by Logan Jacobs
I couldn’t wait to get more followers and more believers in each town I visited. I was about to change the world, the people here just didn’t know it yet.
But they were about to find out exactly who I was.
Chapter Five
The sun rose with a vengeance and cast its heat down upon our faces as we rode toward the east. There was a nice breeze blowing, though, so the sun’s rays weren’t intolerable, and I gawked around at the scenery like a kid in a candy store. It was breathtakingly beautiful, with mountain slopes covered in evergreens winding down to the river on our right side.
The mountains were topped with snowcaps, and I wondered how many unknown treasures laid upon the slopes. In every video game I’d ever played, there were always caves and bandit hideouts located out in the hills, so I was tempted to go exploring. We’d have time for more unmapped adventures on our way home, though, and I wanted to get to Carleone before the end of the day, so we didn’t stop.
I rode Goliath, Elissa rode Star, and Mahini sat astride her mule, Warrior. Each of us had saddlebags filled with supplies, clothes, and other gear, but we would pick up more food and camping necessities in the next town. Bastianville’s general store’s shelves were pathetically low, but I was sure Carleone would have more provisions available, and it was only a half a day’s ride away. With my armor reflecting the light of the sun, Lissy’s red hair glinting like flames, and Mahini’s cool blue eyes scanning every step, we made quite the trio, and I was positive we’d be the talk of the town by nightfall.
We just had to get there first, though.
I clucked to Goliath and tapped his sides with my heels to increase our pace a little, but I soon realized I wasn’t prepared to bounce up and down on the steed’s massive back. My ass jolted out of the saddle with every stride, but after a while of struggling to keep my seat, I settled into a rhythm that was more comfortable.
Then we came to the river, and I was dismayed to discover the bridge was broken. The pieces of wood clung together in a solid mass collecting silt, but there was no way across except by foot.
I knew horses could swim, but the water was moving so fast in that location I didn’t want to risk it. So, we backtracked, and we kept the river in view while we looked for a better crossing spot.
After a while, I saw a wide, shallow area where the water didn’t flow as fast, and the three of us turned our horses’ heads toward the river. The beasts of burden didn’t hesitate to clomp into the waves, and then the three of us aimed for the opposing shoreline.
As we were coming out the other side, I heard a noise up ahead, so I lifted my fist to signal for my women to wait, and I listened carefully. It sounded like an animal scuffling through the underbrush, but I heard a faint clicking of armor.
Then I spotted the green scales of a kobold, and I held my breath while I tried to count them. Five of the lizard men ran through the brushes ahead of us, two of them carried crossbows, and the other three held their barbaric swords.
“There’s five kobolds on the path ahead,” I informed Mahini and Elissa.
The desert goddess immediately pulled her bow from her shoulders and notched an arrow to the string. Elissa’s face darkened with worry, but I maneuvered Goliath around so I could pat her affectionately on the leg.
“What’s wrong?” I asked with concern in my voice.
“I-I’ve never been in a battle before,” she replied softly, and then her green eyes welled up with unshed tears. “I’m scared, Bash.”
“This is a good chance for you to face your fears,” I pointed out. “You’re completely safe with Mahini and me, but I think it’s time you learned a couple things about self-defense.”
“What are your orders?” Mahini asked in a low voice as her piercing blue eyes scanned the tree line.
“You stay here and protect Elissa and the horses,” I explained. “I’ll move ahead and eliminate them. I don’t want to have them following us, or run into them by surprise later.”
“What do I do?” Elissa asked as she worried her pink bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t know how to fight.”
“Take a sword,” I said, and I handed her the blade I’d scavenged from the Loser Lord. Then I slid off Goliath’s back in a slightly less graceful motion than I’d intended, and I pulled my feather sword and curved dagger out from their sheaths. “Stab anything that gets within reach of your blade, but don’t worry, okay? Mahini will keep you safe.”
“I swear it,” the desert goddess echoed with a firm nod, and then she gave Elissa an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry. Bash will handle the kobolds. We’ll probably be bored the entire time.”
With that settled, I nodded to Mahini and then took off into the woods. I could still hear the distant scuffling of the small kobold warband, but I made sure to keep far enough downwind that they wouldn’t catch on to my presence.
I made a new save point as I paused on the edge of the tree line, and I watched the kobolds take off toward a settlement further ahead to the east. It was a walled city, but from this distance I couldn’t make out any details.
The bow-bolds stayed back while the other three ran forward, so I snuck up behind them. I positioned myself behind one of the kobolds so his comrade wouldn’t see me, and then I jumped up, grabbed him from behind, and dragged my dagger across his throat.
Slimy green blood covered my hand instantly, but I ignored the gore as I held the kobold in front of me and spun to face the other bow-bold.
True to form, the crossbow wielding kobold fired a bolt at me, but it ended up lodged in his dead friend’s stomach instead of mine. Then I discarded the corpse and took advantage of the bow-bold’s need to reload its weapon.
I charged the other crossbow wielder and swiveled my feather sword with my right hand, just like I’d seen in movies. The lizard man managed to get a bolt locked into the track and brought his weapon up to fire at me, but I was expecting that, and I used my sword to knock the bolt out of the air and to the ground.
Then I grabbed the crossbow in my dagger hand, shoved it upward, and drove my feather sword home into the beast’s heart. He let out a pained cry, and I cursed when I heard the other three kobolds stop in their tracks.
As my second victim fell to the ground, I spun to find myself faced with three kobolds and their drawn swords. I ran backward, and I kept them in view while I jogged back toward the river.
I’d get Mahini to pick them off with her bow while I kept them busy.
When I turned to scan the shoreline for my women, I noticed they were in the midst of their own battle with two other kobolds that weren’t with the group I’d followed. Mahini shot arrow after arrow at the approaching lizard men, but they managed to dodge the majority of the projectiles. They were only a few paces away from Star, with Elissa astride the horse holding Lucian’s old sword.
I watched with bated breath to see what she would do, but I continued to move toward them just in case. If things got too dangerous for the delicate redhead, I would step in and take care of it, but it looked like she had it handled for the moment.
I knew better than to try to throw the curved dagger I’d gotten from the sorcerer Raijin Thornheart, since the curve of the blade made it unbalanced as a throwing knife, so I ran as fast as I could while keeping my eyes locked onto my wife.
Elissa slashed down at the kobold from her horse’s back, and she managed to sever the creature’s sword arm. The lizard man screeched, picked up his blade with his left hand, and raised it over his head, and the next thing I knew, there was a sword jutting out the back of its skull.
She’d done it.
Elissa had killed the kobold attacking her.
Pride swelled inside my chest, but I didn’t have time to congratulate her, since Mahini was still scuffling with a kobold who was attacking her mule.
The lizard man was on all four legs, and it snapped at the mule’s feet with its fangs. Warrior wasn’t having any of it, though, and the beast of burden rose up on its hind legs and t
hen brought its front hooves down onto the kobold.
Warrior stomped the kobold into mush beneath his hooved feet, and I pumped my fist up into the air.
“Bash!” Mahini’s voice cut through my victory dance. “Behind you!”
I spun to find the kobolds had caught up to me, and they charged in unison with their notched swords raised toward my throat. I blocked one sword with my own and caught a second on my gauntlets, but the third blade slid across my leg. It left a painful gash in its wake, and I cursed as I hobbled backward.
Suddenly, an arrow shot over my shoulder and embedded itself deep into a kobold’s eye socket. Mahini’s aim was spot on, and with the desert goddess’ help, I managed to drive my blades into both remaining kobolds with a few slashes of my feather sword.
Once the kobolds were all dead, I caught my breath and analyzed the wound on my leg. It wasn’t nearly as deep as I’d anticipated and would likely heal on its own in a few days.
I considered respawning so I could take out the kobolds without being injured, but then I heard Elissa call my name.
“Bash!” the redhead wailed.
My blood ran cold at the fear and upset obvious in her voice, and I dashed across the distance to her. She sat with a dejected expression on her beautiful face, and her emerald green eyes were locked onto her hands. A pool of blood marred the freckled paleness of her skin, and when I wiped it clean, the wound gushed out a fresh supply.
“It hurts!” Tears welled up in her eyes, but they didn’t spill over. She was stronger than she looked.
“It’s okay,” I lied, but I knew there was no way I was going to let my beautiful woman get a single cut on her body, even if it meant her learning how to protect herself. I’d find a way to give her the experience while also keeping her completely safe.
“I killed it, Bash!” Elissa wailed, and the tears were set free in a torrential downpour. They dripped off her dainty chin and onto her hands, and they splattered the drop of kobold blood with salt water. “It was a living thing, and I killed it!”
“What?” I shook my head in confusion. “Darling, it was trying to kill you!”
“I-I’ve never killed anything b-before…” Elissa bit her bottom lip and gave me such a pathetic look I thought my heart was going to break.
I thought back to the first time I’d taken a life in the Great Catacombs. It had hit me pretty hard, but once I’d realized my only way out was me or them, then I’d taken on a different attitude. I was sure Elissa would come around, she was just in shock.
Still, I didn’t want to have my wife traumatized by the experience if I didn’t have to, so I reloaded my save point and respawned to the moment where I first spotted the kobolds.
Chime.
I was squatting in the brush just inside the tree line, and the five kobolds trotted past me, but I turned around and ran back to my horses and women. The bastards who’d attacked Mahini and Elissa had to have separated from the rest of the pack before I spotted them, so I intended to find them and eliminate one of them before they could attack my women. That way Mahini and I could focus on helping Elissa without her getting hurt.
I wasn’t quite fast enough, though, and the two kobolds broke free from their cover in the same moment I spotted Mahini. The desert goddess fired two arrows in rapid succession, but the lizard men managed to dodge the projectiles by jumping down onto all fours.
I ran at full speed with my sword and dagger in my hands, but the kobolds were already on the shore of the river.
Then Mahini drew her sword and squared up to one of the kobolds who held up a nasty serrated blade. I was torn between helping her and preventing my wife from being traumatized when Elissa’s scream pierced the air, and I cursed under my breath as I ran even faster toward the redhead.
The sound of metal striking metal filled the forest air as Mahini fought off the kobold who’d dodged her arrows, and the alarmed noises the horses were making let me know just how little they appreciated being in the midst of a battle with gross lizard men.
Elissa swatted at the kobold with Lucian’s old sword, and the lizard creature snarled at her with his fangs glistening in the sunlight. She was doing even better this time, and I could see the fire of battle in her sparkling emerald eyes. I was still ten feet away when I saw her lift the sword up over her body, and she slammed it downward into the lizard man’s face. The blade entered the creature’s open mouth and protruded out the back of his skull. Then I saw Elissa’s palm scrape against one of the creature’s fangs, and bright red blood bloomed in its path.
I hadn’t been fast enough to prevent Elissa from getting injured, so I sighed and reloaded my save.
Chime.
I tried three more times, but I was never fast enough to stop the kobolds from approaching my women. I kept respawning to the moment where the lizard men had already spotted Mahini and Elissa, and each time my wife got better and better at killing one of the kobolds. She was always distraught afterward, but after a while I started to realize how it would be good for her in the long run.
My last three attempts did not end up with either Elissa, Mahini, or me injured, so on my last try I knew I could return my focus to the main horde and let the women handle the two stragglers. After I killed the two bow-bolds, the other three were easy to eliminate by using the lizard men’s own range weapons against them. I shot them in the back with bolts and then tossed the crossbow to the ground as I dashed back to the river.
I found Elissa and Mahini standing shoulder to shoulder as they stared down at the corpses at the horses’ feet. I quickly crossed the distance between us, and I pulled my wife into my arms. The second I grabbed her, the redhead’s shoulders began to shiver, and then she let out a torrential downpour of tears.
“I… killed it… and… I feel joy.”
“It’s okay, shhh,” I comforted the sobbing redhead as she buried her face into my chest. “You’re still you, don’t worry…”
“W-What i-if I start to l-like it?” Elissa cried out in a broken voice.
“Like what? Killing?” I had to laugh. “There is no way my delicate beautiful wife would be a bloodthirsty murderer after killing a few kobolds.”
I placed my fingers beneath her chin to lift her face up. Her emerald green eyes shimmered with tears, and her bottom lip quivered with emotion. Even in that moment, with her face tear streaked, and her hair disheveled, she was beyond breathtaking. I gave her a sweet, encouraging smile, and my heart sang when the corners of her lips twitched.
“The only person who can change you,” I told my wife in an earnest tone, “is you.”
“Promise?” she asked as she took a deep breath.
“I swear it.” I nodded to emphasize my point. “Trust me. I’m the God of Time, I know things.”
“That’s true.” Elissa finally smiled, and her eyes lit up like green diamonds. “Thank you, Bash. I’m okay, I think.”
“Of course,” I said, and I planted a soft kiss on her forehead as I held her against me in a tight embrace. “You were fantastic! But I think we need to teach you a few self-defense basics, that way you’ll know what to do in situations like that and won’t get scared.”
“If you’re traveling with me and Bash,” Mahini interjected with a wry smile, “you’ll be bound to run into some kind of trouble. Better to be prepared than be caught unawares.”
“Is that a Golden Sword saying?” Elissa asked as she scrunched up her dainty nose into a confused expression.
“Just a warrior’s thoughts,” the desert goddess replied.
“Okay,” Elissa said, and she gave us both a firm nod. “I will learn how to fight. I don’t want to always be the one being saved, after all…”
I let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding, and I squeezed her again, this time to comfort myself. I’d been so worried about her that I’d kept my shoulders stiff and my jaw clenched long after the fight was over, but I was proud of Elissa for protecting herself and holding her own against a kobold. S
he was far from being an experienced fighter, but she showed promise, and she had fire. Remembering the look in her eyes as she shoved her sword into the lizard man’s face made my heart beat quicken.
There was no way to say it: Warrior women were sexy as fuck.
After I made a new save point, I returned to the corpses of the kobold horde I’d killed, and I quickly removed anything that looked valuable from their bodies. I took most of their weapons, and with any luck I’d be able to sell them in Carleone. In the best-case scenario, I could fund the trip just by looting random enemies.
Once I’d lashed all the weapons to the backs of our horses and mule, the three of us remounted and followed the river back to the main road to Carleone. We’d already traveled for several hours, and the mining town was less than a day away from Bastianville, so I assumed the town I’d seen off in the distance earlier was our destination.
When we were back on the road, the path was easier to move along, so we moved faster than we had through the trees. Another hour or two passed before we spotted the walls of the city, and I pulled Goliath to a stop so I could drink in the sight of the new location.
Carleone was tucked between two mountains, and the walls filled the distance between the slopes. Even from this distance I could see the blurry dots moving about on the top of the barrier, so I knew the town had guards and sentries keeping watch. They probably could have handled the five kobolds easily, but with any luck one of the guards watched me fight them.
We would probably receive a much warmer reception if they knew we’d helped the town out.
The gate beneath the wall was open, and I saw two guards standing on either side of the entrance. I clucked to Goliath to urge him forward, and I patted him on the neck affectionately.
“Good boy,” I murmured in a loving tone, and then I turned to the two women who rode slightly behind me. “So, what do we know about Carleone?”
“Are you testing my knowledge, Bash?” Elissa asked with a twinkle in her eyes. “Or do you not know the history of the area?”