Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer

by Dante King

  The giant snorted and began to move toward her with a steady gait that made it clear he didn’t fear her in the slightest. When he was a few feet away, he stopped and let out a roar of pure, primal rage.

  But Melody stood firm. Her eyes locked onto the giant’s foot and right away it was clear what she had in mind. With a hard grunt, she threw the stone down at his toes, the stone slamming like a comet into the thick part of his foot. The sound of cracking bones blended with the thud of the stone landing, the giant letting out a howl of wild pain as he flung his spear away and yanked his crushed foot free.

  Now was Ben’s chance. The ogre no longer had his spear, and was preoccupied with his injured foot.

  Ben didn’t wait another second. He ran in close, about five feet from the injured giant. Once near enough, Ben held his palms out, channeling Drain. He pulled on the green strand of the giant’s physical strength, absorbing the foreign energy into his own body.

  The big ogre whipped his head toward Ben. He swung his fist around toward Ben’s face, but his movement was slow and sloppy this time, and Ben easily ducked it to avoid it.

  Ben kept sapping the giant’s energy. His strength flowed into Ben’s body, rejuvenating his aching limbs. Ben’s mana dipped precariously low, but he had to keep going.

  The giant slumped to his knees. His eyes stared straight into Ben’s, his expression one of total confusion.

  Ben didn’t allow himself to feel a moment of pity for this ruthless asshole. It was his turn to die. Summoning up the last vestiges of his mana, Ben tugged on the giant’s green strand, draining what physical energy remained.

  The mountain ogre’s face wrinkled up. His eyes went dim. The hair on his skin went gray and fell out in clumps. The skin turned flaky and dry and began to crumble like charred paper.

  Finally, his body lost all strength, and he crashed face down into the dirt.

  It was finished. The final mountain ogre was dead.

  “Benjamin,” Melody called out, her voice strained. “You did it.” She walked toward Ben, on tired feet.

  Ben took her in his arms, allowing her exhausted body to rest against his. His own body was filled with strength now. All pain was dissipating. He wondered if this meant sapping physical strength could actually cause him to regenerate and heal. He would know for sure in the morning. If it didn’t heal him, his whole body would be one big bruise.

  This would also mean if he was ever injured, he could simply sap strength from the nearest living creature. He would have to think more about the moral implications of this.

  For now, the strength filling his body made him feel a hell of a lot better than he would have expected, though he did feel pretty damn queasy. He remembered what Melody had said about consuming too much mana, and hoped he could increase his ability to use magic in the future. For now, it had been a necessary sacrifice to defeat the mountain ogres.

  He checked his mana once more to see how badly it was drained. If any more enemies showed up right now, he would be helpless against them.

  “That’s funny,” Ben murmured.

  Melody looked at him, inquiringly. “What’s funny?”

  “I thought I’d used up all my mana on that mountain ogre.” Ben half closed his eyes, focusing his attention on his reserves inside his body. “Yep. I definitely still have some mana left.”

  “That is strange.” Melody commented. “Perhaps in the heat of battle you misjudged how much you had left.”

  “Maybe. Well, at least it means I can transfer some of this strength to you.”

  Ben held out his hand over Melody’s back and transferred some of his physical strength to her, using Drain. “This might help you recover more quickly,” he said.

  He felt her stance grow steadier as he made the transfer.

  “You saved my life back there, Melody,” Ben said. “I don’t think I would have survived that fight without you.”

  Melody looked up at him and smiled. “This is why I was sent to guide you.”

  “I couldn’t have wished for a better guide.” He held her tight.

  For the second time in the same day, they had just survived a life-threatening combat. It was a little nerve-wracking to consider, but at the same time, exciting as hell. If they were capable of defeating a band of giants already, Ben could only imagine how strong they could become together.

  As he pondered these things, a muffled groan came from inside the nearest hut on the other side of the now dying campfire.

  “The nymphs,” Melody exclaimed. “We must help them.”

  Ben let her go, and they both walked toward the hut.

  Now it was time to see if the nymphs were still unharmed.

  And as Ben and Melody hurried over, he realized what a big moment this was—he was about to meet members of the monster races for the first time.

  Chapter Six

  Ben and Melody approached the hut on the other side of the campfire. The hut was larger than the rest, and still in decent condition. That is, except for the spot where the mountain ogre’s spear had crashed into the planks and left a gaping hole the size of a basketball.

  The hut was single-storied, but the walls were slightly higher than the rest, reaching above head height. The planks were more evenly cut than those of the other huts. And this hut was made of two large rooms. Altogether, the whole structure was almost double the size of any other huts visible in the village.

  The thatch on the roof looked fresher, the planks were less weather worn. And unlike most of the other huts, this one had glass windows. The gaps between the planks were also better sealed, with some sort of clay substance. With any luck, it would be much warmer in winter.

  Ben wondered why this hut was so much nicer than the others. It was likely that the ruler or leader of this town had lived here. From what he could tell though, the previous inhabitants were all dead now, so he would probably never find out.

  Only a few seconds earlier, Ben had heard a sound from inside the hut. He assumed it was the nymphs, since he couldn’t see them elsewhere. All the same, he picked up the scimitar he’d attacked the mountain ogre with, and carried it in front of him. He didn’t want to take any chances.

  “Hold your wand ready, Melody,” Ben whispered.

  She nodded and did so.

  He put his hand to the door of the hut and pushed it open.

  It was hard to make out anything in the gloom inside. Holding the scimitar across his body to defend himself, he stepped through the doorway and to the right. Melody came in and stood to his left.

  After a moment, Ben’s eyes adjusted. Firelight still came in through the doorway and one of the windows. In the flickering shadows, he made out a sturdy dining table and three squat chairs in this room. An open door led to a second room, with a bed inside. He couldn’t make out any other furnishing from this angle, in either room.

  Then came a rustle in the corner of this room. Someone stood behind the table. By the figure’s slender form and long hair, gleaming in the firelight, Ben assumed it was a female. Behind her, two more figures cowered, shivering.

  “We dealt with the ogres,” Ben said, still not relaxing his guard. “From what I saw, you were their captives. If that's the case, you’re safe now. Neither Melody nor I are planning to harm you, but we’ll defend ourselves if you try to hurt us.” Ben did his best to sound authoritative, knowing that the beings could have magical powers that would make his sound all but useless.

  “We won’t go with you,” the foremost woman said. She was short, not much above five feet. She was clad in what would be considered a bikini on Earth. Whether that was the doing of the ogres or her own choice, it wasn’t clear. She had shoulder length hair and pointed ears. No more detail was visible in the shadows.

  “If you want to make us your slaves now, we will fight you.” The woman’s tiny fists were raised.

  Ben lowered his scimitar, hoping to make a more friendly impression. “ Easy—I don’t want to make you my slaves.”

  “But
you slew the ogres, our slave masters.” The woman’s voice still sounded suspicious. “Surely that means you want to take us as your property. Why else would you kill those men?”

  Ben sighed and glanced at Melody. She shrugged. It seemed he really would have a difficult time convincing people in this world that he wasn’t a bloodthirsty slaver and murderer. That wasn’t entirely a bad thing. A scary reputation could be useful. But at that moment, he wanted to help these women, so he needed to convince them of his good intentions.

  He figured he didn’t need the scimitar. Even if these women did turn out to be a threat, he figured his magic and Melody’s ought to be enough to neutralize their attacks.

  Ben threw the scimitar to the ground behind him and held his palms out. “I mean you no harm. I killed those ogres because I wanted to rescue you. I don’t want to make you my slaves.”

  The woman’s fists wavered, but she still hesitated.

  Ben took a step forward—slowly, then turned all the way around so that they could see he had no weapons. “I am unarmed,” he said. “Now please, step forward so we can see you as well.”

  Slowly, the woman at the front took a couple of steps forward into the flickering firelight coming through the window. Her companions stood up straight and followed her. The three of them stood in a row, shivering, but with their jaws raised defiantly at the same time. None of them looked like they could fight, but Ben didn’t want to take any chances.

  The woman who had spoken before stood in the middle. She had a slender figure and small, round shoulders.

  Her skin was dark. The hue reminded Ben of the shade of tree bark. Her hair was a vivid green, as were her eyes, which reflected the firelight, and stared piercingly into Ben’s eyes. Her ears were pointed, like the ears elves would have. Her clothing was the same bright green color as her hair.

  To her left was a taller woman, with pale skin and long, wild blue hair. The light of the fire glinted in her eyes, which were also bright blue. She too had elf-like ears. Her loosely curled fists appeared to have webbed fingers.

  She wore a short skirt made of stiff strips of some material. On her torso she only wore a garment to cover her breasts. A cord went around her neck and held up two sparkling golden triangles of cloth. She was taller than the other two, close to Ben’s height, and had a much larger frame. While still looking quite feminine, she was physically imposing.

  And to the right stood a short, petite woman. Her skin was very pale, almost like chalk. Her hair was bleached white and frizzy. Her eyes were totally white, without visible pupils. Her ears also were pointed, though not as long as the others. And the skin of her arms was covered in cracks. These cracks appeared to form symbols, marking her skin like tattoos. They resembled the cracks one might see in dry earth.

  Her clothing was also white. She wore a long skirt, which trailed below her knees and flared out. It had a summery appearance to it. On her upper body she wore a white garment that looked like it was made from strips of cloth, like what a boxer would wear on his fingers.

  This curious trio stood in front of Melody and Benjamin, shuffling nervously. They were trying to look intimidating, but their knees were shaking.

  They were terrified, and Ben understood why completely. These women were clearly in a fight-or-flight state. Ben and Melody certainly looked less intimidating than their captors, so they would probably choose to fight. Ben would protect himself and Melody if it came to that, but he had done the work of neutralizing those assholes outside, and he didn’t want all this work to go to waste.

  What if I use my powers to take away their fear?

  Ben searched within himself and found that he had very little mana after the fight. If he wanted to do this, he would have to be careful and not expend too much mana when using his Drain spell. These women seemed not to want to be afraid, so perhaps this subconscious willingness on their part to have their fear removed would help the process?

  But was this wrong? Did he need to ask for consent before tampering with someone’s emotions? He didn’t think asking these women if he could extract their negative emotions using spells would be received well. There were no moral guidelines on this sort of thing in his world, for the understandable reason that it was impossible.

  As the reincarnated would-be ruler of this world, he was going to have to establish his own moral guidelines. And in this case, allowing these women to understand that Ben and Melody were there to help was clearly in the interest of the greater good.

  Fuck it. Time to make an executive decision.

  Ben channeled what little energy he had left into his hands and focused on the emotional strands of the nymphs. Their anxiety caused a chaotic rainbow of emotional strands. Fortunately, he was getting better at cutting out all the noise in the signal.

  Their fear was deep purple hue. He latched his magic onto the strand of fear in each woman, and pulled it into himself. The bitter flavor of fear filled his mouth.

  Oh crap. He’d forgotten about this bit. His own fear increased immensely. He’d underestimated how terrified these women were.

  Ben collapsed to his knees, overwhelmed by the negative emotions racing through him. His stomach turned over, and his limbs trembled. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

  The nymph women now appeared horrifying to him, as if he’d inhaled Scarecrow’s fear toxin. Their faces were distorted out of all proportion as they leered at him with hate in their eyes.

  Melody rushed to his side and held him. “What happened?” she whispered.

  “These women …” Ben groaned. “They are monsters.” His vision swam, and he felt sick in his gut.

  Then Melody’s eyes lit up with recognition. “You drained them of their fear. You have taken too much of it.”

  Ben focused his attention on her face, the only place he could look without being overwhelmed.

  “What can we do?” Melody asked herself. “You are helpless in this state.”

  She muttered to herself, searching for a solution, while Ben tried to hold it together.

  “I know what you can do, Benjamin,” she said at last. “Give me some of the fear. It will be less for us both that way. But here, take my wand first, I wouldn’t want to do anything dangerous in such a state.”

  Ben took Melody’s wand, then summoned what remained of his mana, which again was more than he expected. He pushed the fear he felt into Melody. Thankfully, much of it dispersed into the air. That was one advantage of the attrition of his spell, he supposed.

  His fear dropped significantly, until he was able to get to his feet again. His strength quickly returned, making his legs throb as the blood flowed into them. He stood straight and faced the nymphs once more.

  Melody let out a whimper and pressed herself against him, the whites of her eyes growing larger in her fear. But she did not appear to be overcome. Ben kept the wand close, not wanting to risk handing it over to Melody should her fear overtake her.Instead, Ben held her and comforted her as he looked at the other women. They all seemed relieved now that their own emotion was reduced.

  Ben looked down to their ankles. They were barefoot. The woman on the left, with the blue hair, appeared to have webbed toes as well. There were so many questions about who and what these women were, but they would have to wait a little longer.

  Then Ben noticed that each woman had a circular metal band around her right ankle.

  “What are those bands on your ankles?” he asked. He looked down at Melody, still cradled into his shoulder. She swallowed back her fear as she peered at the ankles of the women.

  Melody gasped. “Those are null locks. How cruel!” Her concern now outweighing the fear Ben had given her, she rushed forward and knelt to examine the ankle of the blue woman.

  The woman stepped back nervously.

  “What are you doing?” asked the woman in the middle.

  “What are null locks?” Ben asked.

  Then he noticed how the women were growing increasingly agitated. “Please, all of you, stay c
alm.” He held out his hands placatingly. “Like I said, we are here to rescue you. Melody, can you explain to me what null locks are?”

  Melody turned her head and looked up at him. Her tail was swishing rapidly. He suspected that this was a sign of strong emotion in her.

  “Null locks are a device used by the Xurian Realm to nullify a person’s magic,” she explained. “They are mostly used by slavers and prison wardens to control people from the magical races.” There was a bitter note of disgust in her voice.

  “How can we remove them then?” Ben asked.

  He tried to imagine what it would be like having his newfound magical abilities taken away from him. It must have been like being forcibly strapped into a wheelchair while your legs were still perfectly functioning. Such helplessness would be degrading. He felt compassion for these women, who had been enslaved and then had their power removed from them.

  “Are you sure you want to remove the lock?” The blue haired woman spoke up for the first time. Her voice sounded agitated, but also belligerent. “I have a lot of anger stored up, and I can’t promise I will be able to control it.”

  “You will control it, Lulu.” The white-haired woman with no pupils spoke. “I will help you, sister.”

  “Imogen is right,” the woman in the middle said. “I think we need to trust these people. It’s not like we have much choice.”

  “How do we remove these locks then, Melody?” Ben repeated.

  “You need the keys,” Melody said. “There is no other safe way to remove them.”

  “I don’t know if I can do this,” the blue haired woman said. She sounded very agitated this time. Ben would need to watch her.

  “Where can I find the keys then?” he asked. “The mountain ogres must have had them if you were their slaves, right?”

  The woman in the middle nodded. “The big man, the leader, who was the one who controlled the keys. You should find them on his belt.”