The Lieutenant lunges just after I drive off another attack, and I don’t have time to change the momentum of my sword to protect me. Instead, I step into my attack, taking me slightly further from the incoming lunge, and whirl the blade around my head, pirouetting to keep moving away. The move was unplanned, but I manage to draw a line of red across its silver hide as its lunge ends up too short. It presses the attack, unable to retreat with me so close and ready to attack, and the remaining Carnine moves to provide support. Kaythe, missing an arm and bleeding heavily, tackles the remaining Carnine, giving me the opportunity to back up and fend off the onslaught of bites and swipes from its razor sharp claws. My wounds throb with every step, especially after the more dexterous movement I’d just attempted, and a particularly vicious strike from the Lieutenant causes me to stumble. Sensing an opportunity, it lunges again, knocking me to the ground with its claws firmly embedded in my chest. I immediately ditch my sword, knowing it would be too slow and too large to use effectively on the snarling animal on top of me, and slam my hands into its throat as it bites furiously at my throat. My arms shake with the intensity of my efforts, but the jaws inch closer with every bite. Too close, the next one is death, and it knows it. It launches down, harder and faster than any previous attack, aiming to tear my throat out and be done with it, and I simultaneously buck my hips and pull it by the throat towards me and to the side. It over balances with the unexpected changes in momentum, and slams its face into the grass next to my neck, flipping over me as its body continues forward. I roll over, grabbing my sword and jumping to my feet in one fluid motion, but staggering under the strain on my legs as I try to get into a combat position.

The Lieutenant recovers slowly, but still manages to face me by the time I’m ready. We stare at each other, each bloody and tired but unwilling to just die. Kaythe slowly crawls over to me, clearly on the verge of death, but still wanting to be close to me. It breaks my heart, but I make no move to assist him as he laboriously climbed up to my shoulders. I can’t give this fuck another opportunity.

“You… may fight well, but… you are a monster still.” This again?

“Why. Why do you say that?”

“Your kind kill ours, hunt them down. Force us to travel in packs, but still, those are killed. The young, the old, none are spared. We have to fight constantly just to survive.”

I have to repress a groan. “Assume, just for a moment, that we share all of those struggles with you, caused by you. Assume that we didn’t start this, you did. What then?”

“True, your kind are like us. You are not. You are monster. You stole us, refused to let us die. You may strike us down in here, but we will return. Over and over, until we are nothing. You? I am not sure. Perhaps, we kill you and are free.”

“Is death what you want?”

“Better than slavery.”

“So you’d rather take impossible odds at beating me, inside my own soul, than just serve me?”

“Yes.”

I want to threaten it. Tell it how much worse I can make its existence… that I can come in here and torture it for as long as I want, over and over… but I know that one of these times, I’ll fail. I’ll get unlucky, and it will get lucky, and I’ll fall. I don’t know what happens when that occurs, and I don’t want to. If they keep coming back, I bet I can continue killing them until they’re nothing but powerless husks… but that would take too long.

“What if you served me willingly?”

“We would not.”

“You must want something.”

“Your death.”

“Something that doesn’t involve harm coming to me or you escaping, which is impossible.”

“Our deaths.”

“You’re not being productive. What do you want? What are you hunting for in these hills? Why all the patrols?”

The Lieutenant stares at me for a while, never blinking. I consider returning the blinkless stare, but decide against it. The monster and I both know what happens if it lunges.

“A cave.”

“Why?”

“It holds something important.”

“The Barrows?”

Its eyes narrow. “That is the place.”

“We’re in it.”

“You… have found the cave?”

“Yes, and we’ve been keeping it hidden from you because we know you’re searching for it. And the Stone of Ascension.”

It snarls angrily, spittle flying from its maw. “Bring it to the others. Now.”

“No.”

It lunges, but it was telegraphing so hard that a child would have been able to deflect it. I mean, not well, but one could have. For my part, I give it the familiar taste of the flat of my blade across its face, smashing it sideways and sidestepping its ungainly roll out.

Its mouth drips blood, and there are several obviously fractured teeth in its mouth. “You will. You must.”

“No, you will serve me, and I will do what I can to ensure the survival of your people and my own. Otherwise, I’ll crush you, over and over, until you do not return, and use the stone myself. Do you doubt that I can?”

It’s hard to read an alien dog, especially one that has actual intelligence, even if it’s heavily tinged with ferocity and violence, but I can tell I’ve made it unhappy. It thinks for a while. The blood very slowly changes from a steady drip to nothing, over the course of many minutes.

“You will help if we serve?”

“I will.”

“You swear this?”

“You’ll be here to bother me if I don’t uphold my end.”

“We have… limited perception of the outside. Difficult to verify. If you add more to our number, they will be questioned. We will know.”

“Good. Bow.”

It hesitated, but dipped its head in submission.

“Keep your underlings in line, I will return as I am able.” And with that, I deactivated River’s Source.

---

I return to a world of darkness and agony. My head swims, my eyes refuse to focus, and I hit my head falling over when I try to just sit straight. Kaythe wiggles unhappily to get out from other me before perching on my chest.

[Congratulations! Secondary Skill levels gained! Swordsman of the Great River: River’s Source +4 (5)] [Soul damage subsided.] [Through force of will, your body has endured great and lengthy hardship. Toughness +1]

Oh god, my fucking head. My fucking everything. What happened, why do I feel like I’m dead. I wish I was dead. This is hell. Zathis, gotta get him to let me out…

“...zathis…” My voice comes out a horse whisper, barely audible even in the small confines of my cell. Fuck, I have no water in my mouth, or my throat, I feel fucking terrible. “Zath-is…” My voice hitches in the middle, unable to effectively resonate with everything sticking and being shitty. Oh… this is going to suck so much. I Fortify myself, and try to yell.

“ZATHIS.” My ears ring, and I can feel blood pouring down my throat from my destroyed vocal chords. Despite that, I manage to hear Zathis’ reply.

“Anthony? Are you alright?”

I try to speak, and searing pain shoots through my throat. I quickly try to repair the damage, but my focus is entirely fucked up and I end up taking almost a minute, despite the small size of the tears.

“Anthony, speak to me. I am worried. You have been silent for quite some time.”

Chill, Zathis, it’s been a few seconds max. Oh, does he mean before just now?

“Zathis please let me out.” My voice is like gravel, but I do the best I can to keep my tone even. I guess the blood was enough lubrication to get my voice working again. How metal.

The stone slides away, revealing the flickering lights of Zathis’ chamber. I need to get outside… and drink an entire river… immediately… when was the last time I ate? It was days before all this… I just kinda forgot, I guess.

“Oh… what have I done? Can you not heal? You look… worse than you do after training.”

He clearly intends the last part as a joke, but he’s also not wrong. There’s a lot of dried blood covering my hands and mouth… it must look pretty gruesome. I try to push myself to my feet, but the overall result is a lot of wild swinging around and Zathis having to summon supports for me to catch my fall.

“It’s… ok… I’m going to get some water…”

“That is likely wise.”

I stagger through the door, almost pitching myself into the death spikes below on several occasions, literally tumble down the decline to the underground lake, and slam my face into the water and do my best to drown myself in the amazing, life-giving nectar of the gods.