The orc was still alive somehow.

Mark had shot him half a dozen times with explosive-tipped rounds, but the damaged areas were primarily in his digestive and intestinal tract. It hadn’t blown him in half or anything, merely creating a handful of softball sized holes in his gut. The ammunition was fairly low level and intended for civilian use.

He was still alive. Mark told himself. He hadn’t just murdered an innocent person in a panic after they grabbed him; they were still alive.

“I would say it is mostly due to the size of this species, along with their naturally high constitution that would allow them to survive what would otherwise have been lethal wounds.” The medical officer gave their opinion. “Pretty much any other species would have died.”

They stood above the orc, horned head and thick wooly hair giving way to some sort of sheep-person. As they held their hand out the blood stopped pouring out of the orc and began to flow back into the wounded individual.

“Will he make it?” Mark asked.

They tilted their head slightly, wondering what the orc could possibly be creating for a moment before coming to the conclusion that Mark could only be asking one thing.

“I don’t know, but he will likely need some extensive surgeries to replace the damaged organs if he survives.”

Mark sighed in relief, if they were already talking about corrective surgeries then it was likely he would survive.

He felt like he was doing better than usual. Where normally he would start hyperventilating at the sight of all of the blood, now he was merely weak in the knees. The scent of iron permeated the building and gave rise to nausea that slowly seeped through his being.

Though he had avoided the most problematic responses, he still refused to look at the body laying bleeding on the ground.

Zirrilit put a clawed hand onto Mark’s shoulder, “He’s not bleeding so bad anymore. Either he’s dead now or someone used something to heal him.”

“Did they use a potion? I saw the one Hans drank in the hospital and he went from severely burned to walking around and yelling at me.”

The major shook his scaled head, “Muscles and skin are much easier to heal than internal organs. We stopped the bleeding, but he will likely need new digestive systems.” He turned to his squad and hissed slightly, “I’m going to take the human home, while we are gone take care of that orc… and him as well.”

The major gestured towards the green man on the ground and then the tailor who had been hunched behind his counter quietly for the last twenty minutes.

The muscular green cultivator saluted, and the half-plant woman nodded while kneeling over the bloody orc.

He then turned towards the human, “Mark, I believe this may be enough for today. I did not believe that you would be attacked so brazenly in our city. I apologize.”

Mark felt a ball of guilt fill his stomach like a lead ball. Was he attacked? Or had he started that? The biggest thing about fights he had discovered was that he rarely had a good recollection of what had happened.

He remembered them yelling at each other, being grabbed and shooting the orc and could not help but wonder if he had overreacted.

There was undoubtedly something else he could have done; maybe he could have somehow talked him down. The orc hadn’t immediately pummeled him to death and had instead grappled him, so looking back it wasn’t a fight to the death, there was room for any other option than grabbing my gun.

I panicked because I was afraid and-

Mark felt Zirrilit’s grasp tighten, and he looked up to meet her eyes.

“Why are you all mopey?”

His composure almost fell as he tried to answer the question. The raw emotion burning his throat like someone had jammed a brick into his esophagus. Keeping his emotions in check while his adrenaline wore off was one thing, but explaining it to someone while looking them in the eyes threatened to break his composure beyond repair.

“I- I…” He stumbled.

“Is it because you might have killed that guy?” Zirrilit asked.

Mark nodded, feeling his eyes moisten.

Zirrilit tilted her head for a moment. “I was upset the first time I killed someone, too.”

“Really?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

She nodded. “When I first took over my tribe, people wouldn’t listen to me when I told them to do stuff. Usually they would act like they were listening to me and then would just stop when I wasn’t looking at them. Then I told this guy to run back to his room in the cave and get me his bead collection because I was mad at him and I was gonna crush them, so when he started walking really really slowly I kicked him over and stomped on him until he passed out only-”

Mark watched as her grin turn into a look of embarrassment.

“-I stomped on him a bit too much and I think I crushed his spine, and then I ripped his leg off… and ate part of his head. And then he died.”

“So you just murdered him?”

Zirrilit quickly decided to excuse her actions, “I didn’t really know my own strength then, and he wasn’t doing what I said. That’s why I had to kill a few people with my bare hands, they didn’t respect me and some people thought they might be able to overpower me and take my position because I was too young. It was only like two or three people at the end, and a lot of maimings.”

“That’s called murder!” Mark snapped.

“I only did what you just did! You started a fight and shot that guy cause the other guy wouldn’t make me a hat!” Zirrilit snapped back.

She saw his face drop and felt a moment of satisfaction for a perfect word-victory.

And then she remembered that her goal was to cheer Mark up because he had weird hang ups about killing people and seeing corpses.

Zirrilit looked back just as Mark started sniffling.

“I murdered him-”

Zirrilit’s face fell, “Oh- Hey I didn’t really mean that-”

The major watched as Zirrilit fell for Mark’s clever ploy, mere sniffling completely derailing the conversation and defeating his opponent viewpoints without a single word.

Dear god, the lizard marveled, she was even apologizing to him despite being logically correct!

Eventually, Mark finished with his breakdown and they began a long and silent walk back to the compound.

“I would just like to apologize again sir, I did not dream that you would be attacked in our city.”

“It’s fine,” Mark shivered slightly from the cold, regretting his lack of wardrobe at the moment.

“I just feel guilty; you have no way of knowing who might have lethal abilities, of course. A single touch could easily allow someone to transfer a touch-based spell or ability and kill you outright. It harrows me to consider how stressed you must be around so many unfamiliar and dangerous species, with an inability to decipher between the two.” The Major intoned.

“Yeah…” Mark agreed for a moment. “There isn’t really a way of telling, is there?”

The Major nodded, “Legally speaking, physical contact is considered a sign of ill intent, not to mention contact with the throat or neck area. I believe a court would find the orc guilty beyond any doubt in this case, strangulation is a clear intent to kill in any situation.”

“So, I was acting in self defense.” Mark convinced himself. “It wasn’t my fault.”

“You shouldn’t lose sleep over it Mark, that person was an idiot picking fights with a clearly armed species who has already been in multiple life or death situations in the last few weeks. The fact that he died isn’t a big deal.”

“He’s dead?”

“He died before he could get to the hospital, sadly. He was a criminal who was currently under investigation for assault, attempted murder, and treason after attacking important government officials, though, so don’t feel bad about it.” Aestir explained. “If you want to rest today you can just go back to your room for now.”

The fact that Mark was the important government official was irrelevant, and the human very likely picked up on the subtle cues.

“Thank you.” Mark managed.

“If you need anything, just contact me directly. I want you to consider me your ally and I can help you with anything.” The major finished, before turning away.

Mark waved and felt Zirrilit’s claw on his shoulder. He looked up to meet Zirrilit’s eyes again.

“Mark, you can trust me to help you with anything.” She specified. “You can trust me.”

“I always trust you, Zirrilit.”

“Okay, but you can always trust me. Even if you actually murder someone and you need me to hide the body.”

“I’m not going to murder people, but thanks.” Mark answered carefully.

“I can also help you with the murdering, just in case-”

“That won’t be necessary.” Mark concluded.

Zirrilit nodded, “Okay, but if it is, I’m your guy.”

“Yeah…” Mark realized that she was going to continue until he validated it. “Okay, I’ll tell you first if I need someone murdered.”

Zirrilit nodded as they walked into their building. Mark sniffled slightly from the cold, for a moment Zirrilit headed towards the elevators before noticing Mark heading towards the stairs.

If he wanted to walk, they could walk. It didn’t matter to her.

“I think that they believe humans are a smart species, like a mage or a scientist or something.” Mark started, “I heard someone say they think I’m an intelligence type at some point, but I don’t remember who. What type of species do you think humans are?”

“Some type of… Specialized warrior?” Zirrilit asked.

That gave Mark pause, he stopped on the stairs for a moment and turned back to face the ginormous red dragon-person.

“Why do you think I’m a warrior? You could just squish me with one hand.”

“Well… You killed all those slavers with an angel… And you beat up that demon. And killed the gnome… And now that orc. I don’t think you have lost yet, and most of the stuff we fight is dangerous.”

“I thought I was going to die the whole time during most of those.” Mark admitted on reflex.

Zirrilit shrugged. “Me too. But you might be one of the intelligence types. Don’t they usually figure stuff out weirdly fast? Like they can figure out what your plans for the day are based on what you order for breakfast or something?”

“Well. I usually have no idea what’s going on so I don’t think it’s that.” Mark stated, leaving little room for argument.

Zirrilit just shrugged, “You can always tell when something is made with science and when it’s magic though. That’s kind of hard.”

“I think most people can do that though, you’re just not used to most of this stuff.”

Zirrilit grunted slightly, but didn’t answer.

They walked into their room, seeing Niko stretch her bird-like legs across the couch with Core standing beside her. She was using the machine to hold a bowl of what looked to be chips within her reach while she watched television.

Mark laid face down on the bed for a moment. It wasn’t even close to nighttime, but he was exhausted. His limbs felt closer to lead than flesh, and his mind grew slightly hazy as the need for sleep made itself known.

Then he had a sudden question, and sat upright fast enough it startled Zirrilit.

“Hey, when we left the tailor shop… Did Aestir tell those soldier guys to… Take care of those guys? And then… he said the orc died afterwards?”

“I don’t remember his wording, but yeah. He did die right? That’s what you were upset about?” Zirrilit responded.

“Isn’t that the phrasing people use when they order people to kill?”

“No? Why would it mean that? It means take care of them.”

“Maybe.” Mark admitted. “But, could we see if that spider guy is still alive? And the sewers. When we passed those green dragonoid guys- The sewer workers. I remembered it felt off when I was over there, it didn’t smell like shit. It specifically smelled like sulfur, I went to this hot springs one time and it smelled just like that.”

“Okay.” Zirrilit agreed.

“You don’t know what sulfur means, do you?”

“What is sulfur?”