End Of World Marriage

The Shaman Falls

Kenan had been holding onto his skill for the most opportune time to unleash it. He had to ensure he caught both hobgoblins off guard. He fired a wind bullet at both the shaman and the warrior. The warrior got hit in the stomach, stumbling and buying Kenan extra time to reach the shaman. The shaman, on the other hand, was safely behind its barrier—the same barrier that had been around the warrior only moments ago.

It made Kenan realize two things. The shaman couldn't keep the barrier up simultaneously for both itself and the warrior, which meant that in the event of an attack on both of them, the shaman would prioritize keeping itself safe. In that moment, Kenan dug his heel deep into the earth, bringing himself to a halt as he fired off another wind bullet at the shaman.

Once more, the shaman's barrier came alive to its defense, keeping it safe and buying Kenan enough time to use his half-turn moment to pivot and stab out with both hands. He felt the moment the gladius parted flesh, the moment it pierced the warrior's heart, and the subtle vibrations its punctured heart made. Kenan was intimately familiar with this sensation. It pulled up memories from the deep vault of his mind.

No! Now's not the time to dwell on the past, Kenan! Focus!

He thought furiously to himself as he stepped back once, pulling out the gladius after it had been rammed up to the hilt within the warrior hobgoblin's chest. The hobgoblin fell to its knees and gave one wheezing breath as it coughed up a mouthful of blood. It looked at Kenan, his broad back filling the entirety of its vision. The clearing seemed to come to a complete standstill. Even the wind didn't blow.

That was the last thing the warrior saw as Kenan's gladius flashed out, moving from left to right as he relieved the hobgoblin warrior of its head.

[Basic Hobgoblin Warrior Defeated 1/1]

Kenan turned to face the shaman, only to find himself on the receiving end of the shaman's staff. He felt it smash into the side of his head—the deep black wood hitting with the force of an iron rod. Kenan stumbled to the side as his ears started to ring. An intense feeling of pain spread from his head all the way down to the base of his spine, and he felt his legs buckle for a moment.

The shaman didn't let go of that opportunity. It shot a spiraling ball of grayish-black energy that slammed into Kenan's chest with the force of a speeding truck. He felt even more things within his body crack as he crashed to the ground a few feet away from the shaman.

"Ra-ga-ga-Ra! RA! TA! RA!"

Kenan couldn't move. For some reason, the hit that had smashed into the side of his head had been slowly sapping him of any energy. He growled out in frustration, his right hand weakly trying to move his gladius. The shaman didn't seem to care, though. Its brutish speech had taken on a single, song-like cadence as a spell circle appeared beneath the hobgoblin shaman.

In the next second, roots snapped out of the earth, their forms riddled with thorns as they wrapped around Kenan's body. He yelled out in pain, but he could barely move. The ringing pain from the point of impact when the shaman had hit him on the head was slowly getting worse—both the pain and the ringing. And now these roots slowly wrapped themselves around him, their thorns digging deep into his body as he grunted and struggled to get himself free, but to no avail.

Kenan looked up as the shaman walked closer, standing above him with a triumphant grin on its face.

"Ra-ga-ga-Ra-Ra—"

Kenan frowned yet held his eyes open, glaring at the hobgoblin without an ounce of fear in his features. If this was how it was supposed to be, then he welcomed death in any shape or form. He'd lived a blood-soaked life—a life that would have definitely seen him to a grisly and bloody end, just like he'd done to so many others. The hobgoblin shaman was caught off guard for a second. There was just so much rage and fearlessness in Kenan's eyes that it gave the shaman pause, but only for a second. It raised its staff high into the air.

"I'll see you in hell, freak!" Kenan spat out, giving the shaman a bloody, fearless grin, even as regret and horror gnawed at his heart over Kate's fate.

"Forgive me, baby... I tried," he muttered softly as the shaman's staff came streaking toward his skull with every intent to cave it in.

"NO!"

A fiery Basic Fire Bullet crossed the distance, smashing into the shaman's forehead. All of its movements came to a halt. There was a sound like a dull groan escaping it, but other than that, nothing else. Kenan could only watch as the hobgoblin shaman's form grew progressively larger in his sight as it fell forward, using its bulk to smash onto his face. He felt his nose crunch under the weight of the dead hobgoblin, and even more ringing filled his head as the impact caused him to black out—perhaps for a moment or longer, he wasn't sure.

He came to when he felt the hobgoblin being dragged off his body. Everything ached. He probably had broken bones and cuts and bruises in places he never knew he could have bruises. Kate leaned over him, tears trailing down her face as she saw what sort of mess he was in. Kenan chuckled.

"Why the tears, beautiful? It's going to take a lot more than those green Shrek wannabes to bring me down."

"Just rest. You don't have to say anything. You're hurt—what should I do?" Kenan could feel her shaking even as she leaned over him. He tapped her, surprised he was regaining a little bit of feeling. The roots that held him bound to the ground were rapidly wilting, and the ringing in his head was subsiding. But Kenan was still a mess with different injuries, most of them internal.

"We should check with the pylon. The quest rewards might have something to help." It took almost all of his energy to say that. Kate nodded in realization. They were both stuck in a scenario that guaranteed death, but they'd made it through with the help of all the tools provided by the system. As it stood, it was both their condemnation and their salvation. Kate turned to head to the pylon, but Kenan held her back.

"Help me up?" he asked, but she pulled her hand out of his grasp and slowly pushed him back to the ground.

"Don't move. You can read the system screens from here. Just stay put... please." She turned away and moved to the pylon and the system screen, her mind racing and her hands totally unsteady. Kenan felt sorry for making her worry, but as it was, he didn't have much of a choice about his current state.

[Wave 3 of Quest 3 cleared! Basic Hobgoblin Warrior killed 1/1, Basic Hobgoblin Shaman killed 1/1. +200 exp each. +100 exp each retroactive reward from wave 2]

[Quest 3: Welcome Party II (COMPLETE): The system has siphoned excess corruption and discharged it into the clearing for the heroes to purify. Wave 3/3 completed. REWARD: +500 exp each, +1 Basic Healing Bundle, +1 Basic Survival Bundle, +1 Basic Warrior Bundle]

[Quest 4: Welcome Party III: The system has siphoned excess corruption and will be discharging it into the clearing for the heroes to purify. Wave 0/3 completed.]

[Time Until Next Wave: 24:30:27]

Kenan let loose a breath he had no idea he'd been holding. Twenty-four hours of rest was good. But even as that feeling of relief crossed his features, he remembered the strange way the last wave had started—the way the system screen had looked as if it had been corrupted or hacked. They could suddenly find themselves without any time for the next wave if they weren't prepared. The system wasn't infallible. The fact that it had brought them here in the first place was proof of that. But it was the source of their new abilities and their only chance of survival within this world. If they couldn't rely on it to survive, then things would get even more dangerous, really quickly.

"Kate, there's something you should know—"

"No talking, Kenan. Not now. Just take this potion and rest. We can talk about anything else later." The look she gave him left no room for argument as she tilted his head slowly and poured the potion down his throat. As she did so, she tried with all of her strength not to look at the mass of injuries riddling his body.

As for Kenan, he felt the health potion burn a cool path down his throat. It felt like taking whiskey, only sweeter—all of the burn and none of the cringe. And then he felt his collarbone pop back into place, and that brought with it a pain so blinding he arched his back. But that was only just the beginning as cuts closed with intense itchiness and bones realigned themselves with soft yet loud pops. The entire healing lasted perhaps five seconds. But by the time it was done, Kenan felt drained—so much so that, just like Kate earlier, he passed out, his head falling softly onto her lap. The sound of her crying and the feeling of her tears on his face pulled him into a dreamless sleep.