We returned to the nearby town of Alexis after finishing another batch of goblin subjugation quests. I did feel a little bit bad because it was my fault they were there in the first place… but it’d be even more suspicious if we killed the gobbos for no return. We hadn’t exactly made a reputation for being generous good samaritans.

  Well, we did give away free food and hosted feasts every so often. Sometimes, I would even donate to the occasional ‘independent’ orphanage, but most of them were run by churches and I didn’t trust them. There were few other charities for me to absolve myself with because Angelore didn’t really do that, so I just let it go and went back to our inn for the night.

  Except I never made it to my destination because a familiar face bumped into me. It was the same ishkawtan spy that had hired me for my recent job in the first place, and I took a slightly different route to the place he indicated.

  Once I and Moonwash were there, and the three of us were in the privacy of a silence bubble, the secret operative spoke in a voice both defeated and defiant.

  “What have you done?”

  “...What?”

  “The goblins! Why did you just let loose some fucking goblins!? That was you, wasn’t it? It’s too convenient!”

  I scratched my helmeted head, but wisely chose not to respond.

  “It’s too unnatural. Everyone knows it. Not that they would ever think that it’s you, but now they think that it’s us, and that we fucking let loose goblins just to get the win!” He took a deep breath. “Do you know how stupid that is? It could very easily backfire. And that’s what you did! You never told me that’s what you were going to do! I saw you back there during the final battle. That super strong goblin was you, wasn’t it!”

  I winced. I decided that this was no longer the time to hold my tongue. “Yeah… Yes. You’re right. I’ve heard the rumors recently spread about you too.” I took another deep breath, and placed the token I’d been given on the table between us. I had worked hard for this, and I wanted to kill him for ever suggesting otherwise… but I had to admit that my involvement might have caused more trouble than good. I did my job, but at what cost? I could have just called it off. I was a mercenary hired to shore up their chances. And they did well in doing so for they would probably be dead without me, but there is a greater war at play here. I should’ve at least told them about my plans, when it could very well alter how Edengar would respond. Fuck. FUCK! “Sorry. You can have it back. I’ve just… I gave my word that I’ll help, and I didn’t wish to see an entire tribe wiped out either. But there were issues regarding my identity that I hadn’t realized back when we were still on the negotiating table, so I came up with a ruse to solve the issue on my own… but I really should’ve asked first. That was my mistake.”

  A deep silence formed after my words. One that I knew would not be pierced.

  I stood back up and walked out of the mansion with Moonwash beside me.

  I felt something approach rapidly from behind, and I turned around to catch the token that had been tossed back my way.

  “Keep it,” he walked towards me. “I asked you for a job, and as… disastrous as the results were, you did do what I hired you for. I never said you shouldn’t use goblins, after all.”

  I paused, staring at the token. “Are you sure?”

  He hesitated for only a second.

  “Yes, I am. You’re a dangerous human, Haell, if you even are one. But while I have so many problems with the way you went about it, this is not a relation I wish to bury because of that disagreement. You risked yourself, and you sacrificed much, on behalf of another. You saved them all.” Aside from the forces that had faced the Edengar army, there were many more civilians behind them. I never did get to see their nomadic ‘village’.

  “Alright.” I extended out a hand for him to shake. “Let’s just say I owe you one. I’d probably do it if you ever need me for a job.”

  He shook my hand and chuckled. “Karloom.”

  “Karloom?”

  “My name. I’ll take you up on your offer. You’re not hard to track, so I’ll call upon you then.”

  “I’ll not take offense, Karloom. I’m sure you can find me.”

  ~~~

  “So what’s your plan now?” Angerly suddenly asked as we were unboxing crates in our suite.

  “Uhh. I’ll finish opening these and see what we have?” Karloom had directed us to a warehouse on our way out, and there I found the remainder of my payment for helping the nomads escape.

  “Not that, idiot,” she rolled her eyes, and then gestured towards the wider world. “I mean in general. You said it yourself, that this won’t last forever, and you will eventually be exposed. So what do you propose? Do we go to New Grandera? Do we stay as those… guerilla fighters you mentioned? Do you just leave us and hope we don’t get swept along in this entire mess? Something else entirely???”

  I thought about it for a moment. My friends perked up at the question, and Moonwash set aside a book on dwarven forging techniques to listen.

  Finally, I spoke. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll go to New Grandera. Maybe I’ll go to the Barrier Range. Hell, I could find Elfrafim and travel all the way to the elven lands. There are still so many other places out there, despite how far the Empire reaches!”

  “Well… we should pick something and figure it out,” Berry hedged, fidgeting. “I just want us to be safe, so we need a proper plan.”

  “Of course,” I readily agreed. “But why are you foisting all of this on me? I don’t know what you guys want. Maybe it’ll be time for us to finally split up.”

  “That’s true,” Therick was the first to nod, after a long moment of silent thought. “I’d rather stay here, if I’m being honest. This is still my home.”

  I shrugged. It would be sad that we were truly finally splitting up, but that’s life.

  Granuel objected.

  “Wait. Hang on. You’re staying here because it’s your home? But what about the war? Do you actually intend to side with Edengar and the Empire as a whole?”

  “Huh? Of course not!” Therick exclaimed, offended. “But don’t act like your resistance is the paragon of virtue either. They’ve put villages to blade, they’ve killed innocent people, and they’ve executed babies for fuck’s sake!” Rumors like that were typically fabricated bullshit… but that one might actually have some truth to it from what I’d gathered. There were factions in New Grandera that openly sought to exterminate every last shepherd on Varyala, down to the last child. “I want nothing to do this. Not from Edengar and not from New Grandera. It’s always everyone else in the middle, the mediocre people like me, who suffer the consequences of your wars.”

  Granuel hesitated, and ultimately decided to just back off, despite clearly having more to say.

  “And that’s all perfectly fair,” I reassured. “It’s why I’m not actually part of New Grandera. I’m not part of anything. I only act as I please.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “We know,” Therick snorted, cheering back up a little. “But the problem is that you can do that because you are strong and special. The rest of us can’t. It’s easy to say that we should do what we want, but we won’t survive the wrath of Edengar by ourselves if you piss off the whole kingdom.”

  “If I piss them off?” I asked sharply. “I’m just existing as myself, Therick. They’re the ones fucking pissing me off.”

  “Okay, alright. Sorry.” He held up a hand placatingly. “That’s not what I meant, okay? Just… please tell us next time, if you’re going to do something that will… attract their attention. I think I’ll stick with you guys anyway, because being in this party is the best I’ll ever be, but I’d like to at least get the time to think about it and… fret, when it finally happens.”

  “...Okay,” I accepted after a pause. “I’ll try.”

  It was only fair.

  ~~~

  I found myself alone in the middle of a wet marsh. I fought to keep my mind calm amid the constant buzz of the rainforest, and the occasional small mammal that was daring enough to approach. Few were willing to take that risk, for there was a constant mist of magic surrounding me, which I immediately commanded to kill even the smallest bug the moment I felt their presence. It was a truly impressive amount of wrath and hellfire mana that teetered on the edge of what I could possibly maintain control of with my horns, and I would have it no other way.

  Time continued to pass in that haze, and I steadily became surrounded by a small pile of predominantly small corpses. I had asked to take on some quests by myself, just to have time to relax, and to process the recent war… with even more violence.

  Speak of the devil, and I felt a very slight gathering of mana in the swampy waters. I didn’t even know what the element was, but I was aware of only one species capable of magic in this area. I didn’t hesitate to draw my greatsword, and when the swardonix came shooting out of the marsh in a jet of water, I swung the flat of my blade sidewards and dazed the creature as its gaping maw found no purchase. I then kicked it before it could try to retreat back into the water, and the crocodilian creature rolled fully onto land.

  It hissed, and I paused to regard it. There were two horns on its head which were water focuses, hence why I didn’t smash the creature’s head off the moment we first met. I didn’t want to damage the merchandise, as that was exactly what the quest I took asked for, so I taunted the creature by breaking off part of my pervasive bubble of magic now that my enemy was on land and an easier target.

  All thoughts of escape escaped the swardonix, and the magical crocodile charged and shot out water bullets that ultimately did very little as they hardly left a dent on my mythril armor. The monster’s jaw opened wide once it was in range, but it snapped close right after when I stomped on the top of its head with my unexposed hoof. The damage was great, my enemy vomited and cried blood, and I pounced on this opportunity by climbing atop the creature and stabbing it in the neck with a very sharp but largely mundane dagger.

  I wanted to preserve as much of the materials for later harvesting, else I would’ve just crushed this foolish monster with overwhelming force from the very start.

  A bug entered my helm as I stood back up, and my mana reacted before I could, invading the offending creature and rotting it into a horrid flower of flesh.

  I blinked, and then shouted, “Did my wrath magic just cast a spell on its own!?”

  I genuinely wasn’t sure. My mana was already present, and I did notice the miniscule creature before it died. I could very well have ordered its demise without realizing it. But if my wrath mana did act without my input, then that meant that I had just come across the solution to a puzzle that I had set aside long ago.

  ~~~

  “Stab me.”

  “Okay.”

  I screamed in rage as my girlfriend betrayed me by plunging a dagger into my guts. I literally asked for it, but wrath was irrational. I could only work through my emotions and keep myself from doing anything as red blood dripped unto green grass, so that it may combust into a conflagration of curses and hellfire.

  The dagger was drawn, and after a long moment of healing, it was plunged back in. The mana flowing through my veins thrummed in anger, but did little else. I relived this same hell, and it only got easier each time. The pain from a single dagger was irrelevant from the start, and my emotions did not escape me for my will was stronger than anything.

  ~~~

  The cursetacean armor clattered on the forest floor as it came away from my body to be replaced by my tried and tested mythril armor. It had been repaired and reforged so many times throughout the years, yet it still served me faithfully. And today as well, as I leave my friends behind to take on my foe by myself, mine armor shall remain true. The prey I had set my eyes on was just the perfect creature to serve as an initiation for the new weapon I had forged for myself.

  I disappeared into the treeline. A few apes and big cats tried to hinder my path, but I cut through their attempts as easily as an angel might be a hypocrite.

  Suddenly, I stopped, when I felt the very faint presence of a predator that could challenge me. I could not tell where it might come from, and I felt a sharp pain on my calf before I could try and sense for more.

  I heard a pained screech, followed by a panicked howl.

  My wrath mana had moved on its own without any conscious command from myself, and it surged out of my body to attack the biting snout of my enemy. I then followed that up by casting a mini-ritual with the blood that I knew had been spilled, resulting in the offending monster’s face being torn and set on fire.

  The creature reeled back on reflex, and ran back into the cover of the trees. It was almost gone by the time I turned around, but I still got a good enough look at my assailant to know that I had found the right target.

  A lavox.

  A lavox was a naturally level 40 monster with a long almost sinous body covered in faded dark-orange fur. It was almost like a snake or centipede, but the creature was clearly a mammal, and it had eight dextrous legs with which to move itself with. I heard the rustling of leaves from outside my view until I caught a flash of motion from far to the side. My head snapped sidewards so fast that I almost heard something in my neck crack, but I managed to turn just in time to see the ruined fox/bat-like face of my enemy.

  The monster lunged, and my greatsword swung. The lavox curved around the strike, and I missed. I felt the pain of a sharp and powerful bite on my thigh, and blood eagerly flowed out of the wound. My wrath mana reacted even more violently as it surged outwards like before, and the lavox pulled back after having experienced this same response already, but it proved to be too slow anyway! Most of the magic still made it to the creature’s face, thereby deforming skin and making it all rot from within.

  This was the power that I’d been working hard to obtain. This was my take on the ability inherent to all cursetaceans. I could not possibly copy it all, as I lacked the unavoidability that those cursed creatures had that allowed them to strike at anyone from any range so long as that being had offended them first. But dare I say that mine was actually stronger if it managed to connect!

  The lavox dove back into the trees just after I detonated my blood before I could lose my connection to it. I waited for it to jump back in, and it hesitated this time, but the confusion that it must’ve felt upon feeling that I should be an evolution lower than it urged the monster to ultimately try again.

  That was a big mistake.

  I managed to react on time.

  My sword ran through the side of its torso, and took out two of its legs in a confluence of wrath.

  The lavox sank its fangs deeply into my already damaged leg in turn, and my wrath mana moved to meet the level 40 creature again by its own initiative, but this time I added my will into the resulting blast of magic, flooding it with even more mana and power.

  The result was a rapid and all-enveloping blast that flayed flesh deep enough to expose bone and smell like pustule. The scent turned even more putrid as my blood became tongues of hellfire and screams of wrath, ever-eager to destroy that which had spilled it. My enemy screamed, an eye popped open into a demented flower of gore, and the other barely survived intact. For a measure of intact anyway, as the eye wobbled like jelly and cried in red and disgusting yellow-greens.

  The monster tried to limp away then, and it proved to still be way too fast for me despite losing a third of its limbs, especially when my own right leg was also heavily damaged.

  But I had wrath on my side.

  Blood poured out generously from my wounds as I forced my body to work at its best and beyond despite my own wounds. I ran after the monster, and opened my wings occasionally, for a further boost in speed. What ultimately doomed the lavox was how its head was so damaged, that it could hardly navigate, and had to bear the brunt of some obstacles. I caught up to it, and after two meager slashes, I stood by the corpse of a creature who was surely the apex predator of this area before I came along.

  I didn’t even need to use my normal magic to take care of this level 40 threat.

  That scene where they were opening crates was needlessly difficult to write. I couldn’t seem to get their conversation right, and I had to cut out so many iterations, but here is what I ultimately came up with. So tell me what you think!

  The rest of the chapter was easy. Really shouldn’t have delayed, but alas, I am sometimes weak. I did entirely change the last fight as well since I came up with a really cool monster design… that I realized wasn’t the best for this environment. You’ll meet mannagal someday, if it even keeps the name! I’m not in love with it.

  ...What crates? I forgot what the context for my AN was. Oh well, plug! Support a forgetful author now! And read over 30 advanced chapters!

  ...I might have also forgotten what a managgal is. I hope that's in my fucking notes.

  Oh wait. I have few actual notes. But I do have a sea of discarded words. Hopefully that's in there. Otherwise, it's going to bother me forever.