“Ahh. Has the Gnome woken up?” I asked.
“He has, but I did not have a chance to speak with the man. I’ve had to keep my eye on the noble lady next door and also interview the crew. I shall leave it in your capable hands, dear Leo.”
“Thanks, Cornalic. Get some rest.” I got off my bed and moved to the table in the room. Cornalic had made marks against the names there, indicating that he had spoken with them. I memorized the next five names on the list and then moved to knock on the door leading to Chrysa’s room.
“It is Leo,” I said after I knocked.
“Leo! Come in! Yay! I missed you!” Allurie exclaimed as soon as she pulled open the door.
My jaw almost hit the floor as soon as I saw the elf girl.
“Allurie, you look--”
“She looks wonderful! Don’t you think, Leo?” Chrysa stood next to my friend, and the noblewoman gestured for me to step inside.
“Yeah, wow, Allurie. I ahh.”
The elf woman wore a dress that was a few shades darker gray than her silver hair. It wasn’t quite as elaborate as a gown, but it was still crafted with elegant sweeps of cloth, sparkly glass sequins, and a somewhat sheer bottom skirt that hinted at her long legs. The top part of the dress had a deep neckline that was held together by a thin glittery piece of cord. The fit of the dress pushed Allurie’s breasts together and perfectly showcased her cleavage.
There was a jeweled choker tight around her neck, and it was decorated with what looked like diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds. The blend of blue and green stones went well with her turquoise eyes, and the matching jewelry on her ears, and wrists drew my eyes to the bare skin that the dress didn’t cover.
Her silver hair was braided back with a clasp that was designed to look like a jade-encrusted butterfly with sapphire eyes. The style added a lot of depth to Allurie’s mane, and I realized that her hair wasn’t just silver, it had strands of bronze, black, red, and blonde mixed under the surface layer.
“Leo?” my friend asked as she clasped her hands together. It was a nervous gesture, and I saw her cheeks blush slightly. She was even wearing eye shadow. It was a dark burgundy, and the shading really made her bright ocean eyes pop.
“It looks wonderful,” I said. I meant every word of the sentence. I had always thought Allurie was pretty, even beautiful, but the outfit she wore made her seem like a goddess that I was not worthy to look on. I couldn’t believe the transformation.
“She didn’t need much polishing,” Chrysa said. “I’ve seen many elves, but your friend is quite gorgeous. Hard to believe she was cooking and cleaning in a kitchen in such a backwater kingdom. She would be the gem of any party I would throw in Iria.”
“I love cooking and cleaning, though!” Allurie said with a happy smile. “But not as much as I love Leo. Do you really like it? It seems too fancy for me. It sparkles so much.” The elf girl put her hands on the side of the skirt and swished it with a motion of her hips.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “It looks great. I like the choker.”
Allurie raised her hand to touch her neck. I noticed her nails were polished the same color as her eye shadow.
“She is your friend, so I thought something like this was more appropriate than one of the servant's dresses,” Chrysa continued.
“Well. Yeah. Ummm. Good job,” I stuttered my words, and I noticed that Chrysa’s servants were giggling in the back corner.
“I still have my daggers. They fit in the dress! I won’t take them out until I need to use them. I don’t really want to use them.” Allurie frowned, and I tried to keep my eyes from looking at her lips, or her eyes, or her breasts. Shit, I needed to get out of here.
“I heard the captain was looking for me. I’m going to go talk to him and then meet with some of the people on the list. Uhhh. I’ll be back in a bit. Cornalic is sleeping in the other room so you can grab him if something comes up.”
“Oh, I wish you could stay! I really miss-” Allurie started, but I was already stepping out of the door.
“Talk later, bye!” I said right before I closed it. Then I took a deep breath in the hallway and set off to find the captain.
The crew members that I passed all thought that he was in his cabin, so I made my way through the hallways in that direction. The tall man opened the door a few seconds after I knocked, and he gestured for me to come and sit on his couch.
“You were looking for me?” I asked.
“Indeed. Sir Lennox, we must speak about the gnome you captured on the pirate ship.”
“What’s going on? Did you get him into the cell down below?”
“We did, but there were some consequences,” the man sighed a bit, and I felt dread enter my stomach as if I’d swallowed ice. “We were short on cells because of all the pirates, so we had to put him into one with ten other men.”
“Ahhh. Did they kill him?” I asked with a sigh. Damn, I really wanted to help that guy.
“No, Sir Lennox. I’m afraid that the opposite happened.”
“He killed ten men?” I gasped.
“Yes. Quite brutally. Then he arranged the bodies in a circle, sat in the middle, and hasn’t moved for the past ten or twelve hours. He is repeatedly asking for you. My men are terrified to even descend into the hold, and the other pirates need their food, water, and latrines changed.”
“Did he say what he wants from me? I guess he just wants to fight again.”
“He did not say. Sir Lennox, the man is trouble. The pirates are guilty of obvious crimes, but they asked for quarter, and I am honor-bound to deliver. I would prefer to throw the gnome overboard.”
“I’ll try to talk with him first. I don’t want to kill the man.”
“Sir Lennox. There is obviously something wrong in the man’s brain. We are doing Ohlavar a favor by putting him out of his misery. People with conditions like that are a danger to themselves and society.”
“No. I’ll talk to him first,” I growled the words, and the captain’s eye brows rose with surprise.
I stood from the couch, nodded to him, and then left without another word. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been upset with the captain. He was just looking to protect his people. There were a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders, and he looked like a man that had many years of experience.
I just didn’t like the idea of murdering someone because they had a mental disorder.
I made my way through the halls of the ship and into the hold below decks. A group of the ship’s crew stood at the stairs leading down to the makeshift jail area. The men all looked terrified, and they parted to let me pass.
The storage room of this ship was a good three times the size of the one in the pirate’s vessel. There were four cells pushed to one corner of the hold, and I wove through stacked crates to stand before the iron bars. The three on the left were filled with several pirate prisoners. The men all began to shout when they saw me, and they pointed fearfully at the end cell. I saw the strange tattooed gnome inside of it, and a pile of the dead surrounded him.
He’d laid them out in a perfect circle, and the gnome sat in the middle cross-legged as if he was meditating.
“Get us out of here!”
“He killed them!”
“With his bare hands!”
“He started to bend open the bars!”
The various pirate voices shouted to me.
Then the gnome opened his eyes, and the bright blue orbs focused on me.
“You have come, Leo Lennox. Just as I asked. No, as I demanded!” The gnome shot to his feet like a jack in the box, and his dreadlocks swung around his head like a whip crack.
“Did you kill these men?” I asked the obvious question about the six bodies piled around him
“Yes. They were almost unworthy of the death I granted them. My fists and body carry the divine powers of the God of Battle. To destroy them was as easy as flicking a fly off of this vessel’s skin.”
“Uhhh. But they were--”
“Not inn
ocent. These were evil men who only carried hate in their hearts. They engaged only in pillage, and not in battle. No. They were not fit to be in our presence, neither are these others.” The gnome looked at the group of men in the other cells. He was less than five feet tall, and there were more than thirty men in the other three cells, but they all took a collective step away from the diminutive tattooed gnome.
“When we get to Sanduport, we will take you to a healer so that--” I began, but the man interrupted me.
“Why?” he asked, and I realized that he was much calmer than when I had first seen him in the hold of the pirate ship. He’d seemed only interested in fighting me then. Now he was having a conversation with me. It gave me hope that his condition wasn’t as bad as I had first thought. Perhaps he was just in a bad mood when we first came to him.
“You aren’t in your right mind, and--”
“I am the God of Battle. The Lord of War. My mind has been honed to a razor’s edge, and all my enemies shall fall before the scythe of my battle prowess.”
“See, the thing is, you are short. So I just think you might be a bit confused,” I said as gently as I could.
“Do you not see the evidence of my powers?” The man gestured to the ring of bodies around him. “Did you not match your mettle against mine in a year long struggle of our souls, Leo Lennox?” The small man took a step toward us, and the other pirates whined.
“Are you talking about the wrestling match we had? It didn’t actually last a year. It was more like a few min--”
“It was felt across the entire world of Ohlavar!” he shouted. “The magic that courses through all the living, and the dead, and the unliving-undead, felt the throngs of our passionate struggle. They felt our raw bodies collide again, and again, and again while we struggled to achieve victory over each--”
“Okay, I think I get the idea.” I raised my hands to keep him from talking anymore about how our bodies kept battling. “I didn’t want to hurt you, but--”
“You didn’t hurt me, Leo Lennox, but you defeated me. It was what I wanteddddddddd!” He raised his small, but surprisingly muscular arms up into the air as he shouted.
“Uhhh--”
“Don’t you see?” The man leapt like a wolf spider and grabbed onto the bars of the cell wall nearest to me. “I’ve been searching for the greatest of warriors to challenge, and they have all fallen before me. As soon as I achieve the greatest victory of all, I can reach enlightenment and ascend to the heavens to take my rightful throne.” His voice was now a whisper, and his eyes opened wide to stare at me.
“I don’t really see, I’m--”
“You! You! Leo Lennox!” He pointed his finger at me. “Have defeated me. The gods have shown me the path. They have laid it out before me with glittering nuggets of gold, with beacons of diamond pedestals, and the heralding of scantily clad half-orc women warriors. You will lead me to my enlightenment!”
“Well, uhh, no, I won’t. Let’s just calm down a moment and--”
“How can you be so calm, Leo Lennox?” the man asked in his whispered tone. “Don’t you feel it?” He gestured for me to step closer to him, but I didn’t. “It is the bond between us. The gods have granted you to me, and me to you. Until we--”
“Listen, I think you might need to rest some. These men you killed, they were probably worthy of the justice you brought them, but they had surrendered and begged for quarter.”
“They had no honor. They preyed on the weak and defenseless. I have taken one more step closer to ascension by destroying them.” The gnome growled and then looked over at the other men in the cells. Some of the pirates were half-orcs that were almost twice the size of the gnome, and they were apparently terrified of the little man. I could understand why. The corpses in his cell were bent and twisted, as if their bones were made out of noodles. The crazy gnome berserker had obviously broken their bodies into pieces.
“I don’t understand half of what you say, but you can’t kill anymore of the pirates. Understand? We are going to bring them back to Sanduport, and they will be put on trial. When we reach the city, I will take you to a healer to be treated.”
“Leo Lennox!” the gnome shouted suddenly, and I took a step back despite my intentions. I wasn’t really scared of the man, but he was a little creepy, and his eyes were all kinds of intense. “I will do as you ask. I will follow you. You will lead me to my ascension. The gods have shown me.”
“Uhhh. Okay. So you won’t kill any more people?” I asked.
“Not unless you wish, or they wish to harm you with dishonorable undertakings. I will be your shield, your arm, your chest, your hips, your--”
“I get it. You promise not to kill any of these pirates or any of the crew?” I thought about pointing out that he kept calling himself a god, but also claiming that the gods were telling him to follow me. People with mental illnesses didn’t respond well when you pointed out the flaws in their logic. They also didn’t respond well when you kept agreeing with their incorrect reasoning. It was a tough road to travel, and I hoped that a healer would be able to take care of the man. I didn’t know exactly how gnomes were supposed to be in this world, but the ones I had seen in the streets or shops of Arnicoal seemed like the usual fantasy tropes. I imagined some of them took up adventuring, but I hadn’t seen any exceptionally muscular ones.
“I will follow your orders, Leo Lennox. I will crush all that stand before you. Then I will join you on the stairs that lead us toward the heavens. I will take my rightful seat upon the Ascension Throne and drink from the hollowed out skulls of the foes I have defeated. When I reach that place, I will remember the help you have given me, and I shall gift you with your own harem of warrior women.”
“Uhhh, that is okay. I don’t really--”
“I can give you a harem of warrior men if you--”
“No! Warrior women are fine,” I sighed. Fuck, this guy was all sorts of crazy. He really could fight, though. I didn’t think he would have actually beaten me when we battled in the other ship’s hold, but he’d done really well considering I had tried to cut him with my swords.
“How did your skin break my sword?” I asked.
“I am the God of War,” he answered my question as if I was an idiot.
“No, I mean, did you use an ability? The blade you broke was magical.”
“It was puny magic. Not fit for a true warrior. The best magic comes from here.” The small man jumped off the bars of the cell and landed on the back of one of the pirate bodies. He pushed a thumb into his own chest and grunted. “A warrior’s noble heart and the unending desire to better oneself through endless battles with stronger foes. You know these things, Leo Lennox. You have the pure soul of a true warrior, and the gods already know of your power. We will use you to save Ohlavar from the tentacles of darkness that threaten to pull it back into slavery.”
“Maybe we can talk about it later. Can I ask the crew to take care of these bodies? Will you promise not to harm them?” I asked.
“Yes, Leo Lennox. I will follow your orders now. I have sworn on my honor to serve you, and by accepting my fealty, you are vowing to lead me to the Throne of Ascension.”
“I didn’t actually say that I would lead you to--”
“The gods have spoken!” he shouted with his small arms in the air. “Our fates are now entwined, and the path to my throne has come to light. The fog of war has parted, and our brotherhood is now written in blood!”
The gnome’s face and health bar appeared on my UI next to Cornalic’s.
“Wait, hold on. That’s not right. I didn’t agree to that,” I said as I motioned up to gesture over the strange gnome’s face. His name read as Insane Gnome Berserker. I clicked on the icon, but I didn’t get an option to remove him from the party. Shit, the UI must be having an issue or something. I didn’t even accept this guy into my party. Why did the UI put him there?
“Sir Lennox, can we take the bodies out?” One of the crewmen had come to stand next to me, and I
hadn’t noticed him because I was messing with my UI.
I looked at the gnome berserker, and the small man nodded.
“Yes, I don’t think he’ll attack you, but I’ll be right here,” I told the crewman, and he sighed with relief.
The gnome moved back to the center of corpses and returned to his meditative position. The crew cautiously moved in, but when it became apparent that the gnome wasn’t going to attack them, they quickly cleared the bodies. Then they shut the door and locked it again. The small man hadn’t moved the entire time, and I wondered if he had fallen asleep. That could sometimes happen when someone had a psychotic episode.
“It is Bolverk,” he said as I turned to leave.
“Huh?”
“My name. Bolverk, the God of Battle and War. Son of the Wolf God of the Four Winds and the Goddess of the Underworld. We were cast from our domains and made to wander. They have all forgotten, but I remember, Leo Lennox. I remember.”
The tag above the man’s name changed to Bolverk, the God of Battle and War but the name on my UI screen just read Bolverk.
“Thanks, I’ll come visit you every day before we dock. Then we’ll go see a healer,” I said to the man before I turned to leave again.
“They will try to stop you,” he whispered, and I paused my turn.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Your quest, Leo Lennox. The relics. They know you have one. They will send the night creatures, the hellspawn, they will move between the realms of gods and men to stop you. The danger only grows with each step you take.”
“How do you know about the relics?” I asked as the hairs on the back of my neck rose. First, this guy knew my name, and now he knows about my quest. Was the AI trying to drop me obvious hints?
“What do you think will happen when you find them all?” He opened his eyes, and the blue orbs almost looked as if they had lightning inside of them.
“Uhhh…” I was about to tell him that I’d “win the game,” but this was just an NPC.
“We will ascend to godhood again!” he whispered urgently. “Then you will receive my gift of a harem. That is good. We should hurry up and do it. Now I will sleep.” The man lay down on the blood soaked floor of the cell. Almost before his nasty hair touched the floor, the small man began snoring.
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