Chapter 81

  As Reinos and his mages made it back to the rear-guard garrison, and as the battle to repel the insanely large minotaur horde — or herd — began, I was already at work, tending to Riaret and to her half-dead captain, whose name was still eluding me. The background noise of soldiers yelling and catapults firing was certainly bordering on nostalgic, evoking memories of similar situations on different worlds; peeling soldiers or marines out of their SACs, dressing gunshot wounds or administering clotting agents to help close wounds — the work of a combat medic turned demon lord was never-ending.

  Riaret and her captain had been laid down on furry, leather sheets in one of the few tents of the garrison, and on my instruction a couple of soldiers were already removing their armour pieces. No matter how I looked at it, I had to start with the captain; Riaret was at least conscious while the poor sod, battered to hell by those infernal caver demons, was barely breathing, hanging on by a thread. The moment his armour was off I placed the IFD scanner on his chest and ran the software. The images weren’t encouraging; broken bones, punctured lungs, internal bleeding, severe concussion — just to name a few of the worst problems. Those cavers had done a number on him, that was for sure.

  Casting Infernal Storm not long ago had cost me 250 HMP out of my pool of 450, but it was climbing up slowly, currently at 234. Hades Heal costing 37 HMP would give me 6 casts of the spell, then I’d have to wait for my pool to refill. I hoped it would be enough for these two, and I didn’t even want to start thinking of all the other injured soldiers who would need a heal just as badly. Well, I had to set priorities and work with what I had, and I got to it.

  ‘Gharakar,’ Riaret whispered as I cast the first healing spell, guiding it to stop the captain’s internal bleeding and to clear his lungs before patching them up. Ah. Gharakar. That was his name. ‘He’s my best captain. Will he live?’ she asked.

  ‘He’ll live,’ I said, focusing on my healing spell.

  ‘So, this is what your healing looks like,’ she said, coughing a little. ‘I’ve heard about this from Reinos and Tarashak. Quite the thing to see. Very …’

  ‘Undemonic?’ I asked, trying not to laugh.

  ‘Very. But … useful,’ she admitted.

  ‘Don’t worry, it will be your turn soon.’

  ‘Can’t wait,’ she scoffed, stifling a chuckle of her own, then coughing again.

  ‘Just stay still and leave it to the professionals!’ I told her.

  She grunted something I didn’t quite understand, and I carried on bringing her captain back from the brink of death.

  Three casts of Hades Heal later the captain was still unconscious, but the IFD confirmed that while he wouldn’t be getting back into the fight any time soon, he was in stable condition. That had to be enough for now — with my pool slowly refilling, I could cast four more times, and I wanted to get Riaret back into something close to fighting shape, but before that, I had to do just one important thing.

  I reached for my rifle lying on the rug next to Riaret. Her eyes were closed, for now, and apart from letting out occasional hisses of pain, she stayed still. Her hand was on the weapon, and the moment I tried to pull it away, her eyes sprang open.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded, her voice croaking.

  ‘I’m taking my rifle back.’

  ‘No, you’re not,’ she protested immediately.

  ‘It’s my bonded weapon. You wouldn’t be able to use it.’

  ‘I have used it. Is it even bonded?’ she questioned me. ‘You have plenty of weapons. I have none. I like this one so let me keep it!’

  ‘Listen, it’s a bonded weapon. You could use it that one time because I allowed it.’ I explained. ‘Besides, this kind of communism hasn’t worked anywhere in the galaxy, and it’s not going to work in Hell.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ She shook her head, her grip on the rifle not letting up.

  ‘Of course you don’t.’ I sighed. ‘Just give me the thing. We’ll get you a weapon and have Fragnok bond it for you. Well, once you’re not dying.’

  ‘I’m … dying?’ she asked, her eyes widening.

  ‘You haven’t noticed?’

  ‘I mean, I’m not feeling great, but …’

  ‘Whatever, let me just take the rifle and get started on preventing your death, alright?’

  ***

  With my rifle safely back in its slot on my back, I was looking at the IFD screen showing the appalling state of Riaret’s insides. I had to marvel at the fact she was still alive, let alone conscious. Perhaps she wasn’t dying after all; the kind of magical reinforcement of the body in the form of stats, corresponding to 40 levels, was nothing to sneeze at. It was what had been keeping her alive.

  ‘What is this thing? Riaret asked, her voice weak and almost inaudible, but still having the energy to lift her arm and poke at the scanner on her chest.

  ‘This, ladies and gentlemen, is the thing that shows me what’s going on inside your body,’ I informed her. ‘And it shows you need a bit of Hell Mana right here. Hades Heal!’

  The red and black mist of Hell Mana flowed out from my hand in an instant as I placed it on her chest next to the scanner, and I watched it in real time on the IFD screen on my NeuroHUD as her lungs drained of blood, and holes and cracks knitted themselves together as if by magic — well, by magic. She coughed some of the blood out, the rest just disintegrated and vanished into nothing. This whole energy-to-matter and matter-to-energy thing wasn’t new — I had heard people much better educated than me talk about it — but to watch it happen without the involvement of machines the size of a house was never going to get old.

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  As I worked on her, I noticed that her injuries, while similar to those of her captain, healed faster and better than her lower-level subordinate. Despite not having any written evidence of it on my stat-sheet, I figured a higher constitution stat not only provided extraordinary toughness of the body but also helped it respond to healing better. My immediate conclusion was that I needed to level my own body, and I needed to do it soon. I was largely dependent on my SAC — which had served me well so far — but I could foresee situations, especially in view of the upcoming battles of my campaign against the minotaur king, where my life could depend on how well I could withstand injury and heal myself. So, while I cast a second Hades Heal on Riaret, I consulted the resident expert on all levelling-related matters.

  ‘Yeah, it does make sense,’ Burning Darkness said, agreeing with me. ‘Listen, killing that warrior-general guy gave us quite a lot of EXP. You can get 1 level for the set with some leftovers, or 2 for yourself. Or, if you can settle for 1 level for you, killing a few more minotaurs should give you enough to level the set, too.’

  ‘How can you tell? I can’t see an EXP counter and I can’t tell how much of it I have or what it’s enough for.’

  ‘Fifteen-hundred years of experience, my man, that’s how,’ he said. ‘Any item set manager worth his salt knows these things. You’re lucky to have me.’

  ‘Who are you talking to?’ Riaret inquired.

  ‘My sword.’

  ‘Your sword talks? Ugrathar used to claim his sword talked. A lot.’

  ‘Uhm … yeah, cousins. It runs in the family.’ I informed her.

  ‘I don’t talk that much!’ Burning Darkness protested. ‘And Ugrathar was a horrible conversationalist; “kill this, burn that” was all he ever talked about. As if I was a bloodthirsty maniac hell-bent on death and destruction.’

  ‘You’re not?’ I inquired.

  ‘Oh, come on, my man! Just because I’m from the Fifth Ring and I like to be used in a good duel, shed the blood of our enemies and watch them die in despair doesn’t mean I’m an evil psychopath!’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, sure. It doesn’t,’ I said, sighing. ‘I’ll just chalk it down to childhood trauma.’

  ‘Exactly. I had a turbulent upbringing as a young weapon, you know. The Fifth Ring is no cakewalk,’ he agreed instantly.

  ‘Okay, that aside, I think I’ll be getting the next level for myself,’ I announced.

  ‘That’s fine. Minotaurs will be around for a while, so we’ll just keep killing and bleeding the bastards for EXP until they regret the day they were born.’

  ‘Troubled childhood indeed,’ I said, shaking my head.

  ‘Yes. Very.’

  ‘Meow!’ Mickey commented.

  ‘Oh, shut up, you furry soul-muncher! Just because you spent time in the Fifth doesn’t make you an expert,’ Burning Darkness snapped at the cat, who was back to lounging in my storage.

  ‘Meow,’ he fired back at the sword.

  As interesting as this brewing argument promised to be, I had a badly injured general to treat, so I tried to shut it out and focus on my task.

  ***

  After the third cast of Hades Heal, Riaret was getting better; her breathing was clear and stable, her voice was coming back, and she was getting fidgety, eager to get up and get back into the fight — which I didn’t let her, much to her chagrin. As I watched the images from the IFD and tried to decide where to place the next healing spell for best result, I was starting to sense something was wrong — not with Riaret, but a nagging feeling in me was growing that something wasn’t as it should have been.

  I stopped and looked up for a second, I listened, and I realised what was bothering me: silence. Well, not silence — demons were still running around making some noise in the garrison — but the sounds of battle were not there anymore; catapults weren’t firing, the archers were just waiting around, and the absence of battle-cries of a charging minotaur horde as well as that of the defenders was evident. And very strange.

  ‘Reinos, what’s happening?’ I demanded.

  Instead of replying via the RMS, the general rushed to me from the berms.

  ‘Nothing unexpected, my Lord,’ he said, panting as he arrived. ‘The minotaurs have withdrawn a little and are digging in some five hundred steps from us, just out of catapult range. Their mages are digging up the ground to make a garrison of their own to block our way back on the Path. There’s still fighting in the Wilds. Enemy scouting parties are everywhere, but so are our soldiers; they won’t get through to us.’

  ‘Blocking our way back? Why? We’re not going back,’ I said, puzzled by this development.

  ‘Why? I don’t understand your question, my Lord,’ Reinos said.

  ‘It’s just that: why aren’t they’re trying to overrun us here? Don’t they care our forces are going to get away?’

  I had expected the minotaurs to throw everything they had at us here, including that ridiculously powerful mage general — had I been in his place, I would have tried to prevent the enemy from re-grouping and getting away, tie them down so as to not let them move on to other objectives.

  ‘Oh, I see,’ Reinos said, seemingly coming to some sort of realisation about my confusion. ‘My lord, I have to say: as effective as your way of planning and fighting battles is, it is also … well, undemonic.’

  ‘Yeah? Where have I heard that before?’ I said, glancing at Riaret, who was giving me an “I told you so” grin, clearly enjoying my momentary bafflement.

  Riaret being petty aside, Reino’s explanation got my mind going.

  ‘So … are you saying they’re expecting us to turn around and go back to fight them at the city? Because that would be the demonic thing to do?’

  ‘Yes, my Lord. I believe that’s what they’re expecting,’ he confirmed my suspicion.

  ‘So, they haven’t figured out our objective for this operation?’ I asked. ‘They have no clue we’re about to leave.’

  ‘No, my Lord,’ Reinos said. ‘Fighting them head on and trying to break the siege and freeing the city is the expected course of action. Ugrathar would have done that. I would have done that if not for your plans, my Lord,’ he said, nodding.

  ‘I would have done the same,’ Riaret chimed in, trying to get up from the leather sheet on which she was supposed to rest and recover.

  I pushed her back down, to which she responded with a low growl, but other than that she didn’t resist.

  ‘I see,’ I said.

  Of course they would have done that. It made sense, and as baffling as it was on one hand, I should have seen it coming. Because demons. On the other hand, it was good news; unexpected but good.

  ‘Well, I suppose phase three of the operation is going to be completed sooner and easier than planned,’ I commented.

  ‘It seems so,’ Reinos agreed.

  ‘You know, this idea of us trying to break the siege and take the city that the minotaurs believe at the moment? Do you think we could reinforce it in them by launching a fake or a probing attack against their garrison? To make it look like they’re right?’

  ‘Good idea. Let’s do it!’ Riaret perked up immediately, and I had to push her back down again.

  ‘Hm. It might be worth doing it,’ Reinos hummed thoughtfully. ‘Give me some time to think it through and to plan, my Lord.’

  ‘Sure.’ I agreed.

  ‘And while we’re talking about plans, my Lord, what’s our next move after this? With General Riaret’s Deathbringers and my Retributors, we have a considerable force at our disposal, but I doubt it will be enough to take and hold the Gate to the Third, especially if the minotaur king makes his way there.’

  ‘True,’ I said, then looked around. Of course, I couldn’t see the demon I wanted to see, but I had a distinct feeling he was around somewhere, so I just called out to him. ‘Rathar, are you around?’

  The moment I called out the Kralsenite’s name, his deep voice reverberated in the air.

  ‘I am.’

  Riaret sat up in an instant, looking around for the source of the voice, while Reinos just nodded to acknowledge the presence of the hive mind demon. And sure enough, the tall and unsettling pitch-dark figure of the demon walked into view as if from thin air.

  ‘Hey, Rathar,’ I greeted him with a sigh, knowing that to everyone else he appeared to be an ice-demon.

  ‘I am Zeneth,’ he corrected me.

  ‘Uhm … sorry Zeneth, you people all look the same to me.’

  ‘We do,’ he agreed. ‘It matters not which of us you speak with. What one knows we all know.’

  ‘Yeah, good stuff,’ I smiled at him, and it was time to let my generals in on the secret plans I had concocted with the Kralsenites’ help. ‘So, Zeneth, before I ask you to take me back to the city to pick up my squad, would you mind telling us how Operation Hellraiser is coming along?’