The Bathrobe Knight: Volume 2 (51 page)

“I’m with you, Boss,” Daniel called from above, flying over him, “Let’s make the break count!”

Darwin smiled a bit. Daniel was the only one who had volunteered to wait in the back with him and fire signal arrows. Seeing Daniel join in too, knowing that he understood, was a comforting feeling. “First one to a hundred kills wins!” Darwin laughed, leaping through the final enemies into a downward thrust that split his first opponent in two.

“That’s cheating! You had a head start on me!” Daniel joined in with a chuckle, driving his twin daggers into a poor dog-man’s skull.

Darwin cleaved through three enemies with the flaming zweihander, each of them pulling and piecing back together until they were freshly-made, red-eyed undead, a process that wasn’t finished until he had already split, maimed and fatally wounded several more. Now he had the advantage. He wasn’t just killing the enemy; he was turning their numbers against them. With the weapons, gear, and items that he wore with bonus levels and stats for members in his faction, the dead he raised were significantly stronger than they had been before. That, added to the fact that he was increasing the number of red-eyed warriors by the second, made him question if the phalanx would even be needed anymore.

“Daniel,” he asked as he sidestepped an incoming axe, ducked under another sword, and brought his own blade up diagonally with the most force he could muster to split the two attackers in half. The enemy didn’t let him catch his breath enough to finish his thought though. As soon as those two were dead, he found himself having to push off an enemy that was thrown into him and then stab it before it could turn around and attack him. “Daniel,” he tried again, the three fresh summons providing him enough space to pause long enough to get his thought out. “How are the troops in the center holding?”

“Well . . .” Daniel started, but paused as attacked a few more enemies. Daniel looked less like he was fighting and more like he was playing the part of a yo-yo to some invisible hand in the sky as he landed on his foes then immediately took back to the skies. He didn’t even bother trying to carve up the animal warriors with his daggers once they had fallen like he had with the Blue-Drakes. This time, he knew his strong suit, and he stuck to it. It wasn’t as fast--getting in the air took time--but it was a lot safer and easier to repeat. Taking a quick break from stabbing people, Daniel continued, “I can’t see too well, but between the circling Blue-Drakes and the giant half circle of fire in the middle of the field, I don’t think we will have to fight much longer. This is going to go down in--” he paused as he thumped into another Panthera before lifting off again, “--history as the most one-sided fight to date. It’s like the enemy didn’t prepare at all.”

It didn’t make sense to Darwin. If it was so one-sided, if they were pulling it off so well, how come there hadn’t been a horn for retreat sounded?
Why weren’t their commanders pulling back and preparing for a new wave, one where they could levy siege equipment and crush his encampment?
He tried to puzzle it out as his flamberge crashed into the shield of a foe, giving the soldier a moment to dig into Darwin’s left arm with the makeshift axe he was holding. Darwin shrugged off the pain, kicked the Ursine holding the shield to generate enough force to pull his blade out, and thrust it into the center of the bear’s chest, cutting right into the bear-man’s lung.

              Before he could even pull his flamberge free, another enemy had taken advantage of his occupied weapon and come cutting down at him with a halberd that dug right into Darwin’s left leg, nearly splitting it open.

              “Darwin!” Daniel, who heard Darwin’s scream as the halberd ripped flesh from bone, shouted, “Let’s get out of here!”

              “No!” Darwin ignored the suggestion.
No
, he thought as he grabbed the halberd, yanking the tiger-man who held it closer, where he had a headbutt waiting for him. He finally got his flamberge free and used it to decapitate his stunned adversary.
This is where I belong.
He smiled. The pain was growing. Each grunt turned into a howl as the wound in his arm stung. His leg tormented him with each step or attempt to put weight on it.
This is what I want,
his thoughts continued to echo.
This is what you want.

              “Darwin, this is madness! You’re going to die. Get out of there!” Daniel pleaded again, flying down to stab an enemy next to Darwin. “The phalanx works. Your plan works. Let’s get back to where we were atop the wall and let it work.”

             
The Phalanx did work, but I didn’t. I was useless,
Darwin grumbled to himself as he spun forward, landing a cleaving attack that split two more Ursines right down the middle but left his blade wedged into the ground. It was another moment that the enemy seized instantly, impaling his stomach with the pointed end of a halberd from a distance.

              “Darwin . . .” Daniel, who had taken to the skies again, watched Darwin dying with an almost empty expression. “Darwin, you really need to get out of here. I can try to carry you,” he tried one last time.

             
Yes, I need to get out of here,
Darwin thought, looking at the wound, watching his health bleed out into the field. He had killed his fair share. Twenty, thirty, forty--it didn’t matter. He had done his fair share and killed the numbers he needed to. It was time to leave.
Not yet, you still need more,
a voice whispered at him. It tugged in his heart every time the notion of leaving entered his mind. The halberd pressed deeper into his gut, barely missing his spine as Darwin lifted his zweihander up for one more massive cleaving attack. If the foolish mutt-boy had let go of the weapon, he’d have lived. If he hadn’t been so sure that Darwin’s death would stop him from retaliating, that a man wouldn’t press on regardless of the pole sticking out of him, he’d have managed to survive--but he didn’t. The scorching edge of Darwin’s flamberge ripped the enemy open beautifully, cauterizing just as quickly as it cut through his killer.

              Freshly avenged, he didn’t have the strength to keep going. “Darwin, come on,” Daniel said as he looked at him.
It was a game. Why is he so worried?
Darwin wondered as he fell to the ground and the world started to darken around him.

              Darwin’s nervous system, which the game had somehow managed to keep intact, was doing it’s best to prove to him over and over again that he was in unbearable agony. His eyes testified to the same as he watched his own blood trickle away onto the field. However, something inside him disagreed with his senses and made him smile as he watched the last of his life fade. Something said,
This is fine. This is the price you pay for what you need to do.

              “Valerie! Mclean!” Daniel was yelling, calling his two White-Wing friends over to where Darwin lay. “He’s not fading away! We might still be able to save him. Go get the Blue-Drakes before he . . .” And then they went quiet.

Soul Devourer has been activated and consumed your
64
soul charges. You have been restored to full life and will have a +50% increase on all stat values for 320 seconds after the resurrection process is complete.

Due to having no soul charges remaining, you will awaken with Hunger active.

This effect may not occur more than once an hour

              “What in the--” Darwin heard Mclean say as his vision pulsed the now familiar dark crimson color. The wounds that had left him on the ground in the first place ripped, spasmed and throbbed with the same aching pang of agony that his last death had brought. He felt the halberd, still lodged in him, being pushed out and his wound closing. He felt his head rip and his hands burn again.

              When the pain faded, everything felt as if it were standing still.
So the resurrection is finished . . . Time to have fun.
He laughed as he picked up his burning blade.

              “Darwin, you need to get back. You’ve already died once,” Daniel advised again.
Nagging. Doesn’t he understand?
Darwin grumbled to himself as he pulled the zweihander in a circular arc through another enemy, spinning as if he were creating a fiery whirlwind with his blade while he ripped and tore through the crowd.
Why would I stop now?
Darwin couldn’t stop laughing as the blade cleaved into two or three more enemies. Before, a shield would have stopped it. Now, it cut through them like butter. The Soul Devourer buff was giving him Strength and Speed stats that left him unrivaled on the field.

              “Daniel, what do we do?” Valerie asked. “He’s . . . He’s lost it, I think.”

              “We need to get him out of here. He may be doing well now, but it’s only a matter of time before we find him laying out flat on the ground again,” Daniel said to the other two. “He’s not fighting carefully. He’s taking too many risks. He’s practically trading blows for speed.”

              “Daniel, the center column is about to fall. If we’re going to get him out, we need to now. Once that group of fighters goes down or retreats, there will be another surge of enemies,” Mclean said as he pointed to the middle of the field. “I was just there a bit ago. We’re dealing with minutes until it collapses, not hours.”

              “Alright, I got an idea,” Daniel said, quietly whispering his plan to the others in the middle of the death-drenched field.

              Darwin heard it all though. He knew what they were planning. He just couldn’t stop the onslaught. It felt too good as his blade carved and cut through the enemies, resurrecting his horde as he went. As he was rushing, slicing and cleaving, he felt two pairs of feet collapse into his back, grounding him in the middle of a swing. Before he could even get up or turn over, the feet were replaced by hands, and he felt himself floating off.

              “I’m sorry, Darwin,” Daniel whispered in his ear as he carried him. “I can’t let you die. I know your secret. I heard you tell Kass.”

              Darwin struggled at first, pulling on each arm fruitlessly as they carried him back to the wall, but after a moment he gave up. Since the buff had worn off, he just couldn’t muster the strength to rip himself free. He just stared at the battlefield and frowned as reason slowly seeped back into his head. He had always understood that he should pull back, that the phalanx had done exactly what it was supposed to, and the people were safe. It was just the urge, the voice that even now whispered:
Find a way back into the fray.
It was a voice that he found easier to silence the further he got away from the battle.
That’s not my home,
he told it.
My home isn’t here. It’s back at the apartment with a stack of over-caffeinated beverages and hours of uninterrupted game time before I have to go to work in the morning.

              “Darwin, are you okay? What’s wrong with you?” Mclean asked. She was on the other side of Daniel. “If you’re not alive for the victory speech, it’ll be kind of odd, and we’ll definitely get less in-game alcohol credits.”

              “Don’t worry,” Daniel continued to whisper. “I won’t tell her.”

              “Thanks,” Darwin said to both of them. “I don’t know what happened either.”

              That was mostly false. He knew what happened, but he just didn’t know why it happened when he wasn’t out of souls. From the time it first took over in the arena to just now, the feeling, the red rush and the sensation that came with it--it was always the same. It was just the way Hunger made him feel and made him want to act.

              “Well, one way or another, let’s get you back.” Daniel started laughing. “I wonder if Alex will give me a reward for saving you from stupidity? I bet, given him, I might be able to earn a badge for my bathrobe. Like a ‘Saving Dumb Darwin’ preparedness badge.”

              “How about a ‘Learn to Not Hit My Wing While We’re Trying to Fly” preparedness badge?” Mclean shot back at him, but couldn’t stop a smile and a laugh from breaking through.

              “Mclean, touching two guys at once, this must be a . . .” Daniel started, then stopped and just smiled. “I mean, thank you for helping out, Mclean.”

              “What? Not going to finish that thought?” Mclean laughed. “Well, that’s good. For a minute I was worried I would have to kill you both if you kept going with that sentence. Would defeat the whole point of this rescue operation.”

              Darwin still felt too embarrassed about having to be airlifted from the battle to join in with their banter.
This is definitely not how I wanted to spend the glorious battle,
Darwin frowned,
being carried away like a disobedient child from a playground.

              “Welp,” Daniel said as they landed back at the platform Darwin had started on, right next to Justin, who was still holding the bow Darwin had given him earlier in the trade off, “let’s try not to get in anymore trouble, okay?”

              “Fine,” Darwin said, fully aware he had a bit of a pouty face. This was too shameful, and there was really no way for him to get back his dignity. He had gone from being the commander who led his troops to victory in a glorious fashion to the guy who had to be carried off the field before he died, a second time, from doing something stupid. He would have been mad at Daniel for pulling him out, but, in the end, he was more grateful than upset. If his nature had kept running rampant, the buff would have faded, and he would have been left in the same place he had been airlifted from: on the ground bleeding out. These weren’t easy enemies to fight, and the Zombie skill took more than a second to activate, which meant he had to go into each separate skirmish alone before his fresh kills would be there to back him up. So, while he was upset from the humiliating evac, he was also happy that Daniel, Mclean and Valerie had gotten him out of there before embarrassment became the least of his worries.