Chapter 110
Multiplied
Erin and her companions could only stare at the group of Gotzmeyers before their eyes. They were desperately trying to figure out what was happening, as it didn’t make sense to any of them. The warlord had not only escaped certain death, yet not only was he standing before them, but he had somehow multiplied. No matter what scenarios they tried to run through their minds, it didn’t work. All of it was simply impossible for them.
“So, which one of you would like to go first?” one of the Gotzmeyers asked. “If you surrender quietly and don’t struggle, I’ll promise to make this as easy and painless as possible.”
“Don’t you look down on us!” Erin said in an attempt to hide her fear. “We might not know what the hell you did, but that doesn’t matter! We will still beat you!”
“Really? Brave words,” the warlord said. “I do have to doubt that. After all, your friends are not exactly all that threatening with their pale faces.”
The redhead looked at her companions and saw the terror on their faces. She immediately realized that they had all lost their will to fight, which she couldn’t blame them for. In all honesty, she herself wanted to run away and even cry from fear.
“Any ideas?” Erin whispered to her companions. “I honestly have no ideas of my own. Any suggestions as to what we should do?”
“Isn’t it freaking obvious!?” Lexton whispered back. “There’s no way we can handle this on our own! The best we can do is run away before we get slaughtered!”
“I hate to say this, but I agree with that idea,” Durge whispered. “One Gotzmeyer was already bad enough. There’s no way we can win this!”
“Yeah. Even I don’t wanna do this anymore,” Zeldana added. “This isn’t fun at all.”
“I’ll ignore that last comment, but I guess you guys are right. We need to get out of here and fast,” Erin said. “We obviously are nowhere near prepared enough to handle this all. We should get out of here, find Ryle and Arnie, and then come back once we are better suited for this.”
“Yeah, when we are better suited for this. Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Lexton said, hoping to end the conversation faster so they could focus on actually escaping. “I’ve got a few trinkets here that will help us get out of here. You guys ready to run?”
The others gave the kobold a nod, signaling that they were prepared to make a run for it. He then pulled several vials out of his coat and readied himself to throw them at the Gotzmeyers.
“What’s the matter? You were all so full of energy not too long ago,” one of the numerous warlords asked mockingly. “Don’t tell me that you’re all scared now. But if none of you are going to come forward, I guess I’ll just-”
Before the Gotzmeyer could finish his speech, Lexton launched his attack. First, he threw three vials as close to the group of warlords as he could. These caused a large cloud of smoke to form and cover all of them. Before any of the Gotzmeyers could get out of the smoke, the second part of the kobold’s attack followed in the form of several of his golems attacking the warlords.
“NOW! While they’re distracted!” Erin yelled, signaling for the whole group to run towards the door.
However, the group of assassins were only able to make a few steps towards the exit, when the first Gotzmeyers made their way past the golems and out of the cloud of smoke. They immediately ran after the intruders with weapons at the ready.
One of the warlords soon caught up to Erin and raised his sword up. The redhead knew that she was unable to dodge or even block the attack, as Gotzmeyer was far stronger than she was. Even if she brought up her sword to protect herself, all that would amount to would be that her weapon would get cut in half along with herself. There was no escape from this.
Just as Erin was prepared to meet her end, she was saved from the attack by Durge, who hit the warlord with his hammer as hard as he could. While he couldn’t bring the massive man down, he was able to push him enough to make him stagger a few steps back.
“Thanks, Durge!” Erin said. “For a second I thought I was going to die!”
“No problem!” the orc replied. “Let’s just focus on getting the hell out of here, before-!”
Just as Durge said that, another Gotzmeyer appeared next to him, swinging his sword at the orc. Durge brought up his hammer to block the attack, but was only able to slightly divert the slash, which did save his life but didn’t leave him unharmed. Instead of getting cut in half like the warlord had attempted to, the orc received a wound that went from his chest to his right shoulder. Not only that, but the power of the blow was enough to send him to the floor as well.
image [https://i.ibb.co/WDHKZWz/Ch-110-Pic-1.jpg]
“DURGE!” Erin screamed, horrified over what had happened to her friend. She then turned her attention to the one who had harmed him. “You bastard! I’ll make you pay for that!”
The Gotzmeyer got ready to strike down the redhead, but a glass vial smashed against his face. The liquid inside started to melt his head, revealing itself to be acid.
“What the hell are you doing, Erin!?” Lexton yelled at the redhead as he used more of his vials to keep the other Gotzmeyers at bay. “You don’t have time to worry about these guys! You and Zeldana need to help Durge, so we can get the hell out of this goddamn nightmare! Get going already!”
“R-Right!” Erin said, rushing over to the orc, who already had Zeldana providing assistance with healing magic. “Is he okay!?”
“Far from it. While the cut wasn’t fatal, it was still deep enough to put his life at risk,” the elf answered. “I was able to stop the bleeding, but he’ll need a lot more work before he is completely healed. And I doubt I’ll be allowed to do that work here with the multiplied assholes coming after us!”
“Good point,” the redhead said before turning her attention to the orc. “How you holding up, Durge?”
“I’ve been better, but I’ll live,” the orc replied in a pained tone. “I don’t think I’ll be able to fight much now, though.”
“As long as you’re alive, that’s good enough for me!” Erin said with a bit of relief in her voice. “You can lean on me. I’ll help you get out of here.”
“Leave that to me,” Zeldana suddenly said, putting Durge’s arm around her shoulders. “You just focus on keeping us safe from all those rust buckets, okay?”
“Huh!?” the redhead said, surprised by what the elf had just said to her. “I-I mean, can you handle him on your own!? He is a lot bigger than you are!”
“What do you take me for!?” Zeldana said as she stood up while holding on to the orc. “I’ve gone through numerous battlefields, where I had to carry wounded people of all sizes! This is practically nothing to me!”
For a brief moment, Erin could only stare in awe at how easily Zeldana seemed to be able to handle Durge. It was then that she truly realized just what level of a person she had managed to make into one of her companions.
“...Although, he is heavier than anyone I ever carried by myself,” Zeldana suddenly said, feeling the burden on her body. “Durge, would you mind and try losing some weight?”
“You should know that most of that is muscle, you asshole,” the orc replied, not too happy over how he was being treated.
“And just like that, the mood is ruined,” Erin muttered.
“EXCUSE ME!” Lexton yelled at the others, getting their attention. “I hate to break your goddamn special bonding moment or whatever the hell it is, but would you mind and GET YOUR ASSES MOVING!? I’M STARTING TO RUN LOW ON THINGS TO THROW AT THESE GUYS!”
Reminded by the urgency of the situation they were in, the group focused their efforts into escaping. Just as they were getting closer to the door, however, Erin noticed something about the Gotzmeyers chasing after them. It seemed like the numerous warlords were starting to put more effort into chasing after them. It was almost like they were desperate to stop them from getting out.
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Not only that, but while there weren’t many of them, a couple of the Gotzmeyers had completely stopped moving, even though they weren’t as damaged as some who were still coming after them. The redhead quickly picked upon what the difference was. The ones who had stopped chasing after them were ones whose legs had been damaged. While she could understand these ones not being able to run after them like the others, she would have expected to see them crawl towards them. Yet they seemed to have completely stopped, like they were dead. What could this possibly mean?
Despite her curiosity towards her observations, Erin couldn’t spare time to inspect them, as they were still being chased after by a group of Gotzmeyers. Deciding to take initiative, the redhead rushed to the door ahead of her companions in order to open it and allow the others to get out without issues. As she got there, she kicked the door open with all her might, causing it to violently swing open.
“Come on, guys! Let’s get out of-!” Erin shouted to her companions as she ran out of the room, only to stop in her tracks upon seeing dozens upon dozens of soldiers surrounding her with guns pointed in her direction. “...here. This just went from bad to worse.”
The redhead’s companions followed behind her, only to come to a sudden stop as well upon seeing what was awaiting them. They looked around for any kind of a gap in the lines of soldiers to use in order to escape, but found nothing.
Soldiers in the front and a group of angry warlords behind. Things didn’t look good at all.
“Stand still!” a high-ranking officer among the soldiers shouted. “If any of you move even an inch, we will-!”
The soldier didn’t get to finish his threat, as the Gotzmeyers finally reached the outside of his room. One of the warlords tried to cut down Lexton, who managed to jump out of the way in time. The blade hit the floor with a massive impact that created a large cloud of dust that blinded everyone for a moment. Once the dust settled, the soldiers were treated to the sight of multiples of the warlord standing before them.
“L-Lord Gotzmeyer!” the officer said nervously as he saluted the warlord. “We just arrived here to-! What the…?”
After initial shock of seeing their leader before their eyes, the soldiers began to take note of the multiple Gotzmeyers now before them. Shock and confusion spread throughout the soldiers from the sight.
“Why are there multiple Lord Gotzmeyers?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Is… Is this some sort of magic spell?” another one asked. “That’s the only explanation I can think of.”
Erin noticed the confusion of the soldiers. She had expected that the troops within the base would at least have some knowledge about Gotzmeyer’s multiplication trick, yet it seemed like they had no idea about it either. She wondered what it could mean.
“My Lord or… I mean… My Lords?” the officer said as he stepped up to one of the warlords. “We heard commotion coming from your office and hurried over to assist in case you needed it. May I ask what exactly is-?”
The soldier never got to finish his question, as the Gotzmeyer standing before him suddenly split him half with his sword. After the initial shock, fear and panic began to spread through the soldiers over seeing their leader attack one of their own in such a brutal manner.
image [https://i.ibb.co/6tWn97w/Ch-110-Pic-2.jpg]
“L-LORD GOTZMEYER!?” one of the soldiers yelled out in shock. “WHY WOULD YOU-!?”
This soldier was quickly decapitated by another one of the warlords. The remaining soldiers were now gripped with full blown terror, over who was attacking them, as the other Gotzmeyers now seemed to turn their blades towards their terrified subordinates.
“You all saw… So you must die,” one of the Gotzmeyers said as he held up his sword. “ALL OF YOU MUST DIE!”
The soldiers began to scream and panic in response. Some started to run away while others tried to fight back, as there were too many people in their way for them to escape. The ones who fought back were quickly dispatched by the numerous warlords, while the ones who ran were pursued by other Gotzmeyers.
Taking advantage of the confusion and chaos, Erin and her companions ran away from the numerous warlords. Thanks to the sudden turn of the Gotzmeyers attacking their own subordinates, they were able to escape alongside the panicking soldiers.
However, this was only going to give them a slight breather, as the warlords were on a rampage, quickly cutting down anyone in their path. It wouldn’t take them long to reach the redhead’s group.
“What the hell got into those guys!?” Lexton asked as he stared at the carnage with wide eyes. “Why would he attack his own people all of a sudden like that!?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem to make any sense,” Erin said as she was trying her best to figure out what this all meant. “Whatever the case is, it’s somehow connected to there being multiples Gotzmeyers. The soldiers themselves seemed to be surprised by that as well. It’s almost like he didn’t want his multiple bodies to be discovered by anyone.”
“But why?” Zeldana asked. “Why is he so afraid of anyone finding out about his identical brothers?”
“...I’ll ignore that last part,” the redhead said with a frustrated sigh. “As for why he has such an issue with it, that’s something we need to find out. I get the feeling that it’s the key to us winning this.”
Seeing as simply running around wasn’t going to do anything for them, Erin led her group to a nearby room where they could hide and catch their breath. Judging by the look of the room, it was the office of some high-ranking officer or someone similar. Whatever the case, the only thing that mattered was that they could rest for a moment and come up with a plan.
As Erin and Zeldana were helping Durge lay down on a couch in order to rest, the redhead’s ears caught the sound of someone’s panicked breathing. Whoever it was, they were trying to hide it but it was still very much audible. Gripping her sword tightly, Erin moved closer towards where the sound was coming from, staying as silent as possible. As she followed the sound, it led her to a desk, where it was coming from underneath the piece of furniture.
Readying herself to strike down whoever was hiding under the desk, Erin took a deep breath before jumping over the desk and turning her gaze at where the person was. She was about to cut the person down, only for them to plead for their life and stop her in her tracks.
“WAIT! WAIT! Please don’t kill me!” a young soldier yelled as he held up his hands. “I don’t want to fight with any of you! Just let me live and I’ll do whatever you want!”
Easing up her tension, Erin was able to calm herself and look at who the person hiding under the desk was. As she had suspected, it was a soldier. However, upon looking him over, the redhead realized that he was a gnome. Much like kobolds and goblins, they were often pushed around by the bigger and stronger races in the world due to their much weaker physicality. Judging by the looks of him, Erin couldn’t see this soldier as a threat at all.
“Look, I’m not even armed! I dropped my gun as soon as I saw Gotzmeyer cut down Captain Greer!” the gnome said as he finally stood up from underneath the desk. “I’m sure you can already tell that I’m not a dangerous guy, right!?”
“Danger comes in many forms, pal,” Durge said as he glared at the soldier from the couch. “Not all things tell you outright that they are something you should be on the lookout for.”
“Oh, come on! Can you really say that while looking at me!?” the gnome pleaded as he walked to the middle of the room so he was visible to everyone. “I have zero loyalty to anyone in this base! Least of all Gotzmeyer, after what he just did! The only reason I joined the army was so that I’d find some way to make a living! All the people working here can die for all I care, after all the shit they’ve put me through!”
“You’re a vengeful little bastard, aren’t you?” Erin said with a raised eyebrow. “You seriously have no issues whatsoever about the well-being of anyone here?”
“Didn’t I just specifically state that?” the soldier asked in return. “What do you need from as proof? A written document signed with my own blood? Or will it be enough if I go piss on the corpses Gotzmeyer has left plenty of outside?”
“...No need to be snarky,” the redhead said.
“Don’t mind these guys too much. They have messed up morals anyway,” Lexton said as he walked up to the gnome and put a hand on his shoulder. “They don’t understand what it’s like to be kicked around all the time by others. Only guys like yourself and I get that, and the desire for retribution.”
“...Would you mind and take your hand off me?” the soldier asked bluntly. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d rather face those Gotzmeyers naked before I even consider becoming friends with a filthy kobold.”
“Okay! I guess I was mistaken to think that we could find some common ground here,” Lexton said as he stepped away from the gnome. “May you eat shit and die, you hairless vermin.”
“Hey, no fighting you two!” Erin said stepping between the two small-sized people, before looking at the soldier. “And you might want to change that attitude, buddy. Like it or not, Lexton here is one of my companions. So if you’re planning to work with us, you better get comfortable with the idea of him being there. Got it?”
“Fine… But I won’t like it one bit,” the gnome said as he rolled his eyes.
“Good enough for me,” the redhead said. “Now, first things first. Who are you?”
“My name is Tilko. I’m a soldier here,” the gnome said. “I’ve been stationed at this base for about two years now.”
“Alright, Tilko. Your buddies there seemed to be quite surprised about Gotzmeyer suddenly multiplying himself,” Erin said. “I take it that no one here knows what that’s about either?”
“Not to my knowledge,” Tilko replied with a shrug. “Gotzmeyer kind of keeps to himself most of the time, only appearing when there’s a need to deploy or for some other events that he’s required for. When that’s not happening, he stays in his room and doesn’t allow anyone to so much as peek inside. If you get caught doing that, you’re getting an immediate execution as a reward for your curiosity.”
“I’m guessing it’s safe to assume that he has never shown his numerous identical brothers in any of the battles then?” Zeldana asked.
“That would be the case, yes,” the gnome answered. “We have mostly seen him just use his sword in such a manner that no one was able to so much as lay a finger on him. There have been talks about him using magic or ki, but I’ve never seen it for myself.”
“Just so you know, we’ve seen him use that stuff. Those rumors are true,” Erin said, thinking back on the special moves Gotzmeyer had used on them during their battle. “Is there anything else you can tell us about him?”
“Besides the stuff just now? Not really,” Tilko said. “I’m pretty sure you’ve already heard all the usual things about him, like how much of a terrifying force he is on a battlefield and all that stuff. I don’t think there’s anything that I can really tell you that you don’t already know.”
“Any idea if there is someone who could have the answers we are looking for?” Durge asked. “I’m sure there has got to be some type of a high-ranking officer around here who is close to the guy.”
“If there is, I certainly have no idea who they could be. From what I can tell, Gotzmeyer treats all of the captains the same no matter who they are,” the gnome explained. “And judging by what he did to Greer, I doubt any of them are in a special position of any kind.”
“Whatever it is, Gotzmeyer didn’t seem to like that his multiple bodies were seen for some reason,” Erin said thoughtfully. “It was right after the soldiers noticed how he had multiplied that he went on a rampage. I think he also might have tried to stop us from getting out, as I saw his bodies pick up the pace when we were getting closer to the door.”
“But why would he want to keep something like that a secret?” Zeldana asked. “If I had a cool ability like that, you can bet your ass I wouldn’t be shy about using it.”
“Maybe we are looking at this in the wrong way,” Lexton suggested. “We are only focusing on him multiplying himself, when there is actually something even more shocking that we discovered even before that.”
“What’s that?” Erin asked.
“His first body that we encountered was just a hollow armor,” the kobold replied. “Remember when we blew it up and there was nothing inside? It was almost like the armor itself had been moving without an actual person inside.”
“I think I see what you’re getting at,” Durge said. “If that body was a fake one, then any of the ones we just saw could also be fakes.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if even all of them were fakes,” Lexton said. “Whatever Gotzmeyer is doing, he is somehow able to control multiple armors and make them look like real people.”
“In other words, what we should be doing isn’t trying to defeat Gotzmeyer, but rather find where he is?” Erin asked.
“Exactly,” the kobold replied. “Once we find where he really is, we can end this.”
“Easier said than done,” Zeldana said. “There were dozens of those armors walking around. Do you think that they’re just going to let us look inside all of them? Even if we decide to ignore them, this is still a pretty large place.”
“This all started from Gotzmeyer’s personal room. I think that is a good place to start,” Erin said. “Do you think it’s safe to go outside?”
“I’ll go check,” Tilko suggested as he walked up to the door.
The gnome put his ear against the door and listened for any sounds that could indicate that there was someone on the other side. However, there was only silence.
“It seems to be clear. I’ll-”
Tilko never got the chance to do anything more, as the door was suddenly kicked down by a large armored foot that crushed him under its weight. Erin and the others watched in horror as one of the Gotzmeyers entered the room and stared down at them.
“There you are,” the warlord said menacingly. “I’ve been looking for you. Shall we continue from where we left off?”