He Who Fights With Monsters 8 (He Who Fights with Monsters, #8)

by Shirtaloon

“Because there are worse things in the dark than monsters,”

“You generalists will get to see how proper adventurers do it.” “We appreciate that,” Rufus said congenially. “It’s always good to see how well things can go so long as nothing goes wrong, causing everyone to die because they’re overspecialised and don’t have a gold-ranker protecting them anymore.”

Gellers were known for assembling powerful groups around them, but Team Biscuit was building a reputation for being a cluster of oddities. Only Geller himself seemed normal. There was a pair of thieves, the sarcastic and muscular healer and the magic researcher known for detesting the Magic Society.

Noreth, Jason’s sometimes-ally, sometimes enemy, once advised him to make his aura the centrepiece of his adventuring toolkit. While he had never trusted Noreth, he did believe the former familiar's general intentions were good.

Clive was the only one who had thus far realised its true nature; he was roaming around inside Jason’s soul.

“Death is death, and horror is horror; we’ve all seen the people we couldn’t save. Counting the dead doesn’t make one person’s experience more important than another’s.”

None of them came to me out of the kindness of their hearts. They all needed a tool and I was the one sitting on the workbench.”

Just because they don't want you to see the secrets of the universe doesn't mean that you won't. You may not know this about me, but I'm not big on doing what I'm told.” “Yes, I’m definitely finding that out for the first time now,” Clive said dryly,

“How could you possibly just know that? The only way that could happen would be if, during your time away, you mysteriously gained an intrinsic insight into the underpinnings of physical reality and how it interacts with dimension forces on a cosmic scale at a profoundly fundamental level. Which would be absurd, even for you.” Jason awkwardly shrugged as he scratched his neck and gave Clive an embarrassed smile. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” “Okay,” Jason said, holding his hands up. “So, I found this magic door…”

“Yeah, this is terrible,” Neil mumbled around a mouthful of food. “Give me that pot and I’ll take it away for you.” Rufus conjured a golden blade and casually sat it on the table. “Or I could leave it there,” Neil corrected himself.

“People can’t betray you if you didn’t trust them in the first place.”

“You mean the day I was sucked into another universe, found out magic is real, almost got sacrificed by a cult, killed a bunch of people, found a cannibal kitchen and got magic powers? It rings a bell.”

“Careful, my throbbing magic wand.

Did I mention I'm super-rich?” “How rich?” “This one time, I killed and looted Dawn.” “WHAT?”

In the upper echelons of society, along with those they used and those who used them, politics was the battlefield and information the weapon. To know the needs, desires and fears of a rival was to have a power over them as great as any essence ability.

“Finding it does not make it your responsibility to resolve. You don’t have to be the one to solve every problem, Mr Asano.” Jason blinked, slightly taken aback. “I don’t, do I?” he realised. “That’s actually nice to hear. Really nice to hear. Um, good luck fighting evil, then. I’m going to go back to my team.”

“I used to find that kind of thing exciting. Now it’s just Tuesday.” “What’s Tuesday?”

“This is nostalgic,” Jason said as his team moved out. “All of us back together, roaming through the ruins of a weird magic city.” “How about you don’t die this time,” Neil said. “Neil, you’re such a sweetie,” Jason said. “I just don’t want to go back to mediocre food.” “Such a tsundere.” “Shut up,”

“Scout is a dangerous position,” Belinda explained. “I’ve got the backup snacks.”

“As team leader,” Humphrey said, “I'm going to have to overrule you, Belinda. If it's cake sandwiches, you absolutely must prioritise them over stopping Neil from getting stabbed. He has to take some responsibility for himself.”

“Who would stab Clive?” Sophie asked through team chat. “Everyone loves Clive.” “Yeah.” “Agreed.” “Definitely.” “Except his wife.” “Dammit, Jason!”

“I’ve made a decision as team leader,” he announced. “We are now letting Jason get stabbed.” “Oh, come on,” Jason complained. “That's hardly—” Humphrey grabbed the front of Jason’s combat robes and threw him off the tower.

“This place is a toy,” Jason said. “It’s not a real city; it’s a one-to-one scale model built by someone who doesn’t understand people.”

“Why are you holding your sword like that?” Humphrey asked. “Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword—” “Never mind.”

While not above a bit of backstabbing, they all understood that the true enemy was an unclean world.

“You’re the one who said something right before. I should have kept my mouth shut.” “That’s been true since the day we met, but even killing you doesn’t get the job done.”

“Soph, you're a stupidly gorgeous woman with silver hair who kicks people in the face when she gets mildly annoyed. What part of that suggests 'slipping away quietly' is the approach for you?”

“You know me,” Jason grunted. “Bad ideas are kind of my thing.”

“When your soul is in the wringer, the passage of time gets very hard to track accurately.”

“Other people’s souls instinctively recognise the power I will have over them here. Unless they trust me completely, they’ll be boxed out. Even if they want to risk it, their souls won’t let them. They can’t be forced in, even by themselves, any more than they can be into a hostile portal.”

“That was why you were so emotional after we came here,” he said. “And why you waited so long to show us. We’d been wondering.”

“You can’t rank up enough to fight gods.” “Not with that attitude.

“We all take on burdens as we go through life,” Jason said. “It gets heavier for everyone.”

Humphrey guessed that Jason utilised some of that power to help him, but he didn’t ask if that was the case. Given that they were inside Jason’s soul, the intimacy and trust of that act left Humphrey unsure if he’d be disappointed to just be imagining it.

Hey, Rhett, let's give up the amphora business and join the church of religious crackpottery.’”

“Maybe he finds us intimidating.” “Yeah, I bet spooky blood-robe guy finds us terrifying.” “Well, maybe if someone let me wear my pointy hat.” “That hat is not intimidating.” “It is so. And it’s magical.” “It stores beverages!” “Well, he didn’t know that!”

It is to touch the infinite; it cannot be encapsulated.” “I know a guy who’ll sell you mushrooms that do something similar,” Belinda said.

“But as Jason said, that kind of power can be lonely. Even enemies are somewhat friends because there are so few who know what you know and have seen what you've seen. It's isolating, taking you away from mortality, both literally and figuratively. I am not much easier to kill than a god.”

“So your boss sent you to me, knowing I’d drag you into the muck,”

“I am not largely an advocate for ignorance,” Shade said, “but in this instance, I offer with all goodwill my hope that you retain yours in perpetuity.”

“We’re not all delicate flowers like you, Asano. You think some creepy ocean doodle forest is enough to catch me? I blew past that thing so fast I doubt it even realised I was there.” “Doodle forest?” “I’m getting back to work.”

“How old are you?” “I don’t know. Until civilisations started measuring time, it never occurred to me to keep track.”

Mr Asano has been in a knife fight with the Builder. He has sacrificed his life to save cities on two worlds and fought whole organisations while his allies acted more like enemies. He’s travelled between dimensions and saved his own world more than once. He’s channelled forces that would annihilate diamond-rankers and remade sections of reality in his own image. He has encroached on the domain of gods. You have spent more time fighting monsters than him, yes, but he has fought them by the tens of thousands. Whole cities overrun as he desperately scrambled to save their inhabitants, knowing that he would fail countless people who would die drenched in fear and pain.”

“He knows what it is to face the enemies in front of you and to carry the burden of lives he failed to save, in spite of his determination. He knows the helplessness of a nebulous enemy that acts with seeming impunity. He understands the price that taking those fights levies on the soul. He will help you, Lady Liara, and be glad to do so.”

“You look at where you are, where you want to be, and then decide if you're willing to pay the price of walking between those two points. Almost anything can be accomplished if you have the resolve, but you have to be able to see the path.”

“We can let Jason play guard dog. He’s the only silver-ranker I’ve seen who looks at a gold-ranker causing him trouble and is just relieved it’s not a diamond-ranker or worse.”

always make good choices.” “Of course you do. Now, let’s go back to figuring out how to use the random stuff you picked up from great astral beings with questionable motives and immediately shoved into your soul.”

“I’ll do my best, Lord Amouz. And my best is pretty bloody good.”

“Builder, Purity,” Clive muttered bitterly. “They keep doing these things to people. When do we go back to fighting monsters?” “We are fighting monsters,” Neil told him. “And we’re going to kill them all.”

“That’s why we have plan B,” Jason said. “I don’t like plan B.” “That’s why it’s not plan A,” Jason told her.