Chapter 85 - Make a Promise

Tiba and I stayed in a hollow log until morning. The night had been full of terrible noises as the scourge reveled in their victory. They were everywhere, sniffing and pawing at the ground, scrabbling up and down trees, and howling into the night, no doubt looking for us, specifically me. Tiba was using some sort of woodcraft I wasn’t familiar with to mask our presence, though she wouldn’t or couldn’t explain. There was something about the log itself combined with our collective smells that kept the creatures from looking inside, but what that was, was entirely out of my wheelhouse. She seemed semi-confident it was working, though.

Unsurprisingly, Kuul was still alive, back to full rampage mode, roaring and breathing fire everywhere, which was the only source of illumination for someone with pathetic night vision like myself. From the glimpses I caught through the underbrush, his body looked more battered now after his fight with the dragon. Spiderweb cracks crawled up his torso and neck, glowing orange in the dimness of the forest and leaking little fire globs that would splat onto the ground wherever he walked, but walk he did. He felt no pain that I could discern, only a burning desire to kill.

The old son of a bitch was unkillable, apparently, and he packed a mean punch, mean enough to kill a dragon. Oh yes, that was another thing. Myss was probably dead. That tended to happen when your head was twisted all the way around, but I wasn’t ready to ring the bell considering we were dealing with ancient magic beings and all that. What convinced me was the fact that we hadn’t seen Myss while Kuul was still kicking around, and she wouldn’t have left without doing something I would regret.

The scourge had grown increasingly used to dealing with Kuul. Wherever the giant went, the scourge had to give way, but as Kuul chased individual monsters that caught his eye, dozens more would rush into the giant’s wake and continue about their business of finding me.

Around dawn, when the sound of Kuul’s footsteps and the vocalizations of the scourge were far, far off, Tiba and I dared crawl out of our hiding place.

We retraced our steps slowly, keeping low. The forest got eerily quiet in the absence of all the activity, magnifying each snapped twig and rustled leaf, so we took our time, making the effort to keep out of sight and leave no trail. It was mostly Tiba leading me by the hand and telling me to wait when she needed to scout ahead. At least I got another level of Stealth out of it.

Stealth is now level 17.

The waiting was hard for me, since I couldn’t stop thinking about the others. Everything had gone to shit so fast. The fire and chaos had separated us, and we’d not discussed what to do if that happened. We’d all just assumed we’d be doing this entire thing together and that we’d have a chance to plan things if we were to leave home base. In fact, we’d all assumed that leaving this place would be a permanent thing, but now we were scattered with no way to find one another without returning to the place we’d just lost to the enemy.

My heart was going a mile a minute as I waited in the bushes outside the sunlight perimeter, staring through the fog and smoke into the smoldering wreckage where we’d used to live. The fortress itself was obliterated, crumbled down to ground level with the strange exception of the southwest corner wall of which only about six feet of stone remained vertical. The area was charred black, the ditch flattened, the roots of the old petrified trees cracked into jagged boulders. Six ragged holes, wide enough to drive a wagon through, were dug out around the fort in a nearly perfect hexagon. One of these had collapsed to the point where I could see the rough outlines of trenches where the scourge had tunneled in.

Tiba watched and waited with me, only a little more patient than I felt.

“Something is wrong, Ryan,” Tiba said from her half of the bush. “Kelub and Grorg should find us by now.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s too quiet. I understand the others laying low, but where are the scourge?”

“They run from Kuul, I think, and you are not here anymore. No reason to stay,” she guessed before adopting a more somber tone. “I keep expecting to hear one of Yik’i’trix’s birdcalls. I like his bird calls.”

I did too. I kept expecting to hear all sorts of things, hoping someone out there was alright. If they were, though, they were doing the same thing we were: watching and waiting.

I reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m worried about them too,” I said. “Let’s give it another half hour, then, if nothing else happens, we’ll make the first move.”

Tiba agreed, nodding slightly, but she continued to watch the clearing with big, unblinking eyes.

—------------------------------------

Taking the long way around to the choke point, we picked our way carefully through the underbrush, wincing with every clumsy footfall I made. Tiba was silent as a mouse, but me… I was too big and heavy for this kind of thing. I just had to hope my Stealth skill and Gray Man would do something for me. Alert hadn’t triggered yet, but I wasn’t quite to the point where I trusted it with my life. Like my turrets and my aura, I had to assume it could be fooled by various means.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

When we got to the choke point, we found it different from the last time we saw it.

“Drag marks. Big,” Tiba whispered, crouching down in a furrow the size of a single family house. She pointed at a long gash in the mud that contained a black slurry. “Blood in the marks, probably all over.”

I did some mental calculations, not liking the answers I got. “Dragon blood,” I guessed, though I was almost positive this was the case.

Tiba’s eyes widened, and she looked around again, in shock. “No,” she replied in disbelief. “They took the old one?”

“It’s what they do,” I said, following the drag marks with my eyes.

South. Toward the tutorial facility. Ground fucking zero. Of course they took her there.

—----------------------

The fort itself was a ruin. Fire had destroyed most everything that wasn’t stone. Two titans had thrown down directly on top of the structure, and it showed.

Tiba and I carefully picked through it all, looking for some sign the others had been here. It was the only location we all shared as a point of reference. If a sign was going to be anywhere, it would be here.

Whatever the battle hadn’t destroyed, the scourge had. Not just that, the scourge had desecrated the place. Sets of claw marks marred the surface of every flat area, unmentionable organic leavings were smeared over the ground, and decaying, discarded parts of monsters were left out in the elements to rot in random nooks and crannies. The ruined husks of my machines were scattered over the entire area, barrels bent and hammered until they were flat, magazines broken over rocks, bullets scattered and ground into the dirt. The casting bowls were smashed flat, and the reloading station… well, it looked like something had crawled inside and died just to be a jerk. The smell was… unique.

Still, there was no sound but the wind in the leaves overhead.

Finally, we found what we were looking for, dead center in the courtyard, the only clean, untouched area in the entire ruin and conspicuously so. It was as if this particular part of the floor was carefully preserved, perhaps even swept of debris.

My balance faltered and I fell to my knees.

In the middle of the courtyard, on the pristine red and gray stone floor, lay a neat and orderly row of… things. Armor and weapons mostly. Geddon’s helmet laid next to the dragonkin sisters’ in a line. Swords were set in a rough star, points all touching, shields stacked on top of one another. Goblin spears laid in a cross formation. Articles of clothing and personal effects all laid together as if someone could just slip into them if they laid down on top. Trix’s rifle sat to the side, the strap ripped, barrel bent, but the gun itself set down perfectly aligned with his bandolier.

Like with like. What the actual f-

It didn’t make sense. This didn’t belong here. No way they took off their gear like that. No way they were all-

Tiba put a tiny hand on my shoulder.

No. Not dead. Not dead. Not dead.

“They’re gone,” I said, unable to think of anything else to say. That cold feeling was back, as was the frozen pond. The sensation spread through my body until I felt nothing, numbing everything but the furnace in my heart. That was the only place inside of me I could feel, though I didn’t want to.

“The Black Ones take them,” she murmured. “Sometimes they take you. Never see you after they take you.”

“No. It’s not true,” I replied.

“Sorry, Ryan.”

“No!” I snarled.

Tiba snatched back her hand like I’d just tried to bite her. She didn’t look frightened, per se, just surprised or wary of the sudden shift. There was a question in her eyes.

I sprung to my feed and kicked at the arrangement of my friends’ belongings. “It’s a message, Tiba! Look! Look at them!” I demanded, pointing to the lines, the shapes everything made, how it was all organized. The more I looked at it, the more I hated it.

“It’s smart now. It’s gone from strategic thinking to understanding. Understanding us,” I explained as the engine inside of me thrummed.

This was new. This was personal. This shouldn’t have been happening.

“What do you mean?” Tiba asked. “They take our friends, like I say. It changes nothing. I’m sorry, Ryan. They are gone and become Black Ones. We lose.”

That wasn’t it. This array of my friends’ things had purpose.

It made sense. The scourge swarmed the area and couldn’t find me. They found my friends, though, probably somewhere nearby. They got the others, subdued them, took their gear, and laid it all out here for me to find.

But why? Were they taunting me? Goading me? It was possible, but-

“Tiba, they’re still alive,” I pronounced.

A pitying look came over Tiba’s face, and she took a step closer, arms out like she thought I needed someone to hold me. “Ryan, when the Black Ones take you, you are gone. We are never seeing a person come back.”

“They’re still alive, Tiba! I know it!” I fumed.

It would normally be happy news, but the thought of it was a hot iron in my brain, a reminder of failure to do the only thing I was alive to do.

“Look! Look at it! Nothing the scourge does is like this! They don’t arrange shit! They don’t preserve! This is new. It’s-” I trailed off, the engine in my chest growling like a caged animal.

“If you’re right, only one reason to keep them alive then, Ryan,” Tiba cautioned. “I’m no hunter, but this is bait.”

“Yeah, it’s a trap.” I agreed, looking around for the biggest parts of my machines, parts I could repurpose. Violent, dangerous plans flashed through my mind, and I was spinning up my mana even as I spoke. “But I meant what I said. I’m done letting it take from us, Tiba.”

The scourge had taken from me. They’d crossed my line.

They’d given me reason to be cruel.

“I’m going to get them, Tiba. If they’re n-”

I couldn’t finish the sentence. My throat closed of its own volition, and I had to take a moment to collect myself.

“If I don’t find our friends… alive,” I continued hoarsely. “I’ll make sure every last black blooded bastard pays the price.”