EV B2 Chapter 14:

With an iron will, I ignored my surroundings. It was a mess, a fucking bloodbath. The waves were still struggling to remove the blood from the sand.

Despite my best efforts, something tore at my mind and brought back memories that were all too recent. Things that felt like they should have been further away in time but weren't even a week past.

The details of the fight played back in my head. I had moved with grace and skill that I hadn't had before. Even what I had done since I returned to Valhalla had only been a shadow. What I had been before I left Valhalla was like a puppy before me now. But... But I hadn't gotten strong enough.

The faces of the Raiders that I was fighting with vanished and were overlaid by my old friends and comrades from the months I spent back in the world of the living. Every third ally that fell wore Alana's face, especially if they were cut down in front of me. Even with all my speed, I was still too slow.

The foot soldiers on the beach had seen only a few at first, but they were endless; several groups came from around the cliffs, and eventually, more came down the stairs from behind us. It was too much, far too much.

As I stood staring up at the sky, blood-drenched my clothes. Mostly other's blood, but a little bit of it was my own. I had a few light nicks on my face and all along my limbs.

It stung slightly as the sea spray washed around them. The slight burning of the salt in the water kept me grounded. I felt the waves crash at my feet as the tide had come in over the hours that it seemed like I had fought.

There was only a tiny strip of sand by the cliffs now. It must have only been an hour and a half, but even then, I was exhausted. Our opponents had eventually called the retreat, with well over three-quarters of their numbers dead by my hands.

But none of my Raiders survived.

I looked down as a small hand grasped my shoulder, and I saw Astrid as she limped the last couple of steps to me before collapsing into my chest.

She had it much worse.

Sure, she was much more capable than any man who fought on this battlefield besides me. Levels and stats made her smaller size rather irrelevant. But if she didn't have my ability and she was primarily an archer with some magic and healing, of course, that meant that she'd spend most of her time dancing amongst the tall rocks, avoiding any damage.

But the company of archers that had shown up on the cliffs above us to rain arrows down had been a unique challenge. I was grateful that she had managed to take care of only my handful of spells.

I was able to do anything; I would need to increase my spell selection soon. A Fool's Constitution and Dance of the Jester were useful but no longer sufficient. I was getting better at activating them, and they were high enough quality that I was able to pump more mana into them to increase their effects.

But I was looking for. Some more range and damage now. I needed to maybe lean into my arcane magic.

I caught Astrid before she fell, holding her under her armpits, and helped her walk through the ankle-deep water until we found a rock that was at a comfortable height to sit on.

It was drenched in water, but it didn't really matter. I helped her set. And stood in front of her, still lost in my mind.

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"Are you okay?" she asked as she looked up at me, using the end of her bow to poke me in the chest from an arm's length away.

I looked down at her and blinked. "Yeah. Yeah. I'm okay. Just reminded me of..."

I trailed off. Astrid didn't seem to understand, but she let it go. "Yeah."

I heaved a huge sigh, trying to force my mind to clear away all the emotions and thoughts clouding it. It somewhat worked, and I took a few more deep breaths before I finally had myself mostly under control.

"So. What's next?" I asked.

"There is no obvious continuation to the scenario." She said.

I found the amulet around my neck and probed it was there. Did we need to exit now, or was there something more we could do last time? Had I really needed to exit? I assumed so, but I wasn't sure.

"Do you think we have the 20% mark?" Astrid asked.

I blew out gently. "Maybe. What were you at when you failed to take the castle? Twelve?"

She nodded. "So maybe we're at fifteen. Maybe defending the castle or escaping it counted for extra, but it can't be more than a few percent."

"This isn't really the castle, though. This is a monastery. So, are we even in the right spot?" I pointed out.

"I don't know," Astrid said.

"Well, we can bail now. Hope we hit the 20% mark and then barely scrape by for the next month with the coins we've gotten. Or maybe we could run it a few more times, trying to make some more money, and I hope the next one is based on our skill set. Or we could waste time trying to continue this.

"It's already been what, two days? Do we have time for another run after this?" Astrid asked.

I grimaced. "I don't know. I don't have any interest in working off my debt for the next month."

I remembered the servant girl, the first newbie house I was in, who had been Astrid's friend once.

"Whatever happened to her? " I asked, and she shrugged.

"I never found her again. Maybe she failed again. Maybe she was demoted. Maybe she's out living her best life." Astrid shrugged again. "We weren't exactly close."

Huh. Well, that was certainly illuminating.

"I don't know if runs that are still inside the dungeon will count when the month ends. I'm not sure if they let us finish or not." I said, "So I vote we continue on for another day. Try to see if we can progress the scenario and slash the story further. And then, if not, well, maybe I can see if one of my other friends can help us out."

Astrid chuckled. "I suppose that's worth a shot. I doubt we'll be able to make any progress. It seemed like the scenario was focused on the village, and, well," she gestured to the hundreds of bodies around us. "I don't think any of them survived, and we can't pilot the boat ourselves back. Even if either of us knew how to operate a boat, even if we got back. Then what?"

"I don't know," I said, "but I'm not ready to give up yet. How about we follow the road back to wherever the soldiers came from? If there's that castle, maybe we can take it."

"You want the two of us to take the castle alone?" Astrid asked.

I shrugged. "You think we can't do it?"

"No. I was just making sure that's what you actually wanted," she said, and she levered herself to her feet with a bow.

"Though I'm not sure how fast I'm going to be."

That was another spell I needed besides just offense. Maybe some sort of healing. Fool's Constitution helped strengthen my body and slowly heal. But I couldn't do it for her or anything.

But then I remembered Astrid had her own healing abilities and watched as her wounds slowly began to close.

"It'll be a few hours." She informed me. "Do you need any help?"

I nodded. She was much more capable of healing others than I was, even at healing myself. "I can wait a bit, though. Focus on yourself first."

She took a limping step towards the stairs. Considering how best to help her, I reached down and picked her up in a bridal carry and started to carry her up the stairs.

Astrid protested a little, but I pointed out that she was too short for me to just wrap an arm under her shoulders, so she grumpily relented to being carried.