Chapter Eighty-three

‘Seriously! Why are we doing this?’ Krissy demanded again with the same if not more exasperation in her voice as before.

I understood why; it’s only been two days since the surgeons had taken the cast off her arm, cleared her for walking, and told her to avoid physically demanding activities. But instead of letting her rest, we were in the forests surrounding Sek Artem, hunting for anything that had a soul.

‘Because Hank needs more spirit-stuff to do his experiments.’ I gave her the same answer as the previous hundred times she’d asked that question. ‘And to spend as much time as we can with Akela and Loki before we leave tomorrow.’

Right on cue a nearby bush between two trees rustled, and Akela appeared, dragging a multi-horned, deer-like creature, Loki running in circles around him like an electron around the nucleus of an atom, excited to be hunting with his dad. It was good to see the old hellhound hadn’t lost his touch and remained as efficient a hunter as he had been on Misery Island — I was sure Loki was thinking “best dad ever”.

Krissy walked over to Akela, who was growling viciously, his jaws snapped shut around the deer’s neck, his thoughts reeking of his frustration at the behaviour of his offspring. Apparently he would have preferred Loki to be a lot less noisy and a lot more stealthy.

I reached out with two tentacles, touching the deer’s body with one and lodging the other into its soul. I pulled the carcass into Jack’s Room, and I liquidised and slurped up the soul, adding a measly 15 EXP to the 1885 already in the bank, leaving me about 3795 EXP short for Level 35. I had my worries about going to the Mainlands and taking part in the raid on the orks — the dangers were undeniable — but from a growth standpoint it was going to be a nutrient rich environment. Orks and their human and elf slaves were going to be fair game, and I hoped a couple of levels were in the cards for me.

Loki stopped rampaging around instantly, turning his cute little head left and right, sniffing the air, searching for the dead prey that suddenly wasn’t there. Oh, confused wolf pups were adorable.

‘Hey, Hank,’ I called out to my weird companion. ‘This is the third one. Are we good or do you need more?’

‘Hm, we’re good for now, bro,’ he said, not missing the chance to call me “bro”, but at least he had dropped the “little”. Small victories. It still irritated me, but I had got used to it over the past two weeks, and I had learned that nothing I said or did could stop him, and that was that.

‘So?’ I asked him.

‘So … what?’ he asked back.

‘So, what have you learned so far?’ I growled at him almost the same way Akela had been growling at Loki: with a metric ton of irritation.

‘I’m close to figuring out how we break down the souls before absorbing them. Patience, I’ll let you know soon,’ Hank said, and I was sure he’d be shrugging if he had shoulders.

Patience? I wanted to argue with him and demand an answer. He’d been at his so-called experiments for days, surely, he must have discovered something useful by now. I mean, how hard could it be to have a look and come up with a way to replicate the process of liquidising a soul? Well, maybe I was a little impatient.

During my two, lonely years on Misery Island, I had conducted my fair share of experiments, discovering the nature of spiritual existence, of spiritual materials like Essence, Mana and Spirit Stuff, and I knew very well that these things took time. Back then I had been patient with myself, because I had nothing else to do, nowhere else to be, and no-one else to worry about. But it wasn’t the case this time. I had Krissy, Kiwa and Tilry to worry about — Hank excluded from the list on purpose — and we were expecting four of the Solace Navy’s ships to arrive tomorrow to pick up a few hundred rangers as well as us. Things were happening a lot faster these days than back on Misery Island, and I didn’t think I could afford to be as patient as I had been back then.

‘You’d better have something useful for us, Hank,’ I warned him.

‘Oh, don’t you worry your little soul-head, just go play cat’s cradles with our tentacles or something, and leave the serious stuff to your brother, alright?’

The condescending, insufferable bastard!

‘Some brother you are,’ I scoffed.

‘I’m Hank.’

‘At least you have a brother,’ Krissy commented, squatting and providing belly-rubs to the two wolves simultaneously. ‘I might not be so lucky.’

‘If you want to adopt him, I’m happy to sign the paperwork right away,’ I grumbled.

‘I heard that!’ Hank said, and for some reason I thought he sounded a little … offended.

Krissy just sighed, stood up, and we were ready to return to Sek Artem to prepare for tomorrow.

***

This was the last night of us using the cafeteria at the Fifth Rangers’ compound, and the guys who were running it were more than relieved to hear we were leaving. Not that we had ever left a mess, but I understood the sentiment: expecting a dedicated cook or a chef to lend his kitchen to someone else without any reservations was like expecting a priest to allow cultists to perform satanic rituals in his church and be happy about it.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I was in charge of tea and pancakes, as usual, and I was determined to put nothing but the best on the table for Krissy, Kiwa, and our guests: Third Rangers Training Team Twenty-seven.

Tivarra Mor and Ardeela Erto were chatting with Kiwa quietly, mostly about the intricacies of different sword techniques, while Master Fenar’s granddaughter, Hiraken Sala, was demanding all kinds of assurances that we’d stay safe, be careful, and at the same time show no mercy to the vile orks while liberating the elves they had dared kidnap.

‘It’s a shame you’re not coming back,’ Hisa said. ‘But I’ll be waiting to hear how Misery the Ruthless helped take our people back.’

‘I dislike that name,’ Krissy said flatly. ‘And I think you’ll hear more stories of your grandfather’s exploits. I mean, the man is something else. The way he fights and how fast he is … it’s almost unbelievable.’

I couldn’t disagree with her; the first word coming to mind when trying to describe Fenar was “monster”. The man was lethal. Orks were strong and brutish, but I doubted they had anyone who could challenge him, even if they were spiritualists. Fenar wasn’t a living legend for nothing, was he?

‘He is a renowned warrior, that’s for sure, but he usually avoids being in the centre of attention.’ Hisa argued.

‘Is that why there are statues of him in cities across Fayr Sitan for saving the nation from an evil, tentacled god?’ Krissy asked, smirking.

‘Oh, well, that was a long time ago and it was a one-off,’ Hisa explained, her cheeks turning red. ‘I think that might have been one of the reasons he decided to be one of the first settlers here.’

‘Maybe. But I think he is more important to the mission than Kevin and I,’ Krissy said. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if he told us all to just stay back and then went and killed every last ork by himself.’

Hisa considered this for a moment, but looked undecided.

‘I don’t think even he could do that,’ she said. ‘Please make sure he doesn’t do something stupid like that!’

‘You think I could stop him from doing that?’

‘Probably not,’ Hisa conceded, chuckling nervously.

‘The man is like that spiritualist Kevin keeps talking about. The one from his home?’ Kiwa butted in to the conversation between Krissy and Hisa.

‘What are you talking about?’ I asked, because I couldn’t recall talking about spiritualists on account of Earth not having any, and I certainly couldn’t remember comparing Fenar to anyone other than Chuck, and I had never claimed he was a spiritualist.

‘That guy from your world, Chris or something,’ Kiwa said, grinning, then addressed the whole table company. ‘Listen to this: there is a spiritualist where Kevin’s from, and his familiar is so powerful that when the man died, it brought him back to life after three days.’

‘Oh, Jesus Christ?’ I asked, realisation hitting me like a train.

‘Yeah, that guy.’ Kiwa nodded happily.

‘I’ve never heard of a familiar doing that,’ Arde commented.

‘Well, this one’s powerful. What was his name? Holy Spirit, right?’ Kiwa inquired. ‘Apparently this whole dying and undying happened like a thousand years ago, and they’re still alive.’

‘Two thousand years ago, but that’s not the point,’ I said, starting to feel the need to perform a good old fashioned facepalm.

‘True,’ Kiwa agreed. ‘The point is whether Tilry can get to that level or not. You know, in case someone manages to kill me. It would be really helpful.’

‘Well, I’d feel a lot better about raiding the orks if you could do that, Kevin,’ Krissy said, and I wasn’t sure if she meant it or was just trying to annoy me.

‘That’s not how it works,’ I tried to explain, but my thought-voice was lost in the sudden and loud discussion about Jesus Christ and his familiar.

Oh well, as far as Last Suppers went, this wasn’t too bad, so I decided that instead of arguing or trying to explain, I should start serving the pancakes.

***

Sek Artem wasn’t a port city, although it wasn’t far from the shoreline, only a dozen miles or so. The beaches around here were generally rocky and not easy to traverse, but one could find sections of it that were relatively obstacle free. One such location served as the assembly point for more than two hundred rangers — some wearing the dark green, hooded capes of Third Rangers, some the blueish green but just as dark capes of Fifth Rangers, and some the orange-tinted green of First Rangers. It was an impressive sight. They stood in well organised lines or units, and I spotted most of the familiar faces: Toven, already exercising his new powers as scout-master first rank, giving orders to some of his men, then Master Fenirig Arte and the masters of the other two ranger corps, standing near the assembled troops along with their aides, probably discussing plans. I spotted Sitanel Niraki and Dimuren Alte among the Fifth Rangers contingent, as well as Tomaron Astar, the elf who had once been a captive on the ork galley, the Graal’s Enormous Pride.

I stretched a couple of my tentacles so I could see over the heads of the crowd, trying to spot the four elven ships on the sea. They were there, but with the water reflecting the light of the rising sun like a mirror, it was difficult to make out any details, and I certainly couldn’t judge the distance. But it seemed we had a bit more time before the ferrying of the troops would commence.

I wasn’t sure why the brass had decided that it was easier for the ships to come around and pick everyone up here as opposed to this small army making their way to whatever port city the navy operated out of. Perhaps they wanted the land-bound rangers to experience the kind of amphibious landing or boarding operation they were expected to perform once we reached the orkish shores.

Behind us, on top of the cliffs that stretched as far as I could see in either direction, stood a group of people. They were all near the edge, looking down at the beach, at us, mostly silent. Among them were the ranger trainees: Timo, Arde and Hisa. We had said our goodbyes last night, but they had come to see us off anyway.

Devalet Niraki was there too, along with Akela and Loki. She was waving at her husband, who was still busy talking to his men and didn’t see his wife’s last-ditch effort to be noticed by him.

I tapped Krissy on her shoulder and asked her to walk over to Toven and tell him to pay a little more attention to his wife. It was the least we could do; despite all the promises of safe return we had all made, none of us really knew what the future held. Military operations were notorious for producing casualties, whether it was here or back on good old Earth, and I could only hope none of our friends would be adding to the numbers.

Dani also had a letter Krissy and I had written to Kenta and Tommi — a simple “goodbye for now”, wishing them well as they were settling into their new lives in Solace, and expressing our hope that we’d meet again sometime. That was it; nothing fancy, nothing too emotional.

The only people I didn’t see anywhere were the defence committee members, including Master Fenar’s wife, Korolan Mirei. I had kind of expected her to show up, but I guessed our departure didn’t need any oversight from the committee, and if there was anyone amongst the rangers no-one needed to worry about, it was our very own elven Chuck Norris.

It took about an hour for the four elven ships to get close enough to the shore for me to see them properly and in detail. I saw as they lowered the dinghies, sailors or marines working the oars diligently, getting closer and closer, ready to pick up the first batch of rangers.

‘This will take some time,’ I commented.

‘Yeah. At least the water is calm,’ Krissy said, sighing and turning her head to look up at the people on top of the cliff. She seemed … a little sad.

‘Will you miss this place?’ I asked.

‘Won’t you?’