Chapter 115
Looking Inwards
Once Erin and Zeldana were done with their talk, their group went on to make their way towards the closest town that would allow them way back to Grand Mine Central. As Durge was still asleep, Erin and Ryle were forced to still carry him. This made their journey even harder and slower, but they couldn’t do anything than just bear with it.
The trip was long and tough, but the group was able to get to the town, Ridge Creek Valley, in the end. By that time, it was already night and most of the town was no longer active. Despite this, they were still able to use the local transportation company to make the trip to Grand Mine Central, which fortunately for most of them didn’t involve a large worm this time. Instead, they got to travel with what was essentially an underground train that took them to their destination. Even though the train itself was covered in rust, made strange noises and looked like it had been hastily put together from scrap metal found in a junkyard, Erin, Ryle and Arkay were more than happy to use it when compared to their previous transport.
Once they had gotten to Grand Mine Central, the group was just so exhausted that all they wanted to do was get to their hotel room and sleep. So as soon as they got to their room, Erin and Ryle dumped Durge’s still unconscious body on one of the beds before heading to their own resting spots.
“Thank God… It’s finally OVER!” Ryle said in a tired voice. “Hours of walking through the damn wasteland while carrying Durge’s heavy ass is something I’ll pray I never have to go through again! What the hell does he eat to make himself this damn heavy!? Rocks!?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s just packed full of proteins. I mean, did you notice the size of his muscles?” Erin asked in an equally tired voice. “I once heard that muscle weighs more than fat. Don’t know if that’s true, but judging by how he is I would say that he is living proof of that.”
“Whatever the case is, I’m not carrying his ass ever again! Next time I’ll leave him behind!” the blonde said angrily. “Anyways, I need some recharging of my batteries and fast. Where’s Arnie? I think he could help with-”
Ryle looked around for the cat boy and soon found him laying in one of the beds with Zeldana next to him. The elf had a wicked grin on her face as she snickered, delighted in further upsetting the blonde.
“Oh, did you forget? We decided on who we would be bunking up with when we got to this city!” Zeldana said, not even trying to hide her amusement. “I got to share the bed with Arnie, while you got another partner! It’s only fair that we follow on what we agreed upon.”
“Goddammit! I can’t even get one good thing for the day!” Ryle cursed before her eyes went wide upon remembering who her bunk mate was. “Oh son of a… Of all people it just had to be HIM, didn’t it?”
“Hey, you’re not the only one who is not enjoying this arrangement!” Lexton called out from the bed he was laying on. “I mean, think about what I have to go through! I have to deal with your terrible sleeping posture and your horribly loud snoring! It’s like trying to sleep next to a wild boar or something!”
“I DON’T SNORE! RIGHT, GUYS!?” the blonde yelled, looking around at everybody else, hoping to get some form of support, only for them to look away. “...Guys? I don’t snore, do I?”
“Well… If that’s what you want to believe, I guess you can tell that to yourself,” Erin said a bit awkwardly.
“BITE ME!” Ryle shouted with an embarrassed blush on her face. “I can’t believe you’d stab me in the back like that!”
“Do you seriously think you’re the only one having a tough time in regards to getting some sleep!? How about you look at my situation!?” Erin argued. “I’m sharing the bed with Durge of all people, which basically means I don’t get a bed at all! Even if we were to share it, I fear what might happen to me in the case he rolls over me while asleep! I’m sure I would end up dead!”
“Guys, can you stop arguing, so we can actually sleep at last?” Arkay pleaded, but there were hints of annoyance in his voice. “We’ve all had a long day and could use some rest at last!”
Hearing the youngest member of their group basically scold the rest of them like a bunch of badly behaving children put a stop to the antics of the others. Instead of being angry and upset with one another, they now felt guilt and shame.
“Sorry, Arnie. We’ll be quiet from now on,” Erin apologized, before looking at the others. “Right, you guys?”
“Sure. No use wasting time and energy arguing when you’re already tired anyways,” Ryle said in agreement as she walked up to the bed she was sharing with Lexton. “Lex, move over and give me some room, will ya?”
“I take less than half of the space here. Why the hell do I need to make room for you?” the kobold asked.
“Never mind that! Just let me have enough space to sleep, so we can put an end to this day finally,” the blonde said as she laid down on the bed. “Besides, I’m sure even you want to simply quiet things down and get some rest.”
“...As much as it surprises me, I agree with you,” Lexton said.
With everybody else in her group going to sleep, Erin was the only one left awake. However, since Durge was so massive, she wouldn’t be able to fit in the same bed as him, forcing her to either take the couch or the floor. Even though neither of her options were exactly ideal, the redhead was simply happy that no further fighting was going on and that they were all given a moment to relax and take it easy.
Erin went on to grab a spare blanket and pillow from a closet before moving towards the couch. As she was setting up her temporary sleeping spot, she heard something stir behind her. Turning around, she saw Durge finally waking up.
“Durge? Are you alright?” the redhead softly called out to the orc. “How are you feeling?”
“Erin? Is that you?” Durge asked as his eyes were adjusting to the darkness and he was still waking up from his long slumber. “What happened with Gotzmeyer? And where are we?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Hey, take it easy. You’ve been through a lot,” Erin said, fearing that her friend was going to start panicking upon remembering where he had been last time he was still conscious. “We’re back in our hotel room in Grand Mine Central. You’ve been asleep through our whole trip back.”
“Back at home base? I guess you guys carried me here. Thanks for that and sorry for the trouble,” the orc said as he sat up on the bed. “I’m guessing since we’re staying here for the night, things worked out with Gotzmeyer. One warlord down and two to go, right?”
“Not… exactly,” the redhead said as she looked away in shame. “We did manage to beat him, but he ultimately escaped. We have no idea where he went and couldn’t follow.”
“Hang on… If Gotzmeyer is still running around, doesn’t that mean we are in big trouble right now?” Durge asked. “He could be heading towards the closest military base he’s aware of! If we stay here for too long, we could have a bunch of soldiers storming the city in order to hunt us down! Do we really have the luxury of resting easily while that might be happening!?”
“I get your point, but I’m not so sure if that’s the case,” Erin said. “After all, he didn’t get to leave unscathed…”
“What do you mean?” the orc asked.
The redhead told her companion about Gotzmeyer’s secret and how he had been keeping it hidden. She even told him how she initially decided to let the warlord go, assuming that he was no longer a threat to them, and how that led to their fiery escape from the underground base.
Once she was done telling her story, Erin went silent, waiting for Durge’s reaction to her story. She prayed that he wouldn’t be too upset with her, the same way Zeldana had been. So far, it seemed like he was calm, which was a good sign, but she knew that feelings could change very quickly and very drastically.
“So what you’re telling me is that you saw it unnecessary for us to kill him, seeing as how his reputation had already been ruined?” the orc asked after thinking over what he had just learned. “And because of that, he was able to catch you off-guard and almost kill us all by destroying the entire base itself?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” the redhead replied a bit awkwardly. “Are you… disappointed with how I handled it?”
“...To be honest, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t,” Durge said with a sigh. “While I can see your point of view, we should always remember not just what we are fighting for but who we are fighting against. Even if we get our enemies out of power, they can always come back one way or another. These people didn’t rise to power on their own and I’m sure they not only have those truly loyal to them, but they can get more of them. Simply letting them get away will only give them a chance to get in power again later.”
Erin looked down in shame. While she had been selfishly thinking about how she herself felt about it, she had completely ignored the affect her actions could have on those around her. She had simply failed on a large scale.
“However, that doesn’t mean I don’t sympathize with you,” the orc suddenly said, surprising Erin. “I’ve gone through numerous battlefields and have seen far too much bloodshed than I could ever care. This might seem odd to you, seeing as how I’m supposed to be a warrior, but I honestly would prefer it if I didn’t have to get into another fight for the rest of my life.”
“I… I see. Thank you,” the redhead said, feeling a bit of relief over Durge’s comforting words. “Still that doesn’t really excuse my failure, does it?”
“On the larger scale? Not really. But we still have to remember that we are only people in the end and I doubt you have anywhere near the same amount of experience as I do. The way I see it, you’ve done fairly well, except for one big mistake at the end,” the orc explained. “Besides, based on what you told me, I doubt Gotzmeyer is going to be much of a bother for us in the future. I’d say that this battle ended in our victory.”
“But… how do I make amends for my mistake?” Erin asked. “I can’t just wave this off, can I?”
“No. But do you know what you do with mistakes? You learn from them,” Durge answered. “No one is perfect and we are all destined to screw up, but that’s how we learn to not do said mistakes again. So the way I see it, you just need to learn now from what you did today.”
The redhead looked down in thought. What the orc had just said to her was completely sensible. She knew that she had screwed up, but what good would it do if she were to constantly sulk about it? What was important was that all of them were alive and safe, and that they had defeated their opponent. While Gotzmeyer was possibly still alive, he most likely wouldn’t be able to come after them again. All in all, they had won and should focus on what to do in the future.
“...Thanks, Durge,” Erin said with a smile. “That really made me feel better. It’s good that you were able to put things into perspective for me.”
“No problem,” the orc said with a smile as he got up from the bed. “You can have the bed all to yourself. I won’t be using it.”
“Huh? But I thought we agreed that I’d be sleeping on the couch,” the redhead said. “Besides, I don’t think you can fit on the couch.”
“Who said anything about sleeping on the couch? I’m just going to keep an eye on things while the rest of you sleep,” Durge said. “It’s the least I can do after you guys saved my life. Not to mention, I’ve been asleep for so long that I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if I tried.”
“Well… If you say so and are okay with it,” Erin said with a smile as she walked up to the bed. “I could use a night on a decent bed for once.”
“I thought you could,” the orc said with a chuckle. “Anyways, I’m going to take a walk outside and see how things are going on over there. Considering how a nearby military base, a warlord’s at that, I can’t imagine things to be simply calm out there.”
“Good point,” the redhead said as she laid on the bed. “If you find anything interesting, tell us about it next morning. It could give us ideas for our next move.”
Durge gave nod in response as he went to put on some new clothes before walking out of the hotel room, allowing Erin to sleep in peace along with the others. He was soon walking down the night streets of Grand Mine Central, looking around at the behavior of the people still awake and about.
From what the orc could tell, there wasn’t that much of panic or shock among the regular population. Having lived in environments where one wrong move could get you killed, he had learned to analyze things like body language, tone of voice and other subtle hints in order to tell what they were most likely thinking. Thanks to this skill, he could tell that the population wasn’t all that bothered overall from the destruction of Gotzmeyer’s base. In fact, some people seemed to be even excited over it, having most likely suffered one way or another under the warlord’s rule.
There were even some interesting pieces of information that Durge’s ears picked up. For starters, it seemed like Gotzmeyer was being reported as having been killed. This was something he found interesting, as he had been told by Erin that the warlord had managed to escape. He wasn’t able to gather where the information had come from exactly, but the source seemed to be tied to the military itself. This meant that Gotzmeyer was most likely gone for good.
However, the more interesting piece of news that the orc learned about was that one of the remaining two warlords, Rayleen, had apparently been sighted in the nearby areas. Due to her more violent nature, there seemed to be a lot of suspicion among the people that she might have been planning to invade Gotzmeyer’s territories in order to take control of them. This was a surprisingly good news for Erin’s group, as not only would this push the blame for Gotzmeyer’s death to Rayleen, but this could also prove to be an opportunity to strike down another warlord.
With his survey over the population now done, Durge decided to simply focus on enjoying his walk through the city. In all honesty, gathering information like this had been nothing more than an excuse for the orc to get out of the hotel, as there was something else that he felt like he needed to deal with.
It was his berserker transformation and the consequences that came with using it.
Despite having long since transformed back to normal and no longer feeling the urge kill and destroy everything around him, Durge could still feel that same drive still burning deep within himself. The rage of a beast that desired nothing more than to turn all of his surroundings and the people within it into a blood-soaked wasteland. The orc could feel it still gnawing at his insides, trying to get out once again.
image [https://i.ibb.co/WyTzwvd/Ch-115-Pic-1.jpg]
This had been the reason Durge had originally sealed this destructive power and feared unleashing it once again. Back before he had met Erin, even before he had joined the Laughing Ogre, he had noticed a change within himself. The more he had used his berserker power, the harder it had become to control it. Back when he originally gained the power in his tribe, he had been able to focus his rage towards his actual enemies and not charge towards his allies. There were still the occasional friendly casualties from those who made the mistake of getting too close, but they were rare and never intentional.
However, soon after Durge’s tribe fell, he found himself finding it harder to keep his power in check. At first, it came in sudden bursts of rage-infused strength during fights, where he only partially transformed, but as time progressed this changed. It eventually reached a point where even the slightest irritation could trigger his transformation and the rampage would soon follow after it. Horrified over what he had become, the orc had sought out a shaman that was familiar with the methods of warrior tribes. It had cost a small fortune, but he was able to seal away the raging monster within him.
Upon receiving the seal, the shaman had warned him that if he were to ever break the seal it would be difficult to cast it again. Whatever the source of his power was, it was something that had grown stronger with time and use. Even when sealed, it had continued to gain strength. It just didn’t have a way to let it all out. By breaking the seal, Durge had essentially let out a violent beast that had been caged for a long time and was now starving.
At first, he hadn’t felt all that different, but now the orc knew better. He was now a walking time bomb that could potentially go off at any time. Considering the damage that he could cause upon transforming for one more time, he wondered if it had been for the best if he had simply been killed back at the arena, like he had asked?
Whatever the case was, Durge knew just how dangerous he was. He only hoped that he wouldn’t end up harming his companions because of it.