If one man can hold you down, what can two do?
...
Fin's POV
So I knocked her out.
Minthara Baenre, a potential companion and lover, was now lying unconscious at my feet. I'd entered her area of the map, and I could overhear her yelling at a goblin about the failed scouting party.
Haha, sorry, not sorry.
I entered into view, and the sight of her was something. The game really doesn't do her justice; she gives off insane dom vibes.
I must stay focused. As usual, as they drew closer, the parasites began mingling. I could feel her caressing my mind, almost tenderly.
"A True Soul? Praise be. Are you here to join my hunt?" Minthara's voice rang out.
I snapped back to reality. Her crimson, sharp eyes were already locked on me, like she'd been tracking me since the moment I stepped within fifty meters. I cleared my throat, trying to look like I hadn't been staring at her like some NPC who forgot their dialogue prompt.
Fin, please. Get it together.
"Who's your target?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
She went on about the grove and how it could potentially hold the artifact they were looking for. Her gaze narrowed, not hostile, just evaluating and weighing me, judging if I was worth the oxygen I was using.
I took a breath, fuck it.
"What if I said I know where the artifact you're looking for is?"
Her entire posture changed.
The shift was subtle, but for someone like me, it might as well have been shock ripping across her face. Her crimson eyes flared wide, a spark of triumph lighting within them. For a heartbeat, she looked genuinely pleased.
"You possess this information?" She stepped forward, eager in a way she wasn't even trying to hide, "Then our hunt is almost complete. Share it with me."
I shook my head. "Tsk, tsk, I can't do that"
Minthara's expression iced over immediately, as if someone ripped the floor out from under her.
"Explain yourself, True Soul. Now. Do you intend to stand in defiance of the Absolute? Do you think me blind to your motives?"
I chuckled, "Motives?"
I brushed past her, casually grabbing a random potion off a crate, turning it in my hand, putting it back, grabbing a scrap of parchment, reading none of it, tossing it aside.
"Maybe I'll take over the cult." I started pacing in a loose circle. "Maybe I save the day and end up some kind of hero, or maybe I burn everything down. You'd think by this point I'd have some semblance of a plan in mind, but I don't. But I do know one thing."
I stopped and looked at her with a clarity so sharp it felt like the air thinned.
"I'm alive and free, and I'll enjoy every second if it."
Whatever Minthara expected, it wasn't that.
Her jaw tightened, fury hardening her features.
"You speak madness. Treason. Threats against the Absolute," Her hand closed around her mace. "If you intend violence-"
"I don't intend anything." I shrugged, "I only wish to save you before you do something you regret.
She spat at the dirt beneath her and moved.
Her speed was no joke. Her mace cut through the air in a clean arc aimed straight for the dome of my skull.
I dipped under it, bending at the knees, palm touching the ground. Across the narrow bridge, floating like a smug magical security camera, was a Scrying Eye.
Staring right at us.
I pressed my palm to the dirt-covered bricks.
A Cleave rippled outward in a spiderweb pattern, slicing fractures through the ground. Stone cracked. Rubble exploded upward as the earth convulsed in a mini-quake.
Before Minthara could regain her footing, I extended my free hand and unleashed a sharp blast of Igni. Fire roared forward, sweeping the rubble and flames across the bridge. The Scrying Eye jolted, its magical lens flickering before the combined force shattered the platform beneath it.
It fell into the pits below, sparks sputtering, unable to scream for help.
Take that, you fucking snitch.
Minthara opened her mouth, and my guess was to call for help
Can't let her do that now.
I shot forward before the first syllable escaped, hand clamping over her mouth. Her eyes widened at the speed. With one smooth pivot, I twisted and slammed her down onto her own table. Papers scattered. Bottles toppled. The wood groaned under the force.
Minthara thrashed once, muscles coiling tight beneath me. Her glare could have burned through stone.
"As much as I'd love to decimate the place, I can't let the cheer squad interrupt."
For a moment, she stilled. Her gaze sharpened with something simmering beneath her skin, glowing faintly at the base of her throat where the Baenre mark rested. Her hand snapped up, fingers blazing with molten orange patterns carved across her skin like living runes. They pulsed brightly.
Soul Branding. It was one of her annoying passives.
It covered her weapon, in this case, her fist in fire.
Her palm struck my cheek with a crack.
Fuck that hurt!
I could feel the searing heat as it forced me back half a step. The pain registered, clean nonetheless. She had talent. I respected that.
Minthara pushed off the table and twisted away, stance shifting into a low offensive coil. She did not retreat.
"You dare lay hands on me," she spat, her hair slightly dishevelled.
She lifted her mace as light gathered along its ridges, then she swung with a noble rage.
I met it with my knuckles.
While I was still lacking in muscle mass, my cursed reinforcement wasn't. With a closed fist, I knocked the mace back. The impact reverberated throughout the room.
A small dent formed in the mace, in the shape of my knuckle.
My knuckles rattled, slightly sore, as I blew the dust off.
Minthara's eyes flicked to it again, disbelief sharpening her expression.
My elbow snapped forward, cracking against her sternum. She staggered. I shifted angles instantly, driving a palm strike into her ribs. She twisted to retaliate, but I was already delivering a rapid series of blows that knocked the air from her lungs, leaving her unbalanced.
Minthara breathed heavily while I grinned widely, trying to bring her mace around for another swing. Her arm was much slower now, her stance faltering under the pressure. I caught her wrist and wrenched her off-centre.
"I want you to know this is for your own good."
"Die!" She struggled. Even cornered, she refused to kneel. She tried to kneel forward, but I spun around her and closed my arm around her throat.
I tightened my grip. Minthara's fingers clawed at my forearm, strength fading with every second as the choke cut off her leverage. She stamped and clawed at me, her nails drawing blood across my arm, tearing at the sleeves of my haori.
Her movements grew sluggish. The fight bled out of her body. First the tension in her shoulders, then the tightness in her jaw, then the frantic grip loosening into nothing.
Her legs and breath hitched,
"Y-you will not get away with this."
"Don't worry," I murmured. "We'll sort you out."
She went under, slipping into unconsciousness as I guided her down to the ground. The camp settled back into quiet.
That was about as hard as I expected it to be.
Minthara is a great companion. Unfortunately, in the original route, recruiting her means burning the grove to the ground, and that was never going to happen.
Normally, you'd knock her out and let fate sort it out later at Moonrise.
Fortunately for me, being a reincarnator comes with perks.
So I chose a more direct solution.
Kidnapping.
Without wasting more time, I pulled the invisibility cloak from my inventory. I picked up Minthara. It took a moment, but I managed.
She was heavier than she looks.
I carried her over my shoulder, using my other arm to wrap us both as best I could.
Okay. Let's link up with the others.
...
Karlach's POV
Gods, this place stank. Wet fur, goblin breath, and the kind of rot that makes even a devil's stomach twist. The worg pens were chaos, full of snarling, snapping claws and teeth, and angry little goblins squealing orders.
But honestly?
This was my kind of morning.
Halsin, well, Halsin the bear, roared so loud the chains overhead rattled. The big guy swung a worg by the throat and slammed it into a stone pillar.
Good lad.
Shadowheart darted around behind him, already bleeding from a slice across her arm. She flung Sacred Flame over the bear's shoulder, lighting up a goblin ranger perched on a crate.
Wyll was doing his whole Blade of Frontiers thing. Fancy footwork, flipping dramatically, probably narrating his own heroics in his head. He met the snarling charge of the axe-wielding goblin with a parry and a hard boot to the chest.
And Alfira?
Oh, bless her soul. She was crouched behind a pillar, clutching her lute, poking her head up every few seconds.
"You're doing amazing! I-I believe in all of you! Keep it up!" She squeaked.
Adorable. Absolutely no help. But adorable.
One of the worgs snapped at me, foam spraying from its jaws. Mean bastard. Big too.
"Come on then, boy! Let's dance!" I yelled.
I spun my axe in my hands, the metal glowing as every rev of my Engine pumped more fire through my blood.
The worg lunged.
I met it halfway.
CRASH.
My axe slammed down on its snout, driving it into the dirt. It snarled and clawed, trying to twist out from under me. Heat spilled off my body, scorching its fur and warping the air around us.
Another worg barreled into my back, nearly knocking me off my feet. I staggered. Halsin leapt onto that one before I could react, mauling it with a roar that shook the pens.
Good boy, Halsin!
The goblin ranger loosed arrows at Shadowheart until Wyll flipped onto a crate, grabbed the bastard by the collar, and hurled him straight into Halsin's claws.
The worg circled me. Blood flecked its muzzle.
"Yeah?" I shouted. "You hungry, you ugly mutt?"
It pounced.
I planted my feet, tightened my grip, and let the engine inside me burn hotter.
The moment its shadow crossed mine, I swung upward, fire bursting from my arms. My axe carved through the air, igniting into a sheet of infernal flame.
The blade connected.
BOOM.
The strike sent a column of fire spiralling upward, swallowing the worg whole in a blazing explosion. The beast didn't even get to yelp as it burned to a crisp, scattering embers across the pen like hellish snow.
I exhaled, smoke curling from my fingertips.
"Hah! Who's next?!" I yelled.
Silence.
Only crackling flames and the heavy breathing of weary adventurers.
Shadowheart wiped blood from her cheek. Wyll lowered his sword. And the bear rumbled low in his chest.
And from behind the pillar...
"Did you just explode that worg?" Alfira asked.
I grinned, axe resting on my shoulder.
That's when a voice popped into existence right beside my ear, far too close.
"That was sick, Karlach!"
I jumped so hard my horns nearly scraped the rafters..
"AHH!"
Fin's floating head was suddenly right there, grinning like he'd been watching the whole show from an invisible balcony.
My fist moved before my brain did.
CRACK.
His face met my knuckles with a very satisfying thunk, followed by the not-as-satisfying realisation that my punch carried a lovely sizzling burn effect thanks to the whole infernal-engine-core situation.
Fin went flying back several steps, flickering in and out of visibility like a broken magic lantern slide.
"Ow-OW! Why! Karlach?! What the hell?!" He cried out, clutching his now very slightly smoking cheek.
...
Fin's POV
Okay. Maybe popping my floating head next to a seven-foot infernal engine wasn't my brightest idea. My face felt like it had been pressed against a frying pan, and Karlach stood there with her fists up like she expected round two.
"Fin! Don't do that!"
Shadowheart crossed her arms, unimpressed. Wyll pinched the bridge of his nose. Alfira peeked over a trough like a very stressed squirrel.
But that wasn't the main problem.
The main problem was the arm.
Or rather, the very visible, very random drow arm currently hanging over my shoulder through the invisibility cloak.
Shadowheart stiffened, raising a brow.
"Fin? Who is that? Are they dead?"
"Fin… have you kidnapped someone? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you've kidnapped a random drow." Wyll looked worried.
Alfira peeked out from behind Halsin-the-bear, clutching her lute like a shield. "Why is there an arm??"
Halsin, still a bear, snorted loudly in what I assumed was judgment.
I sighed. "Okay, okay. Look. Nobody panic."
"Why do you say that like we shouldn't panic?!" Alfira sighed.
I reached up, pinched the edge of the cloak, and pulled it back like a magic trick.
Within my arm was Minthara's unconscious figure.
"Ta-da."
Silence.
"Before anyone freaks out, let me introduce her." I smiled.
Karlach chuckled. "Introduce her? Soldier, this isn't a tea party"
"And why do you sound proud about this?" Shadowheart added.
I cleared my throat dramatically. "Everyone...this is Minthara."
Their expressions changed instantly.
Wyll's eyes blew wide. Karlach choked. Shadowheart swore under her breath. Alfira nearly dropped her lute. Halsin roared in a very 'Are you kidding me way'.
"FIN!! WHY DID YOU KIDNAP A GOBLIN LEADER?!" Wyll yelled.
"That's Minthara? The one planning to destroy the grove?" Shadowheart analysed her face.
I shrugged. "Look, I solved the problem. Creatively."
Silence.
Karlach stared at Minthara. Then at me. Then back at Minthara again, her engine audibly ticking as if it were trying to process the situation faster than her brain could.
Karlach took one slow step toward me.
"Fin..."
I smiled.
That was my mistake.
Her fist rocketed toward my face.
POW.
I hit the ground in a heap.
"FIN!!!!!" Karlach yelled.
...
End of Chapter.
The convo with Minthara was kinda short but we'll get more from her in the next chapter. With that being said, what do you wanna see happen? Any items of powers you wanna see Fin try?