“What the hell do you mean you don’t have any rations?”
Ezra peeked out of his tent. One of the Otherworlders had his back up against a pine tree. Charles loomed over the boy, his teeth clenched together.
“When the Lesser Demon died, it activated some kind of self-destruct thing, rotting some of our food,” the otherworlder said. “Someone was supposed to put enchantments on our packs, but they… gave up when they were halfway through? I don’t know why.”
Charles’s eyes wandered over to Idia. “We’ll be out here for at least a few more days. We can’t afford to be passing around rations.”
The sound of footsteps caused everyone to turn their heads. Yuki marched forward and passed the boy a sack. Ezra blinked. Where’d she come from?
Charles frowned. “Hold on, Yuki. Don’t do that, you’ll need those—“
Yuki rolled her eyes. “I don’t need it. I’ll be fine.”
Charles opened his mouth to talk but she turned around and left before he could. In a few minutes, everyone was packed and ready to go.
They set out and continued walking for several hours before they agreed to stop. Everyone sat down and pulled out their rations. Ezra watched as different cliques formed automatically. The ranged fighters congregated together. A few of the more defensive, high-Strength types ripped a dead tree down and used it as some kind of bizarre table. The mages cast a spell and formed some chairs out of ice.
Ezra raised an eyebrow. Wouldn’t that be cold?
Pete and Yuki wandered off and sat on the outskirts of the group—it seemed that they’d stuck together even after Ezra had left.
Charles stared at the two before taking a breath and walking forward. He sat to the right of Yuki. Her face twisted up like she smelled something rotten and she scooted away from Charles. He winced and reached into his pack. When his hand came out, it had a slice of jerky.
“To help you, since you gave that other guy your food,” Charles said.
Yuki reached into her pack, pulled some meat out, and bit into it.
“Pass,” she said.
Charles reared back as if he’d been struck. After a moment, he stood up and walked away.
Ezra’s ears twitched. He inconspicuously tilted his head to listen in on the conversation.
“You know, I’ve been wondering about your abilities,” Pete said.
Yuki grumbled and nibbled on a piece of her food.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
Pete glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “I’ve been struggling too, you know. It’s hard to pull the trigger sometimes.”
Yuki drew her knees to her chest. She was quiet for several seconds before she responded.
“I really, really don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
“Okay.”
Ezra shut his eyes. The wind chimed through the trees.
Yuki shuffled her feet against the snow.
“It’s just… it’s such a disgusting ability,” she said. “The only way to use it is to slice people in half or blow them up, and when I see how I react to those things, it…”
“What? What is it?” Pete said
Yuki stood up and walked away. Ezra opened his eyes and watched as she went off to the edge of the camp, her white robe trailing her footsteps.
What a confusing woman.
----------------------------------------
“Alright, I want to run some last-minute drills!” Idia said. “We’ve been slacking off on training because of the current circumstances, but we should make sure everyone’s up to snuff.”
Everyone in the camp stood up. They glanced at each other nervously. Ezra could practically hear the uncertainty in their looks as they watched Idia. If Ezra had to take a guess, not a single one of those students trusted the Vice Knight Commander.
Good, they at least had some survival instincts.
Charles stepped forward. “We’ll be dividing up into three groups. For those of you who need a refresher in melee combat, you’ll be instructed by Idia. For everyone who’s been a little uncoordinated, you’ll be coming with me to lock in some of those squad skills you haven’t been practicing.”
A twinkle in his eye appeared and he looked at Ezra. Ezra glanced over at him. What was the man thinking?
“And the rest of you will be working with our esteemed mercenary and slayer of the second boss monster. I’m sure that he’ll be able to do something with all of you.”
Ezra’s eyes flew open, and he gazed at Charles. Charles winked back at Ezra, then mouthed a few words.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Best of luck!
Oh!
Ezra had almost forgotten why he wanted to knock Charles’s teeth out of his skull.
The groups were divided up quickly. Several of the melee combatants were grabbed by Idia, their faces full of resignation. Pete, Yuki, and a few more were taken by Charles, a bit more confident in their gazes. And the rest shuffled their way over to Ezra. Lackey 2 from way back when crossed his arms and looked at Ezra.
Well, he might as well get a handle on what he was working with. He thought back to when Nobinar had trained him in the art of grappling and decided to draw from those experiences.
“Grab a partner,” Ezra said. “And then spread out. I want to see how you fight.”
The Otherworlders stood in place and stared at each other.
Ezra growled. He raised his voice. “Did I stutter? Get to it!”
The Otherworlders snapped into action and assembled themselves into a bunch of pairs. They spread out as instructed and waited.
Ezra nodded. “Alright. On three. One, two, three!”
There was a brief moment of hesitation, then the rings exploded into action. An arrow flew through the air and brushed Ezra’s hair. A fireball soared into the sky, never to be seen again. One kid tumbled into the ground, then jumped back up with a roar.
Ezra was… begrudgingly impressed. They were nothing like the kids that they’d been at the start. To a tee, every one of them had the manic look in their eyes that Ezra had come to see in his reflection. A boy with a sword thrust forward with a spear, scratching the cheek of a kid with a dagger. The boy with the sword didn’t even pause and reared back his weapon for a follow-up. Dagger kid ducked down and shoulder-checked the boy with the sword.
There had been no hesitation from either of them. If Ezra didn’t know any better, he’d have thought that the boy with the sword was trying to kill his opponent.
In the back of his mind, Ezra had dismissed them, thinking that they were still the sheltered children they were back at the start of this disaster, but he was wrong. These kids had been hardened by time in combat.
Ezra could work with this.
He clapped his gloves together. “Alright, I’ve seen enough.”
The fighting rolled to a stop and the group stared at Ezra.
“You’ve clearly got some skill,” Ezra said. “But I’m noticing a small flaw.”
Of course, he’d recognize it—it was the same flaw he’d had, not so long ago.
“I saw too many flashes from your weapons. You’re relying on your Spirit Weapons greatly, and designing your build around it, right?” Ezra said.
After a few seconds, several nods came from his audience.
“What’s wrong with that?” Lackey 2 snorted. “Mix-max, right? High risk, high reward.”
Ezra shut his eyes and took a slow breath.
“What’s your highest stat?” Ezra said.
Lackey 2 sucked in a slow breath. ”Strength.”
“Lowest?”
“Constitution—“
Ezra’s high Dexterity and [Cat’s Grace] worked together in tandem and he shot toward Lackey 2 like a bullet. Lackey 2’s eyes widened and his—scythe? Damn, he lucked out—slashed out. Ezra easily dodged, then punched to the side of Lackey 2’s head.
“Be honest with me. How many of your friends have you lost in combat?” Ezra said.
Lackey 2’s face went pale and he looked away from Ezra. “Too many.”
Ezra didn’t remember all the people in his class, but he remembered enough to know that there used to be more of them. Even so, none of his old classmates had realized what was going wrong.
“I’m willing to bet money that most of those you’ve lost didn’t have a high Constitution,” Ezra said.
Lackey 2 bit his lip, then nodded.
“This isn’t a game and you’ve been incredibly lucky so far,” Ezra said. “But you’ll make a mistake, no matter how small it might seem. Get your Constitution up.”
“But we need to be strong! How are we supposed to level up if we aren’t willing to take risks?!” someone shouted.
“How are you supposed to level up if you’re dead?” Ezra rolled his eyes. “Besides, you have the advantage of being in a unit. It’s not all up to you—you have a team—so you don’t need to take risks. Just play it safe and don’t be stupid.”
Ezra’s words surprised himself. It wasn’t too long ago that he was just like Lackey 2, but in the end, Filamenta had managed to get through to him.
“Of course I did.” A yawn echoed in Ezra’s head. “It’s the result of my exceptional negotiation skills.”
Ezra sighed. She was finally awake?
“Yes, thank you for letting me sleep,” she said.
Her tone was tinged with exhaustion. Even after her long rest, she still seemed to be tired.
“When did you get so sentimental?” Filamenta chuckled. “I’m not going to die on you.”
It’s not sentimentality. Ezra just couldn’t have his partner disappearing on him during combat. What about her analyses? What about her advice? Ezra—
“Um, One-Eye?” a voice said. “What are we supposed to do?”
Ezra was snapped out of his thoughts. He realized that he’d just been standing there for a while without saying anything. Whispers darted between the students.
“What’s up with him?” someone said.
“He mentioned something about death—“
“Do you think he lost someone?”
“Perhaps a lover?”
Dorian cast him a glance and smirked. Ezra suppressed the urge to groan. Were stupid rumors cursed to follow him around for the rest of his life?
“If you have spare points, I want you to invest in Constitution,” Ezra said. “From there, I’m going to teach you some of what I know.”
“What are we going to learn?” Lackey 2—no, Steve was his name—said.
Ezra smiled.
“How to kill with your bare hands.”
----------------------------------------
The training session went well. Almost everyone had a surprising amount of stat points saved up. They all dumped it into Constitution and some of the other Stats to make sure they were well-rounded. Ezra then taught them the basics of hand-to-hand combat—though he restricted them away from learning [Cortian Ironflow]. That had been a personal gift from Nobinar, and Ezra wasn’t just about to go teaching it to anyone.
Everyone eventually picked up the first level of [Basic Striking], but no one was able to get it to the second level. Not surprising—hopefully they’d improve with time.
They were eventually finished and moved back onto the road. Ezra and Charles were in agreement: the third boss monster was close. They stopped walking and set up camp. Charles made the suggestion of doubling the guard and making sure that it was their high-Wisdom fighters rotating out. Ezra was fine with this—Idia was in opposition. Luckily, with a quick glare from Ezra, Idia backed down.
Ezra had briefly considered killing Idia again before he decided to wait. It was better not to cause an upset right before their encounter with the boss monster. He’d do it after they killed the boss monster.
He wandered to his tent and lay down.
Ezra was surprised by his own decision to not commit murder. His hatred had burned hot against Idia so long ago, but… Ezra found it hard to muster up any anger against the man. It wasn’t that he’d forgiven the guy or anything—or even that he’d decided to have mercy like with Prise.
No, Idia was going to die, if only because the world would be a better place when he was gone.
It was more that in the face of everything that he’d been through at this point, Idia felt like a footnote. This was even though his heart still hurt sometimes, the pain from getting stabbed reminded him of how tiny he was small weak weak weak weak weak—
[Calm] kicked in and the thoughts stopped.
Perhaps he wasn’t as over it as he thought.
[Please select your class immediately! If you don’t select it within the next 41 days, the system will be forced to disconnect to prevent your death!]
----------------------------------------
The next morning, they woke up to the sound of a scream.