Aww crap, Is that the sun going down? I thought. It looks pretty red. How far are we still at this point? Probably still twenty stadia or more? Where are the stragglers?

“Epictetus!” I said. The man was leaning heavily on his staff but keeping up the pace with determination. During the march, a group of stragglers was cut off. I was splitting my time between the main group and the stragglers.

The plan was for the mortals to keep moving forward no matter what. At the same time, I fought the abandoned behind. The mass of Abandoned were slow because they were undisciplined and fought amongst each other. But they were still faster than our group of refugees which included elderly and children and also Greg. Greg was still out of it and being dragged along on a bumpy makeshift sledge.

In spite of all that, by constantly fighting, I slowed the Abandoned down enough for us to stay ahead of them, but only if we kept moving. That meant that neither group could afford to stand still. Decius was attempting to coordinate a meetup point. Some landmark that both groups could march forward towards in order to reunite. That idea was proving difficult. We were navigating by dead reckoning, and there were plenty of steep rocky hills that prevented easy travel in a straight line. Whenever I switched from defending one group to the other, I tried to carry a message, but it wasn't enough.

On the positive side, I discovered that a god’s stamina was far greater than a mortal’s, even for an unenthusiastic athlete like me. I reckoned I could probably run flat out for about seven hours. Healing and throwing my lightning bolts were a different matter. I was really starting to get tired from all the fighting. Also, It seemed like my god power took longer to recover while physically exerting myself.

It was as Decius said. A fighting retreat was a pain in the ass. Anything other than a fighting fighting was a pain in the ass. Decius explained it to me. Basically, everything you do has to be either a brilliant stratagem or a heroic sacrifice. That’s because you have to launch attacks towards your enemy as your main group moves away from them. Your forces move at the same pace as the enemy, but you just sent forces that you are trying to get away from the enemy towards the enemy. If your every move is surprising, ingenious, and perfectly executed, then yeah, you might be able to pull off a fighting retreat without sacrificing any of your people. We were not able to do any of that. But we also weren’t willing to sacrifice anyone.

Except me. Decius was strangely enthusiastic about sacrificing me.

There was a barren hilltop off to the left of both groups. Taller than the surrounding hills and easily visible for stadia. Decius pointed to it, and I set off. The idea was to try to draw a lot of the Abandoned to me by acting like a lone mortal that could be easily killed.

I needed to give a convincing performance, so as I climbed the hill I tried to get into character by thinking mortal type thoughts. But I didn't know what type of stuff mortals usually think about, so I had to make it up. Oh man, it sucks that I will die someday. I wonder what will happen to me after I die. I wonder if I should like to try to be a good person. I sure am concerned about stuff that doesn’t even matter… like… my entire life because I’m just a mortal that’s not even going to go on any voyages or any…

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Then I reached the top of the hill. I had an even better view of the Abandoned than I had expected. Not only could I see over most of the nearby hills, but the gaps between several of the hills happened to align with this vantage point. There were still plenty of Abandoned shadowing us. However, none of them were within eyesight of our groups because of the intervening hills. For reasons that I would come to understand, none of them were moving on their own to operate as scouts. Whether there were more or less than what I witnessed in the god globe was difficult to say. The sun was so low that it was almost as dark as night in the shadows of the hills.

I needed to get their attention as soon as possible.

I started yelling mortal stuff at them to make them think I was alone and vulnerable mortal. “I, a mortal, am all alone on this hill. I sure hope no one comes and stabs me in my mortal body that will definitely die and be killed by such a blow.” You know, like the type of stuff that humans are saying all the time. Or like, “Oh, my body is in pain from the normal stresses and injuries of life. I have indigestion, and I didn’t sleep well, and I have an old shotput injury. The doctor prescribed me leaches, but they are too expensive.” Mortal stuff like that.

Anyway, my performance must have been pretty accurate because I attracted a ton of Abandoned. It pretty much shows that I am a pretty sympathetic and self aware kind of god. All over my field of view, I could see groups of them changing directions to come for me. Then, I began to fully appreciate the consequences of my actions

As a god, I actually never really tested my immortality. Some friends and I jumped off the Galestrian Hights sometimes. We did tons of stuff that would put a mortal in serious danger. But I never actually snapped my own spine or impaled myself on a stalactite of Sheol or anything. It seems like a strange thing to wonder if you really fully believe you are the son of Deus.

They came at me like ants on an ant hill in the dim light. It’s not like mortals in a busy market alley where you can’t even see the ground. But like ants. On an anthill. As I said. I shot them with lightning bolts individually, but it wasn’t anywhere close to stopping them.

Evidently, a god’s heroic last stand is a lot different than a mortal's last stand. Of course, in my case, it wasn’t really a last stand. But it was like a last stand in that I eventually got swarmed and overwhelmed by the enemy. It was also like a last stand in that I ended up beneath a pile of Abandoned and got stabbed seven times with mortal weapons. One was a sword that went all the way through my stomach and a half cubit out the other side.

It was unlike a mortal last stand in that, while I was under the dogpile, being stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, and discovering my own immortality, I remembered what I tried to do with the water. It didn’t work with the water. I guess the lightning wanted to go into the ground instead of through the mortals. It turns out that when a whole bunch of mortals are touching you and each other, the lightning loves to travel through them all into the ground.

So yeah, I’m definitely immortal and everything. But it hurt like hades. I wondered how far my immortality could stretch before in snapped.

V0.2.0 11/14/23