Naeva-To Fight a Monster

Chapter 14

Hurriedly, Naeva figured out the rest of the buttons and started searching through a list of names in the phone. For all she knew, Orlando was right on her tail. Her hand shook in the cold while the line rang.

"Naeva?"

"Valerian! Thank goodness. Listen, I'm in Ge—!"

A rock struck the phone, smashing it into three pieces. The impact jarred Naeva's wrist as the phone left her hand, and she cried out in pain, looking at the sudden arrival.

Farther up the path, his face completely expressionless, stood Orlando. He already held a second stone. "You're stronger than I expected," he noted.

Naeva took a step down the path, backing away from Orlando. "S-stronger...?"

"Yeah," Orlando said. He tossed the rock in place, catching it as it came down. "When I caught up, I was expecting you to be... I don't know, weaker. Hungry. Perhaps stalked by wolves; I would have settled for finding you dead. I don't know, my prey isn't usually less than a day's walk from a noticeable border when I catch up to them."

"Prey!?" So Naeva was wrong on both fronts. She had been taken in by a cannibal.

"Yes, prey," Orlando said calmly. "You know, sustenance. Food." He seemed kind of distracted. Tired old man though he was, his eyes scanned the snowy field, identifying any potential tools or threats for the upcoming battle. He seemed to notice all the same things Naeva did. Maybe he'd killed a griffin and taken its sight.

Erin would have insulted Orlando and then attacked in the most straightforward way that could work. Radley would have done a more tactical approach, making sure he had more information before attacking an old man. Polina would have her bow ready, but she'd try talking anyway, even knowing that he was a threat. Valerian would have done something inexplicable and freaky, but also kind of cool.

Naeva simply turned and ran.

She knew what it was to be followed by someone with ill will. She'd tried fighting, but Vernal was relentless. Naeva had run around Finster for eight years trying to escape him. She'd hit him hard enough to cave a man's skull countless times, she'd set him on fire, she'd frozen him by tricking him into a bog in winter, and she'd collapsed the entirety of a twelve-story ruin on him, but she just couldn't escape.

Until one day, around two years ago, when he just... disappeared. Naeva had spent every day since then expecting him to show up around the next corner, but he never did. The years since then had somehow become even scarier, just because she wasn't used to going a week without being attacked by Vernal.

He had once been a friend. Or that's what Naeva had thought. Now he was just a reminder to Naeva never to trust people. It was why she was so confused. Why did she feel so comfortable around Lowly Champion? It had taken her months to decide Master Zero wasn't going to kill her...

The second rock hit Naeva's right shoulder, and she shouted in pain. The force of the blow dislocated her arm and sent her tumbling down the sloped trail. For the second time in a week, she was covered in bruises from these stupid mountains.

Naeva groaned, but she wasted no time getting back up. Orlando might have had a good arm, but he was sixty years older than her, easily. She could handle him in a fight if she had to.

Orlando strode towards her as she popped her shoulder back into place. Nothing worse than what Cardwell did. Naeva lowered into a brawling stance, mentally checking to make sure her staff's sling was still in place.

"You're easily the most impressive prey I've hunted," Orlando said casually. "You aren't the first to have phoenix tears or potential for rescue, but you're more prepared than most. In fact, I had to work hard to make sure you didn't have any of those bottles left. Then there was the coat. I didn't think you'd be able to shut down any argument about cost or efficiency before I could make it. The way you looked, I had assumed that you would try to go into the cold, relying on your motion alone to survive.

"In short, you thought I was an idiot?" Naeva asked.

Orlando stopped walking for a moment, and then smiled. "In a layman's terms, yes. I thought someone who would stay with me as long as you did without suspecting was likely of limited intellect, in spite of your... creative manner of speaking." He was now standing right in front of her, within arm's reach.

Bad choice, friend. "As a matter of fact, I did suspect," she said.

With that, Naeva threw a haymaker that Orlando didn't even try to dodge. Her fist connected perfectly with the man's jaw.

Bad choice.

The next moment seemed to happen in slow motion. Incredible pain shot through Naeva's hand and down her wrist. The jarring feeling spread up and dislocated her still-tender shoulder. Behind the pain, she felt something odd. It didn't feel like she'd punched a human. It felt more like...

Stone?

Orlando smiled, watching Naeva double down in pain, her right arm horribly deformed from the force of her own punch. That strike should have nearly killed Orlando, but he hadn't even moved.

Naeva's eyes filled with tears from the pain, but she didn't scream. Now that she knew the kind of man in front of her, she wouldn't allow herself to give him that pleasure.

"Like it?" Orlando rubbed his cheek as his skin turned grey, and his hand made a sound like two stones scraping together. "A memento of a golem I killed many, many years ago. It's saved my life quite a few times."

But... that makes no sense, Naeva thought dully through the agony in her arm. When someone killed a monster, they had the option to keep any supernatural abilities it had, but one could never keep a physical aspect. That was why Naeva could see like a griffin but not fly. It was why a man who killed an Aquarius could breathe underwater, but one who killed a leviathan would drown; a leviathan had gills while the Aquarius Zodiac magically converted water into air.

And killing a golem did not allow people to turn into stone.

Questions for later, Naeva thought. Move!

She ducked out of the way of Orlando's punch, wincing at the pain in her arm. Carefully, she reached into her left coat pocket and extracted a bundle she'd placed there. Backing out of Orlando's reach and knowing she only had a split-second, she unwrapped the vial. Unfortunately, she wouldn't have time to unscrew the cap before Orlando struck her.

In a stroke of skill and sheer dumb luck, she managed to dodge the punch Orlando threw while maneuvering the vial so he nicked the top of it, perfectly swiping so the cap spun off.

Not wasting a moment, Naeva downed the raspberry juice in one gulp. Almost immediately, she felt every wound she had grow warm as the cut on her hand sealed up, her ribs repaired their cracks, her shoulder pulled back into place, and her other hand... well, returned to being a hand. She flexed her fingers experimentally before whipping her staff out of its sling and swinging as hard as she could.

The desperate blow shattered Orlando's left fist as he tried to follow up on his last punch. He yelled in rage and pain, seemingly unable to pull the broken stone back together. The tables had turned.

Yelling in fear and primal desperation, Naeva swung her staff in a follow-through, but Orlando danced out of the way. He grinned as his skin changed color. While he stepped, his body became more angular, and Naeva felt a slight tug on her staff and the buttons of her coat.

"Ever meet a golem made of lodestone?" Orlando asked. "Because I have."

Naeva felt herself slide slightly as Orlando's magnetic pull strengthened. She grunted, trying to stay in place without losing her staff, but the path was still slick with ice.

Orlando scowled, and his body darkened further, pulling harder. "I'd like that staff, Naeva. It's made of good material, and it'll keep me from losing my hand again. It will be back, given time."

Feeling trapped, Naeva jumped forward, allowing the pull to launch her towards Orlando. He attempted to return to his harder stone form, but the force of his pull had already caused Naeva to accelerate to incredible speeds.

She planned to use that.

Screaming her hopes to the heavens, Naeva slammed her staff into Orlando's chest, sending a network of cracks across it. He gasped just as she spun the staff into a follow-through and slammed the end of her staff into the crack, driving a hole straight through his chest and out the other side with a horrid crunch.