“Uh… I thought Mama Fouger said he wasn’t dead,” Asher said, staring down at Rulfar’s motionless body. At this distance. It was pretty clear that Rulfar wasn’t breathing. If the fact that they’d found him buried in the ground wasn’t obvious enough as to his current state.

  “Maybe he has some sort of skill? Like your False Death?” Samantha suggested, keeping her eyes peeled on the surrounding grasses in case they were ambushed by an opportunistic monster while they were distracted. “Moxy, can you check him over with your Life element?”

  “Sure, I’ll take a look,” Moxy shrugged, crouching down beside Asher and laying a hand on Rulfar’s body. After a moment, she blinked. “Alright. So, he’s not dead.”

  “Really? He’s not being picked up by my Shard Detection skill, so I really figured he was,” Asher said, looking Rulfar over a bit more carefully. It was hard to tell with how much dirt the bloodhound was covered in, but now that Asher looked more closely, he could tell that Rulfar’s body didn’t actually have that same pale look most corpses ended up taking.

  “He probably has a skill or an artifact to help stop stuff like that from working on him,” Moxy said, placing a hand on the worst of Rulfar’s injuries as she got to work healing. “I bet being a bloodhound is a hell of a lot harder when your targets can sense you coming.”

  While Moxy got to work healing their target, Asher stood up and joined Samantha, keeping his senses open as they waited. After a few seconds, Samantha spoke.

  “Do you really think we’re ready to take the fight to The Council of Death?”

  “Hmm?” he asked, glancing at her and realizing Samantha’s lips were pressed into a hard line as she stared at the grasses swaying in the breeze. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know, it’s just… All this time, I knew we’d be going after the Council eventually, but now that we’ve finally found our bloodhound… I guess I just figured we’d have more time to prepare and better ourselves. I mean, you and I are both still only in the Stage of Honing, even if you are on the very cusp of the Stage of Bleed. Even if we only fight one lich at a time, the Council has had thousands of years to train and amass power. We already know this particular wizard we’re after first has an army of demons at its beck and call. I guess I’m just worried even after how far we’ve come, we’re going to find that it wasn’t nearly far enough and fall short.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Asher said, wrapping an arm around Samantha and pulling her close. Just to be doubly safe, he quickly threw up a Spatial Lock around their whole position to ensure nothing jumped Moxy while she was distracted. Shard Detection should still pick up on targets even if he wasn’t paying his surroundings his full attention, but it was better to be safe than sorry. “For starters, there’s every chance Rulfar might tell us to pound sand, and then we’re back to trying to find a different seeker to help us out. No need to start worrying just yet.”

  “From what you said, I doubt he will. Especially after he wakes up from whatever this was,” she said, gesturing toward the hole Rulfar was buried within. “And if he’s as good as it sounds, we should have no problem finding the lich. Which means the deadliest fight of our lives is suddenly right on the horizon.”

  “We’ve got powerful skills, great teamwork, and a burning desire to see that lich dead for what it did,” Asher said, frowning at the memory of Horntho village burning to the ground. “Not to mention we’ve got Donvath supporting us from the rear. Even if he can’t help directly, nothing like having someone capable of telling you your future plan is stupid and you’re all going to die.”

  “Donvath said himself that the future gets muddy when you, greater demons, and wizards are involved,” Samantha reminded him. “Seeing as we’re going to be dealing with all three of those things, I don’t think we can rely on him to give us an early warning this time around.”

  “That might be the case… But I’m still feeling weirdly optimistic about our chances,” Asher admitted. “Things will probably get harder once we take down the first lich and the rest of The Council of Death realize that they’re not quite as immortal as they once thought, but currently? Those bags of bones have survived for thousands of years without losing a single member, based on what we’ve been told. I’d be willing to bet they may have grown a little too sure in their own immortality during that time. Even if they know what my Sever the Thread can do, I’d bet it’s hard to go against a few millennia of confidence knowing that even if some intrepid adventurer were to find their body and stab it, they’ll just come back.”

  “I’d feel a lot more confident if I had your skills,” Samantha said, giving him an apologetic look. “I’m not saying you’re over confident, but part of me thinks you sometimes forget that the rest of us only have one life. Winged Savior sort of gives me an extra one, but it’s not the same. I know we’re all going to die someday, but I’d rather it be far in the future, after we’ve put all this behind us and lived a nice, full life of adventure.”

  Asher barely managed to keep the conflicting emotions off his face as the memory of Wilna informing him he was actually an immortal arose in his mind. He was going to tell Samantha soon enough, but it hadn’t even been a full twenty-four hours yet since he found out he might not die someday. He still needed time to process his own immortality, and to look into whether or not it was something he could share with others.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Thankfully, their conversation ended there, as a loud gasp from Moxy’s location drew their attention toward the warrior. Rulfar was sitting up in his hole, coughing quite harshly as he squinted and looked around at all of them.

  “What… What’s going on?” he coughed, trying to rub the dirt out of his eyes.

  “Oh, not much. Just thought we’d dig in this one random patch of dirt for no particular reason,” Moxy said, grinning at the still-coughing bloodhound. “Imagine our surprise when we found an oversized carrot just ripe for the picking.”

  “Moxy?!” Rulfar managed, staggering to his feet and taking a step back as he cleared the last of the dirt from his eyes. Blinking, he took in the rest of the team, doing a double take when he spotted Asher. “And you? What is going on?”

  “It’s a bit of a long story,” Asher said, unable to stop himself from laughing at the utterly bewildered expression on Rulfar’s face. There was something about seeing such confusion on the man’s face, combined with his dense muscles and giant frame, that made it all the more entertaining. “The relevant bits for the moment would be that the three of us are working together, and we need a bloodhound. We managed to track you down to this rough location, and after a few hours of wandering around, we finally found you.”

  “Why would the Reaper and Loratta’s former right hand be working with one another?” Rulfar asked, his hand going to a leather sling on his back before hesitating and coming away empty. Only then did Asher realize the bloodhound’s giant axe that he carried around was nowhere to be seen. “The last time I saw the two of you, you paid me for bringing him in for you,” Rulfar pointed out.

  “Like he said, it’s a long story,” Moxy said. “We’ll give you all the fun details soon enough, but we should get out of here first. I think a monster-infested hunting grounds probably isn’t the best location for the talk we need to have.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until I finish my current job,” Rulfar said, crossing his arms and suddenly looking like the three-hundred plus pound wall of muscle that his massive frame was. “I was in the middle of a job when you three found me, and I refuse to give up on a job once I’ve given my word I’ll take it.”

  “Not to argue… but it looked like you were in the middle of dying in a dirt hole when we found you,” Samantha pointed out, giving the bloodhound a tentative wave. “Hi. I’m Samantha.”

  “Rulfar,” the bloodhound said, nodding toward her. “I was not dying. I was in a hibernative state while I healed my injuries. The target I’m tracking down for Furora’s guards is particularly dangerous. She laid a trap for me, leading a swarm of monsters to my position before destroying my weapon. I barely managed to fight them off and survive, and now I must find her once more.”

  “Hibernative state?” Asher asked, looking more curiously at the dirt-covered bloodhound. At this point, he still didn’t actually have any idea what elements Rulfar actually had. He knew the man had all three of them, but that was about all he had to go on. Presumably, he’d have at least one element related to finding people, like how the seeker he hired in Dormaul had some sort of Eye or Vision element. A quick scan through the Big Book of Elements: Edition Six he had Incorporated in his mind found a listing of the Hibernate skill, and Asher blinked as the most likely conclusion sprang to mind. “You have the Bear element?”

  “I’m not discussing my potential elements or skills with strangers,” Rulfar said bluntly, narrowing his eyes at them. “Do you intend to try and stop me if I attempt to continue my current job? Even without my axe, you will find I’m not such an easy opponent to put down.”

  “Pull your pegasi there big guy, you think I would have gone through all the trouble of healing you just to rough you up again?” Moxy asked.

  “Without a doubt,” Rulfar grunted, staring at Moxy like she was an idiot. “Have you forgotten how frequently you tried to get me to step into the ring with you? I’m well aware of your battle-maniac tendencies.”

  “Guilty as charged,” Moxy shrugged, grinning up at him. Somehow, despite the fact that Rulfar had nearly two feet of height on the warrior and towered over her, Asher could have sworn it was Moxy looking down at him. “That said, we do actually have some stuff going on that’s a bit more important than the two of us fighting here and now. And if things turn out how I think they will, I’m sure you and I will have plenty of chances to try and kill one another soon enough.”

  “I told you, before I even entertain the idea of whatever insane job you three want to ask of me, I must finish my current one,” Rulfar repeated. “I cannot even begin to imagine what must have driven you to go to such lengths just to find me, but that’s not important right now. With every second we waste talking here, my target gets further away.”

  “You just spent at least three days buried in the dirt. I doubt a few more minutes is going to matter all that much,” Asher pointed out, earning a frown from the bloodhound. But before Rulfar could say anything, he continued. “What if we helped you find your target?”

  “Help me?” Rulfar scoffed, as if the idea itself were ridiculous. “What would possess you to help me? Better yet, why do you even think you can help me?”

  “You said it yourself that you wouldn’t hear our request until you finished your current job,” Asher reminded him. “Well, is there any part of your code that prevents you from having help? If your target has a three day head start on you, a little help would probably go a long way. And even if we don’t have seeker skills like you do, we’re at least good in a fight.”

  “We already cleared out most of the monsters in the area,” Samantha added. “Other than the corpse grabbers. We sort of just ignored those for the most part.”

  “…Fine. If you three so wish, you’re welcome to follow me. But don’t expect me to slow down just for your sakes.”

  “Buddy, I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Moxy snorted, waving for him to get started. “Trust me, you’re going to see some stuff that will blow your mind.”

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