“Hey there, chuckles,” Yore awkwardly said to him.

“That’s still not funny! How the hell are you alive?! Your head was missing! I watched it get cut off! And what the hell is that thing?!”

“Listen, I can kind of explain.”

“Oh? You can KIND OF explain? You better do a lot better than that!”

“Alright, stop shouting and hear me out. I haven’t told you everything. We just met. You know, first date rules.”

Anthony quickly shut up, realizing how loud he was being and what trouble that had already brought them.

“Ooo! That’s a good one,” Morrow quipped.

“Oh god,” Anthony cried. “Why is that thing screeching like that?”

“Screeching?” Yore mused while looking at Morrow. “Can he not understand you?”

“I don’t think so,” Morrow answered. “I’ve only spoken to you in private before. This is a first for me.”

“Anthony, this is Morrow,” Yore introduced. “Morrow is. Well. He is my familiar. He kind of brings me back when I die. Well, not kind of, he entirely brings me back when I die.”

“When you DIE?!” Anthony repeated.

“Shh! Yeah. It’s been a rough week. I just didn’t mention before how rough it’s been. I’ve died… Morrow, how many times have I died now?” Yore asked Morrow.

“Four times,” Morrow replied.

“Four times,” Yore repeated to Anthony. “The first time was immediately coming through that portal with the Wyvern. I don’t really remember that one since I hadn’t really come to yet. The next time was also to the Wyvern. It boiled me alive and drowned me in a subterranean river. Then I died to that Minotaur, and now I’ve died to that big Mantis thing.”

“Ant thing,” Anthony corrected. “Some Giant knights showed up, killed it and called them Ants.”

“Giant knights you say,” Yore repeated. “Were they about three meters tall… er, about 10 feet tall and have copper or bronze plate armor?”

“Yeah,” Anthony answered. “The one that killed the big Ant had bronze. I don’t remember the others, but there were three of them. I was trying to get us out of there at the time.”

“Man, those guys can never show up on time, can they?” Yore said to himself.

“Do you know them?” Anthony asked. “You mentioned them before.”

“No,” Yore answered. “They showed up as I was killed by the Minotaur before. I’d like to talk with them for once, but they kind of need to arrive while I’m still alive for that to happen.”

“Ok, back to this whole dying thing,” Anthony refocused on the topic at hand and looked warily at Morrow. “You mentioned that this thing…”

“Morrow” Yore corrected.

“...that Morrow brings you back from the dead and is your familiar?”

“That’s right.”

“Did you summon it… him or something?”

“Not really. As I understand it, he kind of hitched a ride on me as I came through the portal.”

“So I can’t get one if I wanted to come back from the dead?”

Yore hesitated, not sure if he should divulge details about Morrow. Anthony gave Yore a glare as he saw his hesitation to answer. Yore decided it wouldn’t hurt since it wasn’t like people could force a familiar to appear without first dying.

“Morrow told me that he couldn’t manifest until my first death. That death is what brought him past just a bound, and into physical being. I think.”

Yore looked at Morrow and Morrow wriggled as he fluttered in his form of a shrug.

“More or less,” Morrow confirmed to Yore.

“More or less,” Yore repeated to Anthony.

“So I won’t know if I have a familiar that magically brings me back to life until I die?” Anthony asked in confirmation.

“Pretty much. Yeah.” Yore confirmed for him.

“Well, hello Morrow,” Anthony said to the leech-bat creature as he wiped the tear stains off of his face.

Morrow screeched and wiggled back in response.

“Is there anything else I should be aware of other than the fact that you can’t really die?” Anthony asked Yore.

“Oh, I can die. It just doesn’t seem to stick,” Yore joked. “But yeah. Try not to freak out.”

“Something more freaky than you coming back from being skewered and decapitated?” Anthony asked with horror in his eyes.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Maybe?” Yore answered with uncertainty. “I’m also a blood mage.”

As Yore spoke he lifted his hand and blood came pouring out of him and formed a rusty blood iron spear in his hand as he grasped it.

“Those weapons weren’t crude ones the Minotaur had made,” Yore stated hesitantly. “I’ve been creating them from my blood and the blood of the creatures I’ve been fighting.”

“HOLY SHIT!” Anthony exclaimed. “Wait a minute! Were you manipulating that Ant that had me pinned? It went all funny before you got killed.”

Yore grimaced. “Yeah, I poisoned its blood when I hit it with my darts. That’s why it seemed sluggish. Then, when I knew that I was about to die, I needed to give you an escape, so I think I gave the one that had you pinned a stroke.”

“You what?” Anthony asked, amazed.

“I formed small iron pellets in the veins in its neck, blocking flow to its brain,” Yore answered.

“Why the hell didn’t you do that to that warrior Ant you were fighting?”

“I didn’t really think of it until I needed to give you a way out and didn’t have weapons as options. At that point I could have done it to the one I was fighting, but I was all but dead and you were pinned. I figured Morrow would bring me back, but there was no bringing you back if it killed you while I was down,” Yore said candidly.

“Wow,” Anthony responded. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. You’re the first person I’ve come across other than those knights and you seem like a good person. If nothing else, I need a bit of that. Morrow here is kind of an ass hole.”

Morrow screeched back at Yore.

“Yeah, well you didn’t necessarily come with an instruction guide on how to use magic to stay alive, now did you? So yes, I keep dying. Thank you very much.”

Anthony chuckled a bit. “You know, you two aren’t that bad. Mind if we stick together, at least for a bit?”

“Absolutely! But first we should go back and see if we can’t make contact with those knights. They seem pretty capable from what you and Morrow have told me and we could use all of the help we can get.”

Anthony looked nervously at Yore. “Yeah, after you were killed, there were more roars from warrior Ants coming from the direction the portal was in. I don’t think I’m up for more fights with those.”

Yore looked guilty. “Listen, I was holding back a bit. Don’t get me wrong, those warriors are a tough fight, but I wasn’t sure how someone would react to the whole blood magic thing, so I wasn’t going all out. Plus now I have a new trick that I learned with the stroke and all. At the very least, I can’t leave those creatures to kill more people. You can stay here while I go and clear them out. If I die, I’ll come back and be fine. Then I’ll come get you once they’re dead or I make contact with those knights.”

Now it was Anthony’s turn to look guilty. “No, you’re right. I’ll come with you. If someone had cleared out those Ants before, my friends wouldn’t be dead. I can’t just leave them knowing they will attack someone else wandering through here, or if they go abroad. The nest needs to be eradicated. The knights did mention a queen, so at the very least we need to kill her to prevent more from spawning.”

“Sounds like a plan to me. Morrow, you ready?” Yore asked.

Morrow screeched and then flew at the hole in Yore’s shirt where he had been stabbed. Morrow bit him and quickly dissolved into Yore’s flesh.

Anthony was astonished at the sight of it.

Yore winced. “Sorry, I should have warned you about that. Being my familiar, Morrow can enter and exit my body at will. It doesn’t hurt much more than an initial stab of pain from his bite, but I’m pretty used to it at this point.”

Anthony gave Yore a look like he was a crazy masochist and they headed out.

Yore and Anthony had spent a significant amount of time talking at Anthony’s camp after he had dragged Yore’s corpse back there. On their return to the spot where their previous fight had taken place, they took it slow, staying on high alert for any Ant groups. Surprisingly, they didn’t come across any along their way.

When they got to the spot where Yore had been slain, they found the deflated corpses of four ants and the warrior ant. There were also Yore’s weapons still in the remains, his broken scythe, and Yore’s head. Which to Anthony was shocking to see an exact duplicate of the face, now regrown on Yore’s shoulders. To say in the least, it was jarring.

The head and weapons seemed to melt down into blood and seep in a path back to Yore. Anthony looked at Yore, not sure what to say or how to react.

“It’s best we don’t leave those things lying around,” Yore awkwardly stated. “Plus I don’t look that bad. I have a head on my shoulders and am doing just fine.”

Anthony turned back to the scene and realized that all of the corpses had deflated. Even the warrior and the one that had him pinned. Neither of which had deflated by the time he had dragged Yore off.

“I think we missed out on gathering the essence of the warrior and the one you gave a stroke to,” Anthony stated. “I guess they disperse if there is nothing around to gather them.

Yore checked out the warrior Ant. Its chest had been cut open and there was no gem inside its chest cavity.

“Or, those knights harvested them while we were away,” Yore replied. “Do any of those bodies have gems in them? This one is missing. I’ll go check these two.”

All five of the corpses in the immediate area were cut open and gems were missing.

“It definitely looks like someone already looted these,” Anthony said while breaking off a new claw arm to use as a weapon since he had left his to drag Yore off.

“Here,” Yore said as he handed Anthony a rusty blood iron longsword. “It’ll fare better than their claws and I can affect the blood of those that you cut or stab with it. It will allow me to assist you, even at a distance.”

“Good idea,” Anthony agreed as he tossed away his new claw and took the gnarly looking longsword by the hilt. “Got a sheath for it?”

“No, but we can make one out of animal hides next chance we get,” Yore said.

“How about an axe instead?” Anthony asked. “It’ll be easier to carry around and I’m better with them anyway. I chopped a lot of wood growing up.”

The longsword morphed in Anthony’s hands, into a two headed battle axe with curved edges. At the end of the shaft, between the heads, was a gnarly spike that jutted out. The grip was smoother and conformed to Anthony’s grip, fitting far better than any wood cutting axe he had ever previously held.

“Thanks! This is perfect,” Anthony praised.

Yore and Anthony headed in the direction of the portal. The air was deafeningly silent. Along their path, there were dozens of deflated corpses of both the regular Ants and a few warrior Ants scattered here and there.

After a bit of travel, Anthony stood up straight and started looking around in a confused manner.

“What is it?” Yore asked.

“The portal should be here,” Anthony said. “This is where they were all coming from. It’s just gone.”

“I’m guessing that the knights took care of it then,” Yore responded. “Were there any other portals nearby that they were coming out of?”

“No, this is the only one that I was aware of.”

Yore shrugged. “What do you want to do then? I don’t think there is anything else for us to handle.”

“I guess let’s head back upstream to see if we can’t find my brother’s group,” Anthony answered. “If the Ants are gone then I want to try to find them again.”

“We can do that. Do you have a rendezvous to meet him at?”

“Yeah, there was a spot where we planted a flag made from a torn white t-shirt and a big stick not too far from the river. That is where we were supposed to meet after a week.”

“Let’s get moving then.”