At the heart of the woods, Noah led the way, looking ahead through the dense green that obscured the path. Setting his foot forward–snap–a twig crunched. The moment he took that step, he stopped; it was like a faint resonance through his body.
[Fiend Tracking] [C-Rank Monster Hunting Skill]
From some strides behind, the mage took notice of his expression, coming to a stop herself as she grabbed her stave, "Is something coming?"
"Yeah," Noah answered, grabbing his axe as he swung his gaze around.
From silence, giggling emerged, like the laughter of sinister children. It came from all directions, from multiple sources.
"In the trees–above!" Otto shouted from the back of the group, drawing an arrow hurriedly.
Noah looked up just as the nearest branch to his vision shook, witnessing a peculiar figure reveal itself: a tiny humanoid of skin like dry bark and hair like golden leaves. The tiny fiend released the ear-piercing laughing sound, pointing the wooden spear in its hand towards his eye.
[Identification] [C-Rank Close-Quarters Combat Skill]
["Hollow Tree Spirit"] [Designated Level: Appx. 3]
He swung his axe overhead, using his advantage of reach over the tiny spirit to cut right through its body. To his surprise, it was completely weightless, as if splitting a hollowed log.
'That's one down,' he thought, turning his focus behind him.
"Noah!" Astrid called out.
From her stave, an orb of water imprisoned one of the hostile spirits as it flailed around. The elven novice gasped and struggled, stumbling around as the little creature certainly had some merit to its resistance.
He hurried over, lending his axe through the aquatic orb. Through the water, the sharp edge cleaved through the spirit.
"--Thanks!" Astrid exhaled.
There wasn't time to give more than a nod as he looked past the girl, discovering one of the tiny nuisances right behind her, charging its spear towards the mage's knee. Without a word, he stepped past her, using his shoulder to bump his companion out of the way as he slammed his axe down.
"Ah–?" Astrid gasped, looking back.
The harsh descent of the silver tool shattered the bark-formed fiend into a dozen pieces, leaving a gash in the soil. Just a few strides away, Otto aimed his bow, releasing the string as an arrow sailed between vines, impaling one of the quick-footed spirits.
"How many of these things are there?" Noah wondered, meeting back-to-back with the archer.
"Not sure, but it'd be nice if we had some help!" Otto yelled, pointing his words at the one amongst them that had yet to lift a finger.
The orc quietly stood by one of the forest's natural canopies, avoiding any confrontation with the spirits that were no more than a tenth his own size. A pair of the giggling spirits stood on the giant's broad shoulders, jabbing at his skin with their sharpened sticks, though not doing much more than poking.
"Hey! I don't care what happens to you, but give us a hand–!" Otto yelled towards the orc.
There wasn't much urgency from the unspoken brute, who only moved a few moments after some demand. He calmly reached up to each shoulder, grabbing ahold of the pests that stabbed at his tough skin.
Redrum tossed the spirits, though made no effort to crush them as the tiny fiends landed on the soil with "squeaks" leaving their hollow mouths.
While Otto looked a moment from an outburst at the orc's half-hearted assistance, Noah quickly stepped over, stomping his foot over one spirit and splitting the other with his axe.
"Got 'em all, I think," he muttered to himself, looking around.
As it quieted down with the defeat of the last one, there was something off in the very fact he received nothing in the way of experience. He stood there, looking at the fragments left of the hostile spirits; the accursed bark sank into the soil as though the solid surface was mud.
'Maybe they were too weak to even register my system?' Noah theorized.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Brother–" Astrid tried to calm her twin, though failed to stop his approach.
Otto's sharp words were followed by him getting in the orc's face, though he ended up merely half the quiet monster's size. There was no response from Redrum, who silently stood there and looked back at the elf.
"If you're going to stick around, the least you can do is not get in our way! You threw those things right back at us!" Otto accused.
"I'm sorry," Redrum apologized.
"What?" Otto raised an eyebrow.
"I promised I'd never take another life again," Redrum explained without shying his gaze. "I can't make exceptions for that."
From what Noah saw in the verdant eyes of the archer, Otto seemed to contemplate drawing an arrow right there against the orc, but pulled away.
As night fell, camp was taken within the bounds of the forest. Of course, he offered to stay up and keep watch; while the twins slept, he found himself accompanied by the orc.
"I never killed anybody outside of war," Redrum claimed, watching the campfire.
"Is that so?" Noah said, not caring much for any reasoning of the act.
"It doesn't make it right, but I felt that needed to be clarified. I was an honorable warrior, once…After the Saint brought me to the brink of death, I changed," Redrum recalled, resting his hands on his knees. "I was desperate. I ached for strength, feeling the weight of my fallen comrades' sacrifices."
He didn't talk, only listened while tending to the fire as it quietly crackled, providing its warmth like a comforting blanket.
"What you did to me, its let me reflect on everything. The me I was just shortly ago, that being is gone. That darkness swirling around my heart–faded," Redrum tapped his chest.
"Saying it is one thing," Noah responded, tossing a twig into the fire. "I know that darkness is gone because I'm the one who put it out, but nobody else has that same certainty. You'll need to work hard to prove it."
The advice given seemed to point Redrum's gaze towards the slumbering archer, who slept with his back pressed against a tree, hugging his bow like a plush.
"That one…I don't know if he'll ever trust me," Redrum sighed.
"Trust is gained," Noah said. "In your case, maybe never, maybe years. Who knows."
Silence followed as the campsite was only met by the ambience of the nightly forest; the howls of predators close, or perhaps far.
The orc breathed out, "I must thank you, Noah. I was ready to die, I…accepted it. You've provided a different path, one that a monster like me is never given. I owe my life to you."
"I don't think anybody should be owed anything for restraining to take a life," Noah remarked, looking at the fire. "Life is a precious thing, y'know? Way too precious to be ready to take it away so easily."
"You're right," Redrum agreed. "I understand that now. It is…precious. All I can think about is the look in the eyes of the soldiers I killed in battle. The terror, the sorrow–I never want to see that again."
Though facing away, quietly in the midst of his sleep, the archer listened in, though didn't say anything.
Even then, for Noah, it felt like he wasn't talking to the very same being that just some time ago tried taking his life with four blades. Compared to the boisterous, imposing General, the orc before him was a shell of himself, though perhaps to somebody better.
'If I had to guess, about ninety-percent of Redrum's soul was "dark." So, if that was wiped out, all that's left of him is, well, a tenth of who he was. He's a blank slate now,' Noah thought.