The tenor of the fight changed significantly when they could leave the legion to their own devices. It was like setting a kid into a candy shop, but the worst version, as they were trying to reclaim their capital from their former brothers and sisters. Anthony was going to have words when they found Bob.

They all felt it when the death knight died.

Now, he promised of some time off was going to come due. Anthony was happy to let that happen. He was ready for the debriefings and the feast. Now all they had to do was funnel the brainlessness undead into the kill zone.

The legion could do that part.

He would rest.

In his mind, he pictured Sonya’s face. The vivid image was a relief. They would be together soon.

They still had a lot of work to do, but his part was done. Making sure that his leader’s aura was still on, he moved to the cabin to take a nap. He had to save something for all the healing he was expecting to do.

---

Sonya knew where the death ice body was. She wanted to grab his card, which definitely had to be a rare at least. But she knew that volunteer there. And to go down to the ground and make her vulnerable and leave her open. Though she was a strong caster, she knew her limits. And they did not involve being on a battlefield directly surrounded by thousands of zombies.

She didn’t have a fully combat role right now. She can do some sort of earthquake, but she’d already done that. What she wanted to do now was to create a safe spot where she used what she’d made to gain more ground. She thought about the crater that Bob had landed in. She thought about raising up a little fortress around it. Wouldn’t have to be that tall. She can make the balls about twice for height and none of the doors would come up to it. That would be doable. And she can make the walls thick enough that they could be. Two people on each of the four sides could staff them.

Air-dropped food and water could sustain them then.

Or they could just extend that little fortress back to the walls that the caravan for loved. Nobody loved puzzle like Sonya did. Especially one way she could make the zombies go around in circles. She just needs some more of those Tower Defense weapons so that she could take them out. It was comforting to know that she could get back to her old standard of creating long corridors they could kill zombies through. I wish he was missing was a clear direction on how to lengthen it.

The airship itself had hung in the air for a while, so she was trying to get her bearings. Way back on the horizon, she could see where walls that existed already were. Now she was going to have she’ll be using a lot of power, for sure. If you were standing on land, it was difficult to be moved around. A bit. Sure, the wind could try to push you, but it wouldn’t really take you anywhere.

On the ocean, the cus had a way of moving you from where, where they wanted you to be. You might not want to be there and the seas might be rough and choppy, but you eventually ended up close to where your anchor was or wherever the sea wanted you to go.

It was not the same on an airship. The sea, however, was a known entity; movement was to be expected.

The wind was a fickle friend with benefits.

If you stayed in one place, the wind was going to fuck with you. The wind always wanted to fuck with you. This meant that they had to get their bearings a lot of times when they were up in the air. If there was a heavy wind? The new standard operating procedure was to sit down in the body of water or sat down by an anchor.

The wind would fuck with you more than the water would. But Sonya would fuck with you even more. There was definitely some fuckery happening with Bob, as he was taking forever to get into another airship. Or maybe he just wanted to get that card. She suspected he was going to go for the card. If she got the kill and he got the card, she would call that a good deal.

He might not like it, but it wasn’t up to him. He had lost the bet.

She was going to try not to lord it over him too much the next time they saw each other. There might be sparks, but she had won this one.

---

Bob, Mork’s model of patience, was fuming.

She had taken his kill. He had worked his butt off to get that kill. But she had just waltzed in at the last minute and decided that this was hers to take. It wasn’t up to her. She knew he had a quest. It was to her benefit.

If he got the quest rewards, they all profited. Unless her goddess had given her a better quest for reward, Bob couldn’t see a reason. In fact, he was so angry that he didn’t even want to hear her explanations. He just wanted to kill more zombies.

“Bob, do you want to head back yet?” Stella said, trying to get him to commit to returning. It had been half an hour since the death knight died.

Bob grunted non-committally. He didn’t want to play his hand yet. He just wanted to work through his rage. He didn’t have a way to make cakes for his family. Being reborn in this world had taken that away from him. It had taken his family and friends away. He loved Stella but...

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

He hacked through another zombie. He could fill his weapons skills, singing at him in the same breath that his muscles screamed. Everything was getting worked out today.

“Bob?”

“Not yet.”

He knew what she wanted. It was plain as day. She wanted to talk about it and smooth things over with him. He did not want that. He wanted... He Didn’t know what he wanted.

He was halfway between quitting the Caravan and just going off on his own. But he really couldn’t because Sonia had stolen the gate card.

That would have given him a way to deal with all this mess.

He could have used the gate card himself, perhaps with Stella going across the continent slaying the undead and in the end killing the death knights.

If none of them were there, he would have done it. But his God had told him he was going to get a prize for every death knight that he got. So why wouldn’t he do his best?

Bob pierced another zombie through the sternum.

“Stella?” He said weakly, dodging another runner.

“Yes, love.”

She eviscerated the zombie with poise. He always admired how she could keep a level head. That was the addition of her dark humor. It made her exactly the woman that he’s been looking for. He just wished that she had met him earlier. Perhaps things would have been different if they did that.

“What would you say if I said I wanted to quit the Caravan?”

She let the question stand there in the air for a bit. All They both could hear was the sound of more zombies splashing against the ground as they fell.

“I would ask why?”

Bob tossed fireballs into the crowd that was gathering around them. Finding more in front of him than behind, he changed directions. Then he moved, sending a three-part fire chain down the line.

That was always the question, wasn’t it? He didn’t want to answer that question. He didn’t want...

He wanted to walk away.

“The only thing that’s keeping me here is you,” he said, tears streaking down his face. “This whole thing? I thought I was helping, but now I think it’s... this is just a joke. Like we got these quests from gods to do this shit and I’m just tired of it. Let someone else be Chosen.”

“They have been a little hard on us.”

Stella cast a wide circle of ice around them, followed by a wide area fire spell.

“We can quit, you know,” she said. “We can walk away whenever you want. You’ve done enough already. More than your share.”

*You’ve done enough.*

The words echoed in his mind for a long time. Had he really done enough? He was the reason that they were here. Stella wouldn’t have been alive if it wasn’t for him. Most of the caravan wouldn’t have survived.

“If I stop, then what?” He said, noticing the airship that was now on their level.

“Then we quit and we start up our own restaurant and do whatever the fuck we want. They will live without us. The legion can finish this.”

“But the dragons?”

She came up right next to him.

“The legion can finish this without us. They know where the death knights are. Let’s go.”

He held up a hand, shaking his head.

“I gotta wait for Ca’at.”

The eldritch beastie took that time to show up with a glowing obsidian card.

“Now we can go.”

---

“So they got another death knight.” Sophie said.

She chewed her lip.

“I thought that would make you happy. But I don’t actually know what would make you happy. Maybe when I take care of the capital by turning a lot into flowers, you’ll be happy. Or maybe it’s just not a thing for a goat to become happy. But I wish we could do that thing again.”

The Goat Lord bleated.

“I understand that it’s a lot of energy for you. But there are only so many dwarves and if we don’t save some, their whole way of life is going to go away and their attack culture will be gone.”

Her commune with the Goat Lord had not borne fruit. It fact in many ways, it had felt like a big setback. It knew what she wanted. She knew what the Goat Lord said, and it was a lot of bleating. That was fine when you had little going on. But she wanted to do stuff. She wanted power from the Goat Lord.

There was only one being that could give her such powers.

Despite knowing that he stood against necromancy and eating stuff and making flowers, there wasn’t much else she knew about him.

Would it have been nice to know more? Yes. Was she going to get some more? Probably not.

So, as much as she wanted to spend her time communing with her patron, she found nothing in it that made her think it was worth her time.

It could have been so much better. But it gave her Gigi, for which she was eternally grateful.

So instead of doing what Sonya said that she did with her patron, they sat around a bit and after a while, called it a day.

She came out of it waiting to hear about the battle from the front lines. Stella had promised her she would check in as soon as she was done with his battle report. Sonya had been on the front lines, which meant that Zan and Sophie were holding up the rear guard. It wouldn’t do to have the people that could build the fortifications and both gate people on the front line. They had played a game of rock-paper-scissors and she had intentionally thrown it.

More and more, Sophie was feeling like she was over it. Seeing Stella return with a dark cloud over her face, though, kind of brought her out of it.

Stella gave her that look that meant that they were going to have to talk about something expediently. As they were back in the promontory, they found the time to wander over to the gardens.

“What happened, girl?” Sophie said. “You look like you’ve been fighting zombies for an hour or two and... Where’s Bob?”

Stella looked around.

“Oh, he’s around here somewhere. I’m just not sure. He is...how should I put this...”

Stella briefly explained Bob’s outrage after Sonya had stolen another one of his kills.

“So what is he going to do, just quit? I didn’t know we could do that. I would like to quit.”

Stella clenched her fists.

“I’m pretty sure that when he says quit, he means he wants to just walk straight up to the other two death knights and kill him. Or however many that are left.” Stella said, “He’s been secretive about his recent quests. I mean, I know his quest got updated when Sonya killed the death knight, which is what started this, but I think something’s going on.”

“... He doesn’t want to talk to Sonya? They can’t work this out? She’s a natural at talking to people.”

Stella shook her head.

“Just because she can build rapport with people doesn’t mean that she can sustain it. I’ve never seen him so angry. I even suggested that we do the thing that he likes that tweak my back the last time we did it.”

“And he said no?”

“Girl? He is on a warpath. I think just seeing her would crush him. If she said a word about this? I’m pretty sure they would start fighting. She wouldn’t even understand!”

Stella began crying. Sophie flailed around for a minute before giving her a hug. It was one of those long hugs that you’d never let go first from.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what I can do for you. But I’m here and let’s just make it a day. I heard that Anthony and Sonya got a new bathtub so we can set that up. You’ve got so many options here... I can have Dan get us down to Sunderland for a little. Do you want to do a little girls’ trip? See how the Yellow Tail beach is doing?”

Stella nodded.

“That sounds great, but not without Bob. Honestly, I don’t… I don’t know what to do. I should be with him right now.”

They sat there talking about what they wanted to do until it was dark. Bob never returned.

Sophie slept next to Stella that night.