Alex hung in midair, being telekinetically choked by an injured Dasrene. Alex threw out telekinetic punches aimed at the back of its head.
[New skill created: Telekinetic Punch]
Every punch slammed Dasrene's face into the ground, plastering more and more bone dust onto its face. Dasrene's face got whiter and whiter with every punch as it accumulated more bone dust.
Go unconscious, damn it! Alex thought to himself, still being choked in the air. Isn't the back of the head supposed to knock people out?
After over a dozen punches, Dasrene finally stopped lifting its head back up out of the dirt. The telekinetic choke stopped, dropping Alex to his feet. Alex checked its pulse. Its heart was beating. He checked its breath. It was breathing. Good.
Alex walked over to the glowing orb on the ground. The colossal bat had dropped it. The dimensional core. Alex picked it up and put it into his still functioning dimensional pocket that he stuffed back into his pocket.
He needed to remember to charge that more just in case. He didn't know how long the battery was supposed to last.
Alex walked over to Torni's body. He looked over at Sophia, "Who gets to carry the dead body and who gets to carry the unconscious person?"
"Why? Just slit Dasrene's throat or leave it here. We don't need to take it with us. Just extra baggage and hassle later."
"Two reasons. I'm not going to kill a defenseless person in mourning. Second, if we can imprison it and remove it from the future battlefield, that would be preferable. I don't want to go up against it again. Especially not at full strength. It was injured, and it almost killed me. Sheesh," Alex said.
"And Dasrene would probably want us to do something with the body. I don't know their customs, but most cultures have some sort of tradition around dead bodies. I guess that's three reasons."
"I think you're endangering our mission again, but you've saved my life more than once today, so I'll let you make the call," Sophia said.
"Thank you," Alex said. "You're smart to think it may be a mistake. It might. I don't know. I just can't do it any other way and still live with myself."
"You're compassionate," Sophia said.
"Thanks," Alex said.
"It wasn't a compliment," Sophia said.
"I'm still taking it as one," Alex said. "That's my right."
"Why do I always get stuck with the softies?" Sophia said. "My last partner was like you. Always trying to do the right thing. Got him killed, and I lost a molar."
"Well, I'll pay your dental bills if this backfires," Alex said, throwing Dasrene over his shoulder. "Which it probably will, with my luck, but like your partner, I can't not do the right thing."
"Why did I get stuck with dead body duty?" Sophia said, picking up Torni's body.
"Because you were too slow," Alex said, with a wink.
They walked out of the cave, into the Valley of Death, and looked up at the cliff edge that they came from.
"I'll fly all three of you up, one at a time," Alex said.
Alex flew all three of them up, Sophia being last. As Alex set Sophia down onto her feet, Alex tilted his head over at the house on the hill.
"How much do you want to bet that Gertie will be gone if we go back inside?" Alex said.
"You mean like she just left her house and went for a walk?" Sophia said.
"No, like the whole inside of the house we saw will be gone, and it'll just look like a normal hut," Alex said.
"I'm not taking that bet. No sir. I wouldn't be surprised by that at all. That lady seemed crafty beyond her years," Sophia said.
"I'm gonna go check it out," Alex said. "If I'm wrong, I get another of those Slurps. Are you coming?"
"Why not. It's not like we have a world to save or anything," Sophia sighed.
They knocked on the door, and no one answered. Alex tried the doorknob, and it opened. When they walked inside, it was just like Alex had predicted.
It just looked like the inside of a rundown shack now. No two story house, no fancy lighting, and no interior decorating. Alex looked around to see if she left a note.
Sure enough, in the corner of the room, he found a post-it note stuck to the top of an ice chest that said, "Be well, kid. I'll be seeing you." -Gertie
"P.S. I left you some drinks for the road."
Alex opened the ice chest, and inside it was packed with Slurp, Bubbazub, and Beetlebop. She predicted his exact desires. As expected of a true witch. He didn't know what she went through to change this much since he last met her, but he liked it. He liked it a lot.
Alex hefted the ice chest over his shoulder. A benefit of his leveling up was additional strength. He was now more than just a proper athlete, but less than an Olympic one. At least in powerlifting.
When they got back to Dasrene and Torni, Alex heaved the ice chest through the portal, picked up Dasrene and carried it through the portal. Sophia did the same with Torni.
When they got to the other side, they pulled out their extraction devices and pressed the buttons. Alex made sure he was touching the ice chest when he pressed it.
They appeared back in Olympus, and Hermes dashed up to them.
"Now you've got two new aliens with you. What's next? Full battalions?" Hermes said.
"Extenuating circumstances. I took one as a prisoner of war, and the other is its betrothed, but its deceased. I figured the prisoner would have some sort of wish on how they wanted to deal with the remains," Alex said.
"Wow, that's very considerate of you," Hermes said. "Have you forgotten we're in a war? People die. We can't take in every charity case you find off the street."
"That's what I told him, but he wouldn't listen," Sophia said.
"You have a secure jail cell around here somewhere, don't you?" Alex said. "Go put it in there." Alex handed Dasrene over to Hermes.
"Oh, I'm your servant boy now, am I? I see how it is," Hermes said.
"Isn't carrying messages a form of errand?" Alex said.
"Low blow, my dude. Low blow," Hermes said.
"Here, have one of these drinks I got from a dimension-hopping witch. They're supposed to be out of this world," Alex said. He opened the ice chest and handed Hermes a Bubbazub. That sounded harmless enough. Nothing like a Slurp.
Hermes opened it with his hand. "Oh, a twist off. Nice!" He took a gulp of the beverage. "Wow. That's crisp! I like it. Thanks for the drink. Most people don't tip me when I do errands. I mean, when I deliver messages." Hermes zoomed off to gods know where.
"Well, it was great working with you again, Sophia. You should go report back to Athena and I'll go see if Ludos wants anything," Alex said. He picked up Torni's body as well as the ice chest and walked off towards Ludos' corner, leaving Sophia just standing there.
"Well, that just happened, I guess," Sophia said, and she started looking for Athena.