Luke took a few breaths and listened intently to the environment. Aside from Garran’s movement around the clearing, and the little clattering noises of his skeleton’s movement to keep with the man, all was still. “I think we’re in the clear,” Luke said.
Garran reloaded his crossbow and flicked a safety on the trigger mechanism. “Where’d you learn to fight?” he asked. “The world you came from? Were you once a mighty warrior?”
Luke inhaled and had to laugh at that. “No. I did a bit of karate—sorry, a martial art, when I was a child.” He began using his sword to cut away at the thorny vines containing corpses of people who had been captured. “The body I’m in, my new body, that is, has combat training.”
Garran clicked his tongue. “Lucky you.”
Luke straightened up and began using Corpse Retainer, willing the forms to shed their flesh and rise as skeletons. As they were infused with the grey-white energy pouring from his palm, Luke said, “Well…I did wake up in a corpse. I’m not alive.”
For some reason, he was okay with that. He’d come to terms with the fact that being Undead was his lot, he was stuck in the body he had, and at least it could experience some joys of being alive. He could eat and drink, could still satisfy a woman, and there were a host of benefits like being immortal from aging. Not to mention, this body was far superior in physique to his old body from Earth. He was a lithe, well-muscled warrior.
For corpses, he’d been lucky.
“Question though,” Garran added. “Why do you care so much about doing what you’re doing?”
“Do you mean helping folks?” Luke asked as he finished raising the three skeletons, maxing out his Command Limit at 45 out of 46, which resulted in nine skeletons to protect his trapper companion. “Why shouldn’t I?”
Garran scratched his beard. “Well, you’re risking a lot for very little.”
“A writ of passage,” Luke replied as he used a Pale Flame Bolt to mend his minor Health damage. He then scanned the forest line at the edges of the clearing. “Which way next?”
Garran pointed to Luke’s left, and the duo headed into the growth, with Luke leading the way chopping the foliage when it got too dense for a straight passage, Garran a few feet behind, and the skeleton squadron flanking and encircling him. “A writ, eh? Gonna leave us?”
“I put the Grave Node in place at the fort,” Luke replied as he sliced through a thick vine. “It’s name is Alpha, if you want to go and talk to it.” He frowned. “Him, I guess.”
“How’s that work?”
Luke spent the next few minutes of travel explaining, and then once he had finished, added, “That’s what I’m going to do everywhere I can. Undead Outposts.”
“Still doesn’t answer my question about why you’re doing it,” Garran replied. “Sure, a writ of passage is well and good so Dawnbringers and other lawmen don’t just kill you once they realize what you are. But why use your powers to help out like you are? You could just set up a nice, cushy fortress and have eternal servants. Do it near a big city, and you could sell your skills and make a nice profit.”
Luke frowned at that and turned to face Garran. The forest had thickened to a jungle-like close environment, and as he stared at the trapper, Luke realized that he was driven by money. It was a stark reminder that, just like on Earth, in the end, people were out for themselves. Some would work for a greater good, some would help others, but most people, ultimately, just wanted to live their lives. The reaffirmation of how this world functioned was cloying, like the thick plants around them.
“I had all the information,” Luke said, keeping his voice low and serious. “I tried to make the world a better place, but the greed of others at the top of society kept me from doing that. Now? I have the power to make the world a better place. I need to do that.” He took a step toward Garran, who visibly flinched but didn’t move. “I saw children go hungry, and underclass violence sweep across neighborhoods, tearing them apart. If I can stop that here? Well, I’m doing something right in the grand scheme of karma.”
“Karma?” Garran asked.
Luke wryly smiled. “Yeah. You do good, good things happen to you. You do bad things, bad things happen.”
“Ah, you mean The Scales of Fate.” Garran grabbed the front of his jerkin and puffed it forward a few times, billowing some air into it to doubtless cool off given the muggy temperature. “Some people believe in that ideology. But more ascribe to working toward your god’s will, since ultimately they decide the joys or terrors you suffer. That’s called the Godly Path.”
“Explain that to me,” Luke said as he turned back and kept hacking a path. “Also, I can activate Chill Field if you like.”
“Please do. And one more question before I explain.”
“Sure,” Luke replied. He activated Chill Field, and saw the dark-blue, barely visible aura flare out from himself and expand to a ten-foot sphere. Glancing back, he saw Garran visibly relieved from the heat, and the skeletons flanking him moved ever-so-slightly faster. Luke had to minutely slow his own footsteps, as the aura accelerated him as well.
“You mentioned greed at the top of society,” Garran began. “What happens if what you’re doing comes into conflict with those folks here? Are you going to kill them to put your plans in place?”
Luke paused at that, stopping at the end of a chop through some of the leaves.
I…I hadn’t honestly considered that, he thought. What would I do in that situation? I guess it depends. If they were doing something really fucked up, like enslaving people? Yeah, I’d kill them.
That thought caught him off guard. He had just admitted to himself that he’d be perfectly fine with a justifiable homicide if someone was hurting others. Was being Undead making him more callous and accepting of violence? Was he losing his humanity by virtue of what he was now? That thought disturbed him to his core.
“Luke? You okay?” Garran asked.
Luke took in a breath, resumed his chopping, and replied, “No, I’m not. But if someone doesn’t like what I’m doing…well, it’ll vary on the situation, I suppose.”
Garran’s voice carried a trace of concern as he said, “Sounds like you’re fine with it.”
Luke began reasoning through various scenarios to justify it to himself. “If someone was being a robber-barron and making most folk’s lives miserable? Or someone ruling based on slavery? Or a corrupt official who is stealing from the people they’re supposed to be helping? Yeah…yeah…I think I’d be fine with ending them.”
He’d said the words, but he knew that they came from him, and not…whatever else might be at play. Luke was going to judge things on a case-by-case basis, and if needed, would destroy the existing power structure if it meant helping the little guy. That felt right. No, not just right, righteous as well. It was a worthwhile cause: he’d make the changes he could on this world to try and keep what happened back home from happening ever again.
He added, “The dead will serve the living, and hopefully that’ll make life better for everyone. If someone doesn’t want a better life for others? Fuck them.”
Garran shook his head. “Well, onto your answer to your question. When you die, your god claims your soul. Then, depending on how well you walked your Godly Path, you are rewarded or harmed. But, after some time, all of who you were is gone, and your soul is handed over to the god of Souls, to then be distributed to another deity for rebirth in the world.”
“You believe that, I assume?” Luke asked. “This Godly Path?”
“How can I not? I am marked by The Blooming Hand, and her priestess literally grew me a new leg.” Garran chuckled. “The gods speak to us on occasion: I am fulfilling her Quest through this hunt.”
Learning a bit about the philosophies is good, Luke thought. It’ll make integrating a lot easier.
***
A few hours of travel passed, and Luke had re-used Marrowsteel Plate to stack it to its max amount of granted Barrier.
[Health: 125 / 125 {Barrier: 62}]
[Mana: 81 / 81 {126}]
[Stamina: 98 / 98 {123}]
[Command Limit: 45 / 46]
They were getting close to the next clearing, and Luke opted to keep his Chill Field active, and asked Garran, “Do you mind me trying something different?”
“What were you thinking?” the man asked.
“This is a chance for me to experiment with controlling and then fighting with my Undead,” Luke replied. “I have sent them off to fight before, and briefly alongside them, but not sending them as a shock force and then following up myself. Are you okay if I have them do that, instead of staying back to guard you?”
Garran pursed his lips. “Do you need them all to do that?”
“I suppose not. I’ll use six. That gives you three guards.”
Garran let out a sigh of relief. “Good. Sure, let’s do it.”
Luke looked at his skeletons, and thinking about all but three of them, said, “Go to the clearing and fight Fog Creepers.”
The skeletons, as one, turned, and plowed through the foliage and dense growth. Luke counted down five seconds to let them get a head start, then rushed after them. The sound of violence reached his ears, and he heard the loud skrit of claw on bone, the crunch of bone snapping, and the cries of pain from the Fog Creepers.
Luke broke through the edge of the clearing and saw, once more, one of the breeding pits. Vines covered in gore were being pulled from a Matriarch who was already under assault from two skeletons, while the rest were engaged with three Guardians. Luke immediately made for the first Guardian, closest to him, whose back was turned thanks to the assaulting Undead. Luke stabbed his blade into the base of the neck, and the monster went down instantly. Ripping the Pale Flame-infused blade free of the muck, he looked to his right and joined the assault against one of the two remaining Guardians.
Two of his skeletons had already fallen in the less than ten-second brawl, and Luke tried to figure out what exactly caused their demise. The crushed ribcages told the story, especially as one of his skeletons was still fighting with its head gone.
The skeletons can be put down permanently from a hit to the chest, he thought as he saw that broken ribcage begin to liquify to monster goop. Good to know. I need to learn exactly what their weaknesses are, and then try to shore those up.
Luke saw a crossbow bolt fire into the Guardian closest to him, and the shot found its mark in the eye socket, which sent the thing reeling. But, thanks to the angle, it didn’t go to the brain—or whatever was up in the skull. Still, the Fog Creeper’s recoil from the blow opened him up to skeletons. Luke barked out the command, “Close range and go for the neck!”
The intent of the command didn’t replace his earlier one, but the skeleton’s sharp appendages zeroed in on the necks of the remaining Nest Guardians. Luke joined them, and killed off the last two, then turned to take on the Matriarch.
The two skeletons fighting her had fallen, and their goop-covered bones surged with a bright, green hue. Luke felt goosebumps along his flesh as he witnessed the sight, and felt a brief tinge of sorrow for the lost minions. But, he swiftly pushed that aside. They were just corpses, raised to do his bidding. Still, the flicker of that emotion resonated with him on a deep level—he wasn’t some heartless monster, and still had his feelings intact.
The Matriarch faced Luke and let out a screech, then raised her hands. Luke started to move forward to her, but the thorn-covered vines all around him lashed out, grabbed onto him, and dragged him down to his knees. The moment his shield on his left hand touched the dark, blood and viscera covered ground, more vines shot out of the muck and wrapped around his arm. That same tingling pain from before, raw Life energy which he was familiar with, coursed over his armor and penetrated through it.
Luke let out the remaining air in his lungs in a gasp of pain as he saw stars: bright green, flashing stars, that consumed his vision. His HUD was the only thing visible through the light, and he saw his barrier from Marrowsteel Plate depleting rapidly.
His skeletons moved past him, advancing on the Matriarch, but they, too were tangled up with vines which brought them down. The bright, green energy fought with the grey-white power that kept them together, and the former won out, tearing the skeletons asunder. In just an instant, Luke had lost the majority of his fighting force.
Luke used a Pale Flame Bolt, and the Art shot down the length of his arm, to his left hand holding the shield, and he let the flame target the vines. The white fire flickered out of his armor and the Marrowsteel barrier covering him, and burned away enough of the vine that he could get his arm free. That allowed him to pull his body upright with his abdomen, and with the ability to reach behind himself with the blade, cut his right leg free of the restricting vines.
A crackling noise met his ears, like wood thrown onto hot coals that quickly ignited and took the flame. As Luke looked up to the source of the noise, a sphere of pure, vibrant, green energy slammed into his face. He felt a burning sensation across his entire upper-torso and skull, and he would’ve screamed in pain if he had any air left in his lungs.
[Health: 70 / 125]
He staggered upright, minus his still-restrained left leg, and tried to blink, but couldn’t. The whole world was bathed in shades of blue, as if he was looking through a crappy set of 3D glasses.
The Matriarch backed away and began to flee into the forest, but a crossbow bolt slammed into the monster’s leg and sent it tumbling down. Luke got his sword to his left side, sliced himself free of the vines holding that last limb, and ran forward to cut the monster down before it could escape.
The thing glowed a sickly green, turned face up, and Luke got his shield in front of him a moment before another blast rocked him. It didn’t send him flying back, but bright green acid spurted from around the shield he had raised, ate through most of the metal, and landed on him—eating through his armor and into his head.
[Health: 40 / 125]
Luke moved his shield aside and delivered a vicious finishing blow, stabbing down into the stomach and then ripping the blade up the length of the monster’s body, vertically, as he bisected it cleanly. It began to turn to goop, and Luke stood there for a moment, just taking in what had happened.
Restrained, hit by Life which hurt a lot, and then splashed with acid.
“Hey! You okay?” Garran asked.
Luke turned around, heard Garran gasp, and asked, “What’s the damage?”