[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 280 – Best Served Cold

The days following Relagia’s near-destruction and subsequent salvation seemed like a dream to Gray. The Skyshard of Sil’mara was larger than anything Relagia had even at its height, and it was growing by the day.

One group, however, was quickly finding out that they were not as welcomed as they had hoped they would be.

The raven-feathered bandits, having already lost their leadership, were struggling to find a place in this new world. It was obvious to anybody with eyes that this place was going to be something special.

There was clean running water, plenty of food, warm beds, and the safety of large walls to ward off the worst of the monsters. What monsters that could threaten those walls were dealt with by Sil’mara’s mighty rulers.

In short, this place was everything that Relagia should have been.

The bandits clearly desired to stay.

Gray wasn’t sure of their motives. He knew on some level that he held a deep-seated grudge against them that was skewing his perception. People who preyed on the weak and downtrodden were the lowest of the low.

Whenever the leader of Relagia caught a bandit looking hungrily at the fields of crops, Gray couldn’t help but think that if Sil’mara was weaker, they would take everything out from under them.

And yet, was that fair for him to think that? The leadership was dead. Most died during the fighting, and those that did not get a hero’s death received one significantly less honorable at the end of his sword.

There could be no bargaining, no peace, with the people who had tried to take what little Relagia had left. If not for the monsters cutting off their escape and assuring their death, they would have left the Relagians to fend for themselves against the hordes of monsters.

However, Gray always believed that the leadership needed to take full responsibility. Those that followed orders were usually less culpable. More often than not, they only wanted safety and food.

That didn’t excuse their behavior, but it didn’t warrant death.

Not until they showed their true colors.

At the same time, “I was just following orders” wasn’t a valid excuse. Which was why Gray found himself mostly alone one evening, with a large supply of food and armaments from Sil’mara.

Far outside the walls of the growing township, Gray put down the last of the packages beneath a tall tree and did his best to keep his eyes from scanning the woods.

He knew there were people out there watching him.

Haman chirruped softly beside him. “This is a good spot for an outpost.”

With supply crates piled up around the tree and nobody else around him, Gray felt more exposed than ever. Haman was powerful in his own way, but he was still just a little pobul.

When you took him away from Raiko, he didn’t look quite so imposing.

“It’s the highest rise outside of the town,” he told Haman, turning his back to the woods and looking at the [Stellar Stone] walls of Sil’mara. In the dark of night, they glimmered like starlight.

“Fine night, ain’t it?” a voice called jovially to him from behind. “Odd for a lordling to be out on his own. And with the chef of all people. Hello, little one.” Gray turned to watch Evan flash a friendly smile and pat one of the crates. “Did I hear something about an outpost?”

He didn’t miss the dark, hungry look Evan shot Haman.

Gray glanced to the side as more dark shapes materialized. Evan could see him doing the mental math.

“Let’s not make this nasty, hm?” Evan said. “We’re all just trying to survive, y’know? This place is great and all, but it’s too stifling. They want to go live in their feudal kingdom, good fucking luck. I’m not biting.”

“You seemed happy enough to eat their food and sleep in their beds,” Gray countered.

“I’m not stupid. But now you? Well…coming out here all on your own after what you did to Bobby?” Evan shook his head and made a tsk, tsk sound through his teeth. “Now that’s stupid. You were smart enough to keep people around you at all times for a while, but I guess even the best of us slip up at times.”

Gray chuckled.

Haman stood up on his hind legs and pointed with one stubby paw. “You ate my food!”

“And we’ll be eating a lot more of it,” Alicia said, stepping up beside Evan. “Let’s just kill him and take the runt. We don’t need the supplies when he can make more. We’ll carve out a piece of this land with Tim’s ability and be gone before they know what hit them.”

Despite his belief that everybody deserved a second chance, Gray couldn’t hide his relief when every member of the bandit gang appeared before him. Even with all their deaths, they were still 20-strong.

Gray was strong, but against 20 bandits? There was nothing he could do to stop them except die with honor. Which he would be glad to do. “I’m sorry,” Gray said, turning to Haman.

The pobul looked up at Gray, heartbroken. His soulful brown eyes filled with tears. He let out a little sniffle.

“You’re damn right,” Evan snarled. “I only wish we had time to properly repay you. Killing you will have to be enough. You’ll die knowing you failed to save such a cute and defenseless little creature. That’ll have to be good enough.”

The bandits moved forward as one. Gray turned to look over his shoulder, already knowing that there were more behind him. They had greater stealth than he gave them credit for. Without him even being aware of it, they had ringed the hill and cut off all escape.

Gray knelt down and picked up Haman.

“That isn’t going to stop us,” Alicia snarled. “You gonna use that little bastard like a shield? Did you forget you’re surrounded? Maybe we don’t want to hurt our little meal ticket, but he’s not big enough to hide behind!”

Alicia threw back her blonde head and laughed.

Gray turned Haman away just as her laughter turned into a strange gurgling sound.

The bandits who had joined in the laughter were looking around, utterly confused. Before they could figure out what was going on, a dark slime fell from a branch overhead onto another bandit’s head. Gray thought his name was Greg.

Screaming, though nobody could hear him, Greg flailed as the acidic slime ooze melted his face at the same time as its gelatinous body suffocated him.

Matt dropped down from the branches and landed gingerly beside Gray. He nodded at him. “Sup.”

Gray motioned to Puddles, Matt’s familiar. “New ability?”

“Yeah, pretty cool, right?”

“Effective.”

“What the fuck’s going on?!” Evan screamed as one by one his bandits were quietly scythed down like wheat stalks in Haman’s field. Even the sounds of the falling bodies were muffled.

“She’s maaaad,” Haman whispered.

“Of course she is,” Matt said, patting his smooth otter-like head. “She’s like a mama grizzly with her cub.”

“Am I the cub?” Haman asked sweetly.

“You sure are, little dude.”

“You!” Evan screeched, taking out a crossbow and taking aim at Gray.

Before he could pull the trigger, Gray shifted Haman to one hip and unsheathed his blade, all in one smooth motion. The dark grass blades rippled and bent away as he used [Vacuum Slice].

As promised, Gray pulled back at the last moment so the man wouldn’t be too badly hurt. His crossbow was cleaved in half and fell to the ground, useless.

Evan, like so many of the other bandits who possessed decent survival instincts, turned to flee into the night.

“Why are you running?!” came a crazed voice in the dark. “Don’t run! Only the guilty run!”

He caught a glimpse of Raiko’s violet eyes gleaming like a panther’s in the dark before she disappeared into the woods after Evan.

Matt looked over at Gray. “Clearly she’s never been to ‘murica.”

Gray rolled his eyes at the comment, but didn’t entirely disagree. Besides, he didn’t know if he could stand firm against the monster that was Raiko, if he was in Evan’s shoes.

The gulf between her power and everybody else was insane. She could have single-handedly destroyed the waves of monsters and killed the bandits without breaking a sweat. 20 bandits that would have assuredly killed him were nothing to her.

Their screams echoed out into the night.

“You knew,” Haman said.

“I did,” Gray agreed. “They were bad people. Not all people are bad…but not all people deserve the kindness you show them.”

Haman folded his stubby arms petulantly. “They deserved the chance.”

“They did, and they showed their true colors.”

Matt clapped Gray on the shoulder. “Too bad, really. We could have used them. Stealth skills and useful Scout jobs? It’s a shame.”

Gray turned to Matt. “Didn’t you trade favors just so you could kill one of them?”

Matt shrugged. “I’m protective of my home and the royal line.” He poked Haman’s black nose gently. “Raiko can’t be having all of the fun.”

Haman scrunched up and wriggled his nose in response. As always, the chirp-like noises the pobul made softened Gray’s heart.

He wasn’t made of stone.

“That would explain their involvement.” Gray jerked his chin toward the other forms who had come along with Raiko earlier in the night to ambush the bandits.

Thorny vines burst out from the ground, snaring many of the running bandits. Flashes of bright flame turned a few bandits into human candles.

Another struggled in vain to crawl away from Raiko, his Achilles tendons severed. She emerged from the brush with two bloody blades, furious.

A pair of bandits were foolish enough to attack her rather than run, likely thinking she was distracted by her prey on the ground.

Weaving her blades outwards in tandem, Raiko cut their sword arms clean through at the joints. Lightning and ice coated her katanas up to the hilts.

Flicking her blades back, she encased the bandits in tombs of electrified ice.

Gray shivered. They’re all monsters, he thought to himself.

Which only made him more curious about their missing member, Sam. By their own admittance, he was the strongest of them. Something that Gray couldn’t help but be suspicious of.

By far the most interesting kill of the night wasn’t Raiko’s. It was the red-skinned demon, Bal’daz’s. He summoned a small hut from thin air and crushed one of the bandits hiding in the low-lying brush.

In less than ten minutes, every bandit was dead or wished they were.

“Man, Bal’daz is really getting some style points,” Matt remarked. His slime rolled over and peered up at him questioningly. “Don’t worry, you did good too, Puddles.”

Their leader, a man named Robert, had been strong enough to give Gray a run for his money. He wouldn’t have lasted a minute with any of Sil’mara’s nobles. Even their self-proclaimed weakest member, Lenal, would have been able to kill him.

Though, watching her fight, Gray didn’t think she would get away without some wounds of her own.

And here I thought I was one of the strongest, Gray thought to himself. He had been at the top of the totem pole as far as Relagia was concerned.

By his own estimation, he was perhaps 8th or lower in Sil’mara. Perhaps with proper fighting technique and skill being employed, he might be able to be among the top 5, but he wasn’t sure.

There is opportunity to grow here, Gray told himself. With people who cherish one another and will not allow a stain like the bandits to spoil their home.

As the screams slowly faded from the night, Gray stood vigil with Matt as he had promised Raiko.

In exchange for rooting out the bandits and any who would aid them, he had promised to protect Haman with his life.

The supplies might have been enough bait, but with Haman in the mix, it had been impossible for the bandits to resist. A tiny creature that they thought they could lock up like a caged animal and let out only to cook and farm for them?

It was too good to be true.

Because it was.

They hadn’t counted on Raiko’s insurmountable fury or her overprotectiveness of the pobul. Even Gray had seen how special Haman was from the first.

He had volunteered selflessly, rather than be asked to put himself in danger.

“Don’t worry about them,” Matt said, mistaking Gray’s frown for disapproval. “They got what was coming to them. Better this than what they were planning.”

“That,” Gray said, “I do not doubt.”

It wasn’t the death that bothered him. Ever since the apocalypse, Gray had walked alongside death time and time again. Friends, family, co-workers. He had seen so many die that he was practically numb to it.

He wasn’t frowning because of the death. He was frowning because he knew that he had secretly wanted this. If he had given in to his dark desires, he would have put every damned bandit to the sword the moment the monsters were dead.

Now he only felt relief–and guilt at that relief–because he knew he would never have to look at their faces again.