Red desperately clung to Dwindle, his body radiating mana like an inferno, about to speed away to a healer. A pair of footsteps sounded behind him. Zini had come, having pinpointed Red’s location from the spell he still had attached to him from their time in the Vitelwood. Nasset had followed Zini, bound by her mission that revolved around Red.
“Who is this?” Zini asked, eyeing the dying dwarf with sympathy.
“Another heathen,” Nasset remarked, prompting Red to viciously glare in her direction.
“I told you not to treat my friends so, Nasset. Be gone from my sight, Badlander or I will kill you,” Red hissed.
Nasset frowned deeply. Though she wanted to fight him, her mission was still not over. She wouldn’t go home a failure. Her father didn’t raise weak and incompetent meat as a daughter.
“He is going to die. A healer won’t be able to do anything,” Zini said, kneeling beside the dwarf. Euness’ head lowered in despair, and he caught sight of broken glass and the mangled form of his spectacles on the ground, their broken pieces reflecting his sorrow back at him.
“Do something then,” Red urged, putting his hands on Zini’s shoulders. “You know magic, don’t you? You can heal him, can’t you? Please, Zini. I’ll do anything. I’ll kill any Hunter that comes for you. You can enslave me like you did back in the Vitelwood, anything you want. Just please, save my friend.” Nasset perked up at his desperation.
Zini’s face grew remorseful as his head shook. “My apologies, Red. I deal with death, not healing. Dark magic has a price and it’s paid for with a life entrenched in darkness. Healing is light and is shunned by the dark. I am sorry, truly. He seems to mean a lot to you.”
Dwindle’s color began to fade, and his head drooped. His breath no longer raised his chest. His blood-stained tools were an ironic symbol of how he died, a dwarf who did all he could to be ready for everything, except death.
Dwindle…?” Red muttered quietly, his hands trembling as he touched the dwarf’s chest. His senses were keen. The immense training he had undergone as a simpleton had honed his body and senses to an incredible degree. He could feel the absence of a heartbeat like the absence of light in a bottomless void. His friend had died.
“Dwindle!” Red cried out, tears streaming down his face, his chest twisting with pain. Why did it hurt so much? Would it have hurt less if he had remained a dullard? If he had never asked Dwindle to be his manager, could he have lived? The dwarf would have still been alive, grumbling about lack of success in the city somewhere in the Classy Slums if he had not met Red.
Red stared at his hands, dyed in Dwindle’s blood. What good was his strength if he could not save a friend? He only had two and couldn’t manage to keep one alive. His eyes stared up at the sky, asking for another lightning bolt to hit him, this time with the power to claim his life and end his suffering.
Why did it hurt so much to lose someone you cared about?
Zini placed a hand on Red’s shoulder. He had been in Red’s position before, having lost everything he had ever known and everyone he ever loved. He knew that Red would be spiraling into darkness about now, a darkness that Zini had taken up residence in and had yet to emerge from. He would welcome Red here and show him that in the darkness, there was comfort.
Suddenly, a burst of blinding light erupted behind them. Under its glow, Zini began to wail in agony as his skin began to burn. Smoke rose from him like kindling, his flesh on the verge of catching fire. It took a moment for Red to make out the source of the light. Nasset was holding an object that looked like a golden candle with a flame as white as the stars themselves.
“Stop it, Nasset,” Red barked, “You’re killing Zini!”
“Did you mean it?” Nasset asked without emotion.
“Did I mean what?”
“Did you mean it when you said you would do anything to save that dwarf?” Red nodded slowly, confused, unable to grasp what the Badlander woman was up to. Nasset’s next question made clear her intentions, “Would you swear an oath to help me accomplish my mission?”
“I would do anything,” Red reiterated seriously.
Nasset nodded then walked forward, kicking Zini away who tumbled into the street, gasping and groaning in agony, his usually pale flesh red and raw. She knelt by the dwarf and placed the shining candle atop the dwarf’s chest.
“Forgo death,” Nasset chanted. “Forgo evil and forgo shadow. Come to life, receive grace and mercy. Amen.”
A light breached the clouds above Soalde and beamed onto the destitute slums, shining down on a young man and young woman huddled over a dead dwarf. The light felt warm like a mother’s hug and grasped onto them like a friend unable to part ways. Below them, the cracked street the light touched began to mend and smoothen. Around them, buildings under the light began to form into proper structures with strong foundations. Euness, under the glow, began to feel relieved of his injuries until there were none left. His wrinkles shrunk and his aging bones strengthened.
Nasset had scars gotten from past battles raging across her body but under the light, the scars disappeared almost instantly. Red’s abdomen where he had been sliced by a Badlander also was healed.
The sound of shuffling steps moved away from them as Zini's smoking form ran limply. He sensed the presence of an immense amount of holy magic near and it was about to destroy him completely. He had to get away.
The beam of light finally receded and as it did, Red thought he could hear a chorus of song, a song of celebration. The sound faded however as the light retracted back into the sky.
“Hammer and wrench,” a voice grunted grumpily. “I have such a headache!”
Red turned to see a short figure had roused, rubbing his head as if he were making a wish on a lamp. “Dwindle!” Red cried, grabbing the revived dwarf into his embrace and squeezing. Euness became speechless, unable to believe his eyes.
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“Gah!” Dwindle yelped, feeling as if a python was about to suffocate him. His round eyes looked with anger at an unfamiliar face holding him and gasped breathlessly, “Human, I don’t know you! Stop hugging me so tightly!”
Red parted with an apologetic expression and said, “It’s me, Dwindle. The boxer. The kickboxer. The wrestler. The jiu jitsu practitioner. Anyone you want, I’ll be them.”
Dwindle sensed a familiar mana radiating from the young man. “It can’t be,” Dwindle mumbled, his eyes beginning to moisten. “Hammer and wrench, champ. I thought I’d never see you again.” He charged forward and wrapped his short arms around the tall young man. “Red! We were looking all over for you!”
“You’re not mad I hurt you in the fruitless forest?” Red sniffed.
“Blasted all, you can hurt me all you want, champ. Just don’t ever disappear again.”
As Nasset watched them, her head tilted curiously. Why were they so happy seeing each other? If she never returned to the Badlands, no one would weep tears for her. They would honor her with glory and place her onto the wall of warriors, a place where names were written of warriors of the past whose lives were claimed in glorious battle. The next generation would chant her name as they chanted all the names listed there in prayer form, seeking guidance of the spirits of the past warriors.
Would her father cry? She knew her mother had never shown her much affection. Nasset was certain she wouldn’t cry, but her father differed in that he favored her.
Her mother had six other children from two Battle Lords and four others from four different Bloodfiends, the ranking under Battle Lord. In the Badlands where bloodlines equated to power, a woman born into a mighty lineage held the privilege to choose her mate for bearing children. In contrast, the prospect of making offspring with someone from a lower bloodline was considered a disgraceful taboo, shunned and condemned by all tribes.
Nasset’s mother had never paid much attention to her children, too busy enjoying the luxury of being an inheritor of a good bloodline and always surrounded by gifts from the men for whom she had children with. Nasset’s father on the other hand had given her something precious only meant for Battle Lords.
Their Warchief had gifted a golden candle to each member of the tribe able to reach the ranking of Battle Lord, artifacts unearthed from one of the many ruins that dotted the Lorn Badlands. If not completely destroyed, every Battle Lord of their tribe could revive as long as the candle was with them. Her father had forgone such a lifesaving artifact by giving it to her in case the worst would happen during this mission.
On golden fields that glowed under the sun, memories of him teaching her how to fight played in her head. His words still resonating with her today, “My daughter, seek glory with these hands of yours.”
“Have you found your own glory, da?” she had asked him.
“I have her right in front me.” He had answered, smiling proudly.
“You have helped me,” Red said to Nasset, bringing her back to reality. “You said you need my help for your mission.”
Nasset nodded and replied, “Give me a baby that I can carry in my belly back to the Badlands.”
Dwindle overheard their conversation and nearly fell over. “Champ,” he said hurriedly, “What’s this all about?”
Red smiled and shrugged, “It’s nothing, manager Dwindle. It’s just a deal between me and her.” He couldn’t stop the joy from overflowing within him at seeing Dwindle alive and well again.
“Oh no you don’t, champ. You have a lot of explaining to do. You have a new face and now you have a new girl. I can’t let this go, champ. Dwarves don’t intrude in personal business but this is too much!”
“Are you truly Mister Rombell?” Euness asked, stepping forward, his eyes unable to transform the handsome face he saw on the young man into the young man who couldn’t meet his eyes when they first met in the Hunter’s Guild.
“Hammer and wrench, Euness,” Dwindle spoke in astonishment, “You’ve grown younger.” To his words, Euness felt around his face and feeling the changes, he became awestruck. He stretched his body and found absent many sores and aches that had plagued him for ages.
“No,” Euness muttered, his mind snapping back to the situation at hand and remembering something important above all else, “The elf girl! They took her!”
Dwindle and Red both froze as if struck by lightning. Euness then went into what he saw when he was gaining consciousness and that the White Scale Viper gang had taken the elf kicking and screaming. He had been too groggy and his equilibrium was too rattled for him to stop them, not to mention his lacking strength, and when he finally got his legs under him, he found Dwindle dying next to him.
“Let’s go to Dwindle’s house,” Red said solemnly. “We’ll decide from there what to do.” Without warning, Red glowed and sped off. When he returned, he had a young man over a shoulder covered in burns with smoke rising from his body.
Dwindle couldn’t help but stare at Red as they walked to his home. Red's speed had increased to become like the wind itself when he ran, but what was most surprising to the dwarf was that Red had been proactive in coming up with a plan. He had never seen Red done that before.
Arriving at the modest patchwork building that was Dwindle’s home, Zini had woken up and was allowed to rest on Dwindle’s chair.
“Bitch,” Zini spat the moment a young woman with long red hair came into his view.
“I would’ve killed you,” Nasset uttered, smiling maliciously then shrugged. “But Red has a fondness for heathens like you. When mine and Red’s agreement is done, I will kill you then, necromancer.”
“He’s Mister Rombell to you, savage.”
“Not anymore, necromancer. We have made an arrangement.”
Zini caught sight of the dwarf that had died and nearly choked seeing him walking around alive. How had they done it? Death was certain. Nothing in the natural world could keep it away. Not even for the Puradyte church could they revive the dead. Necromancy reanimated dead bodies but never could it call souls back from the other side. His dark green eyes looked to Nasset who was still staring at him, a smug expression on her face.
“Enough, the both of you,” Red demanded, silencing them. He turned to Euness and Dwindle who stood around Dwindle’s dining table on opposite ends to Red. “We have to go get Poly.”
“I know where they keep their slaves,” Dwindle offered. “There is a basement floor at their place of business, a brothel called ‘The Goddess’ Lair’. They have cages there for slaves. If they removed it as a slave storage, we can always go to the eastern gate where all heavy goods are processed and check there. They had slaves there before as well.”
“There’s also the slave auction,” Euness said with unease, “Located in The Hole.” All three of them made a face of uncertainty. The Hole was filled with worse things than White Scale Vipers. It would be possible they lost their lives in that place if they weren’t careful.
“I’ll go to the guild and recruit others,” Red planned and tossed his Base Ranked 10 Hunter badge onto the table, it clattering to a stop.
“Fine idea, Mister Rombell,” Euness enthused with a resolute nod.
“What happened to you, champ?” Dwindle had to ask, his beady round eyes focusing on Red’s new face. In clothes and with his new look, Red seemed too important to be in his home.
“My face?” Red prompted.
“You’re brain, champ. You sound…smart.” The dwarf couldn’t think of a better way to say it.
“Oh, yes. A gnome gave me a potion that granted me the ability to think better. Isn’t it great, Dwindle? I can live on my own now. I don’t have to bother you with so many things.”
“Don’t say that, champ. I’m more than happy to help. I’m your manager, aren’t I?”
“That you are,” Red smiled then his expression faltered. “Also, I lost the ability to fight.”
Both Euness and Dwindle had to take a moment to understand him. “What do you mean, champ?” Dwindle asked.
Red explained solemnly, his eyes downcast, “My martial arts, my combat techniques, even my combat knowledge—all of it, gone. The gnome’s potion had taken it all from me and left me with a brain capable of understanding how to use mana imbuement to its fullest extent, but I’m without the ability to fight. I would warrant I’m less experienced now than Euness.”
“That’s horrible news, champ.”
Euness squinted at the blur the world had become without his glasses and agreed bleakly, “Sir dwarf is right. This is indeed horrible. Our chances at rescuing the young elf have shrunk considerably.”
Zini commented from where he was sitting, “You’re going to die if you go, Red.”
Nasset remained quiet and chose to sit on the bed.