Chapter 136: The True Battle Rages

I stood holding my broken arm steady, looking at Erani, who had collapsed to the ground, with her entire forearm ripped from her elbow. Xhag’duul had let her go at this point, too busy doubling over, cackling with his hands on knees.

I ignored him and rushed over to Erani. My hands were shaking. What do I do?

Erani half-groaned, half-screamed in pain, her remaining hand holding onto the stump as it squirted out more and more blood.

“I—I,” I stammered, frantically looking around, “let me help you up. I’ll get you away from here. Just—just let me…”

Erani looked up at me, face white and forehead covered in sweat. She breathed shakily, gasps of air the only noise she made. She looked like she was completely in shock. Difficulty breathing, pale skin, probably too in pain to speak at all.

I knelt down, trying to wedge my one good arm under her arms to help her up. “C’mon…let’s get up, and then we can—”

“Arlan,” Index suddenly said, “behind you!”

I looked back and saw Xhag’duul, who had stopped laughing, standing behind me. He lifted up his foot, and stomped on my kneeling leg.

You have been crushed. 89 damage.

Your Health is 46.

Your leg has been broken.

I screamed and fell to the ground, dropping Erani with me. My leg was bent in the middle of the shin, and bleeding from the blunt impact of the Demon’s heel.

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” he spat. “You won’t die. I made sure it wasn’t enough to kill you. Because you need to see what happens next. Your insults and mockery, your fucking disrespect, this is where it all landed you. You’re being punished. Take it like someone who actually respects themself. Not the whimpering fucking loser you are. At least pretend to be worth something in your last moments.”

He walked over and nudged Erani with his foot. She stirred, looking up at him. Hair matted her face. When she saw who it was, her eyes widened and she began to kick away from him. She held her hand up, shakily pointing at him.

“Don’t shoot him,” I coughed to her. “Won’t do anything. Don’t lose any more Health.”

With an injury bleeding as much as hers was, I knew she was probably slowly losing Health from the blood loss. She couldn’t afford to lose any more shooting Firebolts that just splash back to hit her.

I didn’t know if she heard me—or if she even processed what I was saying—but she didn’t end up firing anything off. Just frantically pushing herself away with her feet.

Xhag’duul looked back at me, shaking his head. “It’s like you still think you’re going to live through this. What the fuck do you think is going to happen?! Some god is going to descend from the skies to kill me for being a bad guy? You’re fucking delusional. It doesn’t matter if she dies by my hand, or from the bleeding, or from a suicidal point-blank explosion. She will not make it out of this. Neither will you.”

“Father!” Ainash’s voice interrupted the response I was preparing to make. “Am almost ready to kill the bad guy!”

I fought back a gasp of relief. Thank the gods. We were saved. “Good! Please hurry, this motherfucker needs to die.”

“He did what to mother?!”

“Wh—no,” I said. This was not the time for misunderstandings. “Well, he did hurt her. But not—listen. Get over here quickly. We’re in trouble.”

“Okay. But first, need you to put bad guy in very specific spot.”

“What?”

“It is the plan! Need bad guy to be in specific spot to kill him.”

“Why do—” I sighed. “Where?”

“Do not know yet. But it will be close to cliff.”

“Which one?”

“Um. Do not know how to tell you. How do I tell you which cliff? Do not know what way you are facing, so do not know if it is in front of you or behind.”

Xhag’duul shook his head, looking at me. “Uh, hello? Are you even paying attention? Ugh, are you having a panic attack or something? Fuck, if you aren’t even conscious of what’s happening, there’s no point.”

“Do you remember when I taught you the cardinal directions?” I frantically asked. “Which direction? East, or west?”

“Umm, umm…east! Need bad guy near east cliff!”

“Okay. Working on it. Tell me when you’re ready.”

I pushed myself up to my feet, which was difficult, considering the broken arm and leg. I was pretty much completely supporting myself with the good one, which wasn’t good for my balance. And I was sure attempting to stand probably also wasn’t good for my injuries. But we were almost there. I couldn’t worry about pain right now. We were almost out of this.

“Oh?” Xhag’duul watched me make my pathetic attempt at standing. Behind him, I could see Erani. Using her one hand and her teeth, she ripped off a strip of fabric from her shirt and was currently trying to tie a tourniquet around the still-bleeding stump on her arm. I needed to keep him away from her, and I needed to get him to the east cliff face, about ten paces behind me. Thankfully, that wasn’t in the direction of Erani, so I at least didn’t have to get him past her.

I backed away, limping heavily, as he watched me.

“You’re just going to abandon her?” he nodded his head back at Erani, who was still working on bandaging her wounds, wincing as she tightened the knot. “I guess you don’t care as much as I thought you did.”

“Xhag’duul,” I said once I was leaned up against the cliff face, “you’re a worthless piece of shit.”

He laughed. “Name calling, eh? That’s what we’ve devolved to?”

“No. I mean it. Think about it for me. Can you name one person, one person who would disagree with me? Someone other than you that actually values your contributions to the world?”

His face soured. “I…I don’t need to prove myself to you, Human. You’re calling me worthless? What have you ever done to contribute to your little society?”

“Don’t change the subject.” I coughed. “It wasn’t a rhetorical question. Seriously. Name one person. Someone who genuinely feels like you matter. I’ve already told you, I know a lot about you. And I know you aren’t very valued. Your boss would certainly agree with me. She hates you. And I’d suspect whoever she got to replace your old position doesn’t think very highly of you, either. So then, what, do your underlings think of you as some wonderful boss? Could you honestly tell me you’ve been a good, effective leader for them?”

“What the fuck is your point? So what if people don’t like me?” He took a step forward, scowling. “They’re fucking stupid, anyway. They don’t get it. They don’t understand what it’s like to be in my position. You think it’s easy?”

“My point is that you’re incompetent,” I said. “You can’t do anything right. First, you let Temporus escape, and let me kill it. Then you botched the initial invasion, and let me get away. Then you fucked up every single attempt you made after that to kill me. You fucked up your relations with the kingdom and had to take manual control over Koinkar just to get him to do what you say, you fucked up your little wall project because you forgot Dragons existed, and now you’re fucking this one last objective up.”

He squinted. “How do you think I’m fucking this up? Do you think you’re somehow winning the fight? I’m going to kill you. That’s my objective. To kill you. Tell me, how is this not going exactly as planned?”

“You just said it. Your superior told you to kill me, right? So why the fuck are you not doing that? Seems like you’re taking extra care to keep me alive, actually. You don’t give a shit about actually doing what you need to do. You just want to satisfy yourself by making me mad. If you understand that makes you a horrible subordinate that isn’t capable of following the most basic orders, then fine. Carry on. But I feel like you don’t even understand how fucking useless you’re being right now.”

“If you die in the end, it doesn’t matter, moron. You die, you suffer and then die, it’s all got the same end. Who said I couldn’t enjoy myself first?”

“So then you’ll tell your boss exactly what happened when you’re done? You’ll give a report talking about how you disobeyed orders to ‘enjoy yourself?’”

His frown deepened. “You know what? Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should just kill you right now. Seems like that’s what you fucking want. But do understand that you aren’t saving anyone. I’ll be sure to take the time to kill everyone you care about afterward. All you’re doing is just quickening your own death.”

“No.” I leaned my head back, breathing heavily. Staying standing like this was taking a lot out of me. “I’m not quickening my own death. I’m not going to die. I’m going to escape because you’re too incompetent to kill me. You’re too stupid to actually do it. You can’t do anything right, and you’re going to have to say exactly that to your boss when you’re telling her about how I got away once again.”

Xhag’duul gave a low chuckle as he walked toward me. “You know, you are somehow really talented at convincing people to kill you. You’re just this perfect fucking combination of arrogant and irritating and idiotic. What the fuck makes you think you’re escaping this?”

He stood close to me, now, pinning me to the wall of the cliff. But that was perfect—he was right where I needed him. And just in time, I got word from Ainash.

“Father, I see you, and I am ready to kill the bad guy!”

“Perfect. Let’s—”

“But first, need you to get him to the right spot. You are on the correct side, but need him to be about…um…ten paces to your left.”

I fought back a groan. He was just about ready to kill me right now. Not ready to go for a walk together. How was I going to get him to move again?!

“Sorry!” Ainash said, apparently sensing my frustration. “Can—can move over to where you are. Just give me couple minutes…”

“We don’t have a couple minutes,” I said. “I’ll get him to the right spot. Hang in there.”

“Okay, will—wait. What is wrong with mother?!”

“She’s hurt,” I said. This was probably her first time seeing her, now that she was done doing whatever she’d been doing to prepare. I understand her reaction to seeing. She was currently finishing up her makeshift bandage. Completely covered in blood, and occasionally, I saw Angelic Shield pulse on for a moment around her wound, only to flicker back off right after. She was probably out of Mana, having spent it all on the Spell protecting herself from the bleeding damage, and so it was spending each and every point of Mana she regenerated on the Spell as she got it.

She was still breathing heavily, but I was glad she was at least moving. Losing as much blood as she had would be enough to put anyone out of commission soon enough. Even with a barrier of Health and Mana to stem the damage, they’d each eventually run out.

“You have that ability from being a Dryad, the ‘touched by the grace of nature’ thing, right? What saved me from the Banestinger venom. It can heal wounds? Can it help her?”

“D…do not know. Will try as soon as possible, though! Hurry and help kill bad guy!”

“Okay, I will.”

“...You’re a fucking idiot, and you’re weak. Do you understand now?!” Xhag’duul finished a rant he’d been on for the entire time Ainash and I had been talking. I’d basically tuned it all out.

I nodded, just trying to keep him going while I wracked my mind for a solution. How did I get him to follow me? I only needed him to move a short distance, but ten paces to my left was a massive ask when he had his hands pinning me to the wall, just about ready to kill me. How could I convince him to move without making it obvious?

“Say it!” he screamed. “Before you get the pleasure of me ending your fucking misery, I need to hear you admit how fucking worthless you are. To think you’d dare call me incompetent when you’re so helpless, yourself.”

“I…” I coughed out a breath. Sweat beaded my forehead, the stress of standing on my own two legs almost too much to bear, at this point. “I’m still going to escape you.”

His eyes widened and he laughed incredulously. “Are you fucking serious? How do you expect to do that?”

“There’s help nearby. So I’m just going to run and get them.”

I ducked down, underneath the arm he’d put up against the cliff wall, and activated as many stacks of Expedite as my Mana would allow—5, bringing my Dexterity up to a staggering 185. But it didn’t matter if I could actually move very adeptly under the effects of the Spell, it just mattered that I was fast.

I dashed off, pushing myself off the ground with my one good leg.

One step.

Xhag’duul snarled and looked down at me. “Are you fucking stupid?”

Two steps. I stumbled slightly from the weight I put on my broken leg, but the massive boost in Dexterity helped.

He leaned away from the wall and turned to face me as I continued to sprint away.

Three steps.

He moved way faster than I could ever hope to, reached out, and grabbed me by my broken arm. I could feel the two ends of the bone scraping together inside my body, and let out a gasp of pain.

You have irritated an open wound. 19 damage.

Your Health is 27.

I hadn’t even moved three paces.

“How braindead are you?” Xhag’duul laughed. “You think you can escape me by running kind of fast?”

I tugged and pulled on his grip, ignoring the intense pain that flared in my arm with every jerk, and activated Noxious Grasp with the few points of Mana I had left. Hopefully I could annoy him into action.

“Holy shit, can you just stop trying for one fucking minute?!” He growled, grabbed my hand tightly, and then threw me in the opposite direction I’d been running. I tumbled ten, fifteen, twenty paces across the ground. It seemed to be his favorite thing to do—showing his dominance over someone by just throwing them across the area. He’d done it in every timeline, every chance he’d gotten. So of course he’d throw me directly away from the direction I’d shown so much desperation trying to reach.

And that was exactly why I’d gotten myself caught on purpose. Ainash needed me to go to the left. So I ran to the right, got caught by Xhag’duul, and had him do all the heavy lifting by having him literally throw me to my destination.

I sat up and watched as he slowly walked his way over to me. Trying to keep a smile off my face, I feigned horror as I kicked away. It wasn’t hard to fake being afraid and in pain, though, considering how afraid and in pain I was. I was already past the point Xhag’duul needed to be in, so it was just a matter of him crossing the area while trying to get to me.

“Are you ready?” I asked Ainash.

“Yes! Tell me when he is in position. Cannot see.”

He marched slowly toward me, obviously relishing in my terrified expression. “Everything seems to go wrong for you, doesn’t it, Arlan Nota? You can’t catch a break. Y’know, at first, I actually felt bad for you. Well, not at first. At first, I thought you were a disgusting piece of sub-sentient filth like the rest of the Humans. But I learned a bit more about your kind after forming that opinion, and discovered that Humanity isn’t actually as bad as the Demons make it out to be. So when I thought about it, you really seemed to just be a particularly unlucky one. You needed to die, but I didn’t think you deserved it. You were just an unfortunate being placed in unfortunate circumstances. An object of pity.”

He took step after step, pace after pace.

“Now? I’ve changed my mind. You deserve everything that’s happened to you. It’s not that everything goes wrong for you, it’s that you make it go wrong. You’re a disrespectful, stupid, conniving little weakling who can’t do anything without his unfair tricks. And now you’re all out of them, Arlan Nota. You have nothing left. Nothing to help you. And what are you reduced to? This sniveling little whelp. Humans are trash, but you’re even worse. You’re somehow subhuman. I’d almost say it’s an accomplishment, how awful you manage to be. You’re going to die at your worst, lowest moment. This is how I’ll remember you. I just want you to know that.”

He took one more step, placing himself perfectly in position.

“Now!” I mentally screamed to Ainash.

“Good, just keep bad guy in place for couple seconds!”

A couple more seconds? Okay. I’d just scream something to shock him enough that he’d stop in his tracks—the first thing that came to mind. “You’re going to fucking die!”

“How?!” He stopped and screamed back with equal intensity. Up in the tops of the cliffs, something rumbled, but he wasn’t paying attention. “How are you going to accomplish that?! You keep saying you’ll kill me, you keep saying you’ll escape, and yet you haven’t once shown me how you’re going to do so. Show me or face it! This is your last moment! You will die here, and I. Will. Live. So show me! Show me how I die! Because you are not going to kill me! I’ll kill you! I will not! Fucking! Die!”

And then the rumbling stopped, and I glanced up and saw it.

And then Xhag’duul fucking died.