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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/PepperAntique on 2024-10-31 20:49:42+00:00.

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Writer’s Note: Happy Halloween. Also… whew boy, this is a longer one than I expected. Joey gets to do baller shit. And also discards his chill for a bit. This faintly reminds me of the part in the first story where Vickers was fighting his fellow SEALS and the embassy soldiers were just like “Is he a super villain? I think he might be a super villain.”

Eh, I shouldn’t spoil it. You’ll see what I’m talking about.

Enjoy and see y’all next week.

When Noodle, with Joey still clinging to her back and repelling the last few slingers still on her, burst through the wall of slingers at the edge of the forest and got into the clearing near the top of the mountain, Joey had thought they were both free.

It hadn't been easy. The monsters, for that was what they were to him now, had amassed in a wall of bodies between them and their freedom.

[In order to break through Noodle had had to blast several jets of flame at them, while still running forward.

Joey had had to use his druidic power to push back the trees around them, and in front of them, and he'd had to do it while continuing to fight.

And even still they'd had to bash their way through the wall bodily, with Noodle pulling her head back and using it like a ram. Joey had had no choice but to hold on for dear life while kicking at a slinger that had grabbed at his off hand with bone-breaking strength.

That had still resulted in them only barely breaking through, and they'd had more than a few slingers clinging to Noodle's side and to Joey. They'd spent the first few moments of their newfound freedom with Noodle still running for several hundred yards before slamming onto her side and death rolling as Joey let himself get tossed off so he could struggle with his attackers on his own.

When the last few of the slingers had been repelled the two of them had lain on the ground panting and heaving at the smell of the various things they were covered in. Joey had looked over at Noodle, who was slowly shaking a dead slinger with her head before slamming it into the ground and leaving it there.

She looked over at him and, despite her reptilian features, he thought he saw exhaustion and anger. Feelings he could relate to.

Then he heard the screeching and farting noises behind them escalate in volume. It had been so constant for the past few hours that it had almost become white noise up until now as he noticed the growing noise. He saw Noodle's eyes widen like a predatory cat's might, and she bared her fangs as she got into a fighting stance that was all too familiar to him.

Joey turned and immediately leapt to his feet, his sword back in his hand once more as he moved to her side.

The slingers weren't done with them.

As he looked he saw just how outnumbered they had actually been. With the trees no longer concealing the masses of slingers that had been chasing them, he could now see just how truly massive the troupe (or whatever a group of the ape-like creatures was called) really was.

They slowly ambled out of the forest in a massive, solid, group.

He was vaguelly reminded of a movie he'd seen where ancient barbarians had emerged from the woods to fight a Roman legion. The way the slingers seemed to just... appear... from the woods, and the way they slowly crept forward, it was almost identical. 

Noodle rumbled and he felt her heating up again. But she made a noise that he honestly didn't think he'd ever heard Steve or any other drake make before as she looked at him for a moment. It was like a cross between a whine and a deep chirp-like noise.

It was an incredibly disturbing noise to hear from the typically stoic and sassy beast.

"Yeah I uh... I don't know girl." He admitted. "I think this might be when I have to do something dramatic again."

Without knowing what to do, Joey relied on his instincts.

As the slingers began loping along at a faster and faster pace, and as their "projectiles" began to darken the sky, he sheathed his rapier and raised his hands up as his eyes began to glow white, and his antlers green and gold.

And once again, he began to act like his brother.

"Keep your stinking paws off of us you damned dirty apes!" He yelled as he stepped forward and the light emanating from him began to flare.

He strained, every ounce of magic and every muscle in his body flaring with exertion as he focused on just... getting the apes away from them by any means necessary.

His vision faded from the combination of exertion and his physically abused state. He thought that last slinger may have cracked the bones in his left arm.

But he had work to do.

And the mountain began to vibrate.

“What in the hells is that?” Kaladi asked as she fished through her belt pouch for her seeing glass.

Down below, the forest on the side of the mountains was churning and roiling as a massive dark mass moved through it.

“That’s a canyon slinger clan.” Ykmir responded easily. He gave a command to his wyvern through the reins and it began to dive slightly. Kaladi was glad that her seat had built in straps holding her down as she grabbed at the bedroll in front of her. “What in the hells could rile up a whole clan like that?” He pointed down. “They’ve mobilized everything from the looks of it. Only the ones tending their young’ll still be at their dens. That’s a damn army.”

Beneath them Grasswing began letting out low grunting noises as his head began turning from side to side to keep his eyes on something down below.

She had an idea as to what it was as she finally got her looking glass out.

“That’s a drake down there.” Ykmir said, beating her to the call out. “Grasswing knows.”

“The one we’re looking for?” She asked back as she now saw the occasional jets of flame that would cause the horde of moving creatures to clear space for a few seconds. There was also a familiar looking white light that would occasionally flare up.

She was tapping a message into her helmet before he answered.

“Be my guess.” He said back to her. “They’re almost free of the woods.” He said as he pulled the wyvern into a stable altitude. “That’s a bad idea.”

She saw what he was talking about.

“Why do you say that?” She asked.

He looked back at her, suddenly reminded that she’d probably never left Ostielle before, or at least not for a long time, and had likely never encountered the creatures before.

“When they’re in the trees they rely mostly on ambush tactics and ranged attacks. Hence the name canyon SLINGER. They’ll keep doing that until their prey is worn out, then they’ll mob em and rip em to shreds.” He informed her. “But just getting out of the woods wont’ be enough to make them leave you alone. They’ll chase for a few miles after that. But without the trees they’ll resort to moving en masse and will just bum rush their prey as a whole. No subtlety. Just aggression and numbers.”

Sure enough as they watched, her through the glass and him just with his eyes and his watchful mount, the mass broke out of the woods and she saw her target.

She tapped her helmet again.

[Target confirmed.] She submitted. [Yellow drake. White luminescence. Target currently engaged in battle with local wildlife. Activating backup enchantment and deploying visual guidance.]

She tapped at Ykmir’s shoulder as she put away the glass. He looked back at her as she activated the enchantment on her chest-plate that would guide the other legionnaires to her position.

“Bring us down.” She said as she pulled a set of smoke flares from a different pouch and set one off before throwing it over the wyvern’s side. “Not in the woods.”

He looked back at her with a “No shit.” look on his face.

“Like hells I’d land in those woods.” He said. “We shouldn’t get too close.” He added. He pointed back down and she finally saw the mass of creatures moving out of the woods toward Joseph Choi and his drake companion. From their elevation it looked like an entire landmass was moving toward the two. “They’re not fans of things interfering with their hunts or fights.”

“I don’t care.” She said as she readied another flare with a balloon attachment that it would keep aloft with its own heat. "I’m only going down long enough to retrieve him. The drake and the beasts can kill each other for all I care.

Ykmir turned back forward and sighed before ordering Grasswing down.

Then he paused and they both had to shield their eyes as a brilliant white light, with bits of green and gold swirling in it, emanated from below. With it came a flood of magical energy that made her armor flare to life as it registered the different types.

She didn’t miss the way the newly installed rune on her vambrace flared white, indicating the presence of divine magic.

A noise, like a god or some massive titan grinding their teeth, began to go with the bright light.

“What in the hells?” Ykmir said, once again taking the words right out of her mouth.

Down below, the top portion of the mountain began to move, extending and moving sideways as the mass of canyon slingers froze in its tracks.

She was reminded of the incident in the ward, and how he’d somehow created new land as he shifted the buildings and people of the ward back.

Now he was doing that to a significantly more impressive degree.

She slapped Ykmir’s side frantica…

Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ggopqq/rebirth_relearn_return_gateverse_50/