Otherlife Awakening: The Selfless Hero Trilogy

by William D. Arand

  /GMHub 7

  Teleporting…

  /GMHubReturn

  Teleporting…

  Reappearing where the wagons had been, he felt momentary elation. The wagons were gone.

  Then he felt a crush of bodies press into him and attack him simultaneously.

  Flipping Taxi back to the plane of Eden, Runner tried vainly to protect himself.

  Attack after attack landed on him. It was exactly what he had been afraid of if the entire force concentrated on him. He could only return to the exact spot he’d left.

  Trying to conserve mana for healing, he turned his thoughts to his items.

  Runner was forced to Blink a short distance over, using up a charge.

  Wrapping his arms around two soldiers, he used Taxi. Upon returning he leapt at a female caster in front of him.

  Pressing her to the ground, he stared down into her frightened hazel eyes.

  “Hi.” Runner grinned at her before sending her off with Taxi.

  Each trip to the plane cost him something like three to five seconds.

  But no mana.

  When he returned he got to his feet quickly and looked around.

  He could see that his small group was fighting between him and the mouth of the cave. They were swarmed.

  Targeting his group, he set off a Regeneration spell on each. He’d have liked to use actual large healing spells but there was no time.

  Unable to spare a single second more, as every second he wasted was another second they were under attack, he blinked towards a group of casters.

  Throwing his arms wide, he caught two men and a woman in a group hug and zipped them off.

  With every usage he felt his mind spinning crazily at the distortion. His brain was starting to have trouble differentiating where he was or what was up and down.

  His mana bar remained relatively full though.

  Panting, Runner scanned around him and found a group of seven healers to one side.

  Sparing another second, he once more applied Regeneration to his people.

  Blinking on top of the enemy healers, he dove at them, spreading himself out sideways to hit as many as he could.

  The moment he felt contact he hit the ability again, only to return while still in midair.

  When he hit the dirt, he contracted his arms and legs and felt a few more people. Whisking them off to Eden Runner found himself back on the grass, panting.

  He wanted to throw up, and knew that it wasn’t possible in this world.

  A flashing red icon appeared on his UI, and he closed it hurriedly.

  Getting to his feet, he found there were no healers left of the group of seven.

  Before him stood a group of hungry-eyed melee classes. Either they were the healer’s bodyguards, or they came to him looking for a fight. It didn’t matter.

  Thanks for the meal.

  Runner slumped forward and grabbed at three of them. He managed to lock up two and sent them off via Taxi.

  Flailing around as his knees buckled, Runner connected with someone else. He dragged them to Eden.

  Runner felt his vision cloud and glaze. Colors still made sense though. Red names were red names after all.

  Unable to truly see his own group anymore, he tried to cast Regeneration on the group bars instead.

  The spell failed once.

  Invalid target.

  Spotting a clustered bunch of red names, Runner blearily eyed them.

  There’s a big group. Let’s go that way. Onwards, feet!

  Stumbling toward the group, he set his sights on the closest red name. Latching onto them in a hug, he sent them off. Moving as best as he could, Runner managed to send seven more off in that fashion before people started to simply run from him.

  Slumping to his knees, Runner could barely comprehend anything that was going on around him.

  Everything looked like a scattered mosaic. Blurred and incomprehensible.

  Something came up to him. It stayed out of reach, or he thought it did. Runner prepared to lurch forward to Taxi another person far, far away.

  As if sensing the fact that he was ready, they backed off. Another shape joined the first.

  They had an exchange, one that Runner couldn’t follow. To him it all sounded like bagpipes being run over.

  Runner decided to close his eyes. It didn’t matter. If they were friendly, he had nothing to care about. If they were enemies, they’d realized he was spent and could do no more anyways.

  Come closer, said the spider to the fly. Fine, give me time. As soon as my head clears I’ll send you all to Eden.

  Several minutes passed in silence. Runner rested on his knees with his head slumped forward, arms limp at his sides.

  “You in there yet?” Hannah asked him quietly.

  Runner felt his lips twitch upward into an involuntarily smile. Lifting his head, he opened his eyes.

  Hannah smiled back at him, squatting in front of him.

  “Good to see you, Hanners,” Runner croaked.

  “Likewise. You don’t look too good.”

  “It’s the spell. I don’t understand it honestly, but using it a lot, or rapidly, tends to screw me up. Wasn’t as bad last time. Then again, I wasn’t a cyborg demigod back then,” Runner said casually.

  Hannah snorted and then sighed.

  “Annette and Signe both fell. I sent Ada off back to camp with my Stealth potions. Sophia needs to know what happened here. Those wagons being eliminated is good information for her to have,” Hannah said softly.

  Runner made a soft grunt and felt his head dip a fraction.

  “They’re waiting for you, Runner,” Hannah whispered.

  Taking a deep breath, Runner stood up and straightened his shoulders.

  His eyes tracked over the corpses sprawled out. At the center of a cluster of bodies lay Annette and Signe.

  Runner moved over to them slowly and as stably as he could manage. They deserved respect.

  Bending down over the two dead Norwood’s Own, he eased them onto their backs, straightened their armor as best as he could, and arranged their features and hair to be as if they were only at rest.

  Reaching out blindly with his divine presence, he tried to free them of their bodies.

  He could feel them. Warm and tingly, like when you sat on your leg for too long. Delicate things that were trapped inside their broken vessels.

  As gently as he could he disconnected them from their mortal bodies. He felt the moment that their ties broke and they lifted themselves free.

  Standing before him were the slain, ghostly in image and watching him.

  “Annette, Signe, please forgive me for spending your lives. I promise it was not done in vain. I thank you, from the depths of my heart.”

  Runner bowed to them deeply from the waist.

  Neither spoke when Runner stood upright again, though they both saluted in unison.

  Taking more effort than he could remember previously, Runner opened a portal to the spiritual plane.

  On the other side he could see the interior of his temple and many spirits. They paused in their afterlife to stare out of the portal back at him.

  “Please, enjoy your rest as it was well earned. I will ensure that your families receive a bonus for your personal heroism,” Runner promised.

  Signe eagerly bounded forward, taking her rightful place as a fallen soldier with her comrades, family, and friends.

  Annette lingered behind. Then she inclined her head fractionally to Runner and entered the portal.

  It slid shut behind the ghostly sergeant, and Runner looked to Hannah.

  “I know we need to move. I’m… not sure how fast I can go. I’m feeling pretty fucked up, Hanners.”

  “Well then, I’ve got good news for you. You get to mount me tonight,” Hannah said, giving him a wide grin.

  Runner blinked slowly at that. “Ha… ha… ha. Don’t toy with my fragile emotions. So, what do you need from me? I’m assuming this is about the plan you ment
ioned earlier?”

  Hannah rolled her eyes at his lack of interest and gestured at him.

  “You said you can’t become anything other than a playable race. When you hit me with RaceReset earlier, I saw… well I saw damn near everything.”

  “Right. Just don’t pick anything non-sentient. No guarantee you wouldn’t become whatever you… uh… became, I guess. In other words, if you become a horse, you might really be a horse in mind and spirit.”

  “Not a concern. This is only temporary. Hit me.”

  Runner didn’t have a better plan, so he did as she asked. Targeting Hannah, he used RaceReset.

  Hannah hadn’t even fully transformed into the blue vortex when she simply reappeared.

  As a Centaur.

  She was the size of a true horse, probably a large variant species of a Centaur. Her hair and fur coloring was black as midnight from head to hoof. The skin of her face, arms, and torso was pale in contrast.

  Flicking her horse tail at his face, she turned her head from him, hiding her features.

  “I look strange. Eyes to yourself, fucker. Now get on. We need to get moving.”

  “Not really how I envisioned my first time with you,” Runner murmured with a smile. Moving over to her, he ran his fingers gently over her spine.

  “Stop that. Hurry up already, this is awkward enough as it is, fucktard,” Hannah complained, shivering under his touch.

  “Fine, fine. Thank you, Hanners. I know this isn’t easy, and I appreciate it.” Runner swung a leg over Hannah’s middle and mounted her. “Errr, hold onto your hips then? Without a saddle and bridle it’s a little odd.”

  “My waist is fine. If you even think of getting funny and moving those hands, I’ll kick you off and trample you,” she warned him.

  “Wouldn’t think of it,” Runner promised, wrapping his arms around her waist.

  “Good. Now…” Hannah’s hands were busy in front of her. Runner tried to lean forward to get a look when he realized she was tying his hands together around her front.

  “So you can’t fall off as easy. Hopefully you can close your eyes on my back and rest a bit. Will be bumpy as shit but… doing what I can here,” Hannah apologized.

  “I know, thank you, love. You’re better than I deserve.”

  “Damn right. Okay, here we go.”

  Runner heard a triumphant fanfare of trumpets and his screen flashed.

  Rike has declared a holy war on your pantheon!

  All worshipers for both sides have been marked accordingly.

  Good luck!

  The dome that had been erected over him shuddered and crackled as it came under fire.

  Whatever this holy war meant, it had enabled his divine partners the ability to act.

  Hannah worked up to a gallop while Runner contemplated this.

  Opening his map, he saw it was full of blue and red dots. It was easy to assume every blue dot was someone who worshiped his pantheon, and every red dot was one of Rike’s.

  He could even see red dots in Norwood, Shade’s Rest, and Kastell. Rike had spent the lives of her spies to find out where Runner was.

  There was a huge blob of red along the southern coast of the Human third of Tirtius. Except for that smaller blue blob that could only be Faye’s army.

  Rike had landed a lot of troops.

  It was exactly as they had supposed: Faye would need a hand, and Runner was the only one who could provide it.

  Hannah was darting between trees and bushes as quickly as she could. Moving faster than they ever could have on foot.

  “By the way. Rike declared holy war on me. They can see us on the map and we can see them. I’m sure we’ll have friends eventually if we dally too long. No big.”

  “Always. A problem. With you. Fucker,” Hannah huffed out as she galloped.

  “I know. Sorry. Thanks for staying with me, Hanners.”

  Runner took a deep breath before continuing.

  “Rike has a pretty big army in the south. Probably equal to Faye and probably has more of those wagon things. And she has no tanks. This probably isn’t going to be very good.”

  Hannah ran on in silence, ducking under a low hanging branch. Runner had heard a long time ago to stay at the height of the horse’s head when riding through something like this. Now he understood why.

  “I’m not sure how this’ll all turn out. It’s pretty likely that… well, that Kitten and Lady Death are no longer with us.

  “I’m honestly afraid more of us will die. So, in case I don’t get the chance to say it later, I love you. I’m a manwhore, a gigolo, whatever you want to call me, but I do love you, Hanners. Well and truly. I’m sorry,” Runner said, pressing his forehead to the back of Hannah’s armored shoulders.

  Hannah didn’t say anything, but he could feel her pressing herself to move even faster, her muscles bunching underneath his hips and legs.

  Hannah Anelie has accepted your proposal.

  Congratulations!

  You are officially man and wife.

  “This doesn’t. Mean. Anything. We need. To talk. Later. Asshole! Fucker! Bastard! I hate you! My love,” Hannah yelled as she stormed through the woods.

  Chapter 21 - Power Overwhelming -

  4:19 am Sovereign Earth time

  5/25/44

  Runner peered at the clock.

  Hannah had nearly stumbled as she ran along moments before, jarring Runner from his light doze on her back.

  Opening his map, he checked their position. She’d run on through the previous day and the night. There’d been no stops and they’d eaten on the run. Literally.

  They were only an hour’s walk from Faye. Sitting upright, he shifted his bound hands to her middle and leaned up to the side of her face.

  “Hanners, it’s time to trade places,” Runner whispered into her wedge-shaped ear.

  Hannah said nothing but slowly came to a shuddering stop. Her breath came in broken gasps as her hands flopped like fish against his bindings.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Runner said, and then blinked to her side.

  Hannah turned her face from him despite being as tired as she was.

  Respecting the fact that she didn’t want him to see her as anything other than her half-breed self, he targeted her and cast RaceReset, sending her back to the character screen in a rush of blue motes.

  Looking down to the bindings around his wrists, he cast a Fire spell. The rope caught fire quickly and fell from his hands.

  Hannah popped back into existence and fell forwards.

  Catching her under the armpits, Runner held her upright. She leaned completely into him, her head resting on his shoulder and her arms dangling at her sides. Her face looked pale even for her, and her eyes were closed.

  “Thank you, my sweet little Thief. I’ll carry you the rest of the way. I’ll have Sparky get you a tent to sleep in for a bit while I see to things.”

  Hannah nodded, rubbing her cheek on his shoulder.

  “Here, can you stand up for two seconds? That’s all I need,” Runner asked her gently.

  Hannah nodded a little but didn’t move.

  Runner smiled sadly.

  My poor Hanners.

  Reaching down, he placed his hands under her bottom and then heaved. He pulled her up into him, holding onto her rear end firmly to keep her in place.

  Taking a few steps, he adjusted her position and then felt comfortable carrying her.

  It was awkward positioning, to say the least, but thankfully muscles didn’t exactly tire from carrying things in a video game.

  That and I should be grateful that sprinting is very different than carrying.

  If you could carry something, you could carry it indefinitely.

  Runner set off for Faye’s camp, pinging Faye directly on top of herself, and then once on top of himself.

  Though she didn’t come to greet him, he could clearly see her blue dot and several others moving around hurriedly in her tent.

  Preparing a welcome. Ble
ss her.

  Roughly an hour later Runner walked straight into Faye’s command tent. He had watched as several dots, including Faye’s, had moved into a tent that had magically appeared beside Faye’s own. He’d pinged her once to signal to remain there.

  Faye kept her tent the same way every time, so he knew where her bed would be.

  He moved over to it, laid Hannah down in Faye’s bed, and looked down at her.

  “Hannah Norwood, sleep and rest,” Runner whispered through a smile. Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to her lips and then slipped out to Faye’s location.

  Stepping inside of the Command Tent that he assumed was his own, he looked around for a second.

  Only to be picked up and crushed in a bone-shattering hug.

  “Love,” said a rich voice. Katarina’s voice.

  Laughing, Runner pulled his head back to stare up at the Barbarian woman.

  “Kitten! You big beautiful Barbarian. I was so worried when you and Lady Death left the raid. You’re both okay?”

  “Aye. We are. Spies in the raid. Had to leave. Can’t rejoin till we’re sure they’re all gone. Kept spotting us out in Dover,” she said. Leaning in, she kissed him firmly, hungrily.

  After a few seconds she released him. Feeling dizzy and not entirely sure he wanted to be released, Runner steadied himself.

  Then was quickly enveloped in another hug. This one tender and warm.

  “Dear heart,” Thana whispered, her arms tightening a fraction around his shoulders.

  “Lady Death, I was quite worried for you both.” Runner leaned back and then kissed Thana before she could get away.

  Thana allowed it for a few seconds before pushing back from him and patting his shoulder.

  “I assumed you would be. I must say, I don’t like not being in the group. It provides so many benefits that you simply come to rely on,” the Sunless Sorceress said, giving him a toothy smile.

  Runner looked her over from head to toe—nothing wrong, everything where it was supposed to be.

  Looking to Katarina, he stopped and felt his eyebrows shoot up.

  Katarina was very pregnant. Probably about eight months so. To the point where he wondered if her armor would fit her.