Paragon of Weaponmasters

Paragon Earl says: Hey Helga, how's it going?

Paragon Helga says: All done with your little girlfriend?

What the hell is that about?

Paragon Earl says: I don't know what you mean.

Paragon Helga says: You think I'm using you?

Oh. oh. Oh shit.

Paragon Helga says: We were in a fifteen person orgy with the queen of the elves, if I was using you for content I would have been filming.

Paragon Earl says: Why are you mad? You said yourself that you're hanging around because everyone is talking about me, and you can't record me without some convoluted pretext.

Paragon Helga: if that's all this is, why don;t you come babysit your baby mama. here.

All this is? Does our relationship mean more to her than I thought? She sends me coordinates that put a marker on my map next to Cumbergoine.

Paragon Earl says: Helga, wait. Let's talk.

Helga is offline.

"Fuck" I say, running my hands through my hair. She was probably watching that whole stream and heard every dismissive thing I said about us. "Fucking shit."

I mount up and head in the direction of Cumbergoine. My mind wanders as I ride, trying to sort out my own feelings so I can approach Helga from a place of honesty.

"Trinee, come on." I say, following her through the house.

"Don't you 'Come on' me, Luke. If 'Us' means that little to you, we should just call it quits now." She says, furious tears in her eyes.

"'Us' means everything to me, Trinee. It feels like your grandmother means more to you than I do." I don't stop her from packing her bags, no matter how much I want to.

"Just because family doesn't mean shit to you doesn't mean the rest of us have to feel the same way." she says, roughly shoving a shirt in her suitcase.

"That's not fair." I say, a tear springing from my eye.

"You're right." she sighs. She stops packing and turns to face me, frowning when she sees my expression. "You have a complicated relationship with your family and that's not your fault. Right now mine needs me."

"What about us? The house, your job?" I gesture to our bedroom with both arms.

"It's only temporary. I'll come back if you wait for me." she puts her hands on my shoulders, looking into my eyes.

"Of course I'll wait for you." I sniffle. She leans in and kisses me.

She moved back to Virginia Beach for two years. It was a two hour drive, but I had a job and she had to look after her sick grandmother. We video called often, but it just wasn't the same. We waited for each other, no matter how hard it got. Then I went and died on her. Tears pour down my face as I remember my first and only love.

When I arrive at the map marker, I spot Lagakh alongside an adolescent orc. Early teens at most, if I had to guess.

"Father." The kid says. From here I can see the nameplate above his head.

Earlgor. Level 62.

"Same level as your old man huh? You're going to get ahead of me!" I say, smiling at him. I hope it isn't obvious I've been crying.

"I'm uh, sorry sir. I don't know what that means." he says nervously.

"Don't worry about it. What are you up to?" I ask.

"I was training with Paragon Helga but she seems to have disappeared somewhere." he tells me.

"Oh." I say. Lagakh and I make eye contact, I can tell she wants me to jump in. "What if we trained?"

"Really?" He responds, voice cracking with excitement. He clears his throat. "Yes, that would be appreciated, sir."

I draw my hammer, and stand ready. He holds an oversized hatchet, and bows to me before adjusting his footing. He's off balance, and unconfident. I move to strike his shoulder, putting little force behind the blow. To my utter surprise, he hooks the shaft of my hammer just under the head, and pulls it and me to the side. With my hip exposed, he brings the axe around and drives it into my ribs.

"Akh!" I exclaim, moving away and holding my side. My hand comes away bloody.

That was embarrassing. Thozur comments

"I'm sorry sir!" he lowers his head, standing with both feet together.

"No need to apologize!" I tell him, waving my clean hand. "Maybe you should be teaching me!" I chuckle.

"Very funny, sir." he smirks a little before putting his serious face back on.

"Ok, for real this time." I say as if I was in total control of the first exchange.

I let him attack me first, which is also a mistake. I try to bat the axe away with my hammer, so the kid feints and cuts into my opposite side.

"Shit!" I say, wincing.

"What are you doing?" Lagakh asks me.

"Getting my ass kicked apparently." I respond.

"How is it that you fight a dragon with such ferocity to become irresistible, but lose to a mere child?" She crosses her arms.

"Well I'm not trying to kill him for one." I tell her

"So try." she tells me, completely serious.

"Uh…" I look between the two of them. Earlgor does not seem phased. "Can we atleast use training weapons?"

"What do you mean?" Earlgor asks

"Like a wooden sword or something." I say

"Orcs do not have such things. You train with the weapon you'll die with in your hand." Lagakh tells me.

"Okay…" I lower my eyebrows in thought. "How are you against multiple opponents?"

"I don't know, sir. I've only ever fought Paragon Helga or mother." He tells me. I notice the long horizontal scars across his outer arms, unprotected by the ragged vest he wears. I guess if he's growing several sizes every day it would be a waste of time to get him real clothes.

"Try this on for size" I say, floating my two swords in front of me. Both come to rest in the hands of a clone, standing ready to fight.

Don't actually hurt him.

Of course not, master.

We would never.

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The two blades talk to me in my mind, voices like snakes.

The surprised look on Earlgor's face is wiped away when the swords engage him. They split off, walking opposite directions in a circle around him. When the front one moves to strike, the one at his back moves simultaneously. He manages to intercept the front, but the back clone slaps his shoulder with the flat of its blade. The clone smirks as he turns to face it, receiving a slap from the former front clone.

This back and forth goes on for the most of my clone's duration, Earlgor struggles to block both clones, never having the opportunity to strike back. Even if he did, it wouldn't do anything. My clones are completely invulnerable to damage.

At least, that's what I thought. When Earlgor pulls off some fancy twist move to send one clone's blade into the other, he catches one of them in the ribs with his axe, and a health bar appears over its head with a chunk of life missing.

My health bar drops by the same amount.

"That's new" I say.

He struggles against them for a few more moments before they dissipate, leaving my swords floating in the air. Earlgor breathes heavily, both hands on his knees. I walk over to him and place my hand gently on his back.

"You did good." I tell him. He nods his head, still struggling to breathe.

"That was pathetic" Lagakh says.

"Hey, it was his first time dealing with two opponents." I tell her.

"I was half his age when I took the life of two full grown orc men." She responds.

"Maybe that isn't a good thing." I say. She considers what I've said.

"Life is battle. To live is to fight and conquer. Anything less is a walking death, a life not worth living." She preaches.

"I've spent most of my life not fighting and I'm pretty happy with most of it." I rub our son's back. He looks up at me, his expression tells me he's deep in thought. Lagakh has probably been drilling this stuff into his head.

Lagakh scoffs, refusing to humor me further.

"Listen junior… there's time for fighting. Sometimes it's the only option. Most of the time words will do, though. Your mother knows better than me how orc society works, but there's more people in the world than orcs. Remember that." I pat him on the back, giving him room to stand to his full height.

"I will, father." he tells me.

Lagakh suddenly screams out, both of our heads whip to look at her. An orc dressed in black cloth, covering his entire body except for his eyes, pushes a dagger into her back. She backhands him, instantly snapping his neck, but more appear all around us. Shit, they must have followed me here!

Protect them! I give my swords the mental command, they float over and take defensive positions.

Using Thozur, I cast Tornado Edge, moving the whirling death through the assassins in waiting. I only cut down a few before the rest catch on, dashing away and avoiding my hammer. I cast Split Sword, the tiny blocks of hammer are fast enough to chase down the runners and pummel them. They don't go down, I watch in befuddlement as their health bars empty slowly instead of instantly.

Despite the sudden weakness, my swords are more than capable of fending off the would-be assassins. Lagakh and Earlgor are competent fighters and deal with any oncomers foolish enough to attack them while the blades are busy. I use Thunder God and Chain Lightning to catch as many enemies as I can, sending Thozur towards them with electricity arcing. After using every lighting spell at my disposal, they are still standing, if only barely.

With the injuries they've sustained, one Circular Saw is enough to finish them. They can't outrun me with my orbiting hammer of death. I look around the battlefield, making sure no more assassins remain, and the bodies on the ground aren't moving. I sigh with relief, it's finally over. Lagakh and Earlgor stand blood drenched, realizing the battle has been won as well.

Lagakh collapses to the ground.

"Mother!" Earlgor yells, running to her. I join him by her side, noticing the wound in her side. The very first assassin to make an appearance managed to land a blow before he and his allies were slain. "Do you have something to help her?" he asks me with a shaky voice and terrified eyes.

"No, I don't" I tell him, holding pressure on her wound.

"No? You don't have healing potions? Or bandages? Nothing?" He begs me for a solution.

"We can get her to help." I tell him, picking her up. She cries out in pain, I apologize and start heading in the direction of the city.

"Paragon…" she almost whispers, her voice is so quiet.

"You're supposed to call me Earl, remember?" I ask her.

"Earl…" she coughs blood onto my chestplate.

"Hey, take it easy. You're going to be ok." I insist.

"Raise him to be strong. Our son is going to be…" she closes her eyes

"Hey." I say, picking up the pace. "Lagakh!"

She doesn't respond. I watch her chest for movement, it's hard to tell with her jostling around with every step, but I don't think she's breathing. I break out into a full sprint. The city is mere feet away, I run into the street, desperately looking for someone who can help.

"We need a healer!" I scream, several elves and beastpeople turn at the sound. One owlman jogs to us.

"Lay her down" he orders me. I put her down as gently as I can, not wanting to worsen her injury.

The owlman puts his ear on her chest, listening. He sits back up, shaking his head solemnly.

"No…" I utter. "You must be able to heal her? Somebody must be able to! You have magic!"

"I'm sorry." the owlman tells me.

"No!" I scream, placing my palms flat on her chest. I use Thunder God to access my electrical spells, casting them into her. Her whole body jerks once, twice, three times as I try to defibrillate her. On the last cast, her health bar returns, filled with a single percent of life. "Now heal her!"

Stunned, it takes the owlman a moment to start healing. Light appears in his hands as he faces them to her, slowly filling her bar. When it reaches a quarter to full, it stops. Then, it begins draining away.

"Why is it going down!" I shout, looking around. "We need more healers!"

Another beastperson and an elf join us, casting their green and white healing spells. The bar fights to fill, but starts draining away again.

"No! No! God damn it!" I punch the ground. Next to my fist, I notice a green knee. Our little boy is kneeling next to the body of his mother, tears streaming down his face. We both watch as her health bar slowly drains away, despite the healer's best efforts. When it disappears entirely, they cease casting, hanging their heads.

"She was poisoned." the owlman tells me. "It was too potent for our healing to fight. I'm terribly sorry, Paragon Earl."

A terrible rage bubbles up inside of me. I want to blame her father and brothers, I want to blame the violent orc society, I want to blame anyone and everyone. Deep down I know this is my fault. I led the assassins right to them, and I couldn't protect them. Helga could have kept this from happening, and I drove her away with careless words. Somebody rests their hand on my shoulder, I almost reach up and rip it away, but they speak before I lash out.

"Paragon." Talindra, leader of these elves, says in a gentle voice. I look at her over my shoulder, she helps me to my feet and embraces me. I weep into her shoulder, crying the hardest I ever have. My hand hangs loosely by my side, and someone else puts their tiny hand in it. Earlgor stands by me, fighting back his own tears.

I kneel down to his level, wrapping him in my arms. He slowly puts his tiny arms as far around me as he can reach, sniffling next to my ear.

"I'm so sorry son." I tell him. "I'm so sorry."

We hold each other there for a while, I cry much harder than he does. I don't know if he's trying to be tough, or if he doesn't know how hugs and crying work. His mother didn't allow such weakness. Eventually Talindra rests her hand on my shoulder, getting my attention.

"Let's lay her to rest." she says.

I nod, letting Earlgor go, and picking Lagakh up again. She's grown very cold. Talindra guides us to a garden in the city, filled with beautiful flowers and fruit of every color. In the middle, a bare patch of dirt stands out.

"Lay her there" she tells me. I do so, stepping back to be with her and my son.

We watch as the earth shifts, tiny vines crawl up her sides and slowly wrap around her body. They pull her into the ground, making it appear as though she was never there at all.

"Her body will nurture the fruits that will feed her child. Her legacy still grows through her efforts, even in death." Talindra tells us.

An apple tree lowers a branch to Earlgor, fruiting in his hand. A green apple, the same color of Lagakh's skin, rests in his palm. He gently plucks it, and looks at us questioningly. Talindra nods, and he takes a bite of the apple. Juice spills from his lips, after chewing and swallowing, he chokes out a sob. He truly cries now, like a preteen should. Talindra takes the apple from him and places it in my hand, before wrapping herself around him. He weeps in her embrace.

I stare down at the apple, it feels like more than just a normal fruit. I take a hesitant bite, and memories flash in my mind unbidden. From Lagakh's perspective, I see myself standing before her in the throne room, nervous. The scene changes to her looking down at me the moment she conceived our son. The last vision is of me holding our son, and I feel how she felt. Conflicted, but grateful. Afraid for the future, but happy that I was in it.

I meant something to her. My softness frustrated her to no end, and she saw the human in me. Regardless, I was her mate. She chose me, over all of the brawny, brave, powerful orcs in the world. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but she craved a gentle touch.

Talindra pulls me back to reality.

"It would be best if Earlgor stayed with us." she tells me. I nod.

Leviathan, the Deceiver has been reforged!

Leviathan, the Deceiver has been reforged!

Apaki, God Recovered added to inventory.

Apaki, God Recovered added to inventory.

Apaki, God Recovered is a unique item. You can only have one in your possession.

Apaki, God Recovered is a unique item. You can only have one in your possession.

Apaki, God Recovered is a unique item. You can only have one in your possession.

Apaki, God Recovered is a unique item. You can only have one in your possession.

The message keeps repeating, becoming a buzz in my head. When it finally stops, the world has gone dark. Talindra and Earlgor have vanished. The server crashed.

"You reforged Apaki awfully quickly." the droning voice of the Monitor says from behind me. I do not respond, still staring at the spot where Lagakh sunk into the ground. "I didn't realize lying came so easily to you."

"Lying?" I prompt its response. It's doing the thing where you have to ask someone a question before they'll continue talking.

"You told her 'you're going to be ok.'."