by Kevin Culp
“Papa!” She shouted.
I stopped walking as the creature reached the orc with Christina’s father. “What are you doing? Let him go. He has nothing to do with our fight.”
The orc smiled. “What do you mean he has nothing to do with our fight. I asked around town and was told that, since that woman was with you, this guy was probably the one that would hurt you the most to kill. Psychology is an important part of battle, and I want you to suffer.”
“Please, don’t hurt my papa.” Christina pleaded.
The orc laughed and rubbed the side of his blade across the old man’s face.
“I love you, Christina. Don’t worry about me Archaeus, just kill this bastard.” He shouted.
As he said it, the orc quickly moved his blade and dragged it across the old man’s neck. Blood spurted from the wound, and his eyes rolled back into his head. The orc let him go, and his body limply dropped to his knees, then on his face. He convulsed a few times before going still. He was dead.
“NOOOOO!” Christina yelled.
I charged.
The orc was quick. As I charged, he activated an ability that I recognized. It was smite good. I guess because the dread knight was a variant of the paladin class, I could recognize the abilities. Thinking about it dread knights had a corrupting hands ability; in the same way, paladins had healing hands. That was probably the damage that Zeus was afflicted with.
None of the other orcs moved, nor did the creature I assumed to be a demon. It was probably the orcs bonded companion in the same way Zeus was to me. I wasn’t sure if they were just watching because they thought he would be fine alone against me or as some kind of orc tradition for one that was aiming to prove their strength. Maybe it was the orcs order that they let him fight me alone.
I reached him, and he must have had a readied action because as I did he swung down on me and the blade connected with my shoulder. My entire body erupted in pain. If it was smite good as I had expected, he would have a substantial damage boost and ignore my damage resistance. I also felt some kind of unholy energy coursing into the wound from his blade. I was shocked by the pain.
His attack was brutal, but I still had a long way to go before I fell. I realized from the swing that he was probably the most skilled opponent I had fought, but he wasn’t actually on my level. If he didn’t happen to be a dread knight and have a strong weapon, the wound probably wouldn’t have hurt much.
I used smite evil targeting the orc and swung my blade at his side. He tried to parry the blow, but with my smite evil active, the attack was faster than anything I’d ever done since coming to this world. I cut into his side and my blade rended through his armor and into his flesh. I could see shock, anger, and pain light upon his face.
I pressed the advantage and swung my next attack at his head. It was hard to say what happened, but he moved his head slightly, and the blade hit the armor covering his shoulder. Something rang through my hands, and my grip on my sword was broken. It slipped and fell.
The orc smiled and swung at me with my guard completely down. “Is that all you’ve got!” He yelled as the sword pierced my side and slid between ribs.
I glanced at the notepad as quick as I could to see what had happened. The attack roll had been a natural 1, and I guess it used an alternate fumble system because it also showed that I had rolled a second 1 followed by a 13. I put my focus back on the fight. The damage had already been done, getting distracted wouldn’t help. I had to try something.
The orc laughed. “I guess the rumors of your strength really were just rumors,” he chided.
The next move I knew would provoke an extra attack, but I had to try it. I reached for the orc’s blade, and he seemed surprised. He sliced at my arm and drew a line of blood down my outer forearm. I managed to grab the weapon right at the guard and pulled hard. It slid from his grip and into my hands.
The first thing I felt was that there was some kind of energy in it that was acting against me and draining a small amount of my strength. It wasn’t significant, but it was annoying. Instead of trying to take the sword back from me like I thought he would, the orc turned around and went to grab my blade from the ground.
He picked up my sword and turned back to face me. As he was turning, I held his sword in both hands and drove it forward. The blade went straight through his armor, into his flesh and heart, then re-emerged on the other side. I let the weapon go, and he fell to his knees coughing. As he did, I reached for his hand that held my sword. His grip was loose, so I opened his fingers and took the weapon into my hands.
The orc looked up at me. “You may have won this fight, but more will come. My people and my god thrive on destroying the strong. I promise you that we will kill you and everyone and everything that you love.”
I looked him in the eyes, “I won’t let that happen.”
He smiled at me and then collapsed to the ground dead. I had thought I would have to fight the demon, but the moment the dread knight died it disappeared presumably returning to the abyss. Suddenly, dozens of war cries filled the air.
I turned to see all the orcs charging me. I looked at Christina and saw that she was trying to come this way, but Zeus was stopping her. Her face was covered in tears.
Luckily, after seeing me kill their leader, the orcs were ignoring Christina and Zeus. I’m guessing their thought process was something like whoever kills me is the next chief. I cut them down one by one as they charged. Any energy I had lost from holding the dread knight’s sword came back when I let it go. It only took two uses of healing hands to get me back to full health.
Christina’s father was lying there by my feet. I did my best to step around him and to keep the orcs from trampling his body as they charged me. After killing another few dozen orcs I noticed that a few were fleeing the village. I guess they figured since no one would be alive that had seen them flee, there would be no loss in honor. Eventually, the fighting ended.
I walked over to Christina, held her hand, and kissed her cheek. We walked slowly to the body of her father. When we got there, she fell to her knees and began weeping uncontrollably. I did my best to comfort her.
She turned to me and said, “Give me your backpack.”
It should have immediately clicked in my mind what she was going to do, and I shouldn’t have handed it to her but I did.
She opened the main pouch and said, “Diamond, diamond, diamond.” She looked at me. “Archaeus, why isn’t a diamond coming out? I’m thinking about what I want. Where is it? We need to bring back my papa.”
I tried to speak as gently as possible. “Christina, I’m so sorry. You know I love you, but I don’t have another diamond. Remember, when we were in the capital I was trying to find one, but they said it would probably take months to find something like that.”
She wiped the tears from her eyes, folded his arms across his chest, and brushed his hair to the side, “Okay, well I guess I just need to clean him up and take care of his body until you get one then right.”
I shook my head. “Christina, I don’t know what to say. The soul only stays attached to the body for a certain amount of time after death for my magic to work. We only have a few weeks, not months.”
Christina screamed at me. “WHAT ARE YOU SAYING ARCHAEUS! Are you saying my papa is dead, and you aren’t even going to try? I saw you raise that girl from the dead, and I know what you are capable of. You can do it. You have to be able to.”
I pulled her into my arms and was glad that she didn’t stop me, “Christina, your father was a good man, and I am going to do everything in my power to bring him back. I promise you that. I just don’t want to get your hopes up. Sometimes, death really is the end, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t still with you.”
This time she just broke down crying, and I simply held her. We were sitting there in the middle of the street surrounded by dead orcs, and her dead father both of us covered in blood. Zeus walked up to us and tried to nuzzle her.
Slowly, d
oors around us started opening and people walked out. Many of them were limping and injured, but none of the wounds seemed to be life-threatening. I guess for the most part the orcs had really only questioned people. Likely the goal was to kill me, their savior, and then kill them once their hope was crushed. That seemed like that dread knight orc’s way of doing things.
“Randal?” A confused voice came from behind me.
I turned to see Christina’s uncle. He was standing there pale-faced with a nasty gash on his leg. His eyes were fixed on the dead body next to Christina. It was actually kind of sad to realize I had never known the name of Christina’s father until after he died, but I guess it was Randal.
He looked at me and nodded. “Thank you for saving us Archaeus.”
“I’m just sorry I wasn’t here when it happened. I’m sure I could have stopped a lot of pain and death had it happened. Did the orcs kill anyone else?”
“A few people but not many. Mostly, just the ones that fought back. They talked about how once you got here they were going to butcher you and string you up then make us all kneel in front of your body while they cut our throats. I think they meant it to. Brutal creatures.” He said.
“What about Rin? I don’t see her.”
“She fought and was defeated. I don’t think they killed her though. They spread us all out into our houses and guarded the streets and homes. I’m guessing it was to make sure we didn’t try to hatch a plan against them since they wanted to hold us captive until you got here.”
“Christina, I know you are hurting, and I hate to do this, but let’s move off the street.”
She nodded.
I picked up her father and carried him into the tavern. Christina followed me as I brought him up the stairs and opened the door to his room. I laid him on the bed.
“Will you come with me Archaeus? I need to go get some water.”
I followed her down the stairs and out back. We got a bucket and filled it with water. Then we went to the room with the bath and grabbed a towel and some soap. We went back up the stairs to her father. I watched her clean his wound and wipe as much blood as she could off his skin and clothes.
She broke the silence. “I don’t blame you Archaeus. I’ll admit that I’m not sure if I’m saying that for your benefit or for mine. I love you. I feel bad to admit it, but I have to tell you that my first thought when I saw him die was that if you had never shown up my papa wouldn’t have been murdered. Now though, I just want him to rest in peace, and I know that you would have stopped it if you could have. You will do everything you can to bring him back right?” She looked at me with tears in her eyes.
I nodded. “I promise you I will do all that I can. I couldn’t be mad though even if you did blame me for his death. I feel responsible myself. I love you too, Christina, and I hate that you are being put through this because of me.”
She turned to me and took my hands into hers. She leaned into my chest, and she cried.
Chapter 19
After we had cleaned up her father, I took out the letter that was given to me by the prince and went to find a pen. Of course, even after an orc invasion, Gadrick was open for business and sold me a pen and some ink.
I wrote a letter to the jeweler telling him that I would pay whatever it took to get the diamond I had asked for in all due haste. He replied to me that he would network with all the people he could, including the royal family, and try his best to make it happen. I tucked the letter and writing supplies back into my bag and started walking around the town.
I went into the blacksmith’s shop and found Rin bound in chains and unconscious. The blacksmith Diodarma was also unconscious, but after further inspection, I suspected she was passed out drunk not injured. I unbound Rin and used healing hands on her.
She snapped to attention immediately. “You filthy orcs, I’ll kill you all!” She looked around confused. “Archaeus?”
“It’s okay Rin. They are all gone or dead.”
“God, those green bastards!” She got up and stormed off.
I shook Diodarma to wake her, but she didn’t wake. I thought about using my healing hands on her for its neutralizing poison effect but decided to save it since I didn’t know how many others needed healing.
After walking around the town, I found five others dead. I was sad to see that among the dead was Stephan, the tanner that had made Zeus’ saddlebags. There was also Joseph, the boy that Christina had been previously betrothed to. I questioned if he had really tried to fight back against the orcs. The other three I didn’t recognize. An older woman and two more young men.
All the wounded that I came across, I did my best to heal. If it wasn’t very serious, I simply helped them bandage it to make sure healing hands were available if I needed it. The fires had put themselves out. It had been raining so much over the past week or so that everything still had enough water in it to not burn very well, even the buildings.
After finishing my trip around town, I returned to the tavern. Christina was now kneeling next to his bed and praying. When I saw her, tears started coming to my eyes. This was a girl that I cared about more than anything, and she was in pain. I got on my knees next to her and started praying as well. Eventually, I felt her arms around me, and I turned to her and held her.
The next few weeks went by in a blur. I had a lot of correspondence with the jeweler and the prince. We held funerals for Stephan, Joseph, and all the other dead except for Christina’s father. The prince had believed there was a suitable diamond in the royal treasury, but after letting the jeweler inspect it, he determined it was worth about three thousand gold at most. An impressive diamond I’m sure but not impressive enough for what I need.
It really made me question who had made this spell. I made a speech before raising Rin from the dead about how human greed is what made lives exchangeable for money, but when I said it, I had thought it was just nonsense I was saying to make a point. Maybe it was true. Archaeus had let me say it after all.
Given my level, it had to be within twenty days of his death for me to be able to raise him from the dead. As the deadline drew near, I could tell that Christina’s mood was becoming more and more grim. She went through phases of being certain that the prince or the jeweler would find what they needed and was certain that I could bring back her father. I knew that the more hope she had the worse it would be, but I kept my mouth shut.
Rin had pretty much taken over running the tavern at this point with Christina’s uncle’s help. I found out his name was Nicholas. I didn’t like the fact that it took his death to learn Christina’s father’s name. Rin was an awful cook and server. I’m not sure if the customer base increased due to the town trying to show their support or due to the fact that Rin wore her armor while working which was quite revealing. It made the tavern feel kind of like one of those bars with pretty girls in tight clothes and terrible food, though I would pity the first guy that tried to slap her butt.
On the twenty-first day after her father’s death, I woke up and for the first time since coming back, Christina wasn’t in my arms. I walked down the hall to her father’s room and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Christina said.
I walked into the room to see Christina sitting in a chair next to the bed staring at her father. His face was gaunt at this point and he was extremely pale. Of course, after three weeks there would be no blood left in his face or limbs. He hadn’t really decomposed much surprisingly, but it definitely didn’t smell good. She had kept candles in the room that stayed lit most of the time. I walked up behind Christina, put my arms around her, and kissed the top of her head.
“We can’t bring him back now, can we?” She asked.
“I’m sorry, Christina. It would no longer be possible for me to bring him back.”
She leaned into me and sobbed, “Can you dig the grave for him and get him a coffin?”
I nodded to her. “Where do you want him to be buried?”
“There is a giant tree o
n Uncle's farm. My mother and father always said they would be buried beneath it together. Even if my mother can’t be, it feels like he should be there.”
“I’ll be back. ”
Christina didn’t know, but her uncle had already made a coffin for her father. I walked to the farm and asked him to get me a shovel and show me the tree Christina had mentioned. It was a gorgeous tree, probably three feet across, and the lowest branches had to be at least eight feet off the ground. I had actually lost track of time and hadn’t asked anyone the date, but it seemed to be late September or early October, which seemed accurate based on when I had arrived, so all the leaves were turning pretty shades of orange, red, and yellow. I started digging and her uncle helped me.
He broke the silence. “I always thought he would be the one burying me.”
“Well, hopefully you don’t have to be buried for a long time. You’re the only family Christina has left. She needs you.”
“We both know that isn’t true Archaeus. She has you. Like it or not, you and Christina are family now. I know I was joking about you two getting married long before it would have even been a thought but let me ask. Do you love her?”
We both stopped digging for a moment and looked at each other. I nodded. “Yes, I do love her. I would do anything for her.”
We went back to digging, and he continued speaking. “Well, that’s all this old man needs to hear. The world we know is changing Archaeus. Christina is no damsel in distress. She’s always done her best to help whoever she can. Still though, she needs someone strong enough to protect her because this right here is the truth of our world.”
That was a pretty grim outlook on life, but it made me think, “Nicholas, have you ever been married?” He was in his late thirties or early forties at least. Surely he had at least been in love before regardless of whether it had worked out.
“Sure was. She was a pretty little thing. Her name was Candace. We had a son named Levi. They were my world.”
