“[Halite Bullet].”
Dusting my hands, I sighed, and shook my head. What a waste.
[You have slayed a Scout of Fort Zyvar!]
[You have slayed Arol the Poltergeist!]
[850,620 Experience Points Gained]
The title [Genocidal] has come into effect for the Species: [Poltergeist].
The title [Genocidal] has come into effect for the Species: [Leporinian].
[25 Genocide Points Earned]
[You have unlocked the suitable conditions for evolution.]
The battle was wrapping up. The Sphinx was defeated. Wunder was dead. Arol was dead. The only ones left were –
[You have slayed a Lieutenant of Fort Zyvar!]
[You slayed Onna the Yuki-onna!]
[1,563,742 Experience Points Gained]
The title [Genocidal] has come into effect for the Species: [Yuki-Onna].
[25 Genocide Points Earned]
[You have unlocked the suitable conditions for evolution.]
Well, that was expected. The Tungsten Golem Infantry had completely overwhelmed and eliminated Onna without much difficulty. Tungsten as a material was hard to freeze, and with her major ability taken out of the equation, there was not much else she could do against them.
That left only two targets for me to take down. The two wildcards, Erzili and Slim. There was the possibility that Erzili was somewhere deep within the Fort, hiding in ambush and waiting for me to enter the range of that deadly ability.
I knew, at the very least, that Erzili’s range did not encompass the entire Fort, else I would long have been turned into a puddle. Now, we had entered a deadly game of cat and mouse wherein I could be liquified without warning if I were to be careless.
“You have come here to destroy all of us, haven’t you?”
A thick, familiar rasping voice reached me. The monstrously thin form of the creature known as Slim approached with his hands to the side. My golem infantry surrounded him immediately, and his freakish, face-splitting smile appeared once more on his features.
“Will you attack me, even if I surrender?”
“You’re… surrendering?”
“I’ve watched you, masked one. You came prepared. Too prepared. One does not reach that level of preparation without having done their research. I do not know if it was by means of a spy or by means of clairvoyance, but it is clear that you have a strategy to eliminate all of us.” Slim said, dropping his hands to the side. “Thus, to attack when you already know my weakness would be foolish. I would prefer to avoid conflict, if possible. So, I choose to surrender.”
I don’t have a strategy in place for you, though. There was no reason for him to know that. There was no reason for me to tell him that either.
“So, will you let me go?”
“You want to just leave?”
“Yes.”
“Even after I attacked your Fort and killed your comrades?”
Slim let out a large rasping laugh. “We were never comrades. I only joined this Fort because Erzili’s goals happened to coincide with mine. I was made into a Lieutenant because I am the strongest one here after Erzili. Most of them fear me, and the only one that did not fear me did so because she did not know me.”
Slim shook his head. “Regardless, what would you have me do? Charge forward to attack you in the name of vengeance? No, masked one. Such will be a waste. I have no wish to throw my life away. However, I will not begrudge you should you choose to take the path of caution and attack me. I, too, have once made the mistake of sparing a single life from a village I fed on. The little girl grew with a vendetta and led the hunt that brought my species to extinction. It is my greatest mistake, and I cannot let myself die until I have corrected it.”
The Last Wendigo. I remembered Slim’s title, the one that lay over his head. He’s the last of his entire species.
“Go on,” I said. “I don’t have any interest in killing someone who has already surrendered.”
“That is very noble of you,” Slim said, laughing. “Also, very foolish. I pray you do not one day make that mistake with one less amicable than I.” Slim pointed with a straight finger. “Erzili awaits you at the Commander’s Chambers. Best of luck in your hunt, masked one.”
“Janus,” I said. “My name is Janus.”
“Ah, the god of two-faces. I see.”
Had I possessed a beating heart it would have stopped at that moment.
“I am Slim, the King of Wendigos,” Slim announced, bowing. “Till we meet again, Janus.”
“Wait, how do you –”
My words never reached him. The Wendigo fell back into his own shadow, the shadow splashed like a stone dropped into an ink-filled well, enveloping the creature entirely.
Just like that, Slim was gone.
He knew… did he know the meaning of my name?
Focus. Focus. I would find out, eventually. At least, one obstacle in my path was gone, and that only left Erzili as the final target to deal with.
“Tungsten forces, advance!”
The march onwards to the Commander’s Chambers was more nerve-wracking than I would want to admit. Slim had already proven himself to be both dangerous and knowledgeable, and if he had chosen to side with Erzili, it was every bit possible for Erzili to be equally or more dangerous and knowledgeable. I still did not know the effective range of Erzili’s liquefaction power. I was waging a war with very limited information, and it could be my downfall.
Moving past the Ditch, I realized that the Commander’s Chambers was a structure within the Fort. Indoors, smart. My Calvary forces could not move indoors. There would be nowhere near enough space for my Infantry either. Maybe two or three, but no more.
It seems it’s finally up to me.
“Infantry, Calvary, Artillery – be on standby.”
There were no doors to enter, and instead, I ascended
