Everything is worth kill.., p.9
Everything is Worth Killing: A LitRPG Series (Second Edition), page 9
Maybe the universe was giving me a break.
Pity I didn’t take breaks.
I stood up. “Okay, nafurts. Let’s get moving."
CHAPTER 20 - Hellgre
It was important to remember that there were ogres around.
So, as Tosvig led us north from camp, we didn’t walk together. He was twenty feet ahead of us, leading the way. Kaleb and Milan walked in the middle, and I was at the back.
We headed through the wintry forest, giving a wide berth to the rune where the mage teenager had died. This was at Kaleb and Malin’s insistence. The boys were superstitious about the place. Can’t say I blamed them.
Tosvig didn’t say much as we walked. Just stuff like: “This way, bastards.” “Don’t eat green berry, bastards.”
I told him that he was overusing the word and diluting its impact, but did the nafurt want to listen?
Nope.
We traveled north for a day, then cut east to avoid a river, then headed north again for another day and night.
The next morning, we found trouble.
Tosvig stopped walking, holding up his hand.
“Difficulty ahead,” he said. “But we must go this way, or face dragon.”
Dragon?
My heart momentarily took a vacation and stopped beating when I heard the word, before my brain said get it together asshole!
Dragon was the name for the river that flowed for five hundred miles through the wilds and carried on into the west. It was a mile wide in some places and filled with fish that loved the taste of flesh.
Why flesh-eating fish, someone might ask?
Because why the hell not. That’s the kinda place this is. If someone ever ranked rivers in terms of assholery, Dragon would be at the top.
The route Tosvig had guided us on was the only way to get to the Tallsteep camp without crossing the Dragon.
And now there was a problem.
Tosvig pointed to the hillcrest ten feet ahead. “Below hill there is a hellgre.”
“Hellgre?”
“Oh no. Oh no,” said Kaleb.
I got on my belly and crawled to the top of the hill. I carefully peeked over the edge.
There, at the bottom of the slope, was…
…a strange goddamn creature I had never seen before.
It would have been hard to tell its true size from so far away. Luckily, the hellgre came with a handy size comparison. He had four humans with him.
The word helligre immediately brought the word ogre to mind, and indeed hellgre sounded like a bastardization of it. But the monster below was smaller than most ogres. Its skin was red. Darker in some places and light in others, giving it the color palette of raw beef.
I left the crest and joined the others.
“How big a problem is the hellgre?” I asked.
“Big bastard of a problem,” said Tosvig. “Breathes fire. Turns trees to cinders. Melts flesh.”
“Lovely.”
“Don’t forget hands of death,” said Kaleb. “When the hellgre touches flesh, it dies.”
“The helligre dies?” I said, hoping some stupid-ass logic was at work.
“No, the flesh dies,” said Tosvig.
“Because sometimes, fire breath just ain’t enough,” I said. “You have to add flesh-rotting hands into the mix. Is this thing an ogre or what?”
“In the way that a wolf is like dog.”
“The hell is it with you Lonehills and using wolves as analogies all the time?”
Nobody answered.
“Should we try and kill this thing?” I asked.
“No.”
“Is there another route we can take?”
“No.”
“This is like pulling teeth from a god damned rhinoceros! What do we do? If we can’t kill the hellgre, can’t go another way, does that mean we have to cross the Dragon?”
Kaleb crossed his arms, his stare sharp as a dagger. “If you cross the Dragon, I will stay. Fight hellgre alone.”
I looked at the kid in disbelief. “What?”
Malin said, “Kaleb cannot swim. I will fight with you, Kaleb.”
“Enjoy your fiery deaths,” said Tosvig.
Kaleb, for the first time ever, held Tosvig’s stare. “At least I will die the death of a hero, and not a cluck-boy.”
Cluck-boy?
This threw me for a second.
Then I understood.
Chicken.
“Crossing the Dragon isn’t safer,” said Malin. “There is no hellgre, but it takes a long time to cross. While we are crossing, we are vulnerable. Stranded in the middle, nowhere to hide. But with Tosvig here, we can kill the hellgre.”
I was a little hurt that it was only Tosvig’s presence that made killing the hellgre a possibility, but I couldn’t blame Malin for discounting me.
“Let’s send the hellgre to the land of bastard beyond!” growled Tosvig. “What do you say, no-color?”
Did I go it alone and try to cross a mile-wide, rampaging river, or did I take on this red dude and his humans?
Pretty easy decision when I thought of it that way.
As odds went, taking this beast on seemed better than walking into the wilderness alone.
Besides…think of the elemental I’d get from this hunk of red meat.
I decided where I was flicking my poker chip.
“Let’s talk weapons and spells,” I said.
CHAPTER 21 – Cool Off
“We need to deal with this big, red, bad boy,” I said. “He has fire breath, so part of him is a fire elemental.”
“And corrupting touch,” said Tosvig.
“Know any spells that would counter it?”
Kaleb and Malin both shook their heads. Tosvig said, “I do not need wispy wizard words. I talk with my sword.”
It was going to take both his sword and wispy wizard words, judging from the size of the hellgre. Squat, with a hunched back and its body rippling with muscle. This thing was one coating of massage oil away from winning a bodybuilding contest.
It looked strong enough to tear me apart like a fortune cookie, then read my entrails as the fortune.
And if it didn’t kill us with brute strength, then it could melt us to cinders with its fire breath, or corrupt our flesh with its corruptive touch. Lovely!
I guessed he’d be weak to ice spells. That was something.
What else? I needed every advantage I could glean.
Well, the first thing that stuck out was the chained-up humans with him. He had four of them, with no sign of any other ogres. They were pretty weedy. They were being fed enough to live, but still not enough to meet their calorie requirements.
They were unarmed, and not much of a threat at all. So why bother having them around? For the company?
“Something isn’t right,” I said. “Look at humans.”
“Huh?” said Kaleb.
Things were clicking into place. The more I looked, the more I realized.
“The humans are standing around hellgre,” I said. “All looking in different directions.”
“So, Isaac?”
“Ah,” said Tosvig, a smile growing on his face. He affectionately ruffled my hair. “Isaac is right!”
“What do you mean?” said Kaleb, looking at Malin, who shrugged his shoulders.
“The hellgre is blind,” I said. “Or has poor eyesight. The humans are his eyes.”
“Ah, I see now,” said Kaleb.
“Hellgre doesn’t see!” said Malin.
“He’s weak to ice, and he has poor vision,” I said. “We have a chance.”
I took the tinctures and nightwolf eyes out of my inventory and showed them to the others.
“What do these do?” I said.
Kaleb pointed at the tinctures. First, there was the wolfbane tincture. “This will make wolves run away. In a fight, put wolfbane on your weapon.”
“Ok. And wolflust is the opposite?”
“It will make wolves very pleased to see you,” said Malin, grinning.
“And nightwolf eyes?” I asked.
“When you eat them, you will see in the dark like a nightwolf.”
This was all coming together. I had the basis of a plan, and I just needed to tie the loose ends.
“Kaleb? Malin? Do you know ice spells?”
“Yap,” said Kaleb. “Hrr-eisre.”
“I have a plan,” I said. “Here is how we kill hellgre easier than killing a barn full of hellkittens.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Listen.”
While it was still light, we headed west for half a mile and went down the incline. The first ten feet were almost a sheer drop, and it took much care to get down without breaking our ankles.
Luckily, Tosvig was practiced in navigating terrain like this. We followed him, and after the uncomfortable ten feet, the incline became more of a steep hill. It took thirty minutes to reach the bottom.
This put us level with the hellgre and his sentries, but half a mile west of them.
“This is perfect. Now, we dig,” I said.
“How deep?”
“Deep enough to fit it.”
It wasn’t long before we were all sweaty and tired, and night had settled upon the forest.
Feeling it was finally time to do this, I realized my pulse was pounding.
“Everyone knows the plan?” I said.
Tosvig gave a grim nod. “Bye-bye, hellgre bastard.”
Kaleb nodded.
Malin looked lost in his thoughts, and it was only when Kaleb nudged him that he nodded.
“Okay,” I said. “Everyone eat.”
We split one nightwolf eye into four pea-sized pieces. I popped it in my mouth.
I fought with nausea and swallowed it, and then I took a jar of water from my inventory and drank it all.
“Nothing happened,” I said.
“Give it time,” said Tosvig. “We leave now?”
I nodded. “One minute. Here.”
Now, I focused on a pile of stones that we had collected that afternoon. I took the harelust tincture from my inventory. I had thought about using wolflust, but I remembered what Siddel said. Most wolves left the forest in winter.
I opened the tincture, getting a punch of dried dung aroma in my nostrils. Using it sparingly, I rubbed some of the tincture on each stone.
“Okai,” I said. “Take five stones each, spread out. Everyone happy?”
“Happy to kill the red bastard,” said Tosvig.
The boys nodded.
“Remember the most important step of plan,” I said.
“We remember.”
The four of us split up and took separate paths, each of us heading in the direction of the hellgre, but taking different angles.
It was then that I felt a glow in my belly like I had just finished a delicious mug of hot chocolate. The forest around me brightened as if some sky god had just turned on the lights.
Good. Splitting the nightwolf eye still let it work. I just guessed that the smaller the piece you ate, the less time it would last.
Hurrying while trying to be quiet – no easy feat – I soon reached my mark.
Then came the noise of an owl somewhere north of me.
Tosvig’s position was the furthest away of all of us, and when he made the owl noise, it meant everyone was where they needed to be.
I took a deep breath, settled my thoughts, and picked up a stone.
One by one I threw all of my stones, aiming at various points in the forest ahead. The stones were small enough that they made little noise when cushioned by the snow, and I didn’t hear the others throwing theirs.
With that done, we had to rely on the tincture.
I waited.
I shivered.
I worried the nightwolf eye would wear off, and I waited some more and I shivered some more, and I dreamed of a warm bed and a soothing bath.
Soon, I heard a scampering sound. Tiny little footsteps crunching over forest snow.
And then I heard the rattling of chains. A sudden, quick rattle.
More footsteps. More chains.
Voices, now.
I peered into the forest and watched, and I felt a smile grow on my face. Way ahead of me, a hare was scampering through the forest.
It was searching for a fellow hare. For a potential mate. Pity all it would get is a stone with some tincture cream.
Another hare appeared.
Then another!
Soon I heard chains rattling along the ground, and it wasn’t long before a guy crawled into the clearing.
This was the part that made my stomach tighten even more.
On a practical level, I knew what I needed to do.
On a moral level, I felt sick. But what other option was there?
I didn’t want to do it…but I knew from experience back in the gully that although these guys were human in appearance, they didn’t think like me. I had already tried reasoning with them, and I got a rock thrown at my head in response.
So, it was my survival or theirs. That was a black and white question, with an equally straightforward answer.
Gripping my hunting knife, I slowly moved through the forest, taking a wide berth, sneaking the way Siddel had taught me.
I did this until I was level with the human, and only eight feet away. Hares scampered around us so quick that they were blurs, each sound drawing the human’s gaze here, there, and everywhere but in my direction.
I had surprise on my side. Also speed, since I didn’t have a chain around my neck and wasn’t on all floors. Finally, vision, with the benefits of the disgusting wolf eye working through me.
And a thread of sickness coiling in my belly.
Survival, I thought.
That one word that made this…not okay, but reasonable.
I rushed him, tearing over the ground as quick as I could.
The man turned to face me, drawn by the noise. His chain dragged on the ground.
I reached him, grab the chain, and pulled him close, and I stuck my knife in his neck.
The fight left his body immediately, and I pushed him to the ground. He was still now.
[Human] elemental received x1 [Total: 3]
Done. It was sick as hell, but it was done. I pushed back any feelings I had about it, because the hardest part was to come.
I heard an owl hoot. Once, then again, giving us the sign that Tosvig had also killed a human.
This left two. Either they had gone to investigate the hare sounds in different directions, leading them to where Kaleb and Malin were waiting, or they had stayed with the hellgre.
Either way, the big, red bastard had two fewer sentries.
The forest around me flickered now, turning black just for a second, then lighting up again. The wolf eyes were wearing off. Better act fast.
Knowing that two owl hoots meant Tosvig would be heading toward the hellgre, I went in that direction, too.
I covered a further fifteen feet, and then I saw it.
There, not far ahead, was the hellgre.
Alone, turning in every direction to try and see what the noises were, and where his humans had gone. Plumes of steam rose from his mouth.
Another owl hoot.
I looked in the northeast direction, and then I saw Tosvig. West of me was Kaleb and Malin.
Holy hell, this was working!
We each knew what we had to do now, and it seemed ridiculously simple.
Snowballs.
Who’d have thought, huh? The way to take down a hellgre was by using snowballs.
I gathered a fistful of snow and pressed it in my hands, feeling the cold tease over my skin. I formed it into a ball and then waited.
Another owl hoot. Man, Tosvig was good at this!
Hearing the final signal, I aimed and threw my snowball, and I didn’t even try to hide the feeling of joy I felt when it smashed right into the hellgre’s stupid face.
It didn’t hurt him, of course. None of us had expected that; being a fire beast didn’t mean a snowball would take him out.
But he let out a great roar now, one that cut deep through the forest, making hares flee at the noise, sending a few birds up from where they’d been nesting on nearby trees.
And then the hellgre moved.
He tore off through the forest and toward us, toward where he guessed the snowballs had come from.
He headed in my direction. I retreated twenty feet behind, back toward where we had started, all the while hearing his great footsteps crunch over snow and wood.
I gathered another snowball and threw it, missing him this time.
I ran another thirty feet. Another snowball, this time splattering it on his chest. Snowballs rained at the hellgre from different directions, and I saw Tosvig, Kaleb, and Malin heading my way.
Together we led the hellgre toward us, and he displayed a real stupidity in following the direction of the snowballs. He must have lost his head. Even being a hulking red fire beast didn’t give you an unending supply of courage, and he sure as hell didn’t have wisdom on his side.
The four of us kept running back until we saw the marking we had left in the snow; a branch I had wedged into it.
There, our paths converged, and we gathered together.
“Okay?” I said.
“Yap,” said Tosvig.
Another roar tore through the air, and the hellgre was there, not far ahead of us.
“This is it,” I said.
And together we hurried another few paces away from the stick marker, taking care to walk a safe distance around it.
There was a good reason for that.
Another volley of snowballs led the hellgre toward us…
…and then straight into the hole in the ground that we had made that afternoon.
It was almost comical, the way the great beast suddenly fell, disappearing into the hole and flailing its arms while roaring in surprise.
“Quick,” I said.
Kaleb nodded, and his medallion glowed as he began to cast hrr-eisre.
I looked at the hellgre. It was trying to reach the top of the hole, but we had made it just deep enough that it would struggle.
“You need to cool off,” I told it.
I’d been saving that line. I was proud of it.
But Tosvig, Kaleb, and Malin didn’t seem impressed. You can’t please everyone.
