44- ROUND THREE
RAGE.
"Osiris, what's happening?!"
The shield scrolls turned to dust as pure mana splashed across its pages. Each and every potion in his bag popped. Osiris allowed his ego to shield the others as the portal tried to rip them apart. The Prince continued staring where Cornelius had stood.
Danger.
Osiris could feel it creep up his toes, through his spine, and numb the back of his neck. He could feel it in the soil beneath his feet.
Everything was at least S Rank. EVERYTHING.
Osiris turns to his men with fire in his eyes.
"Strip."
The sooks were confused.
"Wha-"
Sunnie looked into his eyes and threw her bag to the floor before beginning to remove her armor.
"Sunnie?"
"Just do what he says."
The boys followed her lead.
Osiris looked down at the rings on each of his fingers. They were cracked.
He could feel hundreds of beasts alert to his presence.
"Now spread."
Osiris quickly searched Sunnie's body before pushing her back to her clothes. He looked over the boys just as quickly before doing the same and pushing them back to their belongings. Not even three seconds after they redressed did the creatures appear.
They were here.
"Fuck."
Osiris dropped the bad bag and spun around.
"These clothes aren't easy to take on and off, Osiris."
Like silk he watched a creature with the body of a leopard, skin of a skink, with a white skulled head boarded by fleshy flower petals around its neck and face, flash into their camp.
It's tail moved faster than Osiris could see.
Fibble was slung back into a tree where his neck snapped and his back broke.
He gurgled.
Osiris had the three of them on his small body not a millisecond later. He ran. He was the only one who could survive in these lands.
They were in no-man's land.
Osiris passed a bug spitting acid at one of the chasing beasts. Its face melted as it detoured off. The bug was the size of a mantis.
He's heard stories of lands across the two continents that not even dragons claim. And it is simply because the survival rate is nearly zero and building on this land was impossible. If nature didn't get you the animals will.
"Heal him."
Sunnie was crying as she reached for an emergency potion they each carried.
"Faster."
Sunnie screamed as she dislocated her thumb to slam the potion into Fibble's leg. His neck started to unkink.
"Good girl."
Two of the beasts caught up with them. Osiris tried to pivot but the fucker clipped his calf, slicing it in half. Osiris nearly fell, hoping on one leg as he tried to carry them all. Vep broke a potion on his side. Osiris grinned.
"Good boy."
Fibble came back to them choking.
"I-I saw my nan! I thought I was really dead this time!"
"Does anyone know where we are?!"
"No-man's land."
"N-no man's land! Are you sure?!"
Osiris grit his teeth as the beasts ran beside him. Their eyes were laughing at him.
Osiris did a hard stop and took a sharp right.
"Everything here is S Class."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
"We're doomed."
No shit.
Osiris kept running.
"T-the goddess says there's holy land a few miles away- look over that cliff!"
Osiris ran to the ledge. Fibble pointed to some ruins.
"She said no one she doesn't welcome can pass across her lands!"
Osiris rolled his eyes.
Holy land only exists when it's convenient for that god.
Osiris jumped off the cliff and began sliding down as the two beasts stopped at the edge before turning and walking away.
"The teleporter took out the spare potions, shields, and my buffers."
"How did this even happen?!"
His men shook. They didn't even have a chance to walk around alone, let alone together.
".."
He wanted to say the Queen, which was the truth, but he hesitated.
"It's the Queen again, isn't it?"
Sunnie spoke for him.
"..yes."
"Fuck…"
The Prince's lips pursed.
"I should have left you all at home."
Something with a black body, red head, and toxic blue glowing mouth galloped their way.
"We shouldn't have begged you to come…"
"I just wanted to see their capital! I heard it's like our Kingdom, but with the beasts playing human, and even paying taxes!"
Osiris dodged a bug.
"I'm tripling your stamina training and stopping everything but meditation."
"…"
"Will that be enough?"
".."
Osiris grit his teeth as he found a straight shot to the ruins, but it was through a field of thorn covered mice. They had the cutest faces with the most hideous bodies. They screeched and charged them.
With a double jump Osiris made it onto holy ground before tripping and rolling with his men into the yard.
Upside down he looked between his legs and watched everything chasing them stop and walk away at the border.
"So the eye in the sky didn't lie this time."
"She said… she said she's never lied to you."
Osiris scoffed.
"I still don't like you."
"Me?"
Fibble's eyes watered.
"He meant the god, stupid."
"Oh, right."
Osiris grunted until he was able to flip on his back. He looked up at the sky and closed his eyes.
"So much for ending the war early…"
".."
"And why did you have us all strip?!"
The Prince threw a hand over his eyes to block more of the sun.
".."
"Yeah, why did you do that?"
".."
"He's not talking for once."
"What, did you make a mistake or something?"
".."
They looked at him. He was frowning and refusing to talk. He was pouting.
"Y-you made a mistake?"
"I didn't."
Sunnie's eyes glistened.
"You made a mistake? You? Did you miss the bell over his head or something?"
".."
Osiris rolled onto his stomach.
"It wasn't a bell, it was a tattoo."
His words were muffled by grass.
"A tattoo? But you've caught those types before?"
".."
"Who was it?"
"Corn."
The three looked at each other. Osiris has a weakness for those with long hair. Especially the blue kind.
".."
Osiris felt peeve all of a sudden.
"It was behind that stupid earring."
"That… that's actually clever!"
"…it is, it is clever! But now people who wear mana items…"
"That's everyone Fibble."
".."
"We're going to have to find another dealer."
"You make it sound like we have a drug problem."
"Don't we?"
They looked at the pouting Prince.
"Let's drag him in boys."
Fibble and Vep each grabbed an arm and dragged the Prince and followed Sunnie into the decaying temple.
"Just leave me here to die."
Vep rolled his eyes.
"We all make mistakes. You make them all the time."
"I don't."
"You do. Just the other day you poisoned our units only water supply because you forgot you had it on you for a bath."
".."
Osiris watched a creature rub against the border to their right like a cat rubbing against the back of a couch.
"Now get up."
His body flipped and laid there.
".."
"Just leave him. Let's search the grounds."
_______
They were on the other side of the continent.
Sunnie held a map between her fingers as she fell to the ground. Osiris caught her before she hit the floor.
"The capital is six, maybe seven months away from here."
Osiris pinched his nose as he put her down.
They were in demon territory.
Most, if not all the trees looked scorched in a forest of dead birch planes. The ground was covered in soot with toxic air burning their lungs.
"There-"
A twig snapped.
Everyone jumped to turn towards the noise.
"A child?"
A goblin child with pale purple skin, ashen blue hair, and bright pink eyes peaked from behind a tree. Osiris crossed his arms and stared.
"What do we do?"
"Do we kill it?"
The child's tail flicked.
"It's pretty young if it still has its tail."
"But do goblins have bright eyes like that?"
"I'm not sure.."
The child held his gaze, more curious and confused than fearful. She had on a dark blue nightgown with small golden trimming. Her hair was a mess.
"What do you want."
He had no ill will to anyone outside of the war. If they left him alone he'd leave them alone. Simple. They've met many types of beings, and goblins were one of them. Sometimes as enemies, other times as allies.
"I, um.."
Osiris waited.
"Do you think she's lost?"
"I'm five."
Osiris's serious mood fell.
"Five?"
She leaned a bit further from the tree.
"Five months, I turn six soon!"
She was small, underweight.
"Your parents?"
Goblins reach maturity at one. They live with their parents until then.
"Dead."
She didn't sound upset in the slightest.
"They died yesterday after that big fire ball!"
The sooks sweat dropped and looked at the Prince.
"How did you survive?"
The goblin gripped her dress as she stepped away from the tree. Her eyes still holding onto the Prince's glare.
"I don't know. I was with my mum, then poof!"
She made a popping motion with her fingers.
"I woke up here…"
Osiris nodded before turning to his men.
"Well, I wish you luck."
He started to walk away when Fibble appeared at his side like an inner voice he never asked for.
"Is that a good idea? I mean she's…"
"If we rescued every orphan I created then we'd have an army."
"But…"
"I-I can clean!"
Her little voice cracked.
"Not good enough."
Osiris took another step.
"I.."
His men glared at him as he kept walking. Osiris stopped not ten feet away. He sighed.
"Why this one?" He turned to them. "Out of all the ones we've passed, why this one?"
He sounded frustrated.
"A gut feeling?"
Osiris glared at Sunnie.
"You three are cleaning it."
A three man cheer could be heard from miles away.
_______
She refused to be touched by anyone but the Prince.
Fibble bit his nails as he watched the goblin sit on Osiris's shoulders with the happiest grin on her face. She used his hair as reigns.
"It's not fair."
Vep patted him on the back.
"I'm the one who wanted to keep her!"
The goblin bounced when she spotted another shiny rock.
"Can I have that one?"
Osiris didn't bother and grabbed it as they walked on. Sunnie watched the girl put the rock in her hair.
"So she's a treasure goblin?"
The team watched the girl start pulling out her collection of stones and place them by the fire.
"It took me a while, but treasure goblins start with hot pink eyes before they reach maturity. Then they turn yellow."
Everyone watched her play house with the rocks.
"They store goods in their hair and when they die it releases everything like a treasure chest."
Vep stirred the food.
"If they live long enough, or get powerful enough, they can become a golden goblin and their eyes will glow gold instead of yellow."
"What's the difference."
Osiris combed out his hair. He needed to cut it.
"Treasure goblins can only hold about three wagons of goods. A golden goblin can hold about a castle's worth of goods."
"Fibble you've been upgraded to party healer." Osiris's grinned. "I've found our pack mule."
"You have to shower."
Osiris was soaked as he backed the goblin against a stone wall.
"No!"
Her tail flicked.
She's been with them a week and she smells like a rotting corpse. She refuses to let them wash her hair, and she won't eat with a spoon.
"Yes."
He crowded her.
"No!"
Her tail gave one hard flick and she went from being in front of him to being up against the wall. She teleported backwards.
Her legs shook and Osiris watched her piss herself.
".."
She wasn't crying but she looked at him like he was a monster. He sighed and looked to the heavens for patience because he was never meant to be a father.
Looking back at her she looked unsure of what she was going to do. On one hand she looked so terrified she pissed herself, on the other she looked like she wanted to run to him and jump into his arms. He's seen that look before. It's that line between love and fear. Trust and betrayal. What he does in this moment will define how she will view their relationship for the rest of her life.
He knows.
That's what he did when he begged his mother not beat him with a belt until his skin turned purple. No matter his cries she never stopped, not until the rage in her heart left. Even a warm meal and bath could not fix what she chose to break.
Osiris took a knee.
"Did you see that-"
"Shh!"
Sunnie held a hand over Fibble's loud, stupid mouth. They were spying on the Prince. They all knew he wasn't the touchiest person, and that he hated kids, so they were a bit worried for the girl. Osiris was a violent leader. Protective and loving, but violent.
"..."
Okay maybe loving isn't the right word either…
But it was shocking to see. Vep wasn't worried in the slightest, but he was along for the ride.
"Goss, I'm sorry."
He held out his hands for her.
She held her nightgown and shook.
Osiris waited. He waited for about ten minutes before giving up. He'll leave it to Su-
She jumped into his arms before he could stand.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Trying to run."
So that's her trying to run. Teleportation, interesting.
"If you ever feel your life is in danger, run. Even if it's from me."
"But.."
Osiris stood and pulled her against his chest. Her tears were silent.
"I can be scary sometimes, ask the others. It's okay to run. They run from me all the time."
"Really?"
"Yup."
He rubbed her back. He glanced down. Now they both needed a bath.
"You're not mad?"
Osiris laughed.
"For that?" He shook his head as he chortled. "No."
She pushed into his neck further, hiding.
"But you still need a bath."
She tried to bolt.
"Not so fast."
Her tail flicked but nothing happened. She wiggled more.
"Let's go, I'll have Sunnie wash you."
"No!"
Her little ego blared down on him. It didn't even gray the air. It lightened it like a light.
".."
He wonders if that's how people find them.
That's dangerous.
"I-I want to bath together."
"Fine, fine." He walked to the shore.
"B-but my things."
"Will your things get wet if your hair get's wet?"
"No.."
"Then?"
".."
"How about this."
He put her down, she looked to the side and at the ground.
"Let's take everything out before the bath."
"Y-you're not gonna take my things, right?"
"Depends."
"What does depends mean?"
Osiris tried to run his fingers through her hair. It was knotted.
"It depends on what you have in there. If you have bad things, then yes I will take them."
"But they're my things."
He saw a little fire in her eyes. A goblin is a goblin.
"Let's go through them and you can tell me why you want to keep it, and if it's bad i'll explain why you shouldn't, fair?"
".."
"..okay."
"Good girl, now let's start."
She pulled out a dead frog.
"Now put it there."
Osiris pointed to an empty space.
"Or put it wherever you want, but let's get everything out first and bathe before we go through it, okay?"
That idea gave her a bit of relief. She was like a hoarder procrastinating a clean up.
The girl had a lot of things.
From dead frogs to B Grade mana crystals, she was a walking little B Class treasure trove. She wasn't even an adult yet. Sunnie felt her mouth water at the pieces of mythril laying by some dead mice and baby blue cloth.
"Now lift your arms." Osiris pulled off the nightgown. "And keep your undies and undershirt on. I'll keep my shorts on."
"Okay.."
The bath was pretty straight forward.
They washed her hair and he got her as clean as he could. She squealed again as she smelled her hair.
"What is this?!"
"Shampoo."
"Why does it smell good?"
"No clue, flowers I think?"
"That's so cool!"
She started to suck the water out of her hair. Osiris justed sighed and got her clean. He went through Sunnie's entire stash with how thick her hair was. It reminded him of his cousins. He had thick bushes that took forever to wash, and he had short hair. It was kind of funny feeling a mexican textured hair on a fantasy beast.
It did make him miss home.. He misses B-
He patted her dry and sat her in the sun while he did his own hair.
Osiris stared down at the water.
His hair was below his ass. He's never been able to have long hair. Like Goss, in his life before, he had similar hair, but it was more like bushes of hay than plush. Now his hair was thick but silky. It layered beautifully with tips that stood up and proud. He grabbed his hair and raised the blade. He hesitated.
"You're gonna cut off all your hair?"
Osiris looked at his reflection. He lowered his hand to just above his shoulders. A part of his chest unwound. He smiled.
"Let's meet in the middle."
Long strings of ashy pink hair floated down the riverbank.
Fibble and Sunnie were horrified. They loved that hair. It was the only thing keeping him looking human. To Vep it was about time he cut that tangled mess. He never took care of it and Vep had to brush it every night before bed. He was over it. Done.
"So this is your.. Treasure."
Osiris nodded, it was decent. She had an excellent eye for things, so now he needed to figure out her favorite item. First he picked up a dead frog.
"Why is this here."
"It was alive when I put it in there.."
".."
Osiris picked it up and showed it to her. She looked disgusted.
"This was in your hair." He tossed it into the woods. "That's what I mean by depends."
"Oh.."
"Yes, oh."
He picked up some leaves.
"And these?"
"T-they look cool."
"And this?"
Osiris went down the line, making sure to explain, in detail, why some things she can keep and some things she can't. It was a long battle, but he won. Now he just needed to do this every time and she'll eventually give up the will to collect dead things.
"Now that those are gone you can smell the shampoo more, right?"
She sniffed.
"I can!"
A reward system. He needed a reward system. He looked around. He spotted two gold coins.
"Wha-"
She snatched them from his hands and growled.
Got you.
He smiled and let her be, leaving the coins in her hand as they moved through the rest.
"Would you rather keep the gold or the dried beetles?"
"Gold."
Would you rather keep the stale bread or the gold?"
"Gold."
The game went on and on until Osiris got down to the good stuff. The ores, metals, gems, and mana crystals. There were some goofy things he let her keep, like snake fangs, claws, and leaves, but he tried to show her what had real worth.
"Now you see this? It's a B Grade mana crystal. It's worth one of those." He pointed to the gold. "And these are A Grade, they're worth four of those."
Her little eyes lit up.
Osiris has seen goblins bloom under capitalism. And he was raised in it. His mouth watered. He could already smell the money.
The sooks could only roll their eyes as Osiris began to give the child basic economy lessons. They hated when he did that. But at least this time it sounded interesting. The girl lucked out, for now.
Until next year when tax season came about.
They all groaned.
_______
The party came across a demon town between no-man's land and beast territory. The entire place reeked of egos. Not a single being was hiding. The party pushed their aura out. Goss was the only one without. Osiris picked her up and shielded her with his own. They were working on getting her stronger. She's getting older. She was seven months, getting closer to eight.
They were all still very far away from any human life, but they were chugging away at the map. It was surprising they've made it this far. Osiris is surprised he hasn't left them all to fend for themselves. They were getting on his last nerve.
No one batted an eye as they strolled into town.
A few of the bigger demons glanced their way, but there were a lot of demons that could match Osiris any given day. It was terrifying, but fun to mingle in. Osiris poked his head around every nook and cranny as he took in the scene. There were shops on top of shops with a flea market covering the floor.
It almost felt like a carnival.
There were beasts of every size, bodies of every shape, languages of every flavor. They found a massive trade center. A mall. Osiris hopped in place.
"When is he going to stop?"
"Never?"
"What the hell is an advertisement?"
"Billboard?"
"Supermarket?"
"Monopoly?"
"..."
"What's a tv?"
Osiris had Goss looking through a selection of tables in a small shop off the market floor. His sooks went off to eat, or something, he wasn't sure, but he was sure they'll be fine. Regardless of what could happen, he knew they'd do what they needed to do to survive.
He glanced at the goblin.
And he was making sure to beat that into that little skull of hers too.
"Did you find one you liked?"
He gave her a budget and let her go. She picked one you could sit at, like a coffee table. It lacked the height of some of the other booths, but it made up for it in quality.
"Why did you pick this one?"
"It looks better than the rest."
"Why?"
".."
"It's quality. This wood is better than that." He pointed to a taller table with pale, uneven wood. "It looks better. To some, that table is better than the one you picked."
"Why?"
Osiris shrugged.
"No clue. Some people might think taller is better. Some might be too tall to sit. Some people just go for the cheapest option."
Goss's face dropped when she had to pay one gold coin for it. She nearly cried on the way out.
"I could sell tables too."
"You could."
Osiris laughed.
"That's a lot of money."
"It is."
".."
"But my things sell for more, right?"
Osiris flashed her teeth.
"Right."
Warry, she followed him to a spot he bullied someone for. The strong can push out the weak. Demons will not fight a battle they cannot win, so surrendering leads to a clean system. The problems arise when the demons are of similar status. He watched a few destroy a bigger demon's booth and get killed for it.
It was a pretty cut and dry place. He loved it.
"I want to live here."
Sunnie appeared out of thin air.
"No you don't."
He grinned at her.
"Done shopping?"
"We found a lot of questionable things, but it was good. We found an alchemist and he made us more potions, but we're broke now."
She laughed awkwardly as she passed him the bag.
The items were good. More than good, they were great.
He watched mana constantly circle, keeping the potion active and pure.
"Go get contact info on that alchemist."
"Already did. Guy said those are samples, here are the ones we bought."
There was a drastic difference in quality. Osiris showed them to Goss and gave her a lesson on sampling. No one wanted to hear it, no one. Well, no one except Goss. She was drinking in his bullshit like it was religious text.
In the end they left that town with a little goblin dreaming of building her own guild and a Prince with a bank not attached to the Kingdom.
.
.
.
.
.
Haldir found them on the Prince's sixteenth birthday. They were already close to the capital, but they let the man think he saved their lives. Haldir even shed a few tears. Goss stayed in a city they hit a few hours away. She was a good saleswoman and wanted to try it alone. They grow up so fast.
Behind Haldir stood many of the other troops and that mother fucker Corn. He stood there anxiously with worried eyes. He was wearing his earring. Instead of stopping Osiris led his team onwards.
As he passed the rat he popped his head like a zit.
No one said anything as his team marched on.
"Move."