Chapter 20 – Fighting Monsters

  “Many of the other races are not at all as we expected, being far more human than folk lore suggested. Many of the monsters are also not what we expected, being far worse than folk lore.” - Comment in online news article.

  “Seriously this is miserable.” Kurt heard in his ear as Val grumbled for what seemed like the hundredth time since they began stalking their target. “I am soaking wet and cold. I’ll probably catch a bug from this.”

  “If you don’t quit talking, your mouth might be catching bug on account of them flying in.” Kurt hissed back into the radio. “Stay focused and push in.”

  They were currently creeping through the pine forests that were covering much of northern Michigan. The trees had all been pnted in straight rows as an effort to combat the rampant deforestation that occurred around the turn of the st century.

  This particur stand of trees was in some of the state nd to the south of Traverse City that was near some of the more popur hiking and camping areas. They had found it when one of the order analysts created a heat map of the area based on the missing person reports. The order had its local satellite check it out and they thought there was some disturbance in the local mana though were unsure of its source.

  Naturally Kurt and Val were dispatched, and they did remember to send a courtesy text to Henry that they would be looking around. The chief came out with a few of ‘his people’ to help set a cordon and make things look official.

  As they arrived on scene, the weather took a turn for the worse and the storms, that were supposed to stay south, drifted north. The wind wasn’t as fierce as had been predicted but the rain was steady and caused some thin fog to roll in off the fields.

  Kurt was walking through the rows rather than along them. He hoped that it would give him a better chance of spotting something through the trees. Val was keeping pace around twenty yards to his left, scanning with her eyes as her ears rotated back and forth.

  He was thankful that the rain had dampened the ground, making their steps a little more difficult to hear. The inverse of that was they couldn’t hear anything over the pitter-patter of rain. Still, they crept forward, rifles ready.

  After crossing over one of the tree lines, Kurt thought he saw movement to his right. It was to the 2 o’clock position and he had to freeze, leaning backward to try and glimpse it again. It was hard to tell, but he thought he saw some bck among the brownish red trunks that were darkened by the rain.

  As Kurt stopped, so did Val. She thought he saw something, so she decided to freeze and stay online as well. She watched as he rocked back and forth, turning his head slightly each time. While he tried to eyeball whatever it was, she kept looking around, scanning her sector.

  After a few moments, Kurt saw the bck shape again. “Val, lets push this way.” He whispered into the radio. He began to creep forward in a slow, slight crouch that allowed him to keep his rifle stable.

  The bck shape he thought was higher up was actually on the ground, so he had looked over it a few times. As they approached, he was able to get a better angle and saw what it was. He stopped at fifty yards away and looked through his scope, cranking the magnification to see.

  On the ground, near the base of a tree, was a bck jacket. It looked like a typical light weight sort of wind breaker, nothing interesting about it. What was interesting was that it was retively new, in the middle of the woods and there was half an arm sticking out of the sleeve.

  “Chief, this is Kurt” he whispered into his radio, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

  “Go ahead.” Came Henry’s voice.

  “Found a body. Moving to investigate.”

  Val heard what he had said, and he gnced back to see she was closer to him, now only a dozen feet away. Together they crept forward, Kurt trying to angle outward as he approached the still mostly obscured remains. The remains were blocked by a partly fallen tree that had nded near the base of another, creating a sort of V shape.

  One more rge step carried Kurt past the edge of the tree, and he saw the rest of the jacket. There wasn’t much left of it besides the half that he could already see, having been torn down the middle. The arm was just that, a severed arm, cut off above the elbow leaving the bottom part in the jacket sleeve.

  From one side of the arm was a strange series of prints in the pine needles, in the other direction was the remains of a bloodbath. The ground was churned up near the remains, blood covering much of the trees and ground. Bits of cloth were strewn about but amounted to little more than thin strips.

  At the far edge of the churned ground was the same set of prints that led away but also a long drag mark. The drag ran out of sight from where he was but seemed to run to the northeast along the pine rows.

  “Chief, Kurt. Remains are a single severed arm, adult male, signs of a struggle after being dragged to this location from the northeast. Investigating the area now.”

  “Roger, I will send men to canvas the area to the northeast.” Came Henry’s reply.

  Kurt looked back to Val who was scanning her area like a radar dish, her ears swiveling as much as her head. He got her attention, and they began to follow the prints that he noted were deeper than the previous ones. He was beginning to have an idea about the culprit but didn’t like the idea one bit.

  The tracks headed in the direction of a clearing with a rge boulder in the center. They followed, staying close in the tightly packed tree rows. After a few more yards and stopping to listen several times, they could see the clearing fully. After getting a look, Kurt really wished they couldn’t see the clearing fully, his suspicion confirmed.

  He had heard of wendigo and their ‘habit’ of collecting. They were often misidentified as Skinwalker’s due to them skinning their victims. Wendigo didn’t wear the skins or impersonate the victim like the Skinwalkers did. Instead, they used humans as livestock, harvesting them like any cow or pig.

  “Wendigo. No visual, just evidence.” Was what he said to the radio as he surveyed the clearing. Strung between trees and draped over branches were a dozen skins of various color and size. He thankfully didn’t see any children, but he also couldn’t see much yet.

  The ground was a nest of bone, personal belongings and parts of people. All generally separated and formed into an even pile that spread over a ten-foot circle. Kurt also thought he saw the other half of the jacket from earlier, but it was hard to tell with the staining and rain.

  Suddenly, he felt a tap on his hip. He turned his head to see Val ser focused on one direction. He tried to follow her line of sight but couldn’t see anything until movement in the trees caught his attention. He slowly crouched and she followed suit as they both watched the figure approaching.

  Walking along a row of trees, several rows from theirs, was a tall bck figure, the horse skull like head easily seven feet above the ground. Its gait and arms unnaturally long in their triple jointed movements. It wore the traditional mantle of bckened skins that hung in loose strips from its shoulders. The thing seemed to half slide, half shudder from step to step as it approached, thankfully empty handed.

  They watched it through the trees as it approached its nest. Kurt could hear a slight creak as Val clenched her hand around the grip of her rifle. He was also very anxious about what was going to happen. The wendigo entered the clearing and began to cross over but stopped just short of its nest, frozen in its tracks. Kurt and Val already had their rifles pointed at it when its head began to turn in their direction.

  Crack-crack-crack-crack. Both Kurt and Val fired their rifles as it charged them. The tall and gangly monster was surprisingly nimble. It still caught half a dozen shots from the duo as it rushed them, reaching its hand out, trying to fy them with the long cws on its third and fourth fingers.

  Both Kurt and Val jumped to the side as it ran past, easily avoiding the telegraphed attack. Unfortunately, they both dived in the same direction and ended up in a wet pile of guns and gear.

  “Go left.” Kurt shouted as he rolled to Val’s right, letting her get up. The wendigo had already reversed course and was headed directly for them, holding its cwed hand low, scraping at the ground.

  Val rolled away into the next row between trees while Kurt tried his best to get his feet out of the way. He flipped his selector off safe and pulled the trigger as fast as he could, firing over his knees in a supine position.

  The wendigo shuddered as it took the rounds, several of which impacted its bone like face. It still carried on and Kurt was forced to kick out at its hand, attempting to force the dragging cws away. He was partly successful.

  He felt one of the cws rake across his left shin, bounce off his rifle and slice into his right shoulder before it ran past him. Kurt rolled out of the way to his right while it tried to stop and grab him. While rolling away, he heard the snap-crack of rounds passing near him coming from Val.

  While Val was keeping the monster busy, Kurt was reloading but also noted their rifles weren’t doing all that much. The creature was absorbing hit after hit and the ammunition they had was only leaving ice pick style holes. He needed to switch to a tactic that would start taking chunks out of the creature. He fired a few rounds at it to draw its attention while Val repositioned.

  They were managing to keep it bouncing between them, but it wouldn’t st forever as it began working its way closer to Val with every round she fired. Kurt could only think of one pn with the tools he had. He dropped his rifle and unclipped his vest, letting both fall to the ground along with his headset. Clothes could be easily repced but his equipment was expensive, still he shed hit outer garments and kicked off his shoes.

  **********

  Val watched the monster take a dozen rounds to its center of mass as Kurt dumped half his magazine into it. She had taken a moment to set up an illusion to hide her from its sight as it ran past Kurt and stopped less than ten yards from her.

  She centered her reticle on it and pulled the rifle into her shoulder as she proceeded to mag-dump at the thing. The creature shuddered as the rounds hit, and she saw the gouts of bck blood from the pass throughs.

  The wendigo looked around frantically for the source of the round hitting it but couldn’t find anything in any direction. Its frustrations built up into a scream that tore from its throat in a high tone that pierced the damp foggy air around it. As frustrated as it was, the wendigo was still encroaching on her, despite her moving around when Kurt suppressed it.

  Val was trying to circle back when she noticed that Kurt was no longer shooting. She began to panic that there was another wendigo or that something happened when she heard a howl. It started low, a vibration in the air before rising like a tornado siren then falling back down to a lower pitch. She shivered subconsciously, having guessed what, or rather who, made the noise. The howls she heard back in the order were nothing compared to this one, not even the wendigo could match it for generating a bone chilling terror that gripped her.

  Before she could begin to act, a grey streak smmed into the bck form of the wendigo before they both rocketed into the trees. She heard snapping and cracking as entire pines were knocked over from the impact. Then she heard the snapping of more than just branches. She sprinted toward where the blur of dark grey had nded atop the wendigo and froze when she saw it.

  9 feet of lean werewolf was wrapped around the wendigo, using its body more like a professional fighter than the beasts she had seen of other wolves. Every move was calcuted, every action pnned, as Kurt dictated the terms of the fight. She watched in equal parts horror and fascination as the massive werewolf began to dismember the wendigo. In the background, she was vaguely aware of the radio calling for her attention, Henry saying something about coming to help.

  *****

  Kurt smmed into the wendigo, hitting it low around its center of mass and carrying it off its feet, through a few trees. They nded in a pile with him on top and the creature below him writhing in pain. He used the moment of weakness to nd a few swipes with his cws, gouging at its throat and the inside of its legs.

  He only managed two swipes before it rolled to the side and attempted to get to its feet. Kurt was on it in a fsh, grabbing an arm and wrenching it back and downward, hearing a crunch and feeling a pop. He then kicked out with his foot, raking his cws from groin to kneecap along its inner thigh. Bck blood began pouring from its wounds, mixing with the churned dirt and pine needles.

  The wendigo screeched in pain and tried to ssh him with its good arm, but Kurt had rotated behind it and kicked at the back of its upper knee, forcing it down. The creature spun as it fell, scoring a shallow cut along the arm he used to intercept the blow.

  The wendigo had bought some space and tried once more to stand, but Kurt darted to the side, blurring from the speed of the movement. He caught the monster with its head turned and he punched it right where the skull met the neck, knocking it to the ground in a heap.

  As the wendigo fell, Kurt grabbed the wrist of the arm he had dislocated. He pnted his foot in the armpit, trying to ignore the feeling of its skin cloak against his paws. He drove his foot down while holding the wrist twisted away from his face. The first kick broke bone and the creature screamed in pain. The second kick started to peel away flesh, degloving the skin from the muscle. The third kick separated the joint and when accompanied with a twist, pulled the arm from the body.

  Backing away from the now thrashing wendigo, Kurt was vaguely aware that Val was watching and staying away. He couldn’t help getting distracted, while his wolf provided excellent instincts, his elven heritage let his mind work at higher levels than the base animalistic nature of most wolves.

  His musings and observations were interrupted as the creature and finally stopped thrashing on the ground. It rolled to its knees, attempting to push itself up with its remaining arm. As it rolled over, Kurt fshed in, kicking it squarely in the head and sending it to the ground, once again on its stomach.

  Seizing the opening he made, Kurt cwed and sshed at its back, raking his long finger talons at the back of its neck. While the creature squirmed beneath him, one of his hits managed to bounce off bone. The wound must have struck a nerve, since the wendigo suddenly rolled and flung its arm wide, hitting Kurt in the face with a back hand, cracking bone in his muzzle.

  Growling from the pain and the subsequent healing, Kurt stalked forward once more. The wendigo was back to its feet but swaying from the missing limb and severe blood loss. He fnked to the right, bringing it behind a tree for a brief moment as he closed in.

  When he emerged from the other side of the tree, Kurt was a few yards closer than it expected and grabbed the wendigo by its remaining arm that hung limply at its side. He kicked again, hitting the creature’s right knee from the inside and hearing bone snap as it colpsed in that direction.

  Kurt once again nded atop the barely standing monster and proceeded to curl the arm in, wrapping it up as it would normally fold. He then twisted it around, hearing the pops and feeling the muscles tear as it was dislocated and rendered useless.

  Now that the creature was essentially defenseless, he grabbed its shoulder with one hand, wrapping his long fingers around its snout with the other, and turning the head like driving a g bolt with a wrench. Below him the creature thrashed and tried to scream but only managed a choking gurgle.

  Kurt then pced both his feet on the wendigo’s shoulder bdes, nearly bent in half as he dug his cws into the soft flesh of its neck before pulling upward with all his might. A creak was followed by a pop then a snapping sound as the head was parted from body, mid-way up the neck.

  With his trophy in hand, Kurt straightened to his full height, threw his head back and howled. He let his wolf have this one, surrendering to his instincts in this once instance. He had to admit, it felt pretty good. Finishing up his celebration, he spiked the skull into the ground next to the body, stomping it to a pulp before turning his attention to his audience.

  *****

  Footsteps behind her and the smell of wet dog informed Val that the chief had arrived. She quickly gnced back seeing Henry and what looked like an orc along with a human. They were standing a couple yards away, watching with open mouths at the sight before them.

  They had arrived at a full sprint just in time to see Kurt rip the thing’s arm off and throw it away. Val noted that they didn’t move an inch after they stopped, despite the fight that was raging not even a hundred yards away, they were rooted to the spot.

  In silence, the four of them bore witness to Kurt dominate the wendigo. From the moment it was in a grapple, Val had a gut feeling that the fight was in the bag for him, and Kurt only needed to go through the formalities. The second howl as he decapitated the monster sent a shiver down her spine and a warmth blossomed in her chest.

  Val was torn. She watched the fight between Kurt and the wendigo in its entirety. Her elf side was saying to run for it, that a monster which hunts monsters, is still a monster. Her kitsune side however was feeling very hot and bothered by the dispy of power. In this instance, Val was siding with her inner vixen. While she hadn’t been one for dispys of fighting, this was Kurt, her Kurt and that changed things.

  When Kurt turned his yellow eyes on them, the officers flinched but had the good sense not to run. Clearly, they had experience dealing with wolves. Val, however, saw the intelligence behind those eyes, knowing for a fact that Kurt was the one in control. She smiled and nodded at him, watching as he moved off to where the fight had started.

  She followed, daring to get within arm’s reach, but not touching him. He didn’t seem to mind and slowed his impressive gait to allow her to keep up. She wondered where he was going until she saw the pile of clothes and equipment on the ground.

  While the officers wouldn’t be able to see through the trees, she cast an illusion to block their sight and give Kurt some privacy as he shifted back to his human form. Once he was no longer 9 feet tall and covered in fur, he immediately got dressed. Steam rose from his skin as the rain fell upon him, making him look like a demon in the mist.

  “Thanks Val.” Kurt said in a hushed tone after he put his boots back on, skipping his soaked socks. He was still, sitting, head bowed as he rested for a moment.

  Leaning in, Val kissed him on the cheek and cupped his face to look up at her. “You were amazing out there.” She kissed him on the lips. “I am proud of you.” She said the words directly, no embellishment and no fttery, just simple truth.

  The simple gesture seemed to work as his expression brightened and he stood holding out his hand to her. She took it and they walked back to the waiting officers together.