I threw my head back and let out the loudest, most raw scream I’d ever had. The sound came from the deep recesses of my gut and tore up my throat as it escaped my chapped lips.

Korin dropped a heavy head downward and released a distressed sigh.

“Rayden, I’m so sorry.”

I pushed away the sympathetic hand she attempted to place on my shoulder, then rubbed away the hot tears flowing down my face. I gently laid Drayek’s head on the ground and rose to my feet. I favored my broken arm at my side, but I couldn’t even feel the pain. I felt numb, all my senses overwhelmed by a heavy weight of grief.

All Hunters, save for Krato, who still hadn’t moved, turned their eyes to me and then to Drayek. A solemn silence fell, and I angrily dismissed all of the sad, sympathetic looks they directed my way.

A soft hiss broke the silence, and I whirled around in search of the source of the sound. Just inches from Drayek’s body rested a fallen Nagari. Its hisses continued as I stormed over to it, and they sounded like creepy, snake-like laughter.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded, pushing the tip of my boot into the gaping wound stretched across the creature’s ribcage.

It screeched at the pain but continued hiss-laughing. “This is just the beginning,” it wheezed. “Our army will slaughter all of Edrona, and then we can start anew.”

I pressed harder. “What do you mean? And how did you find Edrona?”

The grin that broke through the humanoid face made me feel nauseous.

“There will be a day when the Nagari and the humans will live together. That is what they promised us.”

“They?” I shouted, pressing my boot so hard I heard some of the creature’s ribs crack. “Who promised you? Someone from Edrona? Did that person lead you to us?”

The Nagari only continued to laugh, obviously done talking. So, I lifted my foot, then slammed it so hard into the creature’s torso that it finally got what it deserved–a painful death.

“No Edronan would ever do that,” Korin whispered behind me. “No Edronan would ever betray us.”

I kept my eyes on the Nagari I had just crushed with my foot and clenched my fists.

“How do you think the Nagari found us, Korin?” I shouted.

She flinched back from my angry outburst.

“Someone in our city had to have betrayed Edrona’s position–there’s no other explanation,” I said to the entire group.

All Hunters shifted their eyes downward, having no answers to my questions.

“Gather everything you can,” I said, moving to harvest the heart and core from the Nagari I’d just killed. “And keep a good deal of the loot for yourselves. We are not giving everything to the Priests.”

No one argued, and all went to harvesting. Before I could move to join them, Korin offered to ease the pain of my broken arm. She wasn’t strong enough yet to heal it completely, but I allowed her to do what she could. I could tell the healing she gave my arm made a difference, but I almost couldn’t tell. My grief and anger overwhelmed all other feelings.

As soon as Korin released me, I stalked over to the dead Tier 4 Nagari. I scowled down at the ugly face made of slime and scales. The face belonging to the creature that had killed Drayek.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I pulled out the left glove from my traveling sack and slid it onto my hand with my teeth, my right arm still useless. I needed the glove to harvest cores. If I touched them with my bare skin, I would deplete the cores of all their essence. And I didn’t want to do that. Not yet.

I scooped up the Nagari’s fallen knife. I did the best I could with my left arm to carve through the monster’s chest and abdomen. With no remorse, I ripped through its flesh and dug out the largest Nagari heart I had ever seen, along with a core also larger than I’d ever seen.

I tucked them away into my pack, determined to keep the Tier 4 Nagari loot for myself. No one else deserved it–especially the Priests. And I would keep them safe until I might need them in the future.

“What do we do about them?” Korin sniffed, pausing her own harvesting to gesture to Drayek’s and Krato’s bodies.

“We’ll take them back with us and give them a proper burial,” I insisted.

And then I am going to find and kill the traitor, I thought.

***

I had insisted on burying Drayek at home privately. He had been my mentor, after all. No, he was my father. He had taken me in when no one else would and had raised me to become the person I am today. No one had any right to intrude on the final moments I wanted with him.

After Korin had rested enough, she was able to heal my arm completely. No bending or twisting caused me any pain. And soon, we made it back to Edrona. The Hunters helped me with carrying Drayek to the back of our hovel near the training arena, then they solemnly waved goodbye and took Krato’s body with them into town. Drayek’s and Krato’s bodies were just the first two among many that would find a home underneath the ground once the army reached Edrona sometime tomorrow evening.

After finding a shovel tucked away in Drayek’s storage chest behind our trainees’ weapons rack, I found a soft patch of dirt near the hovel, which was hard to find in this craggy wasteland of rock, but I did find it.

I avoided looking at Drayek, who lay near me as I dug, helpless and immovable. I almost couldn’t believe he was actually gone. Angry tears dripped off my nose and fell into the dirt as I shoveled deep into the ground.

“What are you doing, Master?”

“Shut up, Codex.”

“Shut. Up. I cannot understand your meaning behind those two words, Master.”

I shook my head frustratedly. Codex tried asking his stupid question three more times but finally gave up when I offered no response.

My hands were red and blistered by the time I finished digging a deep enough hole.

Still not looking into Drayek’s face, I rolled him into the grave as respectfully as my smaller body could muster against his weight.

Drayek landed at the bottom, dirt clouds tarnishing his brilliant red dragon armor and the sword I had tucked neatly into his hands. Even after rolling him into the hole, his hands remained planted on his chest, with his beloved sword lying across the length of his torso and most of his legs.

I had thought about keeping his armor and sword and storing them for future use, but it felt wrong to do that. Drayek looked most like himself while clad in his gear, and I wanted him to look that way even in death. And maybe, if I kept them with his body, the armor and sword would somehow follow Drayek on whatever journey was bound for him next. I did not know what the afterlife brought for the dead, but I hoped, for Drayek’s sake, that it would be full of adventure and endless monster-killing.

After having cleaned both his red blood and the dark Nagari blood off of his armor and weapon, Drayek looked just as strong as he ever did. Just… peaceful, as well. The gaping hole in the armor plating on his abdomen had even healed itself already, hiding the wound that had killed him.

I finally gazed into Drayek’s–my father’s face. He really was my father. I never had another father figure, and Drayek had given me everything he could in life. And I wished more than anything that I could somehow repay him.

My throat closed up as more tears moistened my eyes.

I might not be able to repay Drayek, but I could continue to make him proud. I would never give up, and I would get stronger and stronger. I would make it to Tiers 2, 3, 4, 5, and maybe even as high as Lord Solomon had gotten before his death–perhaps even higher.

But first, I needed to find out who had betrayed Edrona to the Nagari and kill them for it.

“Wherever you are, Drayek, I hope you are listening,” I said to the wind. “I promise to avenge you.”

And maybe if I did avenge him, it would not only provide me with some closure but also help Drayek in his journey of eternal rest.

I then remembered his final words to me. That he loved me.

“I love you… Father,” I whispered.

I wiped a sleeve under my runny nose, having taken off my armor before digging the hole, then started refilling Drayek’s grave with dirt. The tears didn’t stop until the dirt covered my view of his body, and he was never to be seen again.