Broken Siege (2/2)
Once a few thousands more Alsa'ree Arkin are summoned, Kaalhyme sends them all to their posts.
After they leave, Haalfrin asks, "Just curious… but you all act like you're still close after all these years. I mean, why're they still treating you like their general?"
"Things aren't exactly peaceful in the Death Realm," Kaalhyme sighs sadly.
"Not peaceful!?" Haalfrin exclaims. Truthfully, this SHOULD surprise him, since the world he was brought to by Das was a serene paradise.
"Haalfrin," Freyya puts on a somber look as she says, "Not every world is like the Death King's planet. No matter how great a king is, his influence can't stretch to every corner of his territory. Plus, outside forces are always trying to invade us. We can't spare the armies to manage and protect every world."
"Yeah…," Kaalhyme's shoulders slumps. "There's so many dead people, but not enough room on the Death Worlds. Even if people are killed to make room for the victors, the dead will always slowly recondense their bodies. The wars never stop."
The old general shakes his head. "Never mind that."
"I know I'm curious about your afterlife," Haalfrin starts to say, "but… does it make you uncomfortable to talk about it?"
"The afterlife was… hard… at first," the old general says. "There have been countless tribes and kingdoms who've lived and died before. My Alsa'ree tribe is just a fart compared to those old monsters who've had millions of years to dig their roots in the Death Realm. When I arrived in the Death Realm, I found that my people had been wiped out, and many of them had been sealed in special prisons built to harvest their souls for mana in order to power their captors' cities. My people were in pain every day."
Unexpectedly, Kaalhyme bows deeply, and Haalfrin can hear the choking, tearful tone in his voice as he says, "Thank you, Haalfrin. You're my people's benefactor. Without you helping me and some of my men become Arkin, our people would've suffered for all eternity. After we got the strength to fight back, me and my soldiers were able to fight for enough territory for our people to live in."
In all his life, Haalfrin had never been thanked so sincerely before. Not sure how to respond, he looks away and mutters, "All right. If you have people to protect, shouldn't you be over there rather than helping me right now?"
Kaalhyme looks up and shakes his head. "This is a debt we owe you. We HAVE to repay you."
"Fine, fine!" Haalfrin gives in. "But with so many Arkin spirits linked to me, you guys can at least take turns coming to help. Just off the top of my head, the old Threshold soldiers should be willing to help at least. I don't know how many were killed by the Queen, but there should be a few tens of thousands."
"Thank you for your consideration," Kaalhyme smiles gratefully.
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Indeed, Haalfrin was correct about the perished Threshold soldiers being willing to fight again; why would they turn down the chance to get revenge and continue to fulfill their duty? Even the less dutiful among them still want to come, since living in the Death Realm is really hard, and coming to fight here is relatively more easy going.
With Kaalhyme's Alsa'ree soldiers willing to at least guard the outside for now and the Threshold soldiers here, there's enough spare soldiers for Haalfrin to test their strength – see how well he could use them.
Surprisingly, when Haalfrin arm wrestles one of them, he realizes that he has to use his Dra Name to supplement his strength; without it, his arm would've been crushed.
Clearly, an Arkin isn't nearly as strong as a Drakin. According to the Arkin he's talking to, an individual Arkin and Felkin are about as powerful as each other… though Haalfrin wouldn't know this from experience; he's never fought a Felkin before.
You could say that each race has their own strengths. Drakin are mighty. Felkin are great alchemists. Rehkin are great necromancers. The Arkin? They're not the best at anything in particular; instead, their strength is their versatility…
After a few practice spars, Haalfrin finally gets a firm grasp of exactly how strong the Arkin are. If you compare them to dragons, then if you get 3 Gate Arkin and 3 Horned Drakin next to each other, then the 3 Gate Arkin would be about as powerful as a 1 Horned dragon. A 4 gate Arkin is as powerful as a 2 Horned dragon, etc.
What's most interesting of all is that all of the Arkin have the same ability; they can all shapeshift into a flying weapon. The first time Haalfrin sees them do this, the first thing he thinks of is, "Where did the weapon come from?"
The only reason he figures it out on his own is because he remembers Kaalhyme's original spear – the one that had appeared in his soul long ago, when he first collected his Will. "Ah," he realizes, "The Arkin can turn into the weapons they died with. That makes sense.
"Whatever," he thinks, "Fisco's going to be happy when he finds out that he doesn't have to supply me weapons anymore.
All in all, this is really great news for the war. His army just became many times more powerful.
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While Haalfrin is ruminating over the tactical implications of having an army of Arkin, somebody taps him on the shoulder, and a familiar voice speaks to him, "Oi, Haalfrin. You've gotten even more ridiculous."
Haalfrin didn't sense the presence of the person behind him, which surprises him. Reeling around, he looks in shock when he a pointy eared Faylin.
Seeing his old friend "alive" and "well", Haalfrin gives her a bright smile and says, "I'm glad you could show up so quickly. What about Resburn?"
"I'm not sure why, but he's taking longer to condense. His soul didn't have as much Significance as mine, though he's still on his way."
(What she and Haalfrin didn't know was that after she accepted her love for the poor dragon who sacrificed himself for her, she got a lot of Significance immediately.)
Faylin then looks around anxiously, "So… where's the rascal dragon?"
Haalfrin, thinking Faylin is trying to be sure Fhulk won't try to cause trouble for her, pats her on the back and reassures her, "Don't worry. His bones are still at the bottom of the ravine."
The assassin's eyes twitch for a second, then she pushes whatever she was thinking aside. "Anyway," she says, "Can I ask a favor?"
"What is it?"
"It's just…," her voice trails off as she has this look on her face which suggests she doesn't know what to say. "… As soon as the opportunity presents itself, I want backup on getting his bones back. I know the Ants are infesting the land down there, but we can do that much, right?"
The man goes silent for a moment, then says, "I'm not going to ask why you want Fhulk's bones… but we won't be able to bring him back to life. Only a 5 horned dragon or stronger can do that."
Haalfrin holds up Dakka's dragonebone ax and continues, "This guy's only a 4 horned dragon. He's not strong enough to re-embody the lad."
"It's fine," the girl nods understandingly, "I just want his bones nearby. I can figure something out later."
Finally, Haalfrin can't take it anymore. "What's gotten into you?" he asks while giving an awkward laugh, "I've never seen you ask so many questions about that dragon before."
"He just died trying to save my life. I-i-I'm just being grateful, OK? That's all. T-there's nothing more to it!?"
"…Ok…" Haalfrin goes silent, and he realizes it really isn't his business to pry here. All he needs to worry about is that his comrade had asked a favor of him. A friend asking for a favor is the only reason he needs to do something.
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Now that Haalfrin's army of Wills had turned into an Army of Arkin, he and his forces suddenly have the leeway to get VERY aggressive.
Since most of the Arkin are as strong as weak dragons, they're able to hold a maze hallway just as well with 3 or 4 people, where before, they needed nearly a hundred Wills walling themselves off.
With so many bodies suddenly free, their raids on the Ants become far more brutal and frequent.
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"220,384,993"
"220,385,491"
"220,385,914"
"…"
"Aah!" the Queen slams her fist on the unbreakable fortress wall. "When did they get so powerful!"
"What's wrong, mother?" one of the Ants asks her in concern.
(Ever since they had been living without fighting for so long, a lot of the Ants had grown lax and started calling the Queen "mother" instead of "your majesty".)
The Queen holds up her faithful pendent. "The numbers on here didn't change at all. The dragon slayer shouldn't have gotten any stronger… yet the enemy is tearing us apart!"
Yes, the dragon slayer must've been hiding his power! Besides, where did those pointy eared people come from?
While the Queen worries about this, she paces through the streets as she vicariously sees her children below the surface being slaughtered, and the fortifications she'd spent years on being destroyed.
More than seeing her children dying, it's seeing all their effort wasted that feels truly tragic to the Queen.
"What're we going to do, mom?" one of the other Ants quivers. "I don't want to die!"
"Yeah," comes the voice of a little girl; one of the Ants had transformed into her humanoid form. "Are the monsters going to come kill us!? Mom, you're going to protect us, right? You're strong!"
"Tch!" the Queen clicks her tongue with irritation. That's exactly why she doesn't like her Ants to live for too long. It's a lot easier for them to willingly throw themselves to their deaths when they're newly born; they don't know any better when they're that young.
Now? With so many years without getting slaughtered, her children have started getting attached to the notion of living.
Well. There's only one way to fix that. "We're going back to war, kids," the Queen grits her teeth.