The Wandering Inn_Volume 1, page 110
She ducked. She felt the smooth, sticky body of Skinner just above her, and then it rammed her. She hit the ground, stunned as Skinner raised its head. It regarded her, two antennae probing at her face, and then raised a fleshy tendril to spear her.
Erin couldn’t scream. She just looked at Skinner and held her breath. Waiting. The fleshy appendage rose and then scythed downwards towards her neck.
Death came for Erin, and stopped halfway. A sword cut through the air; a pair of silvery blades. They flashed together and Skinner reeled back, screaming. Yellow, pus-like blood oozed from the cuts, splashing onto Erin as she stared. She looked around.
“Wha—”
Someone was standing over her. An Antinium. But not like any she had ever seen. He had only two arms, and slim, graceful body, not like a Worker’s or a Soldier’s. In his arms he held two swords she recognized, and he faced Skinner calmly as the red creature writhed and screamed.
Around Erin, black shapes suddenly appeared out of the darkness, grabbing the undead and tearing them apart. Large Soldier Antinium. They ran after Skinner as the red worm retreated. But that wasn’t what captured Erin’s gaze.
She was still staring at the Antinium who had saved her. He was a tall fellow. Some kind of Soldier? A new kind? But—
“Are you unharmed, Miss Solstice?”
For a moment the voice was just a memory. And then Erin’s eyes widened. Memory. The Antinium tilted his head as he regarded her. Her heart froze in her chest, and then began to pound wildly.
It couldn’t be. It was impossible. But the voice was the same. The way he talked was the same. His body was different but he—
“Impossible.”
“You have fallen. Allow me to help you up.”
She blinked. He reached down and pulled her to her feet. She clutched at him, ignoring the foul-smelling pus clinging to her clothing, Skinner and the undead. Everything.
“You—you can’t be. I saw you dead. You were dead.”
Her eyes were filling with tears. Part of her was screaming something wordless. Erin reached out and her fingers shook as she touched the Antinium’s black carapace.
“You—how?”
He smiled. Klbkch of the Free Antinium sheathed his swords and bowed to her.
“Have you not heard it said? The Antinium never truly die.”
The world stopped. The dark night ceased. Light filled Erin’s head. She staggered, and Klbkch caught her with one arm. She felt his cold, hard chitin on her skin. Smooth, hard carapace. An alien’s touch. An unnatural feeling.
But she looked up and saw a friend.
Erin stared at Klbkch. He turned his head and raised his swords. A ghoul ran onto one of his blades while the other beheaded it. He turned to Erin.
“It is not safe here. Remain behind me, Erin.”
She was unable to speak or even form a thought. Klbkch seemed to gesture, and two Soldiers appeared out of the darkness. They surrounded her while Klbkch gave orders.
“Harry the undead. Pursue that creature.”
“Oh!”
Erin stared as the Soldiers ran towards Skinner. The red, fleshy slithering thing was trying to retreat towards its dead skin, but the Soldiers weren’t letting it. They tried to corner Skinner, but it seized a Soldier, ripped his carapace away, and slithered away from them, down a hill.
Skinner screamed in fury as he ran. And he was running, slithering down the incline, a freakish worm-creature from the depths of hell. But he was running, nevertheless. His body of skin was gone. The Soldiers chased him, pounding through the grass.
But they were too slow. Too slow. They’d wounded Skinner. One of his ‘hands’ was missing thanks to Klbkch’s blades, and he was bleeding and torn in a dozen place.s But he was too fast. Without his body he would get away.
“Do not slow! The creature must not be allowed to retreat into the Ruins!”
Klbkch’s thundered at his Soldiers. But even Erin could see it. Skinner was too quick. And he was—it was—
The worm laughed. It let out a ghastly, staccato chittering that made Erin’s skin crawl. It looked back as it wriggled away, as if taunting Erin and the others. It laughed, mocking them.
Erin gritted her teeth. If she had a weapon or something to throw she would have—but it was too far away. All she could hear was that taunting, echoing laughter. That high-pitched sound. She wanted to cover her ears, but they were already splashed by blood and worse. It was so loud, so repetitive. In fact—
“What’s that sound?”
Klbkch cocked his head. Erin looked around. She heard something else, another high-pitched noise, echoing across the plains. It wasn’t coming from Skinner. It was something else.
“That sound. What is it?”
It was faint, but growing louder. It was a high-pitched sound, countless…countless voices, ululating and screaming wildly.
Yiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi—
Erin knew. She breathed the word.
“Goblins.”
They streamed down one of the hills, countless small shapes lit by torchlight. Light glinted off their weapons and ragtag armor as they ran towards Skinner, faster than it could run. It halted, rearing up onto its serpentine body, seemingly unsure of what to do.
As the Goblins drew nearer Skinner lanced out. He skewered two Goblins and ripped the skin from another, but they were so many.
One of Skinner’s red, glowing eyes still shone in the carcass of flesh. Erin could feel the fear. But the Antinium ignored fear. And Goblins—Goblins were different. Goblins were always afraid.
They swarmed the massive worm, ducking under him as he lashed out with his tendril arms. He bit and screeched, but the Goblins screamed too, louder than him. Skinner tried to wriggle away, but he was caught.
“No way.”
Erin breathed the words incredulously. But the Goblins came on, little green demons with eyes that flashed red in the moonlight. They were just pests. The lowest kind of monster.
But they were quick. And they were everywhere. For each one Skinner killed, five more were stabbing, biting.
They were no match for Skinner. No match for the undead. But they killed the wounded, attacked from behind.
They were cowards, like that.
Skinner lashed out. He tore left and right, a friend, a worm, a parasite living in dead flesh. He had come out of the Ruins, a horror from the past. But the Goblins stabbed and stabbed, and his vulnerable skin bled.
He collapsed, born down by the weight of countless small bodies. Skinner thrashed and screamed, but the Goblins drowned out even that. They stabbed, bit, burned him with acid and with fire.
Small jars of acid. They smashed it on Skinner’s side, leaping away as his red skin smoked and he writhed in agony. And fire—a flaming creature of fire was dancing round Skinner, burning him, making the red worm twist as the flames seared his unprotected flesh.
Rags. From her spot on the hill, Erin saw a small Goblin controlling the fire. Her hands glowed red and her face and body were illuminated by the flame as the spell struck Skinner again and again.
She raised a sword that shone like gold even though it was bronze and stabbed him in the head. Skinner screamed then, and the dead howled with him. Then, slowly, he collapsed.
Skinner, the guardian of the Ruins of Liscor, the death of adventurers and stealer of flesh, opened his mouth to howl one last time. Rags tossed a jar of acid into his mouth and he convulsed. She pushed the sword deeper and his body jerked. Once. Twice.
And then he was dead.
The dead stood still, staring at Skinner’s remains. And then slowly, they moved. Those closest to the living fought on and died. But the others walked away. Back, out of the city, away from the inn. Towards the ruins, down the long dark corridors, into dark places. Back towards the place they had died and risen. Back towards their lair.
Back home.
It was over.
—-
Klbkch of the Free Antinium, Prognugator of the Hive and Senior Guardsman of Liscor sheathed his blades as the last zombie stopped moving. He stared around the battlefield quietly, making sure all the corpses lay still.
Erin stood next to him, not saying anything either. Just looking.
Death. She saw it everywhere. The corpses, the pieces and blood that stained the ground—
And the friends.
Knight lay against the doorway of her inn, arms stills spread outwards. Other Workers lay around him, still locked in battle. More still dotted the hill. Erin’s eyes picked out each one as the Soldiers collected the bodies.
So much death. So much grief and pain. But at least one small part of the world was right.
Erin stared at Klbkch. Her hands shook, but he took it in hers. His hands were cool and smooth. An alien’s hands. A friend’s hands.
He gestured at her inn, still standing. Light played across its worn exterior, but it was home. Home. A place to rest. A place to be safe.
A place to protect. And after so long, her first guest had come back again.
Tears made Erin’s eyes blurry. But Klbkch just clicked his mandibles together and raised them. The closest thing he could come towards a smile.
They walked to the door in silence. Erin stared down at Knight, and gently folded the Antinium’s arms across his chest. Klbkch watched her do it, and saw her wipe away the tears.
Erin stood in the doorway and faced Klbkch. He looked at her, and saw a girl. Perhaps a woman by some standards, but someone young. Her clothes were covered in blood and gore, and she was cut in places, bruised in others. She had been aged by violence and death and loss. But something still shone in them. Something bright.
There were many things Klbkch could have said. But none were quite right, quite fitting. So he said the only thing he could.
“Greetings, Erin Solstice. May I come in?”
And she smiled and wept and for a moment—
Everything was right again.
1.45
She ran back. Back, towards the city where her friends were. Perhaps they were her friends or maybe it was just a word. But they called to her. And so she ran.
—-
[Innkeeper Level 18!]
[Skill – Immunity: Alcohol obtained!]
[Skill – Quick Recovery obtained!]
Erin didn’t know that she’d slept. She raised her head and realized she was sitting down. Dawn had come, but she had only drifted off for a second.
The sky was still mostly dark. But light still illuminated the grasslands. Dancing shadows. Twisting flames.
Fire.
The Antinium were burning the dead. All of them. They had created a huge pyre of bodies and set it alight. The terrible, suffocating smoke fanned away from the inn, but Erin’s eyes still burned. Or perhaps it was just her grief.
The bodies of the Workers were gone. Sometime when she hadn’t been watching, the Soldier had taken them away. Erin had asked one of the surviving Workers – Bird – where they had gone. He told her she didn’t want to know.
She was afraid to ask more. Even of Klbkch. He had barely left her side all night. Now he stood on the hill, staring down at a large shape several hundred meters away.
Erin got up and walked to his side. He turned his head slightly, but continued looking down. Erin stared at the red, elongated form of the creature that had lived in dead flesh and led an army of the dead. It was still surrounded by the Goblins that had felled it.
But something was different about Skinner’s body this morning. He seemed…diminished. Erin stared down as the Goblins milled around him, and then she realized what was going on.
“Are they…eating it?”
“Yes.”
Her stomach roiled. But Klbkch was unmoved and so too were the Goblins. They tore into the red body of Skinner, tearing him apart, drinking the fluids and—
She couldn’t watch. Erin went back to her inn and threw up in the outhouse. It was still standing, at least. It needed repairs. Everything needed repairs.
She sat on the toilet Pawn and the other Antinium had built and rested her head in her hands. She was so tired, still. She would have given everything to sleep. But sleep was a luxury and she owed a debt of pain.
First things first. Her…level. Yes, she’d leveled up three times. Was that a lot? Probably. And she had new skills.
They were an [Innkeeper]’s skills. And they were worthless. Trash.
“Shit.”
Yes. Erin glanced at the wood walls of the outhouse. Less than crap. That was how she felt about her levels and skills at the moment.
It felt wrong to level when her friends had died. It felt wrong to be stronger in exchange for killing things. But there was nothing Erin could do about it. She felt like vomiting, or punching a hole in the wall of the outhouse. She nearly did, but stopped herself.
Erin walked back out and stood next to Klbkch. After a while, she had the courage to ask him what she couldn’t last night.
“How many?”
He looked at her, and Erin wondered if he was going to lie. But after a second he spoke again.
She listened to the numbers. When they were just numbers, it didn’t seem so bad. But when she stared at the bodies, it was too terrible to be counted.
Twenty seven Goblins lay in the grass. Too many. Even in Skinner’s last moments, he had killed with terrible ease.
Of the thirty two Workers that had chosen to save her, four remained. Bird, Garry, Belgrade, and Anand. They lay in her inn, or sat propped up, wounds covered by some kind of sticky red substance. The Antinium had little in the way of medicine, but they were tough. They would heal.
Less than a hundred people had died around Erin’s inn. Too many, but in the city it had been worse, or so Klbkch told her.
“Over eighty guardsmen and nearly two hundred civilians perished before the Hive was mobilized.”
She hadn’t even known there were that many guardsmen in the city. But they’d had healing potions and armor and—it was just a number.
“How many Antinium? Your people…?”
“Sixty five Workers and forty seven Soldiers. Nearly half again as many are wounded, but the losses were quite minimal.”
“…Really?”
He shrugged.
“It was a small price to pay, and would have been smaller still had my predecessor not erred. Had we fought with the Watch, we would have pushed the undead back without taking nearly so many losses.”
“Why didn’t you, then?”
A pause.
“Ksmvr believed the Queen had to be protected above all else. He withdrew all Soldiers into the Hive while she finished the Rite of Anastases.”
“What’s that? What Rite?”
“The process to revive me.”
“Oh.”
Klbkch nodded calmly. He went on, listing the things he had to do on one hand.
“There is much that must be done. Reparations must be made to the city. The Antinium did not honor their promise. We must rebuild, put up barriers outside the Ruins.”
“And you’re going do to it? You’re the new Prognugator? Or does Ksmvr still have that job.”
“He does not.”
Klbkch shook his head as he watched a Soldier dragging a body towards the burning heap.
“Ksmvr was a fool. He nearly cost the Hive the city, our position here and status across the continent and…other assets. I will deal with him soon enough.”
For a while Erin and the Antinium watched the dead burn. She swayed on her feet. Klbkch watched in silence.
“Yes. Many things.”
“Klbkch?”
“Yes, Erin?”
“How did you come back?”
“It is called the Rite of Anastases. It is a…process which the Queen of the Antinium may undertake. It allows the dead to be reborn into a new body.”
“Oh.”
Erin thought about that for a second.
“Okay. I understand. I think. Then…does that mean you can revive the others who died?”
“Others? Ah. You mean the individuals who were once Workers. No.”
“Why not?”
He hesitated.
“In truth, only a Prognugator would be considered…worthy of the effort and time required for such an act. Moreover, it is not something done lightly. There are consequences. I have lost ten levels in every class. A considerable setback, although my new body reduces the impact on my abilities quite significantly. And the time it took—my Queen labored for nearly three weeks without rest to restore my being.”
“That’s a lot of work.”
“There were other material costs as well. The Hive would not be able to support such an action more than once or twice. The others—”
“I get it.”
It nearly didn’t hurt. Nearly. But it was just another cut in a heart bleeding from a thousand places.
“They died well. I would not have expected mere—they rose above what they were. For that I honor them.”
“Thanks.”
For once, Klbkch didn’t seem to know how to reply. Erin looked at him. He was as he had been, but different.
“What’s with the new body? Upgrades?”
He nodded.
“The Prognugator role was never meant for specialized action. Moreover it was thought that the Worker form would allow a Prognugator to blend in to reduce the dangers of assassination during times of war. This new form will greatly improve my abilities.”
“Two arms are better than four?”
“Yes. I am swifter, more mobile, and possess several changes to my anatomy not incorporated into other Antinium. The older design of four arms was inefficient. This new body will serve me better.”
“Harder, better, faster, stronger, huh?”
“That is broadly correct, yes.”
“Okay.”
Klbkch was watching her. Erin knew, even if he didn’t have pupils to follow her. He hadn’t really let her leave his sight since that night. She was so tired.
“Thanks for saving me. Really.”
“It was nothing.”
“It was something.”
