“You need to relax, Jax,” Oracle said, landing on my shoulder, I smiled at her, and nodded at Lydia.
“How did we do?” I asked her.
“We lost Cam.” She shook her head in sorrow. “One of the Drow got him. I…I’m sorry, Lord, I should have been there. I should have protected him better, I…”
“No.” I said, shoving myself upright and gripping her shoulder, forcing her to look into my eyes. “Cam’s death was not your fault, you hear me? There’s only one dickbag who’s responsible for his death, and that’s that Drow. Also… maybe me. I led you all down here. I made you come with me. The buck stops here,” I said, tapping my chest.
“He died doing what he wanted to,” Barrett said, crouching down next to me and passing over a weak mana potion, which I greedily downed.
“Thanks, man.” I said, feeling the mana migraine dissipate. I drew a deep breath and looked around, checking to see if anyone else was injured, but Oracle hit me with a healing spell before I got the chance to do anything else.
I gritted my teeth, then sighed in relief as the last of my broken bones realigned and bound themselves together, beginning the long slow healing process.
“I’m going to go check on the prisoners…” Lydia said, pushing herself to her feet wearily.
“So, what do you mean ‘he died doing what he wanted to do’?” I asked Barrett when I could get my breath again.
“He was sick of being pushed around, of being a big man, but not being able to look after those he cared about. You took him into the team, taught him to fight…”
“I didn’t pick him, you did…” I said. “And Lydia taught him…”
“Look, do you want me to try to make you feel better, or not?” Barrett sighed, frowning tiredly.
“Sorry, dude.”
“Yeah, well, look, he wanted to protect people. He wanted to feel that his life mattered, and that he wasn’t weak anymore. Thanks to you, he got that. He fought Drow and spiders, goblins and fucking weird lizards underground. He died as well as he could, and while he was alive, he felt valued. There not much more you can ask for.”
“Yeah that…kinda makes me feel better. Thanks, Barrett.” I said, shrugging and examining the cave we were in.
It was about thirty meters on a side, roughly square, with a load of supplies, boxes, and other random shit piled up everywhere. In the middle of the cave was a huge pile of rubble, the remains of the structure the Drow had been building. It had been a bit rough when we arrived, but me dropping their giant fucking Spider-Drow hybrid thingy leader through the roof kind of fucked it up.
I’d been on the roof at the time, and had been buried along with her, so I felt I had a right to be a bit worn out right now.
“You know, I think I’m gonna have a little res…”
“Jax!” came a shout from my right, and Lydia started over, her shout cutting me off, mid mutter.
“Feck,” I whispered, and Barrett snorted in laughter.
“Hey, you wanted to be in charge…” He said, and I glared at him.
“No, I fucking didn’t!” I snapped back. “I was literally kidnapped, forced to fight in an arena, then kicked through a portal to this shithole of a realm. I had to fight a monster that made you crap yourself when I got here, and…”
“Yadda yadda yadda…” Barrett said, waving his hand and cutting me off. “We get it, ‘oh, woe is you’, yadda yadda. Do you want to quit, make someone else the Lord?”
“Well… no…” I grumbled.
“Then shut the fuck up and deal with it. Put your big girl pants on. You can’t have it both ways…my lord…”
“I hate you.”
“Jax!” Lydia repeated, coming to a halt and looking down at me, catching both Barrett and I trying to hide grins.
“Yeah, what’s up, Lydia?” I asked, and she gestured over her shoulder at the last major feature of the room, besides the tunnels that led in and out… the prisoners in their cage.
I reached up a hand and Lydia pulled me to my feet, drawing a groan from me as newly healed bones creaked in protest.
“They’re the smugglers that led the last caravan, Jax, and the one they were skinning…I think she’s still alive.”
“What?” I asked, looking over at the flayed body. It was laid across a table, wrists and ankles secured by straps, and the skin from the back of the neck had been peeled down to the waist in one long single sheet.
The amount of blood on the floor and lack of any sound or movements from the victim had meant we’d just ignored them so far, assuming they were already dead… It didn’t help that we’d taken a lot of injuries ourselves, which meant we’d not had time to look to the prisoners yet.
I hurried over, Oracle still sitting on my shoulder. Since she’d been freed, she’d barely moved away from me, and then only to check on our people. Bane had been laid out next to me, his injuries and Barrett’s being the worst of the group’s, besides my own, and Oracle took turns steadily using my mana on each of us, healing us all as quickly as she could.
Jian stood guard over the prisoners, his scythes sheathed on his back, and the twin swords on either hip, which made him look like either an utter ninja badass, or an idiot, depending on how smooth the drawing of weapons went.
Despite the fight scenes in movies I’d seen, using two swords, or scythes, wasn’t easy. Neither was drawing them from your back. I’d spent hours practicing, and I still occasionally caught the tip of my short swords when I tried it, making me look a right dick.
“You’ve got to let us out!” called out one of the prisoners, and Jian growled at him.
“Be silent! Our lord nearly died to rescue you; the least
