Dawning Skye

471 Hunting Trip(Part Ten)

***CONTENT WARNING: LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, AND SLIGHT GORE***

Ahriman and Sheri made their way through the crowds quickly since they were mostly the young, old, and weak. None of them put up a fight, unlike the ones that had charged into the forest earlier. While Marco was entertaining himself with the Goblin King and his guards, Norvis, Draco, and Benzo handled the so-called Dark Fae Army.

By the time Marco had finished off the king, Norvis and his machine were covered in green, black, and red blood. Draco and Benzo were covered as well, but not nearly as much as their comrade. When he climbed out of his machine, Norvis had to pull himself apart from his seat; he was that plastered with it.

Bodies were scattered all over the forest, and not all in one piece. The hordes that had attacked Norvis were torn to shreds by the rotating saw blades on his machine. At one point, it had gotten so covered with corpses that his leveler couldn’t move forward. He had to backtrack to get out.

Draco and Benzo were boasting about how many they had each killed, when Norvis yelled; “I think we all know who won the kill count contest, haha! Nothing beats my baby!”

Draco scoffed; “I know one person that topped you..”

As he pointed at the cloud of darkness that was Ahriman, Norvis snorted; “He doesn’t count! How can you even call him human?! He’s a walking, talking rain cloud of death! Of course my baby can’t match him! But she blew you two outta the fuckin’ water!”

“It’d be different if it was just you against those things. You couldn’t do shit without your weird-ass gadgets,” Benzo snipped.

Norvis smirked; “You’re just pissed that I get to drive a killer robot, and You don’t. You know, if you’re nice to me, I Might let you honk the horn..”

.....

“Come here you little shit!” Benzo yelled as he started to run after Norvis; “I’ll honk your fuckin’ horn for ya!”

“Enough, you three. It’s time to head back to camp. I’m sure that Doctor Stein will want to start right away on these things. Norvis.. did you have to use that? The good doctor is going to be quite pissed with you.”

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As the three froze and bent their knee for their King, Norvis replied; “I understand, but he’s not the only one doing experiments on this trip. This little baby is the prototype for the big one I’m gonna make for whenever we move against the Fae Nation.”

Marco smirked; “Oh really? Then if Stein starts to go off on you, tell him I approve of your reason. Even though you should’ve told me before, Norvis. And....we might use it sooner than that. There’s a small forest outside of Moonshire that I find to be an eyesore.. That can be your practice run; after the other one is finished, of course.”

Norvis perked up with a wide smile; “Really?! Ah-hem: it would be an honor, My King.”

Marco chuckled heartily, an occurrence that was becoming eerily common for his guards to see. The closer they came to fulfilling his plans, the happier, and more morbid Marco was becoming. His unnerving joviality aside, Marco’s increasingly twisted tendencies didn’t matter to his guards: except to Sheri..

She had wanted to serve the crown and people ever since she found out that she had magic. Guarding the future King seemed like an extremely important job, but now: Sheri wanted to die. As the effects of Marco’s powers wore off, her guilt increased tenfold.

The Fae that they had killed were murderers themselves, as made evident by the multiple roasting humans outside of the caves. But the way they had massacred them will haunt Sheri until the day that she’s released from her hellish life. As she and Ahriman scanned the forest on their way back, she inwardly prayed..

‘If there really are Any gods out there, Please save that child.. Even under the effects of Marco’s power, I managed to stab her in a non-vital place.. Well, it’s not life-threatening to humans if tended to, but what about trolls? I have no idea if our intestines are placed differently.. Fuck.. Please, please, please let her be alright..’

As Sheri sighed, Ahriman said; “Let’s hurry.”

She glanced at him, then kept to her pace as she replied; “I’ll go at my own speed, thanks. You can run ahead if you want. I don’t care.”

Without a word, Ahriman sped up, and went to meet up with the others. The camp was several kilometers away, so Sheri knew it would take a bit of time to lead the Fae captives back.. ‘If I run as fast as I can both ways, I can make it..’

As soon as she knew that Ahriman was gone, Sheri turned around, and ran back to the where she’d seen the young troll that had spared her before. She didn’t know if the troll would still be alive, but she wanted to try and help it.. ‘I can’t directly save it, or Marco’s shard will kill me...But I can give it the tools and instructions it needs to save itself!’

Sheri’s lungs felt like they were on fire as she ran at her top speed. It was times like this that she envied Tank mages, or even Air mages. She was also jealous of Skye, since she was an exception to the limitations of a trait. They were both Water mages, but so vastly different..

‘I can never be like Skye, but I can still chase her.. Shit! Where did it go?!’

Sheri felt her heart sink as it pounded in her chest from running. There was a greenish-black drag trail starting from where the young troll was, going into the tree line. She only had to go a meter or so before she saw the young troll laying next to another body.

It was as far as it could’ve dragged itself before passing out, or so Sheri had thought. When she went to check for a pulse, the troll grabbed her arm as it coughed and tried to focus on her. Right as Sheri was about to pull her sword out and kill it, the troll mumbled in a weak voice; “Why.. Why would you do this?”

As it released Sheri and she leaned back, the young troll added; “I helped you.. Why did you do this?”

Sheri sighed; “Because I have no choice. This is what My King commands, so I must obey. I am sorry for not warning you, but..”

While rubbing at the back of her neck, Sheri added; “There are...consequences if I disobey or betray him in any way. All I can do is meddle a bit. Speaking of: here.”

Sheri reached into the sleeve of her armor, and pulled out a small pouch; “This will stop your bleeding, but it will hurt like hell. Put it on your wound, and add some water. The burning means it’s working. Second..”

Reaching into a pouch strapped to her thigh, Sheri handed the young troll a roll of gauze and a mostly used roll of tape as she continued; “I really hope that I don’t need to tell you what to do with these. I’m already walking on a tightrope here.. Have you heard of Warrick Forest before? Good: go there. I can’t say anything more.”

The young troll stared at her with utter contempt as she said; “Why should I listen to you? It’s probably a trap.”

“If you want to believe that, you can. But if you go near the town close to here, a Guardian Fae will tear you apart without a second thought. I’m sure your leader or whatever knew about it.”

The troll coughed hard for a moment, then replied; “Everyone knows about the Cu Sith. And I know about Warrick Forest, but..I’m scared.”

Sheri shook her head as she stood up, and readied to leave; “What’s there to be afraid of now? We killed everything.. Just go, or I really will kill you when we come back..”

Without another word or look; Sheri took off running the way she’d come from. At the pace she was going, Ahriman would expect her back right about the time that Marco reached the camp with his new labor force. She would need to be present when Stein injected them with some of the ooze, in case they went berserk.

As Sheri ran as fast as her jelly-like legs would carry her, she prayed that the young troll would be alright, but also that she would never find out. If the troll lived, then the shard in her neck would kill her for betraying her King. As she rushed towards the campsite, Sheri wondered if that would actually be a bad thing or not..

************

Marco looked at the range of Fae before him. There were goblins, orcs, orges, trolls, two lichts, and even a gremlin that Ahriman had caught by chance. They were hard to trap, and were like the opposite of leprechauns. He was in the middle of debating whether to keep it as is, or make it a soldier when he saw Sheri strolling into the camp.

Usually after killing someone, she was a wreck, but she looked different to him this time..

“What took you so long?” Marco asked as she came closer.

“I stopped and ate the few rations I had left. I used up a lot of magic, so I’m starving,” Sheri replied smoothly.

“I second that,” Draco commented.

Marco put his hand up to quiet them, and said; “We can eat after we have a hold on our new comrades here. Where is Doctor Stein?”

“I’m here, My King! Ohh! Look at all of the interesting things that you’ve brought back! Wow! Trolls?! That’s going to be fun! Please, please, please tell me that you left their bodies in good condition? The ones you killed?”

Norvis smirked; “Not all of them, but enough for you to play with..”

Stein narrowed his eyes on him; “What did you do?!”

“Hey, you’re not the only creator around here, doc. I have experiments to run, too,” Norvis replied calmly, but the smirk on his face infuriated the doctor.

Stein was about to go off on him when he heard his King speak; “I told him that it way fine, Doctor Stein. There were hundreds of monsters, so a small loss is acceptable. Focus on the task at hand, doctor. My guards are not the only ones who are starving.”

Doctor Stein nodded enthusiastically; “Aye My King! Okay, okay, okay.. We need Sheri and Ahriman over here now, and I want the Fae to line up in an orderly fashion. Come, come, come! Time is best not wasted!”

As Draco and Benzo argued over who got to punish the ones that tried to run off, Ahriman let Stein extract his Dark magic from him. It astounded Sheri how he could supply not only himself and Marco with his magic, but her and the others as well..

‘From the looks of it, he’s the one who maintains the connections for Marco.. How can he use Ahriman’s magic like his own? Then again, why the Fuck does he have a Tank trait now?’

As Sheri’s thoughts bombarded her, the injections actually went smoothly. Apparently the so-called ‘Dark Fae’ were compatible with Dark magic, and not a one went berserk. As they lined up and went to their knees, Marco stood at the front of the horde.

Between the ones he’d selected at the caves, and the Fae they had picked up in the forest: Marco had about one-hundred and eighty two new slaves to dig his tunnels. As he smiled and looked them over, they all chanted; “Long Live the King!”

As his smiled turned dark, Marco held up his hand to silence them, then said; “Good.. Now, let’s get started with job assignments, then it’s time to eat..”