There were forty snow men left from the original one hundred, and they were keeping their distance in front of me. I was covering the retreat of Mal'Thorn and the spear users, reinforcements had arrived and were assisting them back to where their healers were waiting. Another of the first spear users had died before he could be evacuated, bringing the fortress death count up to four. The rescue group took their bodies with them as well.

I was resting, building the energy back up in my muscles, and responding to the moves and feints of the snow man formation as it tried to get around me and to the Forest Keepers. After a few minutes of them trying and failing to get around me I heard a cracking sound from the north east, like sheet ice breaking, and the snow men broke off and began retreating that way.

The Instructor was to the north east, where the group had phased in, and John was with him. I looked at my sieve weapon, which had chunks missing from it and stress fractures all over. I took out my pocket portal and put the sieve weapon away and pulled out a throwing blade.

There were snow men in the way, but I calculated the trajectory as though they weren't, assuming that they would shift around the blade. I threw with all of the recovered energy of my right arm and the blade crossed the fifty meters in under a second, whistling as it flew. And went straight through The Instructor's chest and out the other side, burying itself deep in the stone behind him. The snow men, The Instructor, and John began fading from view, The Instructor on his knees holding his chest. We stared at each other until he had completely faded from view.

I took a deep breath and winced. I had deep gouges all over me, and was losing quite a lot of blood even after stopping the bleeding as much as possible with the minimal usage of my power I could do without blacking out. I loaded up my healing program, got an estimate of twenty seconds for the full repair, and then triggered it.

When I came to I was on my face. I stood up and turned to running footsteps from behind me, there were a dozen Forest Keepers with spears rushing towards me. I frowned, but at a second look they had their spears up on their shoulders.

Ah, right. From their perspective I had just fought off a small army of strong creatures and then collapsed after taking serious wounds. Actually, that's how it was from my perspective too. They were coming to help.

I waved them off as I began to walk back to where the Forest Keeper healers were set up with forty spear users guarding them. The Forest Keepers who had come out escorted me, six on each side, sharing hoots with each other. I was really going to have to learn their language at some point.

The healers had stabilised the three wounded spear users, one of which was Mal'Thorn's head guard. He was missing both hands and the end portion of his tail. At the end he was using his forearm to thrust awkwardly at the snow men. Mal'Thorn was standing to the side still being treated by a healer. The stump of his arm had stopped bleeding. I walked to a meter in front of him and stopped, looking at the ground.

"I'm sorry," I said. "The fortress was supposed to be safe, and now four of our people are dead. It was my lack of foresight that allowed it to happen."

"The guards did their duty," Mal'Thorn said. "They gave their lives to defend the Forest and the Fortress."

Mal'Thorn waved off the healer who was trying to get him to sit on the ground. I pulled stone from my Pocket Dimension and made a Forest Keeper chair for him, which he took with a nod of thanks.

"The safety that is assured by our treaty isn't an absolute," Mal'Thorn said. "The Fortress is a safe place, but that safe place must still be defended, that is why there are guards. If you hadn't warned us, or didn't come to drive the snow men off yourself, then we would have lost a lot more people. And maybe everyone. I don't think I saw a single enemy go down from our spears, and they took down my barrier in a handful of seconds."

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Mal'Thorn patted me on the shoulder.

"It is the enemy Champion who is responsible for this," Mal'Thorn said. "As well as for destroying the Heart of the Forest and the rest of the Forest Keepers. The Forest Keepers will fight against him."

"I don't want you or your people in harms way," I said. "I will take care of it."

"You are trying to do too much," Mal'Thorn said. "You need to learn to delegate. You have capable administrators and warriors within your people, and you aren't using them."

I didn't want to lose any more of my people. The internal administration of my people was already being done by their leaders, though I didn't really know what was happening with them. The problem came with administrators, diplomats, and warriors who would be exposed to the hazards of the outside world. It would be inevitable that some of them would die. Unless...

"Mal'Thorn, I have something that would work," I said. "It would require you to give up a part of your identity in return for power. And I would require you to swear loyalty to me personally."

Mal'Thorn frowned at me. "Am I not already sworn to you?" Mal'Thorn asked.

"No," I said. "By the terms of our treaty you are sworn to working for the betterment of the people of the fortress."

Mal'Thorn paused for a few minutes, and I gave him the time to think. A healer came by and placed their hands on his wounded arm.

"It seems you are correct," Mal'Thorn said. "The treaty would not enforce any loyalty or obedience to you as Lord of the Fortress, just to the general concept of the people of the fortress. I unreservedly swear my loyalty to you, my lord."

I nodded. "Thank you," I said. "Are you willing to transcend your race to join me?"

"I am, my lord," Mal'Thorn said.

"Alright," I said. "It will take me some time to set up, maybe half an hour. While I'm doing that... Are your healers able to heal amputated limbs?"

"No, my lord," Mal'Thorn said. "I will not regain my arm, if that factors into your plans."

"No, nothing like that," I said. "I can restore you completely. And I can restore our wounded people to full health. There is a cost, however. My form of healing is extremely painful, and there has been a single case of someone concerned about their sanity if they were to be healed again."

"Like what you did for your arm?" Mal'Thorn asked. "You discovered how to make it work on other people?"

"Yes, exactly like that," I said. "I have healed myself... Quite a lot. And Chantelle, and several druids. I would need to modify you anyway to transcend you closer to my race. The warning was more for the maimed spear users, if you could tell them of the offer and the costs involved?"

"Of course, my lord," Mal'Thorn said, stepping off his chair and going to speak with them.

In my Pocket Dimension I started up all of the projects I had put on hold and added a new one on top with the highest priority. Building Mal'Thorn a Mind Link and a digital platform to run his consciousness.

I moved the portal that was laying on the ground in the Plains Biome into its own portal room and moved a presence up to it to see out. I stood the portal up by digging it into the ground slightly. There were several Plains Keepers that were stationed around the portal, and they each had a sharp blade along their forearms. They were two meters from the portal, and as I turned it I saw that it was surrounded. I was going to say something through the presence when my focus was pulled back to my body.

"They will all take you up on your offer," Mal'Thorn said.

I turned to see Mal'Thorn's head guard baring his teeth at me, his ears flat, and his head bowed.

"What is he doing?" I asked, the other two were now doing the same.

"They are submitting to you," Mal'Thorn said. "Humans don't do that?"

"I think we bow," I said. "With a full kneeling bow being full submission. Wait, so is smiling submitting?"

"No," Mal'Thorn said. "Smiling is an expression of happiness, though it can be more complicated than that."

"That is the same, then," I said. "Well, we might as well do it right away." The Plains Keepers could wait.

"Yes, my lord," Mal'Thorn said. "Is this healing a service that could be offered through the Fortress Shop?"

"It isn't," I said.

I took out my pocket portal and formed it into a doorway, placing the exit on top of the tonnes of stone in the Pocket Dimension that came from excavating the Forest Keeper floor. I moved some of my lights up there too. After a few moments I continued.

"Anyone that is maimed or disabled I will restore for free. Though I think I will place a fee on reversing ageing, as that will be a good incentive."

"Reversing ageing," Mal'Thorn said. "You can return people to youth?"

"I can," I said. "Through here."

I gestured through the doorway and Mal'Thorn went through followed by the three spear users, two of which were carrying the third who was missing both of his legs at different heights. Two of the healers approached and hooted at me. I nodded to them and stepped through the portal and they followed.

"Okay, first I have to adapt you all to my power," I said, Mal'Thorn translating. "It takes five minutes and will drain your mana in that time."