangerously close to sober, and then next thing I remember before finding my flask was… I don’t remember… Hey, who are you guys…” Then he dropped down to floor out cold in seconds as loud snores came out.

Rashid sighs lifts him with his chains and puts him in the back of the cart.

“I like him,” I say honestly, he looks pretty strong just gotta drop him in the lake to clean him off.

“You wouldn’t when he’s sober, so I gotta get him to Marks place, I bet he sent him down here because he ran out of booze for him,” Rashid says seriously.

“Kay.”

We arrive at the cave entrance in a couple moments, Rashid rushing me every step of the way. The entrance open with pre-dawn light starting to stream in, Rashid sighs and pushes me out and then drops two boxes of those meals bars in my lap and then he’s gone, and with the entrance to caves sealed shut.

Well, time to go home I guess.