Chapter Fifty-five

‘Kill them!’ Krissy hissed the order.

She didn’t have to tell me twice.

‘With pleasure,’ I purred the words, unable to resist the good mood radiating from my Tentacle Horror instinct.

I already had my tentacles hovering mere centimetres from the six absolute assholes, and as soon as Krissy uttered the words, I struck.

I plunged my tenties into the three human and three elven souls, pouring a tiny bit of Essence into them, then I pulled — all in a split second. The six lowlifes collapsed, their souls dangling at the end of my tenties. Served them right.

I had never eaten two different kinds of souls at the same time before, but I was fairly certain I didn’t want to mix the flavours. I started with the ones I knew. My tentacles soaked up the three human souls in a few seconds. A minty, toothpaste flavour filled me, just like it had when I’d eaten my first, teal coloured human soul. But unlike when I had eaten Jevan’s soul, back on Misery Island, I felt none of the guilt. To this day I wasn’t sure if Jevan and his familiar deserved to die. Krissy of course insisted they did. But this? Slaves or not, they definitely did. I didn’t want to delve deeper into the concepts of “right” and “just” any further — I was sure they applied to the present situation, and sampling elven souls promised to be more interesting anyway.

Nice, bronze-coloured elven souls. I took a deep mental breath, then I willed my tentacles to break them down and slurp them up. My spiritual body shuddered, and my metaphorical head started spinning as the taste flooded my entire being. Suddenly I felt like I was floating on a cloud made of cheesecake and cotton-candy. How could these wretched, cruel elves have souls this sweet? It seemed the flavour of your soul really was a result of what you were, not who you were. How many elves were on this ship? Plenty. And Dimal had said he wanted to interrogate an ork, so … no one would complain if I ate all the elves then, would they? They were so incredibly sweet. Not to mention the EXP.

As I had expected, the humans were worth around 40 EXP each. The elves? A whopping 65 EXP came with every single one of their souls. In just a few seconds, I had gained no less than 195 EXP from them, on top of the 120 from the humans, leaving me with just under 1400 to collect in order to reach Level 32. This was a good haul, and the party was just starting.

Krissy watched our captors fall to the floor. She knew exactly what was happening, and her mouth curled up in a grin. The elven woman with the yellowish eyes, on the other hand, did not know what was happening. She clambered to her feet, staring wide eyed at the dead humans and elves at our feet, utterly terrified. Some of the naked elves dangling from the beams, the closest ones to us, started fidgeting and making noises. I could even hear some quiet cries for help, but they were too weak to shout or yell. Ah. They must have been like this for days. This was just cruel.

‘What … happened?’ the golden eyed woman finally managed to squeak the words, looking around.

The more or less conscious, tied-up ranger had almost slumped to the floor along with the humans who had been dragging him along, but he managed to steady himself. He, too, was stupefied by the sight at first, and it took him a couple of seconds to realise what he was seeing. He was a ranger after all, so people dropping dead without any visible reason wasn’t an unknown phenomenon to him.

The ranger looked at Krissy, then looked at the expired bodies of our captors, then back at Krissy.

‘Spirit kill,’ he croaked.

‘Damn right,’ Krissintha grinned at him. ‘And there’s more where it came from.’

‘Damn right,’ I agreed, also grinning. Internally.

What’s happening? Talk to us! Dimal pleaded.

All the captives are down in the hold. We killed a few of the orks’ slaves. Krissy reported.

Good. Any chance the barbarians could still hold them hostages against you? Dimal asked.

‘We’ve got this. We’ll talk later. We have work to do.’ I interrupted because I could hear footsteps from the direction of the hatch we had used to get down here. The ranger must have heard it, too, for he turned to look that way. ‘Krissy, they’re bringing the other two women.’

‘Hide! Now!’ Krissy ordered the woman and the ranger.

The ranger didn’t hesitate this time; tied-up as he was, he moved, hopping to the side to get behind a pile of sacks.

‘Come on, woman, hide!’ he called out to Miss Goldeneye, his voice cracking.

She somehow broke out of her befuddled state, and rushed to join the ranger, hunkering down with him, out of sight.

Krissy hid behind another stack of barrels on the other side of the walkway. I willed a little Mana to the tip of one of my tenties, just an MP’s worth, shaping it into a small, sharp blade, then cut through her restraint with a single swing. The pieces fell to the floor as she peeled them off, and my favourite host was free.

Right. How many? She asked.

I quickly stowed my familiar-costume back into storage. Now unrestricted, I stuck a tentacle through the barrels and counted the approaching meals. Oh, pardon me. Foes. Two humans and an elf had just descended the ladder, and started marching the women towards the middle of the long and wide hold. The hatch was at least twenty metres away, but event at this distance I could see the barbarian elf getting his grubby hand under one of the prisoners’ skirt. I could see the poor woman’s terrified face. She tried to walk faster, away from the pointy-eared scumbag, but he grabbed her by the back of her neck, forcing her to walk at his pace.

‘Three of them. I’m going to eat them as soon as they’re close enough,’ I stated, the boiling anger inside me giving way to a calm, cold and quite murderous mood — one hundred percent approved by my Tentacle Horror instinct.

Do it. Krissy agreed without any hesitation.

I readied myself for them, my tentacles poised to strike. But the elf stopped some fifteen metres away. What the hell? Oh.

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It was dark down here, only a few lanterns here and there providing any light. But he was an elf, and as such, his vile character was paired with excellent eyesight. Of course he could see his fallen cohorts; we had bloody left them out in the open, right in the middle of the hold, the view unfortunately unobstructed by any of the posts, beams or boxes. Damn. I’d been called dumb before, but this took the cake.

The elf pushed the women aside and drew his sword. Actually, it looked more like a machete. He then gestured to the humans to turn around, pointing at the ladder at the hatch.

Oh, no you don’t!

‘Krissy, get some Mana and run at the bastards! Now!’ I screamed at her in a panic. ‘Just do it!’

She didn’t question it, she just did as I instructed her — I might have to thank Master Fenar for hammering the soldier-like mentality into her. She leaped out from behind the barrels, blue flickers of Mana coming and going around her legs for a moment, and she shot out towards the enemy like an Olympic athlete who may or may not have been doping. She was there before the humans could take more than a couple of steps towards the hatch. And that was all I needed: proximity.

Before the elf even had the chance to raise his machete-like weapon, my tentacles were holding three souls. Their bodies quickly realised that this was the end of the line for them, and collapsed. Krissy nearly fell on her face as she slid to a halt, fighting inertia and letting Mana go and dissipate. She managed to balance herself.

‘Gah! This is starting to hurt,’ she complained aloud, panting and massaging her thighs.

‘You drew too much Mana. I don’t think it’s good for your muscles,’ I said to her.

‘We’ll need to practice this sometime,’ she mused, still panting.

‘Sure, we will, but we need to get the bodies as far from the hatch as we can.’ I said.

The last thing we needed was someone taking a peek down and alerting the whole ship. No, we were not going to make this mistake again, not on my watch.

Krissy straightened herself and looked the two, stunned elven women in the eyes, one after the other, and said,

‘Alright ladies, help me drag the bodies away from here!’

***

Krissy and the ranger — now free of his restraints — finished stuffing the nine bodies behind the numerous crates and barrels along the hull in a matter of minutes. The man didn’t talk, he didn’t ask questions, not yet — he agreed that time was of the essence. Any minute someone might have the bright idea to send someone down here to check why hanging out the new slaves to dry was taking so long.

The three women watched us quietly, and if I was any judge, they were almost as terrified of the weird spiritualist as they were of the orks and their slaves. Except Miss Goldeneye. She seemed a little braver than the other two. It didn’t matter; things were going relatively well.

I was another 120-ish EXP closer to my next level, only about 1200 to go. Maybe less. Oh, if I could eat even just a quarter of the rowers on the deck above! It would be easy. They were chained down, no way for them to escape. I had a hard time stopping my Tentacle Horror instinct from drooling all over my soul. The little bastard was way too excited.

At Krissy’s request, I produced the two daggers I had looted from her old and ill-fated retainer, Jevan. She gave them to the ranger and Miss Goldeneye, so they could start cutting their fellow, captured elves down. The two other women, finally having something they could help with, sprung into action, pushing smaller crates for them to stand on and cut the ropes.

While that was happening, Krissy hid herself behind an enormous barrel.

She took Deni’s once nice and blue dress off, folded it, and I took it into Jack’s Room. I was pretty sure it was still salvageable. I took out her ranger gear, and few minutes later she was no longer just some random human woman the orks had caught, but a … hm, well, she wasn’t exactly a ranger. She was … something.

Our new friends had already taken five of the naked, weakened and starved, filth-covered elves down, and were working on cutting the next one loose. Lucky for them, I had come prepared. Well, not for this particular occasion, but I had been collecting and storing some necessities such as food, water and tea, ever since Krissy started her training, worrying about where her next meal would come from. I never would have imagined I’d be feeding almost thirty, thoroughly mistreated elves on a galley.

I took out bowls filled with jerky, bread and some vegetables, one after the other, placing them on a smaller crate, then jugs of water and still steaming Earl Grey tea. I even brought out some medical supplies like bandages and salves I’d nicked whenever Krissy was close enough to certain store-rooms and no-one was looking.

The ranger, Miss Goldeneye and the others gazed as the provisions magically appeared in front of them out of thin air, as if they were in a dream.

Krissy froze and her jaw dropped when I took out a few mugs so the poor sods could have a proper cup of hot tea or some water. She picked up one of them, a green mug with white zig-zag lines for decoration, and held it up in front of her face, squinting at it.

Isn’t this Toven’s mug? His favourite mug? From his house? She thought-screamed at at me.

‘Uh … maybe? Why?’ I said, trying to feign ignorance while realising I might have made a mistake.

How could you? He’s not going to kill you because he can’t, he’s going to kill me. Krissy wailed.

‘Oh come on, I bet he hasn’t even noticed it.’ I argued. ‘And we can tell him it was for the greater good. Just look at them!’

Krissy looked at Miss Goldeneye as she poured tea in the other cups, giving them to the elves who were already down from the ropes.

Oh for fuck’s sake you two, less bickering more rescuing! The ship’s leaving. I can see the oars moving. We heard Sini’s agitated words through the voice-chat. She was about to explode again, wasn’t she?

‘Yes, sir,’ the two of us barked as one.

Krissy then turned to the ranger and Miss Goldeneye and beckoned them closer.

Jevan’s sword, please. Krissy asked for the weapon.

I placed the long, straight-bladed weapon into her hand, and she gave it to the ranger. He took it without a word — had his face not been that swollen, I was sure I’d have seen a nice, baffled expression on it.

‘Alright, listen, get everyone down from the ropes, then hide,’ she told them. ‘Push the crates around and make some room if you have to, but hide. I’ve got to go, so if anyone comes down here, you know how to use a sword.’

The ranger just nodded without saying a word. Well, he was a ranger; taking orders from a superior officer was what he did for a living, and Krissy was acting like an officer. Miss Goldeneye, on the other hand, had something to say.

‘You can’t leave,’ she squeaked, looking at Krissy pleadingly.

‘The ship’s leaving. Got to stop it,’ Krissy stated, and gave her a lopsided smile. I instantly recognized her cruel and confident “Island Queen” persona. ‘Earlier you said help was coming, and you were right. Mostly.’ she told her, then spread her arms a little as if to present herself, not only to her, but to all the elves suddenly watching her. ‘Help isn’t coming. It’s here.’

It was a good performance. She should have been an actor.

Everyone was staring at her, a few of the elves smiling, even those who were still hanging from the ceiling but were close enough to see her. Except Miss Goldeneye. I wasn’t sure if she was just worried — and rightfully so — or if she had become a pessimist since we’d arrived on the galley.

‘You … want to go against a whole ship? Alone?’ Miss Goldeneye wailed, stepping closer to Krissy.

I concluded she was worried, and not even about herself, but Krissy.

‘She’s a spiritualist,’ the ranger spoke for the first time. ‘And not the usual kind.’

The woman looked at the ranger, then back at Krissy.

‘But … this is a ship. We’re trapped. With hundreds of them,’ the woman squeaked.

She wasn’t wrong: big ship, lot of bad guys. But she had just seen nine of them falling like flies already, not to mention magically appearing food and drinks.

It wasn’t that we needed to convince anyone of anything. What we needed to do was our job, to stop the ship from leaving. But … a small, theatrical display before we left the elves couldn’t hurt.

I took Krissy’s own sword out of Jack’s Room together with the misery mask. I placed the sword in her hand, and I lifted the mask to her face and fixed it in place, then pulled her cape’s hood over her head. The audience gasped as they saw the items appearing and floating to where they belonged.

‘Alright, say this to Miss Goldeneye, exactly as I say it!’ I told Krissy.

She took a deep breath under her mask, and she repeated my words with the most sinister tone she could muster.

‘No. I am not trapped here with them. They are trapped here with me.’