“God dammit, I knew this was going to happen. No one takes care of this damn road. Betsy, we should have just gone the main road and dealt with bandits! I’m a fucking cultivator!” I yelled as I grunted along and used a mallet to knock off the broken wheel.

  I had unclasped Betsy once I realized the wheel broke, and she was standing there next to me, watching. She had the replacement wheel on one of her horns, ready to put it on. I just needed to get the old broken ass one off first. I knew I could hammer it off in one swing if I used my strength, but I didn’t want to break anything else, so I was trying to take care and not do that.

  “Mrr…”

  I looked up and Betsy stared at me flatly.

  “Just get ready with the wheel, will ya?”

  She nodded her head.

  One final whack and the wheel went flying off and landed on the side of the mountain. It exploded into small pieces that went flying everywhere. Alright, maybe I went a little heavy with the last swing. I looked at Betsy sheepishly, and she rolled her eyes at me.

  I grinned at her when a group of three robed men walked us. They didn’t say or anything and just looked at the ground as they walked. They wore robes like a friar would wear. Just a plain brown robe that was one piece of cloth and a hood.

  “Hey guys, mind helping me out a second?” I asked. I reached out to clap one of the priests on the shoulders.

  Before I touched him, the three bodies turned and raised their heads, showing me what was under the hoods. Two of the things had one large yellow eye and the other in the back had two large yet somehow still beady eyes. Red skin, leathery skin and a wide open mouth that showed yellowing sharp teeth that could easily rip through me. They even had a short boney looking horn on the top of their foreheads.

  I yelled and stumbled back in shock. “What in the fuck!”

  Before I realized what was going on, there were more of them. The tall goblin-like creatures came out from behind rocks and through crevices. There were maybe a dozen of them all with crude swords or clubs.

  Betsy bellowed a mighty bellow that seemed to cause a small earthquake in the immediate area and I stared at her for a moment in shock. How strong had she gotten? No matter. I reached for her and grabbed the wheel off one of her horns so she could rampage. Before her horn was fully free, she was charging the nearest.. At the time, I wasn’t sure what they were. I thought they might have been this world’s version of goblins, but they stood the height of a grown man. I found out later they were called shunobon.

  Betsy charged the creatures that were dressed in the priest's robes. They had all pulled clubs from somewhere and when one of them tried to strike the ox, she just knocked the blow away with her right horn and then used her left as her own club and knocked it into the creature’s side. Before the shunobon landed into the rock wall, she knocked him into. She lowered her head and gored the closest one to him.

  I didn’t have long to stand there and watch her clean up since there were a couple of them coming at me. I was about to use the wheel as a mallet when I realized it was our only spare, so I changed my plan and used the actual mallet in my right hand as a weapon.

  The ribs cracked when I struck the first monster on his side. I not only heard the snapping of bones, but I felt them give away when I struck. Calling back to all the cultivation books I listened to while driving, I tried to remember what The Wandering Dragon would do, or The Ghost. I may not have had an element, but I had spirit, so I sensed out. Reached out to get a lay of the land. I wanted to try to perceive what the creatures were going to do before they did it.

  A club came flying at my head from behind, and I ducked. I instinctively used the wheel in my left hand and went for the creature’s legs. This was one of the creatures that only had one gigantic eye and it looked in shock as it went to the ground after I tripped it up. I brought my mallet up and struck at this thing’s chest now while it was in the air. I hit it square in the middle of his, or hers, chest and it landed on the ground so hard it imprinted its body slightly in the rock.

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  Another of the monsters kept deflecting my attacks with his crude chipped iron sword. I was lashing out with both the wheel and my mallet, and he could deflect or parry. To get him, I needed to attack with both at once. I lashed out with both of the makeshift weapons and he wasn’t able to dodge both. He knocked away the wheel, but the mallet crushed into his skull with a sickening, sticky crunch.

  My attacks and dodges became rhythmical. I imagined a song in my head and I moved to it. Dodging and attacking out with my mallet. When I had a moment, I looked at Betsy and she full on had an electric bolt humming between her horns. They were wrapped in that same sort of blue wrapped in red electricity that I think sent me here to this world.

  My moment of shock got me a club to my gut, and I exhaled the air in my gut loudly. I looked at the creature who did it and he stared at me with wide-open eyes, in shock and fear. Fear because all it did was knock the wind out of me. I stared at the creature with wide eyes. Looking back, I don’t even think it really hurt that much. It was just a reflex of getting hit in the gut.

  The thing made this word sort of throat noise, dropped his club and retreated. He called out something in whatever they spoke. I couldn’t even begin to guess what it said other than retreat because as soon as he called to, the group of creatures must have realized their losses weren’t worth what they were going to gain.

  Betsy pulled her hoof off of a broken body and looked at me before she gave a bellow. I stood there and grinned at her. I wasn’t even really breathing heavily, I just felt good. My gut ached slightly from the blow, and we both had minor cuts and scrapes, but nothing serious.

  I started to take a little inventory of all the little wounds on myself and, to a lesser extent, Betsy. The ox did a lot better than I did in the fight. Then I looked at the spare wheel and realized I had broken it. It was missing a big wooden piece between two of the spokes. I thought back to my motions through the fight and remembered the one with the iron sword.

  “Oh hell,” I muttered.

  Betsy just gave me a flat look, and I laughed. Betsy turned her head in confusion as I kept laughing. I ended up throwing the wheel towards a rock wall and it blew up into several wood chunks that flew about. Betsy gave an annoyed bellow when one of them hit her.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled and looked at her.

  Another bellow and I got the impression of her staring at me in judgement. The ox shook her head once more.

  “Yeah, yeah. Come on, let’s get you hooked back up,” I told her and moved towards the front of the wagon.

  Betsy just stared at where there should be a wagon wheel.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, come on. I’ll have to hold it up and we’ll go back to the town I guess. Let me send a butterfly to Norimoro and Amber. Tell them we got held up. If they’re already on their way up the mountain, maybe they’ll have a spare wheel for us.” I explained this as I put a hand on Betsy and walked her around into the yoke and got her clasped in.

  With that done, I walked around and hopped onto the driver’s bench. I reached back into my little bunk area and dug around for the messaging crystal. Without looking at it, I held it in my hand and closed my eyes. It was harder after the fighting to control my spirit. It was still roiling from the action with the creatures.

  It took me several minutes to calm myself and breathe how Hisai taught me. I eventually got myself under control and my heart rate slowed and my spirit calmed and moved how I wanted it to. When I tried to force my spirit into the crystal, I realized it wasn’t as responsive as it usually was. I wasn’t sure what the problem was, but I flooded my spirit towards the crystal. Pushed all of it I could into it, thinking of what I wanted the message to say.

  We got held up by some sort of creature that looked like a minion and a goblin that had a baby. Broke a wheel. On our way back down to Sanroku. We’ll meet you there and come back up the mountain together. Think they’re scared of us now.

  Eventually, one small butterfly came from the crystal. It wasn’t as bright or vibrant that it normally was when I used it. Maybe the crystal was running out of juice? I’d have to figure out a way to recharge it. Maybe I had to get a whole new one? I sighed and shook my head as I watched the pale butterfly fly off. It flew like it was drunk; it kept weaving around and turning about. As I watched, eventually, it made its way down the mountain.

  “Great,” I mumbled and put the crystal back in the bunk.

  “Mrr,” Betsy gave a bellow of agreement.

  I slide back down from the bench and went to the back of the wagon, where the wheel was gone. I told myself to lift with my knees and grunted as I grabbed it and lifted it with a loud grunt.

  “Holy shit!” I yelled as I picked it up. Although I knew I was strong, the extra-long wagon was full of clay and supplies for the journey.

  Betsy pulled, and we got turned around to head back down the way we came.

  “Come on girl, let’s not dawdle. I think I’m about to drop a nut,” I groaned as we walked along. She picked up the pace, and I could do a brisk walking pace to keep up while still holding up the wagon.

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