CHPT 92: Who am I to deny?

Claude ran behind the small huts, determined to get back to the final survivor. He made sure to pay close attention to his link to Frosty for any disturbances he'd communicate to him instantly.

The link stayed relatively calm in his mind, only transmitting small bursts of what felt like curiosity and alertness. Everything was still going according to plan.

By the time he reached the large hut at the end of the village again, the Goblins started searching the area and nearby huts with an intense look in their greedy yellow eyes.

He was moving on borrowed time.

***

The doors opened quietly and the man came in with an intense look of focus in his eyes. She was thoroughly surprised at that fact since any sensible person would've left if they were outnumbered and able to save the large portion of survivors.

"Why did you come back?" She asked.

***

Claude looked at her confusedly, "You know what I am, don't you?"

The girl stayed silent and furrowed her thin black eyebrows.

"I'm a Hero...or at least I'm trying to be..." Claude said as images of the dead raiders flashed in his mind.

He quickly snapped out of it and approached her. The leather straps over her upper and lower body had weird markings in them that smelled wrong— like blood, herbs and greed.

"The taller one uses magic.....I'm guessing he used it to strengthen these." She said while flicking her head down to the straps.

"That's fine." He said before placing his hands on the ones holding down her upper body.

He fought with them for a few seconds before she broke the silence. "It's not fine, genius. I don't think these can be broken with brute strength." She said flatly.

"You don't have any magic? Like fire?" She asked.

Claude cursed himself silently as he looked around the room saying, "No I do—...maybe I do."

He stopped himself mid sentence once his eyes fell on a pair of black tongs inside the flaming forge at the back corner of the hut.

He quickly rushed over to the forge, the heat radiating from it was almost suffocating.

"Perfect." He thought before pulling out the tongs, the ends that sat in the fire glowed red with intense heat.

The girl watched him quickly walk back to her side with the glowing tongs, "Clever." She thought.

"Ehrm...I'm sorry if I burn you." He said.

"It's fine, just hurry up." She said in reply while eyeing the hot tongs with a complete absence of fear.

Snip!

Snip!

Claude cut the straps like butter while being as careful as possible.

She hopped out of the seat immediately and began stretching and warming up her muscles like she was preparing for a fight. Her cuts and scabs reopened grotesquely, letting off a foul smell of infection that made Claude want to gag.

Surprisingly, she didn't even flinch as her wounds popped and ripped all over her pale skinned body.

"What are you doing? We have to get out of here." Claude said.

"You plan on killing the rest, don't you?" She asked, in reference to the Goblins.

"Well, yea—"

"I want in." She interrupted.

Claude was completely stunned by her answer and took a second longer to respond.

"Do you even have any experience? Have you been Reborn?"

She scoffed at his question and crossed her arms over her chest saying, "I don't need a class. Who do you think was killing them before you got here?" She asked confidently.

He was once again surprised, but now that he looked at her, it was almost believable. She didn't look like the rest of the survivors, she looked healthier. She was still thin, but it was more like she was trim— cut. She was built like she'd been living off only meat and vegetables for months.

"You were killing them??" He asked to clarify.

"Yea, they spent a lot of time looking for me but never thought to check the waters that surround this place. Whenever I found one separated from their group, I'd drag them under and drown them— it wasn't very hard since Goblins can only hold their breaths for like a minute." She said while still searching for a formidable weapon.

"I can't even hold my breath for a minute....." Claude mumbled.

"Hey! Hero guy. Help me find a weapon." She said after a few seconds.

Claude almost complied before he got ahold of himself.

"What— no, your in pretty bad shape and I came to save all of you, not most of you."

She looked him up and down angrily, "I've already told you, I know what I'm doing. Now those were my people that died here. Are you really going to deny me of my revenge?"

She didn't realize it, but she hit a sore spot in him, his eyes flared green at the mention of revenge before going back to normal. The quick change sent a chill down her back and caused her to drop her eyes immediately— it felt like she caught a glimpse of a monster.

"You have a fair point." He grumbled.

"I already knew that." The female survivor said while attempting to walk past him.

She was stopped mid stride by his large hand wrapping around her upper arm.

"What are you doing?" She asked angrily.

"You're not going out in just a wet t shirt to face a small army of Goblins, you psycho." Claude said while purposely looked towards the ceiling.

The girl quickly looked down at herself and realized how....revealing...her attire was and quickly covered up. By the time she was fully covered, her cheeks took on a rosy shine.

Claude made sure to look away while he sheathed his sword and untied his cloak. The girl looked at him oddly, curious of what he was doing. But, it didn't take her long to catch on.

Once he shrugged out of the torso/chest portion of his leather armor, he walked over to her and slid it over her head.

"You know I could've done that." She said.

Claude stayed silent as he tightened the side straps to make the armor fit her better. Once he was done, he picked up his cloak and tightened it around her neck, surprisingly it fit her much better than him.

She stood silently for a moment, staring. She knew Heroes spent a lot of time in battle, but based on how young he looked, he shouldn't have had so many scars.

"Your arms..." she said now that they were visible.

Claude looked down at them in response. His muscles arms flexed and tensed as he turned them to look at the white scars that stood out on his bronze skin like tiger stripes.

"Oh yea.....uh....big snake." He replied.

After a few seconds, she snapped out of it and began fiddling with the new armor she wore.

"I don't see any other weapons in here, so you'll have to use mine. Do you know how to use a sword like that?" He asked, referring to Bane of the Undead sheathed in her back.

Shing!

"It doesn't matter if I'm proficient or not. I'll still kill a few." She said while eyeing the sword.

"[Are you sure about this?]" Arne asked.

"No. But she wants revenge, who am I to deny her?" He thought in reply.

"Alright Frosty, ready to go?" He asked.

Frosty huffed in response, scaring the hell out of the female survivor.

"Come on." He said to her before grabbing the body of the dead old woman and heading out of the hut.

Claude, Frosty and the final survivor stepped out into the night prepared for battle. Apparently the Goblins were just as prepared.

The Shaman and its followers waited for them a couple yards in front of the hut silently. The taller Goblin stood behind them all menacingly, holding a scepter made of stick, stones and the bones of dead bodies— according to the smell. All it wore was a long black robe outlined with animal furs. 15 Goblins stood in front of it like little green foot soldiers dressed in armor, holding their swords and clubs tightly.

Claude was momentarily stunned that they waited for him to leave. But, once he looked into the Shaman's eyes, he realized it planned to kill them right where they stood. It was so confident it didn't even use its advantage.

He cleared his throat— causing some of the Goblins to jump in fear, and placed the dead old woman down by the hut.

"So, I never got your name. You mind telling me?" He asked the female survivor.

She looked at him, still holding her combat stance. "Are you seriously asking me that right now?"

"Yes." He replied.

She rolled her eyes and turned back to face the Goblins. "My name's Mariana, my friends call me Maris."

"Alright. Well Maris, are you ready to get some revenge?" He asked while twirling his sword and activating his skill, (Beast Trait) to gain the physical and mental traits of the PitWolf that stood snarling next to him.

"Of course."