Everything Is Worth Killing- Isaac's Tale

by Alex Oakchest

  I hadn’t known what to expect. This was the opposite of the hrr-chare spell, so maybe a ball of magic snow?

  Instead, a volley of ice left my hands. Thin, pointed shards almost like arrows, flying from my palms like a fleet of spaceships heading for battle.

  I winced as they smashed into the hellgre and tore holes in him, gouging deep into its flesh, ripping its skin.

  A volley hit him from the other side, this one fired by Harrien. The hellgre gave a roar that came from deep inside him, all the way down in his stomach, where such a great beast hid his fear.

  Smeared with blood, covered in wounds, turning this way and that because he was trapped and didn’t know where the next volley of ice would come from, I almost felt sorry for him.

  It was now that I saw text try to intrude in my vision but I refused to look, instead focusing on the hellgre. A few seconds of this, and the message shrunk until I could see it as a little circle in the corner of my vision.

  I nodded at Tosvig now. He walked around, stood on the hellgre’s blindside, and taking advantage of its pain and shock, he raised his sword way above his head, yelled, and then plunged it into its skull.

  The hellgre’s eyes widened. Blood poured from its skull and ran down its face and over its red chest. It teetered on its feet, as if some small part of its brain were clinging to life, desperately seeking a way out of the trap.

  There was no way out to be found. A second later, the creature fell backward, smashing its head against the side of the hole. From then on, and for evermore, the hellgre was still.

  Even so, gotta be careful, right?

  I nodded at Tosvig, who once again pierced its skull with his sword.

  And that was how we cleared the forest of its hellgre and human sentries without any of us dying.

  “Everyone okai?” I asked.

  Malin looked whiter than the snow around us.

  “What’s wrong?” I said.

  He pointed at the dead hellgre. “No honor in kill as that.”

  Tosvig gave Malin a look that said something along the lines of, speak that stupid way again and I’ll tear your eyes out. “Honor? Never honor in death. Only question; our death or his? Isaac understand, yap? When can kill with no risk, then do. Young boy wouldn’t understand.”

  Harrien nodded. “We kill hellgre. We kill hellgre! Wait until tell Nino!”

  Tosvig crossed his arms. “Bird does not brag that it kills worm. We butcher and move. Death with purpose, but not smiles. But well done, young ones. Isaac, ged plan.”

  With that done, I remembered the text in the corner of my vision that tried to appear while we were slaughtering the hellgre.

  Ice elemental depleted! [Total remaining: 3]

  Discipline learned: Ice

  Spell learned: Hrr-Eisre

  [Cast a volley of dagger-sharp arrows from your hands. A base spell taught to young mages for its high-power versus low learning difficulty.]

  [Ice] discipline improved by 2%!

  Rank: Grey 2.00%

  So that was my fourth magic discipline and my fourth spell. I wondered how a mage would learn other spells in his disciplines. Studying guidebooks would be one method, but there had to be other ways of figuring them out. Ways of performing pauses that, when you hit the right combination, made a spell.

  What I really, really needed now was time. Time to work on this kind of thing, time to practice with my sword and my bow, time to just get fit. Run, do push-ups, whatever it took to prepare my body. In a place like this, even giving yourself a 1% advantage was worthwhile.

  Wasting no more time, I looted the hellgre for elementals.

  Elementals received:

  [Fire] x3

  [Corruption] x3

  Woah!

  This was something I hadn’t seen before. Not one elemental, but two different kinds. And not only that – three of each!

  It was something else to learn. If a creature had more than one element in its DNA – be it the magic it wielded, or its strengths or weaknesses, then it would leave more than one type of element when it died.

  Not only that. It just got better and better. It seemed that the bigger, or maybe more powerful, the creature, the more elementals it left behind. Maybe this was how the Lonehills had built a stockpile of them. I had presumed that one death equaled one elemental, but I was wrong.

  I was going to leave the elementals in my inventory and move on, but I had Harrien and Malin to think about.

  Did I share the elementals with them?

  Or should I just keep everything for myself?

  I guess I couldn’t just hoard everything, but there was a compromise I could make that would benefit me.

  “Harrien, Malin,” I said. “You keep three fire elemental and two corruption. I take corruption elemental and anything else. Yap?”

  Harrien shrugged. “Fine, Isaac.”

  Malin regarded me with scrutinous expression, as if he suspected me of a trick.

  Who, me? Really?

  “Okai…” he said.

  “Ged.”

  I placed the fire elementals and two corruption on the ground, keeping one corruption for myself. I then left the group and headed east a little, and I scouted the forest until I found what I needed; three more human corpses.

  I had made them agree that as long as they kept some elementals from the hellgre, then I could have everything else. They had forgotten about the human elementals, which were worth more given they could power any spell.

  Elementals received:

  [Human] x3 [Total:5]

  With three more human elementals, I felt better. I had used my spells as cautiously as I could while still making efforts to earn new ones, and where possible, I had used other means to stay alive. This meant I’d built up a decent stockpile of elementals.

  Elementals

  [Fire] x4

  [Human] x5

  [Ice x3]

  [Speed] x1

  [Mapping] x2

  [Sight] x1

  [Corruption] x1

  [Circle child] x1

  “Isaac,” said a voice. “Caim.”

  I wandered back to the others, where I was greeted by the sight of Tosvig butchering the hellgre.

  Yup, while Harrien watched with interest and Malin took a rest by sitting against a tree, Tosvig had chopped the hellgre’s arm off and was sitting cross-legged in front of it.

  “Caim, Isaac,” he said, beckoning me over with a smile on his face. “Come hear with eyes. Tosvig show.”

  And what Tosvig wanted to show me was how to cut the meat from a hellgre’s arm. It was quick but messy work, and I became weirdly fascinated by watching Tosvig work with a knife.

  Anyone would have noticed how skilled he was. How he made cuts as if he’d done them a hundred times before. I guessed he’d never butchered a hellgre before, but he’d lived in the wilds. He knew what to do with a carcass.

  He cut two slivers of meat from the lump of bicep he had already separated from the hellgre’s body. He handed one to me. “Try,” he said.

  The meat looked like steak. Raw, bloody…but maybe delicious, if it had been cooked.

  “You first,” I told him. It was a rule I had always lived by; when a green-skinned warrior slaughters a weird red ogre and offers you raw meat, make him eat it first to be certain he’s not playing a trick.

  Tosvig shrugged and popped the meat in his mouth.

  After watching that, I shrugged too. Why not try it? He clearly wasn’t trying to poison me.

  I chewed the hellgre's flesh and swallowed. The taste was nothing to brag about, but my stomach seemed to thank me for the morsel of protein. I began to feel a glow inside me, as if my poor belly was saying hey Isaac, thanks for the snack.

  But then the glow grew stronger.

  And stronger.

  Something was happening here…something that felt good!

  Buff received: Fire Blood

  [For 2 hours, any fire attacks, spells, or weapons will be three times more po
werful.]

  Now I was smiling like an idiot, and not just because I’d sated a small part of my hunger.

  A little piece of hellgre meat had just given me an amazing effect, making my hrr-chare spell three times stronger for the next two hours.

  Was this what happened when you ate elemental creatures?

  I had so many questions.

  “Tosvig,” I said.

  “Good, yap? Strong? Fire strength,” he said, grinning like a madman. He seemed so pleased with what he’d shown me that it was hard not to smile back.

  “All animals give strength?” I said.

  “Not all. Some give speed. Others protect. Sometimes, same animal mean different power.”

  Hmm. So I could eat meat from the same animal, and get a different effect. Interesting.

  “What I mean,” I said, “Is do all animals give effect?”

  “Na, Isaac. Only ones with elementals. And only when no cook.”

  “Have to eat raw?”

  “Cook means no effect.”

  I looked at the hellgre differently now. Even one of its arms held a whole heap of meat, which meant plenty of buffs. If we could butcher its whole body…

  “We take all of hellgre,” I said.

  Tosvig shook his head. “Go rotten if leave too long.” He patted his inventory bag. “No salt to make last longer. Used last salt before come back to camp. Can pack in ice, but still not last long.”

  Damn it, it was a good point. Without a way to stop it, the meat would go bad. Packing it ice would keep it fresh a little longer, but the ice would melt into water, and it wouldn’t help much.

  I just hated leaving a resource like that to waste. It kinda felt like an itch that I knew wouldn’t go away no matter how much I tried to stop thinking about it, except this was the kind of itch that could get me in a lot of trouble. It killed me to have to leave such a resource behind.

  Maybe we could take as much hellgre meat as possible and hope we got to the Tallsteep camp before it went bad.

  Look at the bright side, I told myself.

  I’d just learned something new. Another reason why this was a goddamn dangerous world. When you died, you didn’t just leave elementals behind; even your flesh gave temporary benefits.

  So what about mages? What about guys like Pendras who had learned countless spells over their lives? What kind of insane buffs would someone get from eating their flesh?

  This meant the more powerful a mage, the more valuable his flesh. And I already knew that human elementals were incredibly valuable to begin with. I suddenly felt like there might be a lot of people out there keen to have someone like me hanging on a butcher’s hook.

  It kinda put a downer on the day.

  After spending that afternoon digging a hole and killing a hellgre, we were exhausted. Harrien, Malin, and I slept while Tosvig took the first watch. When I woke up and decided to give him a break, Tosvig gave a nod, and he handed me something.

  Items received:

  Hellgre flesh pieces x12

  “Thankie,” I told him.

  “Na problem. Do not eat all at once. Bad if do. Hurt you. But also, must use before spoils.”

  I put the pieces of flesh in an empty jar in my inventory, and then I took Tosvig’s place as our sentry. For the rest of the night, the forest was silent save for the scurrying of hares in the distance.

  CHAPTER 26 - Gains

  “Nino!” cried Harrien.

  While Tosvig and I tried to keep our cool, and Malin walked behind us in his morose kind of way, Harrien tore away at the first sign of the Tallsteep camp.

  They already knew we were here, and some of the Lonehills came out to meet us. While the Lonehills used to protect their camp by using magic to hide it, the Tallsteeps didn’t possess those kinds of gifts, and instead relied on scouts hidden in the forestry around it. Hiding in trees, waiting in the brush in their green and brown shirts. The scouts had spotted us and told the camp, all without us seeing them.

  “I didn’t even get a glimpse of them,” I said. “They must be good scouts.”

  “Tosvig see.”

  “Oh yeah, where were they?”

  “Never mind where, no-color. Tosvig see.”

  “Point in vague direction where you saw.”

  “Tosvig see! Now make mouth stop words.”

  I’ve got to admit, I was happy to see the others. Nino, with his studious eyes that always narrowed as if he lived in a constant state of suspicion, and his upper lip with part of it missing. This was from a hunting accident, he’d told me. When he was younger, he’d always wanted to be a hunter but didn’t have the prowess, which was proven when he managed to hurt himself with a trap. So, he settled on becoming the clan’s inventory man, taking over after their last one died.

  Then there was Mardak, the burly cook who always smiled and had a bellowing voice that he once boasted caused an avalanche. I wasn’t too certain of the truth in that.

  Finally, Cleavon the doctor, who I had once seen put a young Lonehill boy out of his misery after a boulder crushed him, approached us. He was the first to speak, in the matter-of-fact way I’d come to expect from him.

  “Where Pendras? Where Siddel?”

  Tosvig shook his head.

  “Dead?”

  “No!” said Mardak, so loud that the Tallsteep clan members waiting over by camp stared at us. “Cannot be.”

  “Siddel, Pendras, others, all attacked by ogres,” I told them.

  “But the pact…”

  Tosvig spat. “When mouse makes pact with eagle, don’t cry when ends in belly.”

  “Really? Dead?”

  I nodded.

  “But really?”

  “Yes!” said Tosvig. “You guess we jest?”

  Mardak rubbed his face vigorously, as though the action would somehow restore the balance of reality.

  “Rosi?” I asked. “Did she return?”

  “Na.”

  “And what of Tosvig?” said Nino, looking at him. “We go to camp, but your promise was that you would not join Tallsteeps.”

  “Tosvig has covered many miles. Almost died. Killed some bastards. And even now, he will not set foot in the place that abandoned him. I will camp in forest, just a throw of the stone away. But at least my clan is safe here. That makes heart happy.”

  “I have news of bad intent, Tosvig,” said Mardak. “Tallsteeps say we must leave.”

  “Bastards.”

  “Practicalities,” said Cleavon. “We are in winter. Bodies must be fed. Tallsteeps have food for their bodies, no more for us.”

  “So we hunt. Na problem.”

  “They also believe bad omens fly over our heads as shadow.”

  “Cowards,” said Tosvig. “Cowards when abandon me as babe. Cowards now.”

  “They will let women stay to become Tallsteep bearers,” said Mardak. “Eight Tallsteep men are in need of mates of life.”

  “Our women will cut off their bastard peckers before they submit. Lonehills do not fear the winter.”

  “Four of our own are staying.”

  “And you let them?”

  “Let, Tosvig?” said Cleavon. “They follow their own paths, as every soul with thought is able.”

  “I mean not that way. Just…they stay? Here? I thought as temporary shield from danger, yap, but na to stay for all suns.”

  “It is their choice, good Tosvig.”

  “And what of us?” I asked.

  “We must push on,” said Mardak. “Gae north, where old clan home once was. Left because soil is sick, but it offers solitude and camouflage of location. Only place left, for now.”

  “We also need new chief,” said Cleavon. “When head is cut off worm, must grow anew, or walk blind.”

  “Worms do not have eyes. As healer, you must know.”

  “Not worm healer, you stew maker who inflates own importance.”

  “I nominate Isaac,” said a voice.

  I couldn’t believe what I had heard. It was Harrien, s
tanding next to Nino, and he didn’t look like he was joking. “Isaac show ideas to survive. Courage to push on. He thinks not like us.”

  Nobody said anything for a second.

  And then almost as if they shared the same brain, Tosvig, Malin, Nino, Cleavon, and Mardak all shook their heads.

  It was left to Tosvig to add words to their sentiment.

  “Not a chance no-color bastard becomes chief.”

  “Agree,” said Cleavon.

  “Yap,” said Nino. “Na way we let that.”

  You can say one thing about me; I sure as hell know how to unite people.

  Besides, Harrien was being ridiculous. I wasn’t capable of leading these people, and nor would I want to. I was still resolved to leave them as soon as I felt strong enough.

  “Tosvig, then?” said Harrien.

  Nino nudged the teenager and gave him a warning look.

  “Wa?” said Harrien. “Speak wrong?”

  Mardak looked at the ground. Nino seemed embarrassed. It was left to Cleavon to explain.

  “Tosvig is one of us, yap,” he said, “But not Lonehill born. With na magic, can na lead us.”

  “Then Mardak,” I said. “He has assumed some leadership already. He is respected. His circle is red; highest left, I think?”

  “Mardak is good choice,” said Nino. “Only choice fool tongue would say na.”

  Cleavon shrugged.

  “Then settled. We make trial for Mardak to be chief. Lead us until we reach safe place. Then, we discuss more.”

  Cleavon nodded. “Now, we go into camp. Tallsteep leader, Fergus, says can eat with them one last time, then must leave.”

  “I need fire and sleep,” said Harrien.

  The rest of them began walking toward the camp to go have one last meal among the Tallsteeps, who wouldn’t let them stay beyond that. I could see their tents, their campfire. It resembled the Lonehills’ camp in many ways. I actually thought that if the two clans could forget their differences and merge, they’d have the best of both worlds; magic and physical prowess.

  But no. If grudges could be wiped away with a few nice words, they weren’t worth being called grudges. I thought it was stupid. Both clans were willfully ignoring a way of increasing their survival chances massively.