Epilogue
Brambles cut through the remains of his red coat, once the proud crest of duty, now little more than a filthy rag clinging to his body.
I won’t let him break me. The mantra had kept Roderic alive for the last days.
He shoved the thorns away with his left arm, the only one he had left.
His body was hot and sweating, and at times, he barely clung to consciousness.
It was the dirty water he was forced to drink, or maybe the bitter-tasting berries he couldn’t identify. They poisoned him.
He smashed a mosquito with his left hand, causing the branch he was holding to snap back, adding one more scratch to his ravaged body.
He had stopped counting them. With gritted teeth, he broke the branch and went on, dragging his boots through the mud.
Not for the first time in the last days, he wished he still had his sword to cut through the brambles, but it was lost, along with his arm, and the rest of his squad, when the fey-cursed half-orc unleashed that unnatural beast on them.
Instead of letting him die, he’d tended to his wound, but not before making out with that noble whore of his, right on the corpses of his comrades.
Roderic had returned to the site of the battle — he had little choice since he had to follow their own tracks back — but the bodies had disappeared.
No doubt devoured by the demon, or by other beasts in this fucking swamp.
He wouldn’t have had the strength to bury them, anyway.
That had been days ago. The tracks had become muddier and muddier, and at some point, he had lost them entirely.
When he had realized that, he had been almost ready to just lie down and let the swamp swallow him whole.
Almost. There was just one more thought driving him forward.
Revenge. He would bring that asshole to justice.
This was not over. He just had to reach the edge of the swamp, had to find their horses again.
There were provisions there, and it was just a few days’ ride to Winterstone. And then…
Roderic gritted his teeth harder as he pulled his boot out of the mud once more with a slurping sound. He won’t break me. I will break him.
A speck of blue light in the corner of his eye caught his attention, along with a crashing sound behind him.
He spun around and found himself face-to-face with a demon.
It was impossible to say if it was the one that had taken his arm.
He backed away until he felt a tree at his back, and the demon followed, sharp-smelling liquid dripping from its teeth.
It was the same one. He recognized the wound in its mouth.
It didn’t attack yet, but this was just a question of heartbeats now.
There was no escape. He closed his eyes, only to open them again immediately.
No, he would not go down like a fucking coward.
More blue sparks appeared around them, and movement filled the swamp.
Trees bent and plants either moved out of the way or combusted into ash in a matter of seconds.
A corridor opened up, wide as a ballroom and straight as a guild line.
Even the ground itself hardened and evened out.
The only things unmoving were the tree he was pinned against, and the beast in front of him.
With her head held high, a green-skinned woman walked, no, strode towards him. He had to blink against the now unfiltered daylight. The sun glittered right behind the impressive knot of her dark hair, and for a moment, the light around her head looked just like a crown.
She stopped right in front of him, and the demon beast retreated at the snap of her finger, without laying so much as a claw on him. The orc woman in the headache-inducing dress smiled regally. Her voice was smooth and cold as the swamp mist it had replaced.
“I have an offer for you.”
To be continued…