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“How shall I explain? That is magic. Tamed, and bent for use, yes, but it is still magic. But it is not my magic. Not the magic of the fae. Not deep magic, which runs wild. If ye wish to study that magic, practice. Understand, by all means. But ye shall never see the wind if you think of it as something to be understood, to be learned. The wind is the wind. I ask you to see it, Ryoka. Not understand the why of it.”
Faith/spirit vs technical?
On one level she got what Ivolethe was saying. On another…how could you stare at something and not want to know why it was? But that was magic. Ivolethe’s magic. A moment of grace.
Us monkeys always wanting the why
grinning and shaking her head. “Showing off? That was the best time for it! You didn’t try. In that moment, ye were Ryoka at your most natural. You did not feel. You saw. And the wind saw you.” “I did it?” Ryoka stared at Ivolethe.
:)
It took all of Quallet’s willpower not to grimace at the stupid boast. A few fights? He’d heard the same line repeated a thousand times from a thousand soon-to-be-dead faces. A few scraps with fists, rocks, and maybe the occasional dagger wasn’t a real battle.
:(
What an ironic word. But it was true, and it drew attention back to him. Quallet strode back and forth, speaking to the crowd as they watched him. “Yes, safe! As safe as war can be! You’ll see combat, true enough, but you won’t die like Bloodflies in my company. Eight out of every ten raw recruits that serves under me survives their first month.
Oo
But if they’re honest, they’ll tell you my company is the way to go for those of you who want to survive.” Quallet pointed at the haggard [Sergeant] recruiting for the Raverian fighters. The man gave him a haunted look as Quallet raised his voice. “Over there lies glory. Glory. The glory of the brave and the dead. If you’re seeking battles to test your mettle, sign up by all means. But join my company if you prefer to fight and live.” ---- It worked. It always worked, especially when you had an ill-fated company you could point at as a reminder of what could go wrong.
Oo
Quallet was just glad he’d had the opportunity to impress on them that this wasn’t a game. With luck, he’d have another opportunity before it came to battle as well. Every time he showed these raw soldiers what fighting was like, was another life he’d save when it came to their first night on duty.
:(
Blank looks. Quallet couldn’t believe this. “The undead! The restless souls that rise from unburied corpses and in places of power! Have you never seen one before?” They hadn’t. Xor had to actually rub at his head’s eyes with his hands and Raeh looked incredulous. The other Lizardfolk were staring at the Humans as if they were idiots. The Centaurs were making a joke of the entire thing as they laughed amongst themselves. “The dead rise. Zombies, skeletons, ghouls…they get worse with time and depending on the corpse and amount of death. A [Necromancer] can raise them and command them, but
...more
Freaking paradigm shift. At least they had zombie movies as some kind of mental referrence
He spoke crisply, trying to dismiss their sudden dismay. “I said it was better work than fighting, didn’t I? You’ll be up against zombies and the like mostly. Nothing dangerous. A rotting corpse might be a threat, but it’s better than a veteran with a magical blade. Each night when the fighting stops we’ll go into the battlefield, between the armies often, and handle the dead.
Oo
Quallet raised his voice. “That’s why we’re practicing! Now, your duties are simple. You’ll be working in teams, spread out to cover ground. If you find a body—you bring it over. Yes, they’ll be rotting, yes it will smell. And you will stab it through the head before you come, in case it’s rising.
Oo
Aiko’s face turned dead white. She stepped back and put a hand to her mouth. But she didn’t throw up. Instead, Aiko looked at Ken, a mortal horror in her eyes. He recognized it, because it was the same terrible feeling in him. Zombies were real. Magic was real. They were in a fantasy world. Only it wasn’t wonderful. It was just as bad as any anime, only worse.
Because it was real and you can't get out
suspicious or afraid they’d been caught up in a trap. They departed secretly in the night, or openly in larger groups. A little over half of the original number had stayed together. The Americans, Australians, and some other people from European countries stuck together, and a lot of other people from countries with no friends came as well.
Oo
“It’s a war, Ken. Believe me, wars are never safe.” The next day they arrived at the battlefield, a wide valley many kilometers long, where two armies sortied from camps on hilltops and met in the valley floor. Hundreds of bodies fell each hour and the screaming— Oh, the screaming.
I mean it's safer than cannon fodder but ...
And the screams of those left on the battlefield. There were wounded there, unable to be recovered or too injured to be saved with healing potions. Some of the Humans in Quallet’s company paled from the sounds. Others threw up. All normal. Quallet gritted his teeth as he saw Exara bring her small company down the slopes, a shining banner raised and illuminating their forces.
Oo
They’d been petrified fighting the zombies, but now they had the look. It was the look that told Quallet they might survive this night. It wasn’t bravery or bravado. It wasn’t the thrill of battle, but the will to survive. That was what they needed.
:(
And yet, therein lay the irony of surgery, of Geneva’s profession. To become a great surgeon, one capable of taking on the hardest challenges, one had to practice. But no one trusted a new surgeon. And yet, a surgeon had to operate, and thus, make mistakes to grow experienced. In short, it always came back to the same contradiction: a surgeon grew from the patients who died under her care. It wasn’t always like that of course. That was a harsh generalization. In another hospital, there would be veterans, older doctors, and other surgeons on standby who could help out in an emergency. But part
...more
Oo
it would force the helpless doctors and medics to make the hardest choices. They’d have to balance who would live and who would die, and who would be easier to save. They could save one life while ten more passed, or save ten and let the one die.
:(
The living came to be saved, and then went back to kill or be killed the next day. Geneva had struggled with that knowledge, wondering if she was doing the right thing. She didn’t know. She only knew that she had sworn an oath. If there was a life she could save, she did. There was no one else who could. In Baleros, a continent that bled, Geneva was the only [Doctor].
:(
Ken glanced at the two Dullahans, one male, one female, but neither reacted to the statement. Probably because it was fact. A Zombie Dullahan was a nightmare to fight, mainly because of their armor and the fact that their head might be lying on the ground, making putting them down again that much harder. You had to batter them to pieces unless you found the head.
Oo
“Stay together. Watch for anything—” “Look! The Captain!” Aiko cried out. Ken saw their company’s captain, Quallet Marshhand, sprinting in the direction of the scream. He shouted, and Ken saw a blur of movement heading towards him.
I mean props for protecting his people
“Ah, yes. I know Dullahans and Centaurs. But there are other species, yes?” “Yes!” Quexa laughed at Ken and the other Lizardfolk immediately shouted out names of species. “Ever seen a Selphid?” “What about a Fraerling? Ever stepped on one?”
Omg poor Fraerlings
Ken shivered and Quexa noticed. “Don’t worry! Selphids don’t steal living bodies. Or they’re not supposed to. They did that in the past, you know? Only, now if they do it we kill them. So they steal corpses! They live inside them. That’s a Selphid. I’d show you a Gazer, but I don’t think you’d see many in a Centaur-led army or a Dullahan one. They keep to themselves, mainly.”
Oo
Johanas looked worried, but Ken was not. Another aspect of Lizardfolk culture went into his staring. “I think they do not mind. How can I say…? They like to be acknowledged.” “What?” The other young man gave Ken a skeptical look, but Ken’s theory was proven true in a few moments. Far from taking offense at Ken’s obvious study of his body, the Naga instead grinned. He twisted his body around, showing off his serpentine features much to the approval of the Lizardfolk watching him. “He is one of the Lizardfolk, I think.”
It must be hard work to evolve all that
And it was all based on armor. Every Dullahan had armor. But the type of armor, quality, and materials differed on each Dullahan. It was like clothing, only more intimate. It was a reflection of their personality and, Ken now understood, their social standing. In a group, the Dullahans with the most impressive armor always spoke first,
Hmm
Ken met Etretta’s eyes for only a moment before looking away. He had a sense that staring at a Dullahan’s head was too intimate. By contrast, staring at their armor was a sign of respect. Again, his intuition paid off. Etretta cradled her head, growing visibly more relaxed as she and the others rested their heads on the ground or their laps,
Oo
The work was still desperate, still dirty, and this time, Kenjiro slipped while carrying a Dullahan’s corpse and found a pile of maggots squirming down his armor. He lost what food he’d eaten, but it was a Dullahan, Lethic, who pulled him up. Quexa burned the maggots off the front of his armor as Luan and Aiko helped get the rest out from under his armor.
D:
but yay friends?
He could understand [Polite Demeanor]—apparently it made him look and smell less like someone who lifted corpses each day. According to Luan and Aiko, it made them want to talk to him more than anyone else, if only to escape the foul odor everyone else in the company had.
:)
competing for first place with Drakes and Minotaurs, although Ken had never met representatives of those species. Centaurs were touchy, prideful, and reminded Ken a bit of his grandmother. They didn’t accept bad manners at all, and the slightest offense was instantly corrected, regardless if it caused trouble for all parties involved.
Oo
That was the first. There were five more to go. Ken watched another body go in as a group of ragged Human soldiers stared at the tent. Hours passed—Quexa told him it was minutes.
:(
Geneva didn’t calculate her success rate as she worked. If she did, she would have given up long ago in despair. But she couldn’t ignore the brutal arithmetic of life and death.
:(
She didn’t worry about infection or disease—her leveling up had granted her the invaluable Skill of [Sterile Field], an upgrade over [Sterile Equipment]. Nothing in a radius around her would be affected by unsanitary conditions, although they would if they left her presence.
Thank you class system because jebus without it? Terrifying
revealed to be possessing a live body, she would be destroyed, she had no doubt. And yet, Geneva would be paralyzed without her. For all the [Doctor]’s genius, she had no knowledge of a way to cure damage to the spinal cord, and she had been struck by Thriss’ mace on the back of her neck. She would die, unable to move anything but her head
:(
“As long as it takes. If there is any Human, any person in this world that can save our people from the Wasting, it is her. Allow her to reach Level 30, and then, perhaps suggest to her that it is time to leave. I do not like the way this battle is going. Both sides are growing far more…savage.”
Oo
They were a pest. But they were cute. Ken felt that should have saved the Beriats as he watched the Lizardfolk happily skin them and roast them over a fire. They had brightened up everyone’s day, and now they were dead, made into hot food the Lizardfolk did indeed share around. It was fitting of Baleros, of this place with as many horrors as marvels. Ken just wished the Beriats didn’t taste so good. He tactfully did not eat his portion anywhere around Aiko, but he was too hungry for hot meat to turn it down when Quexa offered. Not to mention that it would have offended the Lizardgirl to have
...more
I mean bunnies are cute too. It's just that most of us are VERY separate from our meat sources
They were Dullahans, only…not. To Ken, it was like seeing a miniature robot warrior, like Gundam, a giant of metal and motion. But they were Dullahans. They had all the features of a Dullahan, only their armor had been scaled up in a massive way. But their heads were the same size. It would have been ludicrous, with the tiny helmeted heads of the Dullahan on top
Oo
It was so sudden, so abrupt, that Ken only felt the impact as a rush of hot air blasted him and the others in the camp. His eyes were searing, and when he looked again— A huge hole of scorched bodies had appeared in the center of the Dullahan’s formations. Around the area of death, soldiers ran screaming, bodies aflame. Still more fell, choking, as the hot air and smoke suffocated them.
Magic napalm
“Luan, I have an idea.” “Does it involve us risking our lives?” Ken nodded. Luan blew out his cheeks. Then he looked at the battlefield, at the wounded. “It is worth dying for?” “Nothing is worth dying for. But this—this is worth living for.”
:(
“I warned you. This world is not yours, Geneva. There is no mercy here. No quarter. Your world is gentler, nobler, I think.” Geneva stared at the burning camp. She felt something wild, hysterical, bubbling up inside her. She laughed. “No. It’s the same. The exact same.” The same as the worst of her world.
Just less extreme range weapond
“I will do no harm. I will not let my patients come to harm. I will do what I can to save lives.” “Noble.” The female Dullahan nodded. She looked at Geneva and shook her head. “But flawed. This is war. And in war, we do what we must.” She ran Geneva through, blade plunging into her stomach. Geneva gasped, stumbled back, and fell. The Dullahan stabbed her in the stomach twice more, and then bent. She cut Geneva’s throat and turned away. “There’s one more. The helper. Find her. Kill her. The two [Medics] don’t have their Skills. Let’s go before that damn Selphid gets to us.”
><
Pisces was already taking bets from Jelaqua and Typhenous on whether it would come to a fight. “It’s never boring here. Never. I could eat and watch this all day if I wasn’t worried my body’s stomach would explode.” Erin ignored the Selphid’s comment
:)
“Not a Guild, Miss Erin. An association.” Erin stared. She could do a blank stare incredibly well, and, what most people didn’t know, she could do it even when she knew what was going on. Sometimes she did it just to annoy Ryoka or Pisces.
;)
She assumed it was a Monday. It would have felt so wrong if it were a Thursday.
:)
“Touch the board and you will regret it.” Erin smiled pleasantly at the Gnoll, without a trace of the anger she’d directed towards Agnes and the others. She loved Mrsha, and Mrsha knew that. The Gnoll cub looked into Erin’s smiling face, turned, and ran yelping up into her room.
Heh
There was a silence in her mind. A quietus, that overwhelmed the sounds of Olesm chattering and the Soldiers covertly feeding Mrsha scraps of fish when Lyonette wasn’t looking.
Aww even they aren't immune to the fluffy
She remembered. It was lonely, playing alone. It was hard to be by yourself. There was no one who could understand what you were doing when you played with other students over lunch. You had to search for people like you, but it was so hard to find someone who could see what you saw. The higher you went, the lonelier it got.
Hmm
“I think so. It’s starting to grow little hairs, look!” Mrsha was excitedly sniffing at the bee. Erin backed away towards the kitchen, hands raised. Drassi was trying to hide behind Ryoka and Ryoka was trying to prevent Ivolethe from attacking the bee. “It looks great Lyonette, really. But why don’t you put it in your room before Ivolethe attacks?
Lol
For both genders. Gnolls kept coming up to Erin and asking about the bow. “Hrr. Yew, yes? Would you mind if I felt it?” “Good construction. Do you shoot?” “We should hunt together sometime. A bow like that deserves use.” The lesson for the day was that Gnolls were weird about bows.
:)
Do you have anything less cheese related?” “How about fish? Lyonette had one jump out at her and she beat it to death with a bucket. Sound good?” “That would be excellent. Can you make it spicy?” “Will do! Oh,
Heh
I was lenient in this. Far too lenient, perhaps. But everyone saw. Next time, if she’s stupid enough for a next time, I’ll have to get nasty. I don’t want to imagine what I’ll do, I only know that it will be unpleasant for me—and quite unpleasant for her. I don’t fully care. Sometimes you have to trample over people, I guess. That’s what it means to rule. She’ll obey, or I’ll have to crush her— Wait, crush her? Where did that thought come from?
The class comes with some character overwrites it seems
Humans could predict the future in simple ways like this. They could see the apple and know it would fall. However, Ivolethe and her kind were different. The fae could see the apple and know what would happen if it was caught, what would happen if it landed, and what would happen if an arrow shot it out of the air during an archery competition.
Oo
