I wrangled my wandering thoughts as the Orcs slowed to a halt and I decided to just hope they were friendly.
I waited for them to say something.
They stared and said nothing.
I waited some more.
The one in the middle picked his nose.
Right. So it was up to me to make a good impression.
“Uh… hhhheeey…” I gave them my least threatening smile and cheery wave. "I'm just here… looking for someone! And hoping to de-escalate any potential violence because I am 24601-01 and my name is Ruin and that's just the type of thing Ruin does.”
Okay, that was a ginormous lie. Of like, dinosaur destroying asteroid proportions. That was the total opposite of what I did.
I was, however, going to try to deal with this confrontation nonviolently. These weren't really NPC's after all, they were people.
Curly rumbled a few words in a voice only a rock slide could love. It was so deep that the meaning of the words didn't register at first.
Unfortunately, when I did understand what he said, it turned out to be, “Hmm, Elf. Good meat."
Okay… so… maybe this was a cultural… translation... confusion… thing? I mean, I could still hope.
“Uhk, no Elf. Horns,” spat Mo. Like, literally, spat. There was more spit than there were words from the shorter but wider Orc.
“Meat is meat. Good meat. Bad meat. Smart meat. Dumb meat.” Larry, evidently the most poetic of the lot nodded sagely as he said, “Meat is meat.”
My hope laughed, put a gun to his head and blew his brains out. Leaving me to deal with this mess all by myself.
Yeah, these were not good people. They were cannibalistic people. That was the opposite of good. Super opposite. Like anti-good, neo-nazi talking during the movie levels of badness.
“Rrrright… well.” I took a single, casual, discrete step backward. Which they totally noticed because they each took a single, deliberate step forward.
These were not Nilum. Not Whatsits or Snickersnacks. These were people. I couldn’t kill people.
Especially if it turned out that they were a higher level than me.
“Oh, hey. I really am just looking for someone. And by ‘I’ I mean myself and a huge group super dangerous, and super vengeful, super warriors just a little ways behind me. Right within screaming distance.”
They started toward me again and I stood my ground, because I had to ask, “And the person I’m looking for is a Succubus. You know what a Succubus is, right? She has sharp pointed ears, horns and a tail. Beautiful blue eyes and… um. That sound familiar?”
Curly smiled and said, “Yes. Seen her.”
Relief, hope and fear hit me, one after another like a five legged zebra kicking me in the diaphragm.
“See her.” Then the Orc smiled wider. "She food now.”
Chapter Twenty: Kill Them All And Let The Worms Sort Them Out! That's How That Saying Goes, Right?
“She food now. Now you foo - “
He was unable to finish that sentence due to the fact that claws wreathed in ghost fire were digging into his neck.
I don't remember moving, between one heartbeat and the next I went from standing to having both my hands buried in his throat with my feet braced against his chest.
After pulling out his trachea and various other important bits with magic and rage fueled muscles, the force of the Bounce spell shoved me back as a cloud blood smoke trailed after me. I landed on my back and let momentum roll me to my feet just in time to see Larry stab his sword at me.
The point was headed straight for my eyes when I dodged to the side, catching the edge of the blade with the back of my right hand. I felt it grind against the bone despite the defensive layer of ghost fire and I screamed. Not out of pain, but with the rage my entire consciousness had been consumed by.
I stepped forward as I shoved the blade away. Muscles in my legs, back, shoulder and arm all strained and flexed together in an explosive act of controlled movement. An act I timed perfectly with the spell that bounced the sword away.
I knew the massive chunk of magic I stuffed into the spell was well spent when I saw the blade abruptly stop, lodged halfway into Curly’s spine.
The swords owner froze for a second before desperately trying to tug his weapon out of his companions neck. The mostly decapitated Orc fell to the ground as the other Orc continued tugging on his sword with both hands.
He should have dropped his blade and used another weapon. Regrouped, or at least kept his eyes on me. Instead, he lost those eyes when I clawed them out of his skull.
There was no time for me to finish him off however, because Mo was roaring towards me with his sword held high in the classic “I is splitting you in half!” pose.
I used the still screaming Larry's body to launch myself at the charging Orc. Hitting him in the chest with two Force Spikes before he could react. I aimed for his heart but apparently missed because he just grunted and staggered.
Then I was on the ground, rolling between his legs and slashing into his Achilles tendon as I did so.
He fell and instead of shouting “Timber!” as I usually would, I pushed and twisted him around as he fell.
Jumping on his back, I shoved spike after spike into his brain stem as I rode him to the ground. I kept doing it until he stopped moving, then gave him a few extra just to make sure.
When I got up I saw a blind and helpless Larry scrambling around in his bag for what I would later learn was a health potion.
I ran forward and kicked him in the head as hard as I could. Like it was a football and the goal was on the moon.
His head snapped to the side, blood puffing out of his mutilated eyes in a spray of smoke as he fell to the ground with a grunt.
It felt like I had kicked a rock, which is how hard his head must of been since he tried to get back up a few seconds later.
This time he didn't bother with the bag, he just tried to get up and run. I was ready for that and had already moved around to him, so I could kick him in the other side of his head.
I watched him fall to the ground, again. As I watched more blood stream from him, sudden laughter bubbled up from my throat and spilled out into the suddenly quiet forest.
Larry froze at the sound. Well, mostly froze. He stopped trying to get up and run but he started trembling.
Now, you may be thinking, “Dude. Chill. She’ll respawn. She isn't really dead.” But in that moment I wasn't thinking clearly. I wasn't thinking at all.
I was wanting. Wanting to break things, to break everything. And everyone. The Orcs for hurting my friend, the politicians for putting us here, the Gods of this world for splitting us up.
And more. I wanted the whole world crushed, shattered and broken.
No, it wasn't logical. I had other friends and they all needed the world undestroyed. But like I said, not thinking.
On an intellectual level I knew that death wasn't necessarily a permanent thing here. But on an emotional, instinctive level, my primitive monkey mind said that death was forever.
A fire burned in my belly like a toxic fire that fueled my heart into a mutating monster that was seconds away from growing tentacles and teeth so it could rip its way out of my chest, crawl up my face and eat what little sanity had left in my brain.
I kicked the bag away from the Orcs hands and he scuttled away from me. When I picked up his heavy, two handed sword up off the ground it made a metallic scraping sound.
“Oooh, I like that.” I scraped the sword against the rocky dirt road, slowly. Giggling as the Orc flinched. "Its my new favorite sound! Right up there with shattering glass and Goofy’s yell! I want it to be my new ringtone! Except we don't have AR systems here. Oh! I know! I'll just remember the sound and send it to whoever's brain I’m linked with before I start talking. I'll start a trend! Like with the Whatsits and Snickersnacks! It's an awesome idea. Totally. You get what I'm saying?”
Larry opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again before
saying, “... no?”
“Eh, not important.” I tossed the sword to the side. "So Larry. Can I call you Larry? I'm calling you Larry. Your name is now and forever Larry. Your original name isn't important but you know what is important?”
He let out a pained whimper when he shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. Small trickles of his blood still steamed out and drifted towards me.
“What is important...” My voice trembled with emotions so intense I wasn't sure I could put a name to them. "What is important. Is that you killed, my friend.”
“No! Not me!”
“Your people did. Your heartless, and soon to be very dead, people.”
“Alive! Alive when we leave! Not food now. Chief say food for next day. She fresh meat next day!”
His head rocked to the side and I realized that the sudden, sharp crack of sound came from my hand as I slapped him across the face.
I tried to say that she was not meat but all that came out was a growl no humanoid throat should of been able to produce.
When I registered the first part of what he said I stared down at him for a long moment. Then I tried to calm down enough to speak, to think, and when I did, my voice was rough with conflicting emotions “Are… you sure?”
He swallowed, bobbed his head and said, “We leave. She alive.”
I crouched down, staring intently at him from a tactically inadvisable whispering distance.
“Good. That's good.“ My voice was low, broken and seething with all the horrible things in life that shouldn't exist. "Good for you and your people. Because if I get to her, wherever it is you're keeping her and she's not alive…”
I paused, my breath hitched. The wet sound of my tongue sliding against my teeth was somehow the loudest thing in the world.
“If. She is dead. I will kill you. I will kill all of you. And when I mean all, I mean I will make it my mission in life, and every reincarnated life after this one, to kill every single Orc. Every male, female, every elder and every child.”
The Orc was shaking his head, trying to scoot away from me but I followed him. Crouched on clawed hands and booted feet, I crawled after him. “I will do this over and over. I will murder every one of you, over and over. I will hunt your people, generation after generation until your people are nothing, nothing! But the empty ruin of a memory.”
He started making sounds that were a bit like hiccups and a bit like grunts but it was only when I saw the tears trailing down his face that I realized he was crying.
“No… please. I… I have girl… baby… no kill. Please…”
I stared down at the crying Orc. Apparently, the crying father of a baby that I had just threatened to murder and all my anger curdled into a slew of pity, remorse and self disgust.
“Be the ruin of the heartless,” I muttered to myself. “But don’t be heartless.”
I stood up and roughly grabbed his bag. Which turned out to be just a plain leather bag without the pocket dimension enchantment I had. In it I found a gourd streaked with red paint and stoppered with a cork.
I gently placed it into the Orcs hand, then I had to catch it when he jerked away.
“Hey, hey,” I said softly. “Its okay. I'm not going to kill any babies. I promise. Take this. Its a health potion, right? From your bag? I was just angry and being… mean. I didn't mean it.”
Confession time? I totally meant it. In that moment, I meant every single thing I said.
I would never have done it of course. Making people suffer for the actions of others never leads anyone anywhere good. Also, the thought that I just threatened to kill babies made me feel nauseous.
He was still shaking when he clumsily pulled the cork. He first dripped a bit of the potion in each eye before drinking the rest.
I picked up his sword and while he tensed at the sound, he otherwise didn't move. He jerked a little when I put the hilt in his hand but when he realized what it was, he tightened his grip.
The entire time I talked to him, mostly about random things. Things I don't even remember.
Later I would vaguely recall talking about school when I was a kid. About the ethics classes we had to take in Elementary school.
Just my favorite ones that included old television episodes. Like the show about a doctor who traveled around time and space inside a ship that was smaller on the outside that it was on the inside.
I wasn't sure how much time had passed, maybe an hour. Maybe half that. By that time his eyes had grown back he was looking at me with fear and confusion.
“And then he said, ‘Progress isn’t measured by culture or wealth or magic or technology. It’s measured by the value you place on a life. Not the most valued lives like kings, princesses or rock stars, but the lives of the lowest members of society. The value you place on foster kids, the homeless, the ex-convicts. How those people are valued by the people in power, shows how advanced a society is.'”
I was paraphrasing, of course, but whatever.
“Why you help me?” He interrupted.
I grimaced and said, “Going out of your way to kill others is wrong. It's bad... bad for a group of people to earn a living doing it. Counterproductive to their quality of life and whatnot.”
I looked him in the eye and said, “I love my friend. I will risk death and I will kill others to protect her. But I also don't want to kill any of your people. I want you to help me. I want you to distract them so I can get her out and get her free without having to kill anyone. Or, you know, everyone.”
I grinned and lied through carnivore sharp teeth. "And, I can, and will, kill every single one of your warriors or anyone else who tries to stop me. Easily.”
He looked at me, then at his two companions and I saw from the look in his eye that he believed me.
I stood up and stepped a few paces back. "If you agree to help me, I will also swear by the Gods that I will not seek revenge on anyone. Even, if she has already been killed.”
He stared into my eyes for at least a minute before slowly standing up. I looked right back and grinned wider. He backed up a step but said. "Agree. No more kill. No more hunt. Kill to protect. Only. Yes?”
“Yes,” I held my hand out to shake but he just frowned at it. “Nevermind. Oh, wait. How would you feel if I looted your friends dead bodies?”
He grunted and said, "No friends. But no loot. They need later.”
I shrugged and waited while he took their stuff and learned that the biggest, Curly, had a bag that was bigger on the inside that it was on the outside.
Larry took it and stuffed everything in it. I wondered why they hadn’t made the bag soulbound before remembering how much enchanting went into it.
Larry said his was the only patrol using this road so we continued down it, towards their camp.
We talked as we walked and he asked question after question. I answered each as best I could.
“We almost there,” Larry said, and yes I kept on calling him Larry. “Cage back at camp. I go front of camp and speak. Others will come. You go to back of camp.”
“Righto Larry! Let's not kill some Orcs!”
“You very wise. And very strange. And very scary.”
“Thank you. If this works out, we will never see each other again. So, uh, sorry about the whole, eye gouging and companion killing, thing.”
He shrugged nervously and said, “They not good companions. It okay. They come back.”
I got the impression that it really wasn’t okay and he just didn’t want to make a big deal about it. Instinct wanted me poke at the issue but I made myself I let it go. Instead, I took a deep breath and tried to get a scent impression of just how many Orcs there were.
The answer? Lots.
I summoned my Soul Tome and Larry squeaked (well, it was more of a duck quack but whatever) as he jumped away from me. I didn’t bother to explain but just made a sort of “calm down” wave with my hand.
Name: Ruin The Heartless
Race: Savage Kin (Midian Wood Elf)
> Class: Force Mage (Rank: Adequate. Level 4)
Level: 2
Body:
Strength - 3.1
Speed - 3.9
Agility - 4.2
Dexterity - 3.9
Endurance - 3.8
Vitality:
Resistance - 2.2
Regeneration - 2.1
Spirit:
Spark - 2.1
Regeneration - 4.0
I grinned and resisted the urge to laugh triumphantly. Larry was twitchy enough already.
Not only was I now level two but I had gotten loads of experience from the two Orcs. Not to mention all the Whatsits and Snickersnacks I’d been killing. I could, in fact Awaken my last racial ability.
Transformation: (Ability) (Active) The beast within becomes unbound, allowing the savage soul inside to shape the body to the individuals inner nature. The length of the change depends upon the strength of magic held.
Invest essence to awaken: 500.
Unfortunately, although I really wanted to be able to transform it wasn’t practical at the moment. Especially if I was going to be sneaking and if it did come down to a fight I didn’t want to do it in an unfamiliar body.
I decided to at least try to get my stats to whole numbers. When I was done I had:
Body:
Strength - 3.5
Speed - 4.0
Agility - 4.2
Dexterity - 4.0
Endurance - 4.0
Vitality:
Resistance - 2.5
Regeneration - 2.5
Spirit:
Spark - 3.1
Regeneration - 4.0
I shivered at each increase in my physical stats. The sensation of my body swelling and tightening was incredibly odd.
I hadn’t felt that when I increased my endurance and I had been too busy running to pay it much attention when I enhanced my speed.
I had tried to raise my agility to 4.5 but the diminishing returns jumped when they hit 4.0. So, I decided to increase my body’s stats through training from now on and dumped the rest into Spark.
I checked my spells and was pleased at how I had progressed.
Learned Spells:
Force Spike: (Cast On Release) A short spike of energy, that causes damage at close range.
Dubstep Succubus Page 37
