Holy crap, just a bit more than a whole month since my last update! How quickly time goes by!
And by God, was it time well spent! Aside from the usual RL obligations like work and my online classes, I'd recently had my birthday and I was surprised by 2 friends that I had gone years without seeing suddenly show up to surprise me! It sucked that our vastly differing schedules and other factors caused us to drift away from one another in the first place, but it was great to rekindle our friendship and just hang out again like the good old days.
To those of you who have friends that you haven't seen for a long while, may a day come soon where you can meet them again. As I get older, I learn more intimately the value of maintaining friendships with people who will always have my back. I hope the same goes for you all as well.
Now then…
…Honestly, not much else to say really, ha ha. All that comes to mind is that I do seem to have a concrete game plan for the rest of this fic, one that differs somewhat from what I had initially in mind, but not by too much. I just hope I can make it as good as possible so that you all can enjoy it.
So with nothing else left to say for the time being, let's get started!
P.S. As usual, please consider purchasing any of my books! Fading Darkness, Rising Light and the Infinite Genesis trilogy can be found on a variety of sites such as Amazon Kindle, Apple, Barnes & Noble and more! Universal links available on my profile page, just remove the spaces!
P.P.S. Just want to say in advance that this chapter is basically something of a filler. Its purpose is to just nudge the story further along into its proper place, along with some additional setup and even a sprinkle of action. Nonetheless, even if it is filler, I hope you all will find some enjoyment in this chapter, if only so that you won't have to worry about having to read through a bunch of dialogue and narration focused on backstory stuff in order to get to the meat of a single chapter.
Chapter 26
Shabriri trekked forth, a smile upon his body's charred visage. It's been but two days since his surprise encounter with those two warriors and in this short time frame, he'd been quite busy.
The further inland he went, the more people he came across that he wasted no time exposing the truth of the Flame of Frenzy to. As a result, the ranks of his fellows swelled considerably as more awoke to the true reality their new god promised.
In all honesty, said success was due to many of the small villages and towns still being in something of a recovery phase ever since dragons had apparently gone on a rampage, which had made the people easy pickings for him. Nonetheless, it was an outcome that had been most favorable to him, perhaps one even engineered by the great Flame itself.
If this kept up, he would have a veritable army with which to spread out across the world and convert everyone else to his great cause. But such a lofty goal could wait until after he makes contact with the one who could be his new Lord of Chaos.
Speaking of which…
"My, what a busy one, you are…" he murmured, amused.
He'd pinpointed his target's location and had used it as a beacon to guide his path, but as of yesterday, his target was on the move yet again. It would seem his potential lord was quite the busybody. A rather admirable trait.
And it would seem that… yes, it was indeed the case.
"Surely this must be a sign from the Frenzied Flame itself!" Shabriri exclaimed to no one in particular. Not even the nearest of his kindred spirits reacted to his words, simply following along in their single-minded focus to spread their gospel.
It had been by following his potential lord's new path that he'd come across all these villages and the like in the first place and now it would seem they were all heading towards some place of considerable size… somewhere that could provide him the army he'd just entertained thoughts of, assuming the one who could be his lord doesn't simply take his proper place as the Lord of Chaos and scorch the whole world beforehand.
With anticipation welling deep within his heart, the fiery yellow 'eyes' of Shabriri burned all the brighter as he picked up his pace.
If all went smoothly, he should be getting to his would-be lord's destination within the next few days, if that.
And he was so very eagerly looking forward to it.
"…"
"Something wrong, Orcbolg?"
"…No. Simply lost in thought."
High Elf Archer didn't look particularly convinced by Goblin Slayer's dull response, but the latter had no further words to give, not even a shrug to accompany his response just now.
He'd gone back to the frontier town alongside his party, but no sooner than they'd arrived and started to get settled back in at the Adventurer's Guild was a missive given to them and just about every other adventurer there.
Apparently, the capital was in somewhat dire straits, requesting any and all interested adventurers in coming to them to bolster their ranks as part of a planned offensive to push back the forces of Chaos.
…Well, the missive hadn't quite been that direct, but that had been the gist of it, provided to them by an upset Guild Girl. It would seem that said message had caused a notable stir amongst the adventurers, who were freedom-loving people by nature, disliking any possibility of being tied down. And joining up with the capital's military in any capacity can be seen as a good way of forfeiting many freedoms that they typically enjoyed.
It raised quite the stink, all in all and it'd taken some time to quell people's moods. In the end, many adventurers had chosen to ignore the missive outright, though there were those that had shown interest in it, if only out of curiosity at what could such an offensive even entail. After all, while adventurers have been relied on plenty of times in the past by the capital to accomplish tasks that soldiers normally couldn't do, it was usually only one time deals. This missive, on the other hand, made it seem like a more regular employment, an irregularity in these already irregular times.
And as made evident by his party and himself traveling alongside several other adventuring parties, Goblin Slayer and his friends had elected to travel towards the capital posthaste.
As for why the five of them had decided to accept the missive? Well, as Lizard Priest, ever the sharp one, had pointed out, there may very well exist a possibility of the kingdom's royalty and nobility having finally pinpointed the cause behind all the strange recent events. Why else would an offensive be in the works if it was not a prelude to something greater?
Once that point had been made, the rest of his friends had seemed intrigued by such a possibility and even he found himself surprisingly contemplative of it. If nothing else, perhaps the capital's intelligence network had figured out how and why exactly these blood goblins have come to be, information that he could definitely make use of.
And so, it was agreed by them all that they would head to the capital and see how it plays out.
…The only sad thing about all this was how quickly they all had to leave; the missive had stressed the importance of any interested parties coming in as speedy a manner as possible and as such, he'd had no chance to give a proper explanation to Cow Girl and her uncle other than a quick 'my party and I are required at the capital' to them.
"Are you sure?" asked Priestess from beside him. The young blonde looked… well, not quite concerned, but definitely curious. "Is nothing the matter?"
Goblin Slayer shot her a brief glance before looking away, contemplating a reply. "…I think so." It was all he could say for the time being.
…In reality, something was the matter… but he had no way of putting the odd feeling within him into words.
Something was going to happen. That was about the only way he could word it at all to himself, but it was such an immensely vague statement that the mere thought of uttering it aloud made even him think of it as foolish. Of course, something was going to happen. It was just inevitable. But the sheer lack of anything beyond that made it impossible for him to be more accurate in describing this feeling.
His fingers twitched, instinctively wanting to ball them into fists and it took a conscious effort to hold back such a thing.
Aimlessly, he stared off to his right for a solid ten or so seconds, funneling out everything else around him in favor of… of…
…Of what? Of just looking off at the trees and bushes on the side of the path? Or trying to somehow look even further ahead despite lacking the means to accomplish this?
With a quiet grunt, he focused back on the path and tried to concentrate on the idle chatter his friends were having amongst themselves. He also idly noted Heavy Warrior and his party not too far ahead of them, having also been intrigued by the missive. Somehow their presence put him at ease – a sort of pack-like mentality, strength in numbers and all that…
…Sort of like a goblin, now that he thought of it, but with that being the only thing they have in common right now with the green skinned monsters.
He shook his head. His thoughts were growing ever more haphazard, distracted. That wouldn't do. He needs to try and maintain a sense of genuine calm.
Remaining silent, he thought back to his harsh but well-learned lessons with Burglar. Recalling an exercise his master had once taught him about maintaining his cool and organizing his thoughts, Goblin Slayer began to silently perform a breathing exercise as he continued his journey.
But as he went about this process, his thoughts only grew ever more… erratic, for lack of a better way to put it, older thoughts seemingly burning away and replaced by new thoughts.
Whatever was wrong with himself, the silver ranked adventurer could only continue to slave away at his exercise.
He and his party had had a good enough victory under their belt recently by vanquishing those blood goblins. The last thing needed now was losing what confidence he'd gained from their most recent quest to some random bout of uncertainty.
"Very good," the Tarnished said with a light smile. But his gaze was stern and caused those around him to practically quake in their collective boots. "But we've only just begun. Again."
It's been two days since his and Ranni's arrival to the capital… and things had not gone according to their initial estimates at all.
The reason behind this? The Dark Moon's most recent oracle.
Indeed, the very first night they had spent here, Ranni had attempted to call out to the Dark Moon for some much desired information… only to receive practically nothing in terms of explicit content. It would seem the god Ranni served as vassal of had its figurative hands full holding together the still tenuous law it had begun to exercise back in the Lands Between while also shielding the Four Cornered World from the other gods' malicious influences.
However, the Dark Moon had 'spoken' to Ranni nonetheless… and had really only given her what amounted to a single word:
'Wait.'
An odd oracle to give by any metric… but also an ominous one as well. He and Ranni hadn't had to think long and hard to figure out what the Dark Moon had meant by that.
The Frenzied Flame, through whatever followers it now had, was very likely trying to come here to the capital.
Once that had been ascertained, he and his beloved had wasted no time going back to the young King and informing him of a not unlikely possibility of something bad happening fairly soon. Hero, Sage, and Sword Saint had also been informed of their oracle as well. Of course, the Dark Moon had been left out of their explanation, with only Ranni being able to perform oracles being explained to them all in addition to the accuracy of said oracles.
Following that brief explanation, the King had taken swift action. By chance, he'd ordered a missive sent out well before even their arrival for adventurers to come and bolster the capital's forces in time for a notable offensive, but now with this oracle, the King had gone about thinking of other ways to give his military any additional advantages.
And while they'd initially been against it when they'd first met the still young monarch, the Tarnished and Ranni had now opted to lend more direct aid to the King's cause, if only out of vested interest in vanquishing whatever forces the Frenzied Flame had coming their way.
Said aid came in the form of Ranni working more directly with the King and his strategists to improve the capital's defenses, with the Lunar Princess even offering usage of her magic to fortify the walls and the like.
And as for the Tarnished himself?
Well, with little else to do after a quick visit to the capital's Adventurer's Guild to sell some boluses and other consumables, he'd decided it best to put his many years of experience to use by training any and all interested soldiers.
Given the unknown but likely brief timetable they had before the Frenzied Flame's forces arrived, the warrior held little hope that he'd be able to improve these soldiers' abilities by a notable amount… but any improvement at all was better than none.
Be it new techniques, skills, or tactics, if he can improve their odds of survival by even the smallest of degrees, the Tarnished would consider his efforts a great success.
As such, here he stood within the training grounds that soldiers used. After a sudden introduction to the available men yesterday and a demonstration of his skills by once again defeating a determined Sword Saint in a spar before the soldiers' very eyes, he'd made quite the impression on them and he was further bolstering this impression by all but literally beating them into the ground, one whole group at a time.
The current dozen soldiers surrounding him were looking a little worse for wear, their training clothes all dirtied and torn from being thrown around by him earlier. Fatigue had begun to set in and his gaze sweeping over them didn't put them at ease.
But even so, they showed their worth as one of them made the first move with the others preparing to follow.
Wielding a spear – not a practice one, but an actual spear – the soldier skipped forward and thrust it at the Tarnished with surprising speed. Alas, to the Tarnished, it was still quite slow and he punished the soldier hard for it by easily twisting to the side and then grabbing the weapon. With a short but fierce tug, he pulled the spear right out of the soldier's hands and then spun it around, using the hilt to smack the man across the face with enough force to send him sprawling onto the ground.
By this point, three others attempted to attack the Tarnished, spreading out before trying a pincer formation. The Tarnished lightly threw the spear he'd grabbed aside before skipping back, seemingly throwing himself back-first at the surprised soldier who'd tried to skewer him from behind. However, he tilted his upper body to the side just enough to avoid his liver being stabbed and then spun around, getting behind the soldier and grabbing him with both arms. With nary a grunt, he lifted the soldier up and slammed him into the ground so hard that it practically shook.
He then rolled back, smoothly going over the now barely conscious soldier and getting back up on his feet. Of the two attacking soldiers remaining, one of them continued to rush forth in a desperate attempt to land a hit while the other ceased his charge and instead jumped into the air, twirling his weapon about before swinging downwards.
"Bad move," the Tarnished chided to the leaper before suddenly throwing himself forward and grabbing the soldier in question by his foot. The veteran warrior wasted not even a second before pulling the man down and slamming him into the side of the other soldier, causing them both to cry out and go tumbling off to the side.
Just like that, four were down and eight remained. The latter portion had hung back, surveying his movements so far. This earned them a hum of approval from the Tarnished. The four he'd just dispatched he'd immediately noted to be the more aggressive of the current bunch, attacking first and thinking later. The remaining eight's mindset were more the opposite in comparison.
"You've been taking notes on how I move during these past several attempts," he began, his voice making them tense up further. "Forearmed in any way is certainly to be forewarned… but your failure to capitalize on your allies' actions was a mistake."
By the time he'd even finished uttering the last word, he was already upon the eight with his arms outstretched. He ducked under a panicked side swipe of the soldier at the front and then proceeded to land a mighty haymaker to the attacker's unprotected side that practically folded the poor young woman in half. This only left her open for the follow up blow, in the form of a downwards punch that connected with her jaw.
The Tarnished watched as the woman crumbled to the ground, his gaze never wavering even as he tilted his head forward just enough to avoid a close swing of a spear from another soldier. "You should've backed off a little – made better use of your weapon's long reach," he lectured as all he had to do was just perform a single step in to close the distance between them, now too close for the soldier – an older man whose physique was wiry but extremely well trained – to perform another move with the spear.
To the older soldier's credit, however, he let go of the spear immediately after the failed swing and made to grab at the Tarnished's high ponytail. Alas, before he could even touch a single hair, the Tarnished stomped on the side of the man's leg, forcing him to stumble and lower himself. This left the man open to the follow up knee strike with the same leg.
The Tarnished then lashed out, smacking aside a spear strike from his left side before grabbing hold of the spear and pulling it towards him. And unlike the first soldier he'd done this to, the current soldier had mistakenly held onto the weapon and ended up pulled along for the ride. A lightning fast headbutt swiftly taught the soldier a lesson and made him faint on the spot.
Now only five remained standing, all of whom had backed off to open up some distance.
The soldier that hung back the most took the risky maneuver of outright throwing her spear at the Tarnished while a fellow soldier that hung around to the side stalked forward. The Tarnished caught the spear just before it could hit his chest – the determined woman had excellent aim, he mused – and twirled it about, using the spear to block a swing from another soldier that had swung his weapon like a long club at him. Undeterred, the soldier pulled back and swung again, but this time the Tarnished batted the attack downwards before bringing up the spear and jabbing the butt of it into the soldier's throat.
As the soldier began to hoarsely keel over, the Tarnished punted her away by a solid ten yards. That was when the soldier that had been slowly breaking away from the haphazard formation earlier finally tried to strike. Of all the soldiers, this one was the youngest – a fresh faced cadet that had probably joined up from a nearby village. And instead of attacking with either spear or fist, the young one let out a cry as he kicked hard at the ground, sending some bits of dirt and grass everywhere.
"Very good," the Tarnished complimented. "Still not enough, however – you're making too much noise."
Indeed, the small cloud of dirt and grass was enough to obscure his vision but the young one had let his eagerness show through too much by effectively stomping up to him from the side with a spear thrust. The Tarnished stuck out a hand and smacked the side of the spear, sending it completely off course and causing the young soldier to cry out in surprise as he stumbled right past him. But the Tarnished wasn't done yet.
With that same outstretched hand, he grabbed the young soldier by the back of his shirt and effortlessly picked him up, spun once, and then released. The poor man – boy, really – flew like one of those arrows those Iron Golems used to shoot at the Tarnished and he struck the woman from before, the very same one who'd thrown her own spear at him.
And now there remained only two.
Rather than go on the offensive, the remaining two soldiers could only freeze as the Tarnished directed his attention to them. They'd yet to shift much from their original positions, their weapons shaking lightly from nerves.
The Tarnished remained in an upright position, not even bothering taking a stance though he kept his hands lightly balled into fists. He was merely waiting patiently to see what these two would do in light of all that's happened.
But when five seconds went by with nothing changing at all, he spoke with mild disappointment. "…Nothing? You've no tactics in mind?"
Both soldiers gaped, trying to form sentences yet finding themselves unable to do so.
Humming, the Tarnished suddenly stomped forward at the ground hard enough to break it apart, much like how lord Godfrey fighting as his true self, Hoarah Loux, was apt to doing back then. The movement got the soldiers caught up in it and they naturally lost their balance-.
-Leaving them completely vulnerable to the Tarnished's double clothesline, his thick arms crashing against them with enough momentum to make them comically spin several times before finally hitting the ground.
And just like that, the group of a dozen soldiers were defeated yet again.
In the moments that followed, the Tarnished went about helping them all up and looking them over, making sure they were still able to move about without too much issue. His concern, although genuine, was fairly mild – after all, the military did have healers on hand to treat true injuries, so he didn't need to hold back quite as much as he had initially thought.
"…Right, I do believe now is time for a break," the Tarnished said. He smiled in amusement at the way the soldiers, now standing at attention as best they can, openly cheered in relief. "That said, I would suggest taking your rest time to reflect on what I've told you so far, for we will be resuming sparring again once the break is over. Group nine will be up next when that happens, so I suggest you prepare accordingly."
Said group, who'd been watching from the safety of the sidelines so far alongside the rest of the available soldiers, collectively paled before dispersing for the time being.
Now all that remained in the training field mere moments later was the Tarnished himself… and just one other.
"You really are quite the warrior," spoke Sword Saint, who'd hung around this whole time.
"My thanks," the Tarnished replied. "I must admit I'm surprised you didn't join in during any of the spars so far since the start."
After their initial spar together before the soldiers' very eyes, the young swordswoman had chosen to hang back and simply observe instead.
Of course, it was to observe him further from relative safety and devise a new attack strategy for their next spar, but even then, the veteran warrior was marginally surprised by the woman's restraint. She'd struck him as the type to just learn in the midst of battle instead of hanging back to watch.
Sword Saint, for her part, looked a little embarrassed by such a statement. She was clearly aware of the very same fact that the Tarnished had mulled over just now.
"I suppose recent events have finally taught me the benefit of waiting and watching," she mumbled with lightly pink cheeks. However, the faint blush faded as she then cocked her head to the side and confusion bloomed onto her face. "That said… why focus on spars so much? And with spears?"
"Given that we don't know just when an attack could come, having soldiers focus on more conventional methods of strength and stamina training wouldn't make much of a difference," the Tarnished began. "Instead, I felt it better to help them work on their actual skills in battle than anything else. As for your second question… I believe you know now how dangerous the Frenzied Flame can be."
Sword Saint's gaze wandered a little as she no doubt spent this brief time recalling her encounter with those frenzied villagers. A shudder happened before she refocused her gaze on him.
Nodding, the Tarnished continued. "…Though not always the case, roughly any attack a person inflicted with frenzy lands on another can pass on that frenzy as well, like… like a curse, I suppose. Or at the very least a contagious disease. To have these soldiers avoid that, I'd advised the King and the head of his military to make sure soldiers focused on methods of attack and defense that made use of longer range. Spears are merely one aspect of this – bows and arrows, spells, staffs, halberds… anything and everything that can be done from even slightly out of arm's length is to be made the norm for the time being."
"And as for you fighting them all with just your bare hands…?"
"Most people afflicted with frenzy tend to fight with whatever is on hand," he explained as he recalled his numerous encounters in the past. "If they already have a weapon on hand, they'll make use of it without hesitation, but otherwise if they were unarmed, they would fight unarmed. They wouldn't even try to make use of anything around them as a weapon, no matter how viable it would be… they simply do not possess the mental faculties to do so."
…Though there were some exceptions, the Tarnished silently noted. He remembered all too vividly his encounters with the legendary Vyke, the first having been near the church in northeastern Liurnia and in the Evergaol out in the Mountaintop of the Giants. Despite having succumbed so strongly to the Flame of Frenzy, Vyke had retained virtually all his battle prowess, his mastery of his spear having not diminished in the slightest and knowing when to block and dodge as needed. He'd even still retained enough awareness to heal up with a flask whenever he'd managed to make the Tarnished back off.
And this wasn't even accounting for usage of Frenzied Incantations, which allowed users the option to attack from a fair bit of distance away. Not to the point of being able to rival expert archers, but such Incantations had proven to be extremely dangerous for those who could only fight at close to mid range.
To be perfectly frank, his 'training methods,' if such could even be called that, were far from all-encompassing given the possibility of the soldiers having to deal with Frenzied Incantations, but at least they would go into battle with some semblance on how to react.
It was why he was rather brutal with them in these spars. The goal wasn't simply to make them learn how to properly rely on their spears, but to also learn how to counter said level of aggression, looking for any openings possible and punishing enemies accordingly. And if more soldiers took the initiative like that young one had done, what with kicking up dirt and grass as a smokescreen, then all the better. The more aware the soldiers became of potential tools, the greater their chances of survival.
"…I see. Well, that is good to know," Sword Saint mumbled. "A pity that such knowledge comes at a bit of a price." Now the woman was smiling a little, almost cheekily so.
She referred to, of course, the way he'd swiftly become something of a terror to the soldiers. In light of knowledge of the Frenzied Flame being kept secret from the soldiers – all they knew was that there was a likelihood of an 'ailment' that could affected others if enough direct contact was made by the enemies – all that they could truly focus their worries on was none other than the Tarnished himself. Whatever doubts they had initially held about his ability had been long vanquished and now replaced with an ever growing concern of being pitted against him.
The Tarnished, with arms folded across his chest, could only chuckle. "Me? More terrifying to them than even such afflicted enemies? I don't know if that should be an honor or not."
"Nothing like a healthy dose of fear to keep them in line, right?" Sword Saint retorted in good humor.
The two of them shared a laugh.
However, when their laughter died down, Sword Saint's expression did turn serious. "Unfortunately, there is another reason for why I hung around."
"Oh?"
"Not sure if his majesty has informed you about it, but a missive was actually sent out before our arrival back in the capital. It was basically a call for any and all adventurers to come and join our efforts in fighting the forces of Chaos. While there is no way of knowing just yet how many adventurers would be interested in such a thing – we all do tend to be pretty free-spirited, after all – there is bound to be at least more than a few who will show up."
The Tarnished rubbed his chin. "Interesting. Then I take it, your concern is how the adventurers would work in conjunction with the military?"
As Sword Saint nodded, he hummed.
Certainly, it would be essential for all forces to at least be able to not get in each other's way. And it seemed like that might be an issue if the adventurers coming here choose to be uncooperative. Perhaps an odd thing to ponder over since they wouldn't be answering the missive otherwise, but the Tarnished supposed many were in it for glory or otherwise some measure of vested interest.
Cohesion is key here and if too many adventurers prove to be uncooperative and the military too biased to work with the adventurers in turn…
The Tarnished just barely held back a grimace. It's been a very long while since he's ever had to potentially deal with such an issue. Back in the Lands Between, things had been in some ways more… clear cut, he supposed the term was. At least back home, factions had been more openly identified and tended to stick to their own territories for the most part. It was only when a major threat appeared that certain factions would begin to work together to defeat it. They may not have gotten along all the time, but whatever tensions had existed had always been set aside during such times with little issue. It would seem such a thing didn't quite exist in this world.
To be fair, he supposed, what he's read of this world's history didn't imply any great force that could have forced all races and groups to band together so completely. Not even the seemingly endless forces of Chaos and this Demon Lord seemed to erase animosity and mistrust between people.
"Does his majesty have a way of addressing this issue?" the Tarnished asked.
"I don't know, to be honest. But he used to be an adventurer himself – part of the very same party that Sword Maiden once was a part of, so that alone should already earn him some clout with other adventurers," Sword Saint explained.
Hmm, that is good to know, the Tarnished mused. But it probably wouldn't be enough – there are always those who dislike listening to those in positions of authority.
…Unless…
"And that you're telling me all this…" the Tarnished began, an eyebrow raised. "…Could it be that his majesty wishes for a more direct approach to making any unruly adventurers fall in line?"
Sword Saint could only smirk and then shrug.
The Tarnished huffed, mildly amused. Looks like the fairly brief time he's spent with the soldiers had swiftly reached the ears of the King with some interesting effects.
If adventurers were to truly listen to others, then they'd need a damn good reason. Proving that one is able to hold their own, at the very least, seems like one way to accomplish this.
"Well, I'm not against it." If anything, he had a vague interest in seeing what other adventurers can do. From what he's seen and heard of so far, the likes of Hero, Sage, and Sword Saint were among the greatest adventurers out there in terms of combat ability, but they were far from being the only ones with such strength around. It'd be interesting and comforting to see if other adventurers held comparable strength. "But only if it's necessary. I enjoy new experiences as much as anyone… but that is no reason to potentially antagonize others, especially if they are to be an ally."
"Mm, we've all figured as much. I just wanted to make sure you knew."
The Tarnished gave his thanks in the form of a nod. "So what now?"
"Now…" Sword Saint sighed. "Now I have to go and get our little leader situated. Our other friend is still hounding Ranni even as she's helping strategize and whatnot, so it falls to me to make sure our resident young hero isn't simply pacing around like an idiot."
"Ah. Best of luck then." The Tarnished shot her a smile that was between amused and sympathetic.
The young swordswoman grunted in thanks before taking her leave, resulting in the Tarnished being truly alone in the training grounds for the time being.
Off in the distance, he can hear some of the soldiers that had remained nearby continuing to rest and refresh themselves, murmuring amongst each other inanely. Further off in the distance, another squad was in the middle of drills while another was on its way elsewhere. Given they were fully armored, it seems like whatever exercise they were going to conduct would be very serious.
The Tarnished took it all in with nary a shift in his expression now. Inwardly, however, he couldn't help but remember days from long ago, when he'd first been taken in by lord Godfrey and his men. Those years of training and live battle had been exceedingly hard, but he recalled them fondly nonetheless for the experiences had helped shape him into the man he is today.
Idly, he wondered if – when – the encounters with the frenzied people came, if they would also impact any of these soldiers just as much. And if so, whether the impact would be for good or ill… assuming any of these soldiers survived at all.
Such a thought put a bit of a hamper in his previously good mood, but not by a whole lot. People lived and then died eventually, with varying degrees of suffering along the way. If there was one true immutable fact of life, it would be that. Even so, being slain by those afflicted with frenzy was never a good way to go out. The same could be said from having to deal with any of the other gods as well, but the frenzy was perhaps the worst in his opinion.
…Perhaps… perhaps he and Ranni will have to be much more involved in the action once it started. Oh, the two of them were hardly all-powerful, but even so their respective strengths would certainly make a difference that could mean more people living in the end… but even if the two of them brought all their might to bear, there was still no telling what could happen. Far too many times, he'd perished and revived after falling victim to circumstances that had been completely unforeseen, even with his constant increases in strength back in the Lands Between. Just because he's reached his current level of strength doesn't mean the same couldn't happen again.
Well, in any case, all he can do is the same as he's always done – just maintain vigilance. And honestly, compared to when he'd been completely on his own, that was no longer the case at all this time around.
He could only hope it would make a difference, however.
By the time he'd finished with his ruminating, the break time he'd designated for the soldiers had come to an end and he was roused from his thoughts by the sounds of the soldiers jostling on back… many with looks of trepidation about them.
The very sight of their hesitant expressions as the next squad came up to him actually got him to laugh, which only startled them further.
If nothing else, it was rather fun to experience firsthand the soldiers' panic as the next spar began.
Yeah, so just to rehash the above P.P.S., this chapter is just a short one to fill in some pertinent info without it getting in the way of the real meat of the story content I've in mind for the next chapter. May not be the most exciting thing to read, but I do hope that it does make you guys look forward to the next one, since that is when multiple paths start to converge in time for the endgame, with a healthy dose of strategizing involved on several fronts to set up what shall be just a bit of a clusterfuck.
Not to give too much away, but there will be some familiar faces rejoining the story after being effectively AWOL for literally multiple chapters worth and they'll finally get to have a bit of the limelight on them alongside the main characters. I'll be doing what I can to make the interactions as entertaining as possible when that happens.
Until next time, everyone. Take care!
