Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Drew was getting pretty sick of passing out. How many times over the past week had he lost consciousness? It couldn't be healthy for his brain, Vitality stat or not. On the bright side, he wasn't lying on the ground of a frozen wasteland when he'd woken up. He wasn't in his house either. It looked like someone had set up several gazebo-style tents and cots, because that's what he'd woken up to. Multiple people were on the cots nearby him in various states of wakefulness. Scolder had followed him, and sat patiently waiting by the side of Drew's cot. But... Drew never gave him that command, had the coyote followed him of its own free will?

He inspected his undead minion and found that it had leveled up to sixteen, and had several improvements available to choose from. Instead of class and profession abilities every five levels, his undead constructs seemed to receive race improvements instead. Drew selected an option to further increase his pet's toughness, and another to increase its ability to damage enemies. The damage option was fairly interesting, because it seemed to further focus on the strength of claws and fangs, much like how Freya had gained natural armor and weapons. The boney canine also had gained additional mass, it was now far bigger than any coyote he'd ever seen, and was closer in size to the shepherd dog. Did minions, monsters and beasts naturally become far more powerful outside just stat point improvements?

He remotely tugged on the other mental connections from his surviving minions and found similar situations. Not that there were many left. He had a couple of the wild hogs left, and only four of Scolder's packmates. The skeleton archers were down to only three in number as well. The biggest issue he had was keeping the damn pets alive long enough for them to gain levels. It wasn't like they were a huge investment in mana points any longer, since he'd leveled up so much, but there were only so many hours in the day, and so many bodies. For all the animal-based pets, he boosted toughness of their bones and bodies twice. Right now, they were acting as a screen to keep his people safe, and he needed them to be able to tank for a while. The hordes of monsters and beasts that had been attacking their community were just too large in number to settle for anything less.

For his archer minions, he boosted their toughness and agility. If they were faster and could put more shots downrange at a quicker pace, it could save a lot of lives... of course ammo was a major concern at the moment also. He didn't have any extra arrows or bolts left, so if they were damaged... fuck. The community needed a fletcher of some kind. And an armorer. Potions would be great too. Drew sighed internally. Too much shit to do, and not enough time to do it.

He also had several class and profession skill choices available, but he needed time to actually think about the options that were going to be offered to him, and right now he needed to check in with everyone and see if he could raise some of the dead as soulflame minions. He got up from the cot, and several of the other nearby patients nodded to him in acknowledgement. He appreciated the thought, but he didn't deserve any thanks or respect. People were dead, and at least some of that blame laid upon his shoulders. He poked his head around several tents trying to find someone he knew before running into Mark.

"Hey man, glad to see you up and moving. You feeling alright?" Mark asked.

"Yeah. No pain or anything, I think I'm either fully healed, or healed enough so my body doesn't encumber me. How about you?"

"I'm doing a lot better now, Miranda healed me up pretty well, but I wasn't as messed up as some people were."

"Is she resting right now? I didn't see her anywhere."

"She went to get some sleep, she said her mana was low, and everyone was mostly stable at the moment."

"Good, she needs some rest. Still, I was hoping she would be around, I wanted to talk to her about the...people that... didn't make it."

"Ah. Maybe I can help you out then, I've been assisting her with everyone."

"How many did we lose?" Drew asked, almost unsure he wanted to know the answer.

"Eighteen adults. One kid."

"Fuck. What happened to the kid?"

"He died while pulling his mom to safety. She'd been injured, and he along with another kid were carrying her back to Miranda. One of those fucking birds divebombed him and pierced his skull, Miranda said he was gone instantly and didn't feel any pain."

"Holy shit." Drew whispered.

"Yeah, little dude was a hero. Still, I can't imagine what his mom is going through right now. To be saved by your child, only to watch him die."

"Well, that's actually what I wanted to talk to Miranda about, I wanted to meet with the victims' families. I may be able to bring them back."

Mark's eyes widened.

"You can do that?!" He practically yelled.

"Well, kinda. Their bodies would still be technically dead, but their souls and minds would be the same. Kinda like how I raised Dickbag."

"Dickbag? Oh, that obnoxious little snot that tried to kill you. I don't know how the families will react, but some might be open to it. Follow me, I'll introduce you to some of them."

Drew followed Mark to an open area that was somewhat near the gazebo tents, and found that the newcomers had set up a large fire, and several were cooking meat and other foodstuffs using camp-style cookware. Mark led him to a a grouping of large foldable tables that you'd buy at Walmart. One of the tables had a group of six sitting at it. His Light Warrior friend introduced him.

"Hey everyone, this is my friend Drew Wright. You probably remember him when you first got here, and from the fighting earlier."

The group raised their heads to look at him. Three adults, three children. The adults appeared to be a married couple, and a woman. They all looked like shit, bags under their bloodshot eyes, downtrodden body language, they looked like they were one wrong word away from bursting out crying. Yeah, these folks had definitely lost someone.

"Mind if I join ya'll for a minute?" Drew asked.

"Sure." The adult male said.

Both Drew and Mark sat down at the table in some of the extra seats.

"I'm sorry to bother ya'll, I know you're going through a lot right now. But I think I may be able to help."

The group just stared at him, they didn't have anything to say, or rather, couldn't bring themselves to say anything.

"Right, well... this isn't exactly a comfortable topic so..."

The man looked at the kids.

"Why don't you kids go grab some food and eat over there. Let the adults talk for a minute." The man said.

The kids just nodded and got up; they dragged their feet as they walked to the firepit area.

"We haven't had a chance to discuss whether we went them buried or cremated yet." The man said to Drew.

"Ah, that's not...that's not why I'm here."

"Oh? Then what can I do for you?"

"It's about the people you lost. Please forgive me, but I don't know the specifics, I just woke up in the hospital tents myself."

"Jack and Randy, my brothers. These are their wives."

"I see. There isn't really a good, or polite way to say this... but..."

"Go ahead, its fine."

"Well, I might be able to bring them back." Drew said in a low voice.

"What?"

"If, uh, their souls haven't moved on yet, I can bring them back."

"How?"

"Magic. I guess that's the best way to describe it."

The three adults just looked at Drew, and turned to look at each other, before turning to look back to Drew.

"Like the walking skeletons or..."

"Similar, they keep their bodies, they don't have to be skeletons. Their bodies would technically still be...uh, dead. But they'd be here, the same as before, you could talk with them, and live as a family still."

"I see, and if their souls have moved on?"

"Then there's nothing I can do. If their souls aren't here, then they've moved on to join their god, or ended up in The Baleful Lady's realm."

"I don't mean to be rude sir, but I don't want anything to do with... whatever religion you have." One of the women said, sneering.

"It's not a religious thing, but that's your choice. I'm simply here to offer a chance for you to continue having a life with your loved ones. That's all."

"My sister-in-law speaks the truth, no offense to you sir. We're happy you're letting us stay here, but what you're offering isn't natural, it goes against everything we were raised to believe."

"No worries, I totally get it. It's weird and it shouldn't work. It's your decision, I simply wanted to make the offer. Please pardon my interruption, I'll leave you to grieve."

They all nodded their heads as Drew and Mark got up to leave.

The first conversation wasn't a precursor to the others. Mark led Drew around to meet with various families, and he had mixed results. Some were like the first family, they either didn't want his help, or were polite, but declined. Others... others weren't so polite. Especially the older folks. They basically told Drew to eat shit and go to hell. Although, there were several families that did accept his offer, specifically, the mother of the child that passed away while saving her. There were also several dead bodies that didn't have a family to claim them, widows or widowers from when they had lost their family members earlier during the goblin raids.

Drew was pretty torn on whether he should raise people that didn't have anyone to speak for them. He did raise several soulflames for the families that accepted his offer however. But some souls had already moved on, and so he was forced to tell the already grieving groups of people that he couldn't do anything. That really sucked, and hurt him almost as much as it hurt the dead's kin. All in all, he was able to bring back four adults, and the one child. There were three bodies that were unclaimed, so he made the decision to at least check to see if they had their souls still.

Two of them did, but one didn't. Of the two that did, one was an elderly man with a wedding ring on his finger. Drew decided to let him pass so he might see his wife again rather than forcing him to remain on Earth. The last body belonged to the young adult male that had tried to stop Dickbag and his other friend from shooting Drew. His body was a mess, but Drew wanted to raise him and give him a second shot at life, he felt like the kid deserved the chance. The reunions between the dead and their kin were awkward for him, but many thanks were offered before he managed to excuse himself to other duties.

Truthfully, he didn't want the thanks, he just did what he felt was right, and that didn't feel praiseworthy to him. He'd need to check in with his new soulflames, but he decided to give everyone space for the minute while he went out and started to raise regular minions from the dead bodies in the battlefields. The current security and protection for the community was woefully inadequate, but that was something he could fix, it was something he finally had the excess mana points for. But as he entered the battlefield to raise some crows...

The sky darkened. It went from mid-afternoon to pitch black within several seconds. Something was happening, and he didn't know what it was, but he kept his eyes on the sky. A rumbling shook the Earth, and a large silver streak appeared in the eastern sky amidst the black. It felt like a minor earthquake. Then it felt like a major quake. He was having trouble remaining standing as the shaking intensified, and the... it was a meteor, wasn't it? Just his luck. The glowing light grew bigger as it clearly was making its way closer.

A figure erupted from the incoming silver illumination, and divebombed to the ground below. A large crowd of people had made their way to Drew to watch the impending doom by this point. The figure landed twenty-five yards in front of him in a perfect, three-point superhero style landing. Both knees and a single fist upon the ground as the remaining ice of the battlefield cracked outwards from the figure's landing. Snow flurries kicked up from the impact and drifted back down to the ground.

The figure stood up, and unfurled a pair of long white wings from its back that spread to a near fourteen-foot wingspan. It was human in shape, other than the very impressive feathered wings, and covered in silver plate armor, underneath the armor a black leather could be seen. Atop its head sat a helmet with silver winglets on its side, the helmet covered everything except the being's mouth. Once it stood up, it retrieved a small circular plate, and a small silver rod from its waist. The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard as the plate expanded into a shield, and the rod lengthened into a glowing spear. It was a...Valkyrie?

"So, you're The Lady's new Champion."