In the doorway stood a gnoll with an armband, who raised it arms in victory. “We have killed the king!”

Behind it were several other gnolls who repeated the cheer.

This was bad. How would he rule without guidance? Already his small band disobeyed him when it was convenient.

“Go grab Teddy,” said Jerome, pointing at the lead gnoll. “Tell him of this victory and bring him here.”

The gnoll considered, then agreed. “I’ll be back.”

Dammit, they weren’t supposed to consider. They were supposed to obey without thinking.

Teddy might listen. If he could get Teddy to perform the ceremony, he might be able to salvage some of the king’s memories.

However, that would only work if the gnolls here left them in peace. Right now they poked at the king’s dead body as if in disbelief.

“How’d you throw that spear so well?” asked one. “You’re only skill level 2!”

“My great strength, agility, and dexterity guided my hand,” bragged the killer. Jerome looked at the thing’s stats and determined that the success of the throw was mostly luck. That was one thing about this world: empty boasting was immediately discoverable. Someone with lower levels might beat someone with higher levels if they fought strategically, but you still couldn’t go around claiming you were a great spearman when your skill level in spears was 2 and your highest attribute was 24.

“Let your great strength, agility, and dexterity guide you out of here. I need to decide what to do.”

The gnoll growled but backed away.

“Look at my skills!” said Jerome. “You will recognize me as your leader!”

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One of the other gnolls ran past, holding its weapon as if to land another blow on the king. Would that destroy its memory further? Jerome used Portal Hand to claw the approaching gnoll, then all hell broke loose.

Well, kind of. The fight was easy for Jerome. He used Hold on the gnolls by the door, then used Portal Hand to claw to death the gnoll that was going to further damage the king’s body. He proceeded to knock off the rest of the gnolls one by one. He had to dodge a couple thrown weapons in the first part of the fight, but after that it was laughably easy.

Eventually Teddy arrived, along with Krystyna and the gnoll he’d sent off.

Jerome pointed at the king’s corpse. “Revive him.”

“What about the others?”

“They’re not as valuable. Without the king we don’t get order again for a long time.”

“Do it,” said Krystyna, and Teddy obeyed.

“Finally, someone obeys an order. We’re screwed if this revival doesn’t work.”

“They’re still not obeying you?” asked Krystyna.

“We’ve passed their natural tribe limit of 144, and their tribal bloodlust seems stronger than their instinct for obeying the leader.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re in a different form now.”

“They didn’t obey you either.”

She frowned in agreement.

Teddy finished the half-chant/half-dance thing he was performing, then moments later the king woke up.

“The city is under attack!” he yelled. “I’m sorry, the death has made me forget your faces, but you must tell me… how do our forces fare? How are... Wait, why is a human here?”

“Your forces lost, our forces won, and you agreed to help me rebuild the city before one of my more zealous gnolls killed you. Any questions?”

The king thought for a moment, frowning the whole time. “This is terrible, and preposterous… but it does match what I do remember. I really agreed to help you rebuild?”

“Yes, and you agreed to stop experimenting on humans.”

“How will we find their souls without science?”

Jerome sighed. “We’ve already been over this. I’ll explain later. Krystyna, Teddy, protect him.”

“What are you going to go do?” asked Krystyna.

“I’m going to go put down our rebellion.”