"Wow," I said, eyeing the Other as it somehow remained alive after the absolute and utter pummeling it received from Nightfury, who stomped the shit out of it enough times to actually form a crater. Oh, don't get me wrong, it definitely didn't come out of it unscathed and, in fact, I was pretty sure Nightfury's constant stomping had fucked the shit out of its body. A closer look revealed that all its limbs were broken and its head wasslightlycracked. But, of course, it was somehow still alive. Though, by now, it was little more than a writhing broken thing on the frosty ground, kind of like a cockroach that refused to die no matter how many times you stepped on it – still alive, even when its body was fucking crushed.
I stepped forward and crouched in front of the Other, whose cold blue eyes stared at me with something close to hatred. I noted, with some curiosity, that its left hand had popped right off. So, I reached out and picked it up, dangling the pale appendage over its face. "Dude... I gottahandit to you; you're damn fucking hard to kill. At this point, I'm not even entirely sure if youcandie without Dragonglass or Valyrian Steel. But, I mean, you can't possibly stay alive if Nightfury rips your head from your shoulders, right? That'd just be absurd, but also really fucking funny."
Actually...
I pointed at the Others' head and then turned to Nightfury. "Would you mind? Okay, thanks."
Nightfury made a draconic equivalent of a shrug and picked up the Other with his right and grabbed its head with his left, before thenpullingboth parts in opposite directions. The poor creature screamed and roared in what I assumed was pain, but I was now entirely uncertain of the fact that it could feel pain at all. So, more than likely, it was screaming because it didn't want its head ripped off its shoulders, which was honestly understandable, even in the absence of agony. But, I also didn't give a flying fuck about that and actually enjoyed the sound of its scream, because – for once – I can rightly say that this act couldn't possibly be inhuman, seeing as I was doing it to an inhuman ice monster who'd rather see every living creature freeze to death. With a slight huff and puff of smoke and fire from its nostrils, Nightfury pulled the Other's head right out of its shoulders, resulting in a loud and thunderous cracking noise akin to the breaking of a large glacier.
The Other went completely still and silent. And, right then and there, I just assumed that it fucking died. However, what really caught my attention was the fact that it didn't dissolve into a glassy mist of shards and shit. Or into a puddle. No, both its head and body remained kind of intact, barring the physical damage it'd sustained when Nightfury and I beat the shit out of it. Letting out a sound that was almost akin to laughter, but sounded more like a foreboding rumbling noise, Nightfury then devoured the body of the Other. Loud snaps and cracks echoing loudly as the good boy chewed and chewed and crushed the ice elf's carcass in its mouth, before swallowing. Our mental link told me that he did not enjoy the flavor of its meat – too hard and cold, like swallowing a chunk of frozen meat.
Nightfury burped and from his mouth came a whole bunch of Necrotic Energies that I immediately absorbed and stored into myself, equivalent to the amount I'd otherwise receive from hundreds of corpses. Interesting. But not at all surprising. The Others were creatures of death and frost and so it made sense that they'd be saturated in Necrotic Energies. Hmm... how many of them could I farm?
"Well, I hope that doesn't do any funny things to your stomach, boy," I said, shrugging as I bent down and grabbed the head of the Other and pulled it up by its snow-white hair, its crystalline spine dangling right under its jaws as though its head had been pulled out by the damn Predator or some shit. The blue glow in its eyes did not fade, however, and I could still sense the power that was in its form, even if it was already probably dead. Though, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if it was somehow still lucid. With a grin, however, I realized that I did exactly what I set out to do, which was to beat the shit out of an Other until it just fucking died and that was exactly what happened. Sure, it took way more effort than I'd like and I was probably never going to do this again unless absolutely necessary, but I did it. I beat an Other to death, using nothing but melee, without resorting to the use of Dragonglass or Valyrian Steel, its two weaknesses – both of which would kill it pretty much instantly.
I mean, fucking hell, when I put it like that, I can't imagine how these guys could possible pose a challenge if people just used their brains and gathered as much Dragonglass as they possibly could, which was apparently what happened back in the Long Night or some shit. No idea and I probably already forgot. Their one advantage was that most people were idiots; the Westerosi, in particular, were nowhere near the top of the totem pole in terms of average IQ or general teamwork. So, when the second Long Night eventually came – and, by then, it won't be my problem anymore, unless I somehow gained immortality – then it'll take quite a long time for the Westerosi folk to gather enough brain cells to figure out that they should be fighting together against a common enemy and use Dragonglass to do it.
Actually not that different from Earth, honestly.
I brought the severed head closer to my face and shrugged. Could I possibly use this for something? Raising a brow, I cast [True Resurrection, entirely out of curiosity. I'd never used that spell before and I wanted to see how it'd affect something was already kind of dead before I even killed it. Ribbons of darkness and blue-green energies emerged from me and surged into the pale head. I then dropped it onto the snow and kicked it back into the crater. And, there, Nightfury and I watched as the head began screaming, its white hair writhing like snakes and its eyes widening. Pale bones and white flesh grew from its spine, accompanied by bluish veins and an ice-blue heart.
[True Resurrection, as I understood it, did exactly as its name suggested. The cause of death didn't matter. The state of the remains certainly didn't matter either. If it had once been alive and it was hit with [True Resurrection, then it was coming back to life – no strings attached. Of course, I couldn't use this spell more than once per day, seeing as it was a ninth tier spell, but, eh, I wasn't interested in using it all that much to begin with – not unless I wanted to start some kind of religion with myself at the center as the figurehead, which... actually sounded kind of fun. Maybe, I'd do that in Essos.
Also, a part of me now realized that I could use this spell on Halga to cure her entirely of the necrotic disease thing she was suffering from, but I... well... I was hesitant about it.
And so I watched as the Other gained new flesh and new bones. It even apparently had organs and stuff, many of them entirely alien, but when the skin came I realized two things: it was pretty much identical to a human in terms of shape, and that I'd been fighting awomanthis whole time, a female Other. Huh, I guess they do have women, which meant the Others had sexual dimorphism, which meant they reproduced sexually... somehow. But, hey, that was a vagina right there and a pair of jiggly masses on her pale chest. I'm not sure what to do with this information. In hindsight, I kind of just assumed that the Others all looked kind of pretty because all elves were pretty. I didn't think I'd been fighting a woman this whole time. Not that I'd have done anything differently, because these hands were Rated E for Everyone. Violence was unisex, baby.
"Huh... you really do learn something everyday," I muttered. Were therechildrenOthers? Of course, there had to be. They couldn't possibly be popping out of their mommies as full-grown adults; so, there were children and if there were children, it meant these guys had to have their own civilization, their own means of passing down knowledge from one entity to another. And, like elves, I assumed that they didn't have a very high population, because this world would be very different if the Others numbered in the millions. So, if I had to take a guess, the Others had a population in the hundreds of thousands at most –maybeeven close to a million.
But, without in depth knowledge of their civilization and their society, then I'd just be making guesses and shit.
Being able to communicate with these Others would be pretty good. But, I was pretty sure they were literally physically incapable of communicating with human beings, the same way Gorillas couldn't speak even if you tried to teach them from birth. I guess sign language was on the table, but... I don't know sign language. Never had to learn it. Never bothered to, either. That was kind of ironic because all deaf people, from around the world, no matter their ethnicity, could very easily communicate with each other using sign language, while everyone else fumbled with vocals.
The Other writhed on the ground. Nightfury loomed over it, fire and smoke licking and dancing within his maw and flickering through the gaps between his teeth. I knew the good boy's thoughts. If the Other did anything funny, then he'd bathe her in fire and roast the shit out of her. The Others didn't have the same weakness for fire as their Wights did, but I was willing to bet that this one wasn't going to survive Nightfury's plasma beam thing. After a moment, the Other stopped writhing and, almost immediately, the first thing I noticed was that its eyes were... different. Instead, of the distinct ice-blue glow, they were now white, still glowing, like dim lightbulbs.
The Other shakily stood up, staring at me with wide eyes. Weird, I noted. There was something different about her now that I couldn't quite place. Did the Great Other warp them somehow? Were the Others once different and [True Resurrection] reverted her into what she'd been before the Great Other altered them? The simplest way I could put it, I suppose, was that she looked morealive. Sure, her skin was still as pale as snow, but it now had the slightest pinkish tint to it that I was now just noticing, even her hair was different now – shinier, fuller, as opposed to dry and dead. Our gazes locked. She stared at me for a moment, an unreadable expression on her face. Was she shocked? Was she angry? She wasn't attacking me and that was cool, I guess.
If she noticed Nightfury's looming form, then she was doing a very good job of ignoring the good boy. She took a single step forward and my eyes narrowed. If this bitch thought I wasn't going to let Nightfury flash fry her ass, then she was dead wrong. Still, she had no weapons and no armor. The Others were several times stronger than normal humans, but I wasn't afraid of her or any other physical enemy.
She did not take another step forward, however. Instead, she fell to her knees and bowed her head.
Chapter 34 is out on (Pat)reon!