The Drogen's Law

Killing The Windigos (Edwin-Chris-Edwin)

Edwin looked around, inspecting each wendigo—trying to determine the best course of action. But everything happened so fact, he didn't even have time to think. The larger wendigos caught him by the shoulder and tossed him away like an unwanted toy. He slammed into a tree, which knocked him out for a few seconds.

When he came to, he saw Jimmy was on the ground, unconscious. Chris was protecting Jimmy—clashing against all seven of them. Edwin didn't believe she could have fought them all with unarmed hands and feet—though barely—if not for the green spirit armour she was wearing. The spirit armour was indeed amazing.

She fought like a beast. She sometimes avoided them, sometimes defended against them—never letting a single beast get too close to Jimmy.

'She will not last long with this guerilla tactic of her. She will be overwhelmed soon. I have to do something—ease the pressure on her.'

While Chris was keeping them busy, he could deal with them one by one. Edwin produced two daggers from his boots, one from each. He wasn't proficient in knife-throwing, but he wasn't bad either. Besides, considering the size of these beasts, he wouldn't miss. He waited for the right moment to find an opening and struck. The daggers were buried deep into the backs of two windigos. Two wendigos roared at him, blood dripping from their backs, and pounced at him.

With that done, Edwin dashed deep into the forest—the two monsters following behind him. For now, it was all he could do to help Chris. The monsters were faster than him but single-minded. Weaving between the trees was enough to get far enough away from them. Edwin hid behind the tree and unseated his sword. He could feel an energy source, like a burning fire within the sword. Edwin extended his spirit sense and connected to the energy source—his sword. But he didn't activate the sword's ability yet. The activation time of the sword was about two minutes per day without a constant supply of Drogen, so he had to make it count.

When the wendigo was right next to the tree he was hiding behind, Edwin activated his two-edged sword—which went red hot and slashed it at the monster. The head of the monster was freed from its shoulders. It was easier than Edwin expected.

Edwin dodged the clawed hand of the second wendigo that was about to rip his flesh off and slashed upwards. The monster roared as the severed hand went frying away. The beast, blinded by pain and anger, pounced on him. With a satisfied grunt, Edwin thrust his sword upward. The creature's own momentum helped the sword bury deep into its skull, killing it instantly.

Edwin yanked his blade free and let the heavy beast fall with a thud. Edwin sighed. He actually killed to monster for the first time. He wiped the blood from his sword—using the dead beast's body.

***

Chris dodged the clawed hand and kicked the sneaky creature away, sending it flying. The spirit armour had increased her strength and speed and everything else by an incredible amount. It was heaven-defying. If it was just ordinary-level wendigos, she now knew she could have taken them out easily. Everything changed with the presence of the Elementary Level beast—she could defend herself and Jimmy, but that was about it. They were at a stalemate.

As she continued to parry the windigos' clawed hands that were flashing at her from so many directions—a thin layer of red mist that she had thought was just only her imagination became clearer. The strangest thing was the red mist didn't impede the vision of her surroundings. She could see the red mist and her surrounding separately. Or was it simultaneously? It was all so confusing. That was why she had first thought the mist filling her surrounding as she had fought the monsters to just be her imagination.

There was a certain power within that mist—no, the mist itself was that power. Even as she dodged a pouncing beast with a sidestep and knocked another one off its feet, Chris extended her spiritual sense to investigate the mist. She connected herself with that mist, similar to how she could connect with weapons before activating its power. The mist gave her the impression of unrivalled power and strength. Chris willed herself to pull the power of mist into her core. She didn't know why she did it—it just felt right.

The red mist swirled around her for a second before being sucked into her. As the red mist invaded her through every pore in her body, she could feel a strange strength rise within her. She punched one wendigo in its chin and kicked another in its knees, sending both monsters stumbling back. Chris didn't like the strange energy filling her. It was like a vortex that wanted to rip her up.

She released all that energy at once while punching the third ordinary-level wendigo that was pouncing on her. Her fist connected with its face. The wendigo's head exploded like a melon. The headless body dropped, spraying blood. Chris looked at her bloodied gauntlets in disbelief. Her eyes moved, staring at the headless body and back.

'What happened? How did I do it?'

***

Ignoring the two dead monsters, for now, Edwin dashed back to where Chris was fighting. He could always collect the blood cores once all of them were safe. As he ran, Edwin hoped he wasn't too late. He stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face.

When Edwin was close enough, he saw the head of the wendigo exploding from Chris's fist. He didn't know how she did it; he was just glad that she could. While she was looking at her hands, a wendigo snuck behind her, ready to attack.

Thinking about what the monster was about to do to her, anger rose within him—a roaring fire of rage flooded his mind, filling his body with unknown energy. An invigorating power, like a tempest—raged within him. Edwin could no longer hold the power within him. He thought he would explode if he didn't do something. So he did the only thing he could think of. He raised his hand and released the power filling him at the wendigo that was almost on top of Chris, similar to how he extended his spiritual sense to an object or weapon.

To Edwin's utter disbelief, a ball of fire erupted from his hands, shooting the blasted creature. The fire struck the creature, and it erupted in flames, inducing the roar of pain from the beast. Chris spun on her heels and kicked the burning monster that was flailing wildly. It crashed into another ordinary level wendigo—it too caught fire.

Wendigos were highly flammable, and because of that simple weakness, they were dubbed as one of the weakest monsters in the world. The flames reduced the two monsters to ashes. Two red thumbnail-sized gemstones dropped along with the ashes—it was a blood core.

Without wasting a second, Edwin lunged at the elementary-level wendigo, activating his sword—it glowed red hot. He hadn't used all two minutes of its power. The beast parried his sword with its claws, stopping his sword in its track. He struck again, only for the monster to stop it. Edwin's eyes went wide. He only now saw the small red patterns in its black fur. It was an epic-level Wendigo. It was three lesser realms above him.