He and Gabrelle quickly made their way out of the city of Anlet, both of them eager to remove themselves from Thrask’s sphere of influence. It would be a three-month journey for them to reach Sempta, and then another month of travel for them to reach the city of Braytol, the capital of the country, and where the rest of his friends were unknowingly waiting for him. Gabrelle explained to him that the roads they would take were well-traveled. A large amount of trade caravans flowed from Sempta. The land separated the former kingdom of Dardin from Krepash, and many exotic trade goods made their way first into Sempta from Krepash before traveling North. The country also boasted several major ports, allowing the merchants of Sempta to further bolster the goods that they would bring overland to other kingdoms.
Unfortunately, the wealth that consistently flowed back and forth along these roads made them a target for banditry. And with the head of government now being so far North, response times to such incidents has slowed somewhat, further emboldening he thieves and highwaymen who would prowl the roads on occasion. Combined with the fact that the war against Thrask had displaced many, and that there had been a rash of desertions from the Dardian army near the end of the conflict, and you had a recipe for rampant banditry that was still sweeping across the country. The one caravan that Xander had seen on the journey so far had been heavily guarded.
When they’d taken a break for Gabrelle to each lunch and work some of the soreness of riding out of her body, Xander had taken the opportunity create more of the runed carbon fiber sheets. One layer was for the touch runes, and the other was for the ones that would sense temperature. A third layer of heat rune – he’d discovered during his research on the topic of temperature runes that heat runes were distinct from fire runes in that they heated an object instead of producing flames – would give his body a facsimile of the warmth that a living body should have. That one was mostly for the benefit of Gabrelle, who constantly complained how cold he was. He decided that he would put the touch sensing runes on the outside of the three layers on his body. He managed to get his hands covered by the layers of carbon fiber, as he considered them to be the most important area to have a sense of touch on, and for the unconscious social cues having dead cold hands could elicit. The rest would follow that night when they stopped for the night.
It only took a week for Gabrelle, Xander, and Freyja to be accosted by a small group of bow-wielding bandits, half a day’s ride outside a small village.
Five ragged men appeared from behind the trees that were near the road, carrying knocked bows.
“Give us your things and no one has to get hurt!” One of the men, who was daring to stand a little closer than the rest, demanded. Xander assumed he must be the leader.
Gabrelle tensed, her hand gripping the round mace that Xander had created for her. Freyja uttered a low, rumbling growl at the men, who stepped further back from the cat. Xander sighed mentally. This trip was already off to a rough stop. Looking at the men, Xander felt no fear. Nothing these men could do to him would be able to even damage him. Instead, he felt pity. They were dirty, tired looking, and appeared desperate. They had to be, for them to think it was worth trying to accost two heavily armored warriors and a giant cat. He decided that it would be best to scare them away. They didn’t deserve to die for being hungry and desperate. They’d at least had the decency to try and make demands instead of simply trying to ambush them like every other bandit experience Xander had had.
Xander activated his mask as [Aura of Fear] rolled out from him. The men scattered, screaming, and several dropped their bows as they all began running. Soon, they were gone, back into the woods from which they’d appeared, and Xander toggled the ability off.
Gabrelle arched an eyebrow at him, the tension slowly easing from her posture.
“[Aura of Fear],” Xander explained, “My mask lets me cast it, remember?”
“Ah, right. I had forgotten. I wondered what kind of spooky ghost magic you were working on them,” she said with a chuckle.
If Xander had still had eyeballs, he would have rolled them at Gabrelle. “Yeah, yeah, ha ha,” he said mockingly. “In all seriousness, though, it just didn’t feel right to kill them. They’re just scared, hungry, and homeless.”
Gabrelle nodded. “Things are still bad in some parts of the country… The war with Thrask destroyed a lot of smaller towns as they took over. I’m glad you had some way to keep things from turning into a fight.”
That night, Gabrelle asked Xander to hold her again. The prospect of killing five men who had had no chance against the two of them had reminded her time during the war again. He laid next to her in her tent, which was much smaller than his own, and wrapped his arms around her. Gabrelle tensed slightly as she felt his arms enclose on her, but relaxed as she sank into the hug.
“You’re warmer now,” she said, surprised.
“I added some runes that would make me feel warmer for you when I was adding the arrays that would let me feel things. By the way, I can actually feel you now. It’s… nice.” He said. “I’d forgotten how nice it was to have someone hold you…” he trailed off, lost in thought. It had been so long since he’d had even a long hug. He hadn’t realized how touch-starved he had become.
“I know what you mean…” Gabrelle said. “Living life as a mercenary, always being on the road… it hasn’t exactly given me any opportunities to experience things like this. Thank you,” she said. “For being able to do this for me without making it weird or letting it come between us in some way.”
“Of course,” Xander answered. “I… you’re one of my closest friends, Gabrelle. If there’s anything I can ever do to help you with something, then just know that I will.”
“You’re such a good person, Xander,” Gabrelle said, sleepily. “I’m glad you’re my friend.” She snuggled up closer to him, and Xander idly rubbed her head, still getting used to the new sensations of touch that he was training his mind to recognize. With his artificially warmed body, Gabrelle was soon asleep, as Xander laid next to her, staring at the ceiling of the tent.
What was he doing, he wondered. Was this a step too far? He didn’t feel any lust in the situation. He wasn’t even sure if he could feel lust anymore. He’d never been a particularly sex-motivated man. Was this inappropriate, though? Gabrelle was nearly ten years his junior. Would she ever come to expect more than just platonic and supportive cuddling from him? Xander had no answers, his thoughts anxiously chasing themselves around his head. Would the rest of the team judge him if they ever noticed him ‘sleeping’ with Gabrelle? He didn’t know. He also didn’t want to stop. Even just the platonic touch was soothing to Xander. It helped take the edge off his struggles. Now, not only was he still trying to cope with the fact that he’d been ripped from his original home and life, but that he was also dead and had lost three years of time. He’d take anything he could to help him.
The began to come, and Xander gently slipped out of Gabrelle’s grasp, exiting the tent. He watched the sun rise, its rays slowly spilling over the horizon and across the land. It was beautiful, and he admired the clouds as they gradually shifted colors as the sun rose behind them. He was glad he was still able to experience things like this. There was still joy to be had in existing, even if the nature of his existence was… different.
Gabrelle awoke soon after, also exiting the tent, strapping on the last of her armor. “Morning!” She said, cheerfully.
“Morning,” Xander replied, still looking out at the sun.
“Whatcha doing?” she asked.
“I was just watching the sun rise, is all. Nothing much. It’s just nice to appreciate the small things, sometimes.”
“Mmm, I get that. I’m more of a sunset girl, myself. I always love how the clouds and the sky turn so orange. Also, it means I don’t have to wake up so early.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Sunsets are nice too. What’s the plan for the day?”
“More riding, just like the rest of the week,” Gabrelle said with a weary sigh.
As they rode, Xander broached a question that he’d been considering to Gabrelle. “Would you still want me to look into healing runes for you?”
“Of course!” Gabrelle replied. “I’ll take anything that might make my job a little bit easier.”
“Awesome,” Xander replied. “It will take some testing and research before I can get back to you on anything concrete, though.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “I’ve seen your work. It’s worth waiting on.”
As they walked, Xander mentally commanded his spider legs to follow Gabrelle as she rode down the road. He slipped into the almost trancelike state he entered whenever he activated [Rune Master’s Library]. He metaphorically thumbed through the volumes of runes, searching for anything that would be related to healing. There was a sparse selection to choose from. Evidently, runes relating to healing were far less common. There was one that accelerated the body’s natural ability to heal, and it struck Xander as the most likely to be useful for Gabrelle. Most of the ‘healing’ runes he’d looked over had pertained more to mending nonliving materials when provided with raw material of the same type.
With the application of amplifying runes in the circuit, Xander figured he could make something that could be slapped onto a wounded person and help prevent them from dying while Gabrelle worked with her skills. Even if it wasn’t capable of stabilizing someone who was critically injured, it would still ease the burden of having to repeatedly heal them, allowing Gabrelle to move on to the next wounded after healing only the fatal damage. That was assuming that there were other wounded, though. Either way, Gabrelle had asked him several times about healing runes and it was time he finally made good on his agreement each time to look into them.
“Gabrelle,” Xander called out to her. “How would you test a healing rune?”
“Well, the easiest way would be to test it on a small injury that I could heal with my skills if the rune doesn’t work out.”
“Oh. That makes sense. I think I have a sequence of runes that would greatly increase the natural healing of someone, but like you said, that requires an injury to test it on. Too bad we don’t know anyone who’s hurt,” he joked.
“Yeah…” Gabrelle said, looking at him. “That’s just too bad.”
“Gabrelle?”
“Yes, Xander?”
“Why are you taking off your gauntlet?”
To Xander’s surprise, Gabrelle had undone her gauntlet and the armor on her forearm on her left arm and drawn a knife, making a shallow cut on the top of her arm.
“What the hell Gabrelle!” Xander said.
“You said we needed a wound to test it on!” She retorted.
“Yeah, but I didn’t expect that!”
“Just get me the little rune thingy so we can get this tested out. It stings, so I want to get it healed already.”
“I haven’t even made the runes yet!”
“Oh… Well, you better do that, I guess.”
Xander worked as quickly as he could to create a small bangle that contained the healing rune, several amplifying runes, and a host of gathering arrays to power the overcharged rune. Handing it to Gabrelle, she took it from him.
“Awh, jewelry? For me? I didn’t realize we were courting, Xander!” The young woman teased.
Xander would have blushed if he was capable, his mind drawn to the dilemmas he’d considered the previous night. “Just put it on,” he grumbled.
“Oh, you’re no fun,” Gabrelle said, sticking her tongue out at him.
She placed the bangle on the wrist of her lightly wounded arm, and the two of them watched at the cut slowly scabbed over. Over the course of fifteen minutes, the scab shrank and fell off, revealing unmarred and healed skin.
“Guess it works pretty well,” Xander said. “Nowhere near as fast as just using your skills though. Took nearly twenty minutes just to heal that papercut you gave yourself.”
Gabrelle shrugged. “It will still have its uses. It’ll be great for aftercare. Remember when you broke your shoulder and I thought that I was going to have to come back and heal it a few more times to get it back to full working condition? This’ll reduce the number of passes I have to make on someone who’s been injured.”
Xander nodded. “But wouldn’t the be taking away progress on your [Medic] class?”
“Mmm, not really. Almost all the progress seems to come from the first application of healing, and I get very little from additional applications of healing for the same wound. Also, my class amalgamated last year, I lost [Herbalist] and [Medic] and they became [Healer].”
“Oh! Well, very belated congratulations,” Xander said.
“Thanks,” Gabrelle replied with a laugh.
The two mercenaries, and Freyja, traveled for another two weeks with little happening. The two of them enjoyed their time together, idly chatting as they rode. Xander inquired about the contracts the four of them had completed after they’d lost him. Gabrelle relayed that they’d mostly stuck to exploration contracts, enjoying the travel and new sights, with a few bodyguard and kill contracts interspersed to help keep their funds at a good level. Xander figured that they must be well off enough, since Gabrelle could afford to spend so much time traveling just to visit her parents.
During the second week, as they were still riding South down a major trade road, they both began to hear shouts in the distance.
“What do you think it is?” Gabrelle asked him.
“I dunno. I’ll fly up and check, though. I hope it’s not a caravan being attacked…”
Gabrelle nodded to him and he flapped into the air, gaining height and then flying further down the road. He noticed that Gabrelle had kicked her horse into a canter as he flew over her. Even without the scope on his rifle, he could see that what they had heard was indeed a caravan under assault. A long train of wagons was halted up ahead, and he could see one was burning. Looking through his scope, he saw guards skirmishing with men in mismatched armor, and a few archers on either side firing at each other, as it was too dangerous to fire into the melee for fear of hitting their own men.
Xander swept lower, matching Gabrelle’s speed and pumped additional mana into his sound runes to simulate yelling as he turned his head to face her. “It’s an ambush on a caravan! They’re holding their own, but it looks like an even match!”
Gabrelle shouted back, “Let’s go even the odds! I’ll meet you there!”
Xander rose back into the air and Gabrelle urged her horse into a gallop, taking the animal as fast as it could go. Freyja kept pace beside the horse, though she chose not to outpace it. Xander was on site much faster than Gabrelle was due to his wings, and he flew over the bandit archers, unnoticed. He dropped three grenades amongst the cluster of nearly twenty men, detonating them as they hit the ground. Explosions ripped through the archers, and a secondary explosion triggered by [Explosive Effect] took out another five of the bandits. The bandit archers had been reduced from a crowd of twenty down to only five, four humans and a dwarf, all stunned and confused. Xander dropped down on top of the nearest bandit, crushing him under his steel body. He’d come to realize over the past few weeks that due to his choice of steel for his body, he was extremely heavy. He could also survive falls of much greater heights since he didn’t have to worry about things like joints, bones, or organs. The man he’d crushed didn’t even utter a sound as he died.
The other four bandits had recovered by the time he had straightened up from his fall, and three arrows and a crossbow bolt bounced off his black armor. He pulled his mace from his inventory, replacing his rifle, and charged at the next bowman, who dropped their bow and pulled a long dagger from their belt. Xander swung at the man, who jumped back beyond the reach of his mace. But not beyond the reach of the pointed legs of his pack, one of which stabbed the man through the neck. More projectiles plinked against his armor as the two remaining men and single dwarf tried vainly to find a weakness in his armor. As he rounded on them, they began to run. Before they could get too far, Xander cast [Improved Brand] on the nearest of the bandits, willing an array of flame runes and gathering runes to power them to burn themselves into the man’s skin. He went up in flames within seconds as the last two bandits continued fleeing. Drawing his rifle again, Xander shot the dwarf and human bandit in the backs as they ran, dropping them. He idly wondered if that was frowned upon in this world.
By this point, Gabrelle and Freyja had joined the fight, charging into the flank of the bandits that was nearest to them. Gabrelle had hopped from her mount and was battering men and dwarves to the ground with her flaming mace. As Xander watched, making his way over to the fight, he had the thought that Gabrelle must have progressed quite a bit in her class. The ease with which she kicked a man to the ground after crushing his left shoulder was impressive, and far beyond the natural strength of her slight frame. Freyja needed no skills to be a killing machine. The large panther was bowling men over and crushing them with her paws, slicing them to ribbon when they were unarmored, and exerting enough weight and force to crush bones when she encountered metal armor. A swingle swat from one of her massive paws was enough to kill a lightly armored bandit, if it was placed well.
Xander once again drew his mace and shield and picked up speed, hoisting himself up onto his spider legs as he broke into a mechanical gallop, aiming to link up with Gabrelle and Freyja. He aimed a kick at a passing bandit’s head, steel filled carbon fiber boot effectively becoming its own mace as he splattered the contents of the man’s head onto the ground, not even losing momentum as he closed on Gabrelle’s position.
Not long after Xander obliterated the bandit archers, and he and Gabrelle had begun to press the bandits on one flank, the attack was broken. Bandits fled from the caravan as the guards with bows began to fire upon them, cutting more down as they scattered amongst the field, running towards a hill which would put them out of sight of the caravan. Xander stood next to Gabrelle and watched as the men and dwarves fled, dwindling from sight.