“Fuck is a muki?”
Emma grunted the question more than said it straight, struggling with the terrain. Tepetlmoseua was covered in plains, surrounded by them for at least a mile unbroken in each direction. They’d gone a good deal farther than a mile from town, however, and plains these areas were not. The incline wasn’t so steep, the ground not so unsteady or uneven, but with all traits combined it became an exercise in tedium to traverse it. And one in futility to do so at any considerable speed.
Questioning was about the only thing Emma had to focus on, besides her own mounting irritation.
“You’ve never heard of them?” Aexilica sounded less impressed with each new thing she found out Emma didn’t know, but never less disappointed.
“You keep asking that.” Emma huffed. “How about, next time you’re about to, you remember what I said about being from another fucking world, right, and then…You don’t. Cool idea right? I think it’ll save us lots of- shit.” Her foot slipped, she stumbled, and looked up to see Aexilica smirking. She looked even prettier amused than she did annoyed. Emma didn’t appreciate that now though, she was too busy swearing and keeping her balance.
“Alright.” Aexilica sighed. “But, for the record, I still think you’re either lying or insane about this crap you’ve said about coming from another world.”
“And this one being in my head?” Emma chimed in. Aexilica sighed, again looking at her with pity.
“That goes without saying…”
Emma didn’t like that look suddenly. “Explain the Muki.” She hurriedly replied.
“They’re smaller than us, dumber, we think, but they breed incredibly fast. Pests, mostly. Until their numbers hit the hundreds, then the thousands, then…More. They can use tools. Spears, clubs, even saw one with a sling once. Not so bad when you catch them in the open- but they’re smart enough to make sure you don’t. You wouldn’t believe the holes they can fit through. Fighting them in a cave is fighting them with everything working against you, but it has to be done because if they’re not culled they just swell their populations until they charge the nearest human settlement in search of food.”
Emma thought about it for less than a second.
“They’re goblins?” She asked.
Aexelica stared at her blankly. Okay then, Aethiqi didn’t know about goblins. Or at least not in this region.
“Nevermind.” Emma added. They continued in relative silence after that, save for the grunting and swearing as every piece of ground Emma stepped on continued its forebearers’ proud tradition of doing everything they could to piss her off. The more they walked, the more she found herself staring in jealousy at Aexilica’s mile-long legs and how they seemed to just eat up the terrain.
Then again, she was also just staring at them for…Other reasons. That did wonders to keep her occupied too.
Eventually, blessedly, they reached their destination. A stretch of even higher elevation that, once Emma had scaled, fortunately flattened out somewhat. It was at this plateau, covering easily an acre or two, that they found their targets.
Or at least what Emma assumed were their targets. It would’ve been quite the coincidence if it were some other, unrelated group of three-foot goblinoid spear-wielders. Aexilica squatted down and began shuffling forwards as if it were the right one, so she followed suit.
“These muki caught the town’s eye by pushing too far down the other day.” She explained. “They’re farther from it now, but even this is a dangerous proximity as far as the Priest is concerned. If you can drive them off, that’ll be enough, but don’t hesitate to kill. Muki certainly won’t hesitate to do it in kind.”
She spoke gravely enough that even Emma got the message.
“I’ll lure them out and see if I can pack them up.” Aexilica murmured, “You stay ready to…You know.”
“Blow them to bits?” Emma grinned. She could do that. She could definitely do that. Aexilica whipped ahead like a thing thrown by arms stronger and faster than Emma’s own, leaping up to her two feet and hitting one of the Muki like a bullet. Or rather, her sword hit it like a bullet. The thing’s head broke open and sent bits of itself flying in all directions, some going so far that Emma actually wondered if they’d reach the others.
To their credit, the other creatures were quick in responding. Near-instantaneous even. And they did so with violence, all charging in with a shriek and rushing towards Aexilica. Their skin was tinted blue, but pale, and Emma almost thought she could see the reedy muscles working underneath it. For one moment she just sat back and stared.
Then she remembered her circumstances, un-flattened herself and focused her magic to lend Aexilica a hand. Emma started with old reliable, an energy lance. This one she tweaked a shade, letting the built up power exit her more gradually to leave it as a more prolonged stream, then dragging that stream over several of the muki. It worked wonderfully, still powerful enough to send their tiny little bodies twisting through the air in bits with only moments of contact and allowing for some half a dozen to be wiped out in one blast.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
On the other hand, it quickly got their attention. Aexilica did her part well by throwing herself into their ranks and swinging away, re-enacting a particularly violent Berserk panel with every other move. But Emma had been flashy enough to become public enemy number one.
And the muki started coming. Emma panicked as the nearest of them came lunging for her, flailing her arms and just sort of throwing a bundle of will at it. Lucky her, it worked. The muki smashed into something solid. A translucent, bluish screen that quivered and cracked at the impact despite the creature’s tiny momentum. Emma had bought herself only a second, but she used it well. Another thought sent the screen shooting ahead and straight into the Muki. Cracks split apart, widened. Turned one screen into a dozen jagged pieces which ran along its body and opened it up in twice as many places. Blood exploded out like it was being vacuumed away, and the thing dropped into an unrecognisable heap.
More came, and Emma used her powers more deliberately now.
This time she didn’t set up a screen. Larry had mentioned constructs of energy, and Emma was making matter out of nowhere the day after levelling her Energy fundament up. Coincidences didn’t exist. She focused herself and sent thin blades of the very same stuff as her barrier flying out. They went everywhere except, it seemed, the enemy. Flying haywire like shuriken thrown by a drunkard. Some hit the muki, almost coincidentally. Those that did broke on their skin and splintered harmlessly away. Only light gashes were left to lazily bleed away.
Now the gap between her and the creatures was dangerously small. Too small for an energy lance.
Emma sent the energy out clumsily, but this time the great winds caught their targets well. Muki were smaller, had larger areas compared to their mass thanks to the square-cube law. Most importantly they weren’t coated from head to toe in thick chitin. Those which weren’t thrown back altogether still slowed down, struggling as the winds buffetted them and snagged their tiny bodies away. It bought Emma the precious moments she needed for some thought.
Her screen had been thin and large, by all rules of engineering she knew it ought to have broken easier than the smaller, more structurally coherent blades. So why hadn’t it? What had she done differently?
Matter.
Emma played out her hunch, sustaining the winds, boosting them one more time, then conjuring more blades ahead of her— this time with more of an arrowhead configuration to catch the air easier. They shout out instantly, and she extended her thoughts to them.
Sure enough, where she needed physical contact to work magic on other substances, the energy produced through her own power left her connected from afar. She concentrated on strengthening the material just as she’d learned to do with wood and stone.
This time when it hit the muki, each and every blade cut right down to the bone. Plenty missed, but each lucky hit was a wounding, crippling or killing blow. And almost all of her targets caught at least one of each.
Emma watched them come apart so completely that she actually felt a little bit sick at the sight, despite being its cause. More of the little things were behind the first assault group, a big, scattered mass of them spread out across a wide area and all hesitating to push up after her. Twice as far away, too.
She thought about that. Her magic blades were inaccurate enough from a mere ten or so paces, and she didn’t want to embolden them. Emma found a solution quickly enough, conjuring a new volley and spinning them before she shot them out.
Unfortunately, being able to telekinetically manipulate her energy constructs didn’t let her build up endless amounts of speed- she seemed limited to imbuing each one with however much velocity she could fire out at once. Fortunately, that amount of velocity proved to be ridiculously excessive for killing such creatures. They might’ve all been wrapped in chainmail and had it still be excessive.
Those few which survived the ludicrous overkill didn’t even hesitate before turning and scrambling away. Emma started working on a new spell to mop them up, pausing only a second as she found herself made squeamish by the thought of killing such small things with strikes to the back. Then Aexilica came down on them. Her sword moved up and down like a farming tool, and the last three muki had been put down in half as many seconds. She straightened up, looked around to survey the carnage. Checking for survivors?
She certainly didn’t find any, Emma alone had more or less doubled the number of pieces their enemies came in. The air smelled of blood so strongly it almost overwhelmed her, intense and thick in her nostrils. And tinged with something else, too.
Shit? Emma was smelling shit. For one moment she feared it was her, but…No. Bowels. She’d opened up enough digestive tracts that it was a wonder she could smell anything other than excrement.
“This doesn’t make sense.” Aexilica frowned. “They shouldn’t have been waiting here, if the muki were heading for town they’d have been farther to the west of the slope, the footing is harder there but it leads to a clearer path. If they were settling, though, then this place is an awful choice. Nowhere near water, no caves…This doesn’t line up.”
“Maybe something drove them away from their initial place.” Emma suggested. She’d done so idly, more thinking aloud than anything. It surprised her how suddenly Aexilica’s face perked up at the notion.
“That…Makes a lot of sense. Follow me.”
Emma did, not having many better ideas after all. She soon regretted saying anything at all as Aexilica led them up through a stretch of terrain even steeper and angrier than the ones they’d scaled to reach the muki, and her screaming body cried more and more with every stride.
There were, Emma had been told, methods to keep herself from suffering in such a way. Enhancers for her body in the form of potions. But the art of making them was something she’d only flirted with, prioritising explosions and lasers as always. She regretted that now.
Fortunately, they were finished before long.
Unfortunately, they were finished because a very big, very hairy man charged out from behind a rock swinging an axe and screaming. He had biceps like Emma’s thighs, a face like thunder, and Aexilica was sent stumbling as she reflexively blocked his strike on the shoddy ground. Emma felt two things near-instantly. The first was an overwhelming stab of fear, upon realising that this man, and the several more pouring out behind him, were why the muki had gone so low.
The second was an overwhelming wave of horniness. She had always wondered what it’d be like to get murdered.