"OY! Kid!" someone called out to Nyx from the back. The golem was just a good throw away from the city walls when Dörk sped through the gate and stopped next to him. "I heard Mitch—" His lungs struggled to draw air, slowing the pace he'd kept up during the run to get there. "Saying you're doing a job-- looking for some parts."
"Yeah… You wanna go looking for something?" His voice was slightly hesitant about Dörk's decision. The changeling hadn't seen much of what he could do outside the workshop, but he knew he could at least hurl sharp blades at enemies. If anything shows up. "I'm just heading out to the battle line to look for parts. It shouldn't be that hard."
The wizard's hand moved like a ghost and flipped the golem over his hard forehead. Dörk had tried to look unfazed, but the brief pain that cut through his nail made him flinch, however, it seemed Nyx hadn't noticed—he was more surprised than anything. "Yeah, kid, all alone on the front line—well, now the former front line. You need someone to protect your ham. Or whatever it is you've got. Maybe 'your slate' ?" The wizard kept wondering how everyday expressions could be adapted for Nyx. That's going to be fun down the road. But Dörk rummaged through the bag slung over his shoulder and pulled out a new toy for Nyx. "Anyway, high-risk missions call for high-grade badass gear."
Both of them had their eyes glued to the glove. "For you. From your trully master, Callahan."
Nyx could only raise an eyebrow. "For me?"
"Aha—what are you waiting for? Put it on."
Nyx felt a little giddy as he looked at the glove. The guys had made this for him. And it looked like a quality piece. But...
"It's for the left hand." Nyx cocked his head at it. "I'm right-handed."
"You are?" The wizard couldn't see anything wrong with it at first, except the fact Nyx pointed it out now. "I guess Callahan got caught up in the rush and mixed it up. But—!"
Nyx didn't bother listening anymore. "It's incredible! Please tell Callahan I really appreciate it." And Dörk couldn't see any reason to continue talking. He just nodded toward the boy he was supposed to be looking after. Nyx hadn't tested his patience in tying the glove. Luckily for him, Callahan had hit the measurements spot on, so it fit perfectly. But something didn't seem quite right when Nyx flexed the leather covering his palm. "Dörk. You said it was a gift. Are you sure I don't have to pay Callahan anything? I have money."
Nyx's question wasn't unreasonable, but essentially the old man sensed that the kid didn't often receive gifts. Or rather, he wasn't used to fancy gifts. "What? Nooo. God, no. It's all taken care of. Just chill and go break something." Dörk tried to convey a little cheerfulness in the golem's behalf as he continued to examine the piece of armor. The kid didn't need to know that he'd paid Callahan something—just for a small favor, but considerably cheaper than what you could get in a shop.
The living statue could only nod for the gift of the two. "Thanks. It's totally worth it."
Even with his new glove, Nyx had to push the wheelbarrow himself because of Dörk's "age"—as he put it. At one point, the wizard had tried to strike up a conversation, alluding the golem's new power to create electricity. Dörk was very tempted to drag the golem back into the training arena and move on to the next step—using offensive power but both agreed Nyx was to find fuel first, as they put it .
Several minutes passed, and Dörk had begun talking about the surroundings but eventually stared telling him about his time at the academy many years ago. The golem, in his sincerity, was somewhat enthralled. The idea of a school seemed alien to him. The housekeepers he'd worked with before had always hinted that he was "just like their child" and had worked to enroll and keep them in school. But a magic academy sounded crazy. Dörk was preoccupied, complaining about something called a "quarter exam" and hadn't noticed the city's soldiers in the rear, still digging to bury the dead and salvaging weapons and armor into their carriage. They had walked past them for now.
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.
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"So yeah, you've got to hustle. Money doesn't come easy."
They had both spent the last 10 minutes struggling their way to what was the city's last line of defense, located about 300 meters from where the rest of the soldiers were probably still gathering bodies. It was a shame that the entire line near the horizon was covered by dense vegetation. Nyx and Dörk were visually cut off from the rest of the world for the moment. But their target was in sight, even though the area was somewhat devastated. Several corpses littered the trenches and the meadows scorched by the battle. Nearly 8 out of 10 were human. Mutilated like livestock after a sloppy job.
But the lizard-people… They looked largely intact aside from the wounds that had so easily ended their lives. The difference in power was clear. Almost eerie. "God… It's worse than I thought." Dörk could only stare, grimacing at the death before him. You'd think a life as an adventurer would make you resilient to such things. But there was always a sight that brought something new. "The last time I saw something similar, a goblin nest went up in flames."
Nyx couldn't ignore it, and simply kept his gaze fixed on it. "Same thing." Except Nyx was the one in the fire and the same guy who started it.
Down below on the meadow stood the war machine. A fair bit larger than the one on the wall and considerably different. "Is that it? It looks almost nothing like the ones on the wall." Nyx had asked a good question. Compared to the contraptions mounted on the city wall, this one looked like a tower with a huge vertical sling mounted at the top!
"Do you think it still works?" Nyx asked, puzzled, wondering how such a mechanical device could operate.
The wizard just shrugged as he and Nyx approached what appeared to be the entry point in the machine. "No—I suppose they've sabotaged whatever's in here." As soon as they'd entered, Dörk had noticed the huge monolith that had crashed through the wooden floor along with two headless men. He just hummed in confirmation. His gaze shifted upward to where he could see the severed rope from which the boulder must have been hanging. "It doesn't look like it's going to fall on our heads… for now, anyway."
They both spent a few seconds searching for possible supplies and the remaining corpses, but all they found was a staircase leading upward. "You've got the list. You go first." Dörk couldn't help but grin before striking a pose for the kid to move forward.
Nyx could only tease him back, half-jokingly. "And if I fall, I'll fall on your head." His joke was funny. Slightly funny, even for the wizard, who had grown a bit pessimistic at Nyx's remark. The first steps were the most important. Luckily, the staircase held up under the golem's weight, so Dörk followed in its footsteps. The next level served as the heart of the mechanism, now broken. A mess of cogs,ropes and gears littered the floor after broken from their frames, with some still hanging from the support bean. The center of all was a steel pipe connected to a capstan. What a shame. "This thing looks more and more like a giant clock."
Dörk's voice had turned into a chuckle. "Heh… you're right." Dörk had approached the jumble. "So, what do you need?" Nyx pulled out the piece of paper Mitch and the others had obtained. "First would be a rope 16 meters long and 10 centi thick. Next… a 45-tooth gear..."
Dörk had taken two steps to get to the golem's right side. "Wait, wait. Did anyone give you a measuring line or something? You're just going to look at the rope and be like—Yeap, it's exactly what we need."
Nyx was taken aback by that. Damn. "Well, they didn't give me anything for that. But Mitch had marked the paper so I could at least find the right thickness. The golem defended itself briefly. Dörk picked up one's rope end and handed it to Nyx, who looked like it had been sliced. "Thanks." And it fit the mark of the paper.
"Well, that's cool, but…" The wizard could only point toward the ceiling. Toward where the rope disappeared. Toward the next level. "So, a 45-tooth gear? Sure, I'll look for it around here." The gray-haired man just shooed Nyx off to find the other end higher up. Watching the golem leave, the wizard scanned the area, his eyes glowing a faint blue until they landed on exactly what he was looking for. Easy.
Above him, Nyx had found himself among a set of three cannons. "Dörk! Check this out! These guys have cannons here!"
"No shit! Really? See if you can find something flammable, if you know what I mean. Nowak would really appreciate it if we found some gunpowder!"
That was the end of the conversation, with Nyx not responding at all. The canons were on the other side of the room, but the space wasn't exactly empty. He could make out an empty rack where numerous rifles would normally be, and a tall cabinet with its doors completely ripped off. What's more, his shoe stepped on a dried bloodstain, and next to it lay a rifle hacked in two. "I guess they'd been overrun all the way up here. NOTHING USEFUL HERE!"
The golem's ears had picked up the creaking of the stairs as Dörk climbed up toward him. "That's a bummer. Well, just grab the rope and let's get this over with."
"We still need two more pieces—the pulleys that come with the rope."
The golem double-checked one of the ropes present and pulled on it, feeling no resistance from the bottom. "I think that's it." But the problem remained the same. It continued to run upward into the next room. Each one followed the same path. "You know what? Let's go all the way to the top. That could be fun."
Dörk could only chuckle briefly. "I don't see why not. I've never been in anything like this before." Both of them followed the path higher and higher into the next chamber. Too bad this one wasn't empty. Several soldiers lay dead and scattered on the floor. They could see why. A big and bad son of a bitch of a lizard-man lay dead a few steps from the hatch with a huge wound through his right shoulder. At the other end, one of the cannons that would normally be aimed out the window had clearly been used to kill the beast.
Obviously, the others hadn't died before this guy. Streaks of blood painted the wooden walls. Of course, the guy hadn't attacked this place alone. "His friends must have taken care of the rest," Dörk explained nonchalantly, though they'd both found what they were looking for here. Right here, the rope ended, caught on a hook through a metal clamp. "Cool. Let's take this back when we head down."
But Nyx's attention was on the metal clamp. "Can we even break this? I know for sure I can't."
Dörk just shrugged. "I'll undo it with a spell. Chill. Now come on! I want to see how high we can go." Just as he said that, they both disappeared up the stairs.
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After passing through four more rooms, the two reached the last hatch. Pushing it open and making the metal hinges creak, they revealed the sky.
Up here Nyx could see far to the south. The landscape was dotted with hills and small wooded areas or lone trees with the wind causing everything to sway. The height made it easy to see over the wooden railing just how far the battlefield stretched. How the land had been scorched. The holes in ground shaped by explosions. He could see in the distance smaller trebuchets and multiple scorpions used to fire upon by the enemy. "What you look at kid?"
Nyx just shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing in particular. Just… I don't know. I like it up here. I can see… a lot. Even though—" Nyx turned his attention to the carnage below. "Hmm." But the golem didn't elaborate further. He could only stare. Every body was a soul in hell, whether it had rightfully ended up in that pit of existence or not. He'd been one of them himself just barely two months ago and now—in the middle of nowhere. No plan. A target on his back. But at least safe for the moment.
Dörk felt a little out of his element, but he still reached out and grabbed Nyx by the shoulder. "Just… look at something else." He was trying to be helpful. He gently guided her gaze toward…
But neither Nyx nor Dörk could see anything that wasn't essentially hopeless. Just wounded empty forests and meadows they'd seen before. "Well, that stinks." If Dörk had known that just one word could make Nyx crack up a laughing, he would have said it sooner. Then the wizard inspected the shooting seat and sat down on it. More worryingly, the giant sling was aimed at the city. "Looks like the leatherheads fired from here for the city. Clever."
"You can't really see anything through the trees."
"Yeah. I guess because we came down some hill on the way here." Dörk had fiddled with the sight a bit. "Tell me something. If I know the distance from here to the city, what's stopping me from shooting?"
"What?"
"I've heard that before. You know what, come here--" The man jumped out of his chair, letting the golem take his seat. From this position, Nyx had access to five levers and two wheels mounted on the front base, with a strange stand he suspected to be the iron sight.
"Now what?" Nyx playfully pulled one of the levers, but thank goodness the faulty mechanism did nothing. Dörk hadn't even had time to say anything because the moment had left him winded with fear.
The wizard drew a fresh breath before pointing to the numbers stamped into the metal. "These are ranges. You usually see them on fancy guns, but I see they use 'em here too." Nyx had been watching the sight with a small pin that could be adjusted up and down, accompanied on the other side by a fixed one. "You have to align the two." He tapped the rangefinder. "If the pin is at 150 meters and both are aligned, you'll hit at that distance."
"But I still can't see the city," Nyx retorted. He'd watched the line extend 650 meters and they were still aligned. "So they must have shot over the trees. Like you said—I know the distance."
"That's right. It's not a bad thing to learn. Isn't it?" Dörk complimented Nyx as he leaned back against the wooden railing. There was no better time to look up at the sky, and no better time to pull a flask of booze out of his coat. "Listen. Again, sorry I haven't been very… involved in training with you. We didn't get very far, but I feel bad that the guys pointed out my shortcomings. I promise we'll learn more together." He said, then took a swig.
Nyx now turned in his chair toward him. "It's okay. I understand you had work. But thanks." The golem eyed the flask with a little more eagerness. Hell, he really wanted a sip. "So what exactly is Nowak having you do around here?"
At that, Dörk just took another swig of alcohol. "Well, at first it was just a few scrolls for the wounded. Filling the infirmary with them—pfff—a lot of lousy work." And another swig. "Then me and the other guys made some filters. Maybe you've seen them hanging by the fountains." The mention of that caused Nyx to nod. "And now he wants something for the walls… I really don't even want to think about how much work that would be. I tried to explain to him that an operation like that takes an extremely long time. But he just hummed and said he'd think about it."
Nyx acknowledged with a nod. "Are Cecil or Callahan helping?" The golem stepped forward and sat down next to the old man. He handed the flask to the boy, who took it even though he couldn't taste it. "What's the point? I don't drink. Well, I can't."
"I know, I know. But it doesn't hurt to try." Then Dörk pulled off his trick and made two cigarettes appear between his fingers and handing one to the stone young man. "Jerry said you burned his shirt? Blabbering about you breathing fire." Dörk chuckled softly.
"He had it coming. He sometimes ogles me. He knows that, theoretically, I'm a man." Nyx pointed at himself. "Even looking like this. I just don't want him to—I don't know—think something stupid." Nyx then clamped the cigarette between his gray lips and tried to light it by snapping his fingers.
"Eheh… Sorry about him." Dörk offered quietly before taking a drag from his own cigarette.
"Well... what else can you do?" Nyx exhaled a puff of smoke and looked back at the man. "Kara sometimes looks at me like that. She liked my white hair."
Dörk turned, slightly surprised, toward the living statue. The body currently animating him was that of this Kara. "Were you two ever—something?"
The golem shook his head. "We… weren't. She liked to flirt and nag. We were that kind of duo. But it didn't really work out between us in a romantic way." Now Nyx's gaze drifted far away, past the scorched pastures and trees. "Sometimes I'd bring her flowers. She liked to fight and train but I know for sure she liked being pampered. It made her feel like a little girl—just like a little girl."
Dörk could only hum. He couldn't think of anything to say that felt right. The kid was wearing his best friend's dead skin, for fuck's sake. Dörk could have sworn he had a hard time even looking in the mirror. Just the thought of a bath must make him sick. "I'm sorry, kid. I've seen reanimated bodies. Or ghosts… I speak from experience when I say you're not a 'unique' case when it comes to the undead. But you've got us! And your friends in Elth."
Nyx watched as the last of the cigarette turned to ash, leaving the stub. "I guess. But like—we only have a little over a month left, right? What do I do after that? You guys are heading back to your homes."
"Why don't you come back to Elth?"
Nyx thought for a moment and flicked the stub over the edge. "Your friend told me I shouldn't return."
The wizard smiled slightly at the question. "I could talk to Danny. Make a deal. You can have your own hut in the forest. I don't think your friend would mind." Dörk tried to assure with a small smirk.
Nyx was integrated. Galen was sure to welcome him. People were allowed in the forest as long as they didn't harm the animals or nature. It might be a good idea. But...
"No. I don't think that would be a good idea. I wouldn't want anyone to recognize me by mistake. Not after my rampage in the camp."
That gave Dörk a bad feeling in his gut. He had completely forgotten about Nyx and the trail of corpses he'd left in eastern Shyw. "You never told me how you went monkey on those guys." He could only cock his eyebrow at the sexy golem.
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"So some evil shits killed a girl and made you."
"Aha."
"But the soldiers think it was all you..."
"Potentially, yeah. Yeah."
"And you killed some thieves. Again, was that before or after you killed the doctor?"
"...After. But he and his kid... Never mind."
"Then you were attacked on the dirt road, so you killed the guards to escape."
Nyx could only shudder at the memory. "Oh my god..."
"Kid, you're stupid as shit. Anyway after somehow killing the captain, you released the vampire we went hunting-- which by the way was prisoner under the captain. And then you trashed my place..." Well, getting drunk had never felt better. "You crazy bastard." With that he downed another swig of his brew.
Dörk could only push the matter in the back of his brain. Thinking about this sad kid-- going on a killing spree—at least not for no reason—made him a little—just a little—more understanding. Hell, he even felt sorry for him to some extent. At least he didn't killed eveyone in his path. The whole charade was making his gears creak like he forgot adding oil in three moths of constant using!
"There was also a bear. Have you seen one?"
That pulled the wizard out of the though. What bear? The man just hummed back at the golem. "No, I can't say I had." But a few seconds of thinking let Dörk figure out what Nyx might have meant. "You didn't keep a bear inside the town, did you?!"
"NO! It just liked to follow me around but it left. My god... Tamira—said her friend sent it to me for protection." Nyx defended himself. But his attitude and assertion could cost him a few suspicious questions in return.
"What friend? Another god?"
There it was...
"I think so. It's a possibility. I never really got the chance to learn about them, even back when I was alive." Nyx added, trying to change the subject. "But I don't want to talk about it."
But Dörk might just be a little worried. "Listen. Sometimes things aren't clear. Especially with gods and when you have so little to go on. Like—what did Tamira tell you? What does she really want you to do?"
The golem was chewing his tongue, trying to come up with a good answer.
"She... kind told me to wait." Nyx couldn't come up with a better answer. The best half-truth of his life. "I don't know exactly. But she said it wouldn't be long before we talk again." And that was the lie to tell Dörk right now. Still thinking about telling the guys killed him. What could possibly be going through the minds of some men over the middle-age and into elderliness? Panic? Terror? Mental breakdown? They might as well have suffered an aneurysm and be in a coma.
But the master of glyphs just scoffed. "The gods and their cryptic ways of speaking." His eyes could only roll toward the sky, wearing an expression that was both accepting and bored. "Don't forget, kid. They're up there. We're here."
Well, that just made Nyx even more tense than he already was. But he couldn't help but laugh off the irony. "Y'know… we're also pretty high… Right?"
"Yeah… high of booze." He shot back with a wry grin. And Nyx did the same.
"Well… I think we've been here for over an hour… Better finish this list and head back." After a moment of confusion, the wizard got to his feet. His mind was sharp, but the connection between his head and body was sluggish. "Wooh… I'm okay—" He took a few steps, leaning on the railing as he went. "…too high…"
"Take it easy rider, okay?" To which the wizard could only nod—but apparently even that had made him feel a little queasy. And then Nyx glanced concernedly at the trapdoor in the roof. "Please, try not to break your legs. Okay?"
Dörk offered nothing but a reassuring smile. "It wouldn't be the first time, kid. When we find means, you and I will drink to our hearts' content. What do you say?" He reached out, trying to place his foot through the open hatch and steady himself on one of the steps.
"Sure, buddy. But off you go now."
The first two steps were the hardest until Dörk reached the handrail and secured his balance. Too bad. The next second, he lost his footing and fell through the hatch onto the stairs.
The entire structure shook violently all at once, the force of the shock surely reaching them straight from the base. "The fuck!?" yelled the wizard. The golem rushed to the opening to look for the man and maybe, just maybe not finding him with something broken or a bleeding gush. "Dörk! You okay?!" Nyx felt the modified trebuchet jolt again.
But the man just groaned, feeling dizzy from the fall. He quickly regained his balance and, holding onto the ladder. Thank his god he was ok. "I'm alright! Just be careful! Get down before—"
One last jolt shifted the trebuchet, causing it to start turning, and slowly gravity pulled the whole thing downward. Desperation drove Nyx to instinctively grab the railing in the hope of somehow saving himself from craking his head. He hoped Dörk might do the same. But that was wishful thinking. This damn thing was picking up speed real fast when more wood was cracking, letting you know the frame had no chance of stopping anywhere but the ground.
His worst-case scenario? Obviously the ground—probably a not-so-small or not-so-big rock that would crack his something at the right angle like an egg. Or…
Nyx saw the chance in an split second and took it. In that quick moment he put all his wits into it and leaped from the top of the trebuche making his body crash through weak foliage and a tree trunk significantly slowing him fall. This reminded him of Lili and how they first engaged. Funny, this time has actually been easier even though he had almost no control of the fall but more about how he landed. A succesful landing if the golen would pat himself on the shoulder. Nyx pushed himself up onto one knee and assessed the scene. Dörk was still inside the now fully scrapped wood building and likely injured. His hand brushed for the four spears on his back, the daggers, and the newly acquired mace. Everything was in its place except he lost two of his spears.
But Nyx didn't get the chance to see where they had landed. On a whim, a huge beast pounced with force, grabbing the golem by the head with it's jaw. The animal trashed him, dragging and slamming the stone chunk boy left and right seeking to crush his head. On sheer impulse, the uncut warrior clung tightly to the fur on the creature's head, trying to find a spot where he could strike.
It took six seconds while the teeth were still gnawing at his head before Nyx connected a punch with his metal gauntlet to what he thought was the eye. He was released after hearing a short but still distinctly alive and agitated yelp of pain. The walking statue had to wipe the drool from its eye, and when it had done so, just as before, a giant hyena was lurking a dozen meters away, ready for battle. The only difference from the first time he and Callahan were attached was its reddish fur and the armor it sported to protect the back and skull down to the neck and sides.