A Bored Lich

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Doevm unrolled the scroll Reginald gave him and laid it down on the floor. It was a map of the entire world. He pointed to the country they were currently in, the Acrin Kingdom at the south part of the map. "Let"s see," he thought, "We"re at a little north-east, so the nearest blacksmith should be about twenty miles to the north. That"s about a day of walking."

Frey leaned over his shoulder: "What"re you looking at?"

"A map." Doevm used the Lava Boar"s horn to poke a tiny hole where they currently were. "We"re here, and we need to walk over here," He poked another hole close to the first. "We"ll have to sleep in the forest, but we"ll be fine."

"Why is there a line down the middle of our country?" Frey asked. "Is that a river or something?" He pointed to the line between the Acrin Kingdom and Vilbar.

"That"s the border between our country and the Vilbar. That isn"t a line, it"s a border. You see how Vilbar kind of looks like a fish? All of that is Vilbar, and the Acrin Kingdom is below them. Get to know this map a little. We"re going to fight the Vilbar, so you might as well get to know the country."

"I don"t know," Frey rubbed his chin. "What good is memorizing a map? Why is reading so special?"

Doevm shook his head and rolled the map back up: "How would you know? You are illiterate. This map is a picture, surely you can at least do that." He slipped it back into his pocket and handed Frey the exotic spear.

"I can"t use this, so there"s no use for me having it. You"re only borrowing it, OK."

Frey took the spear. He took a couple of practice swings and nodded in satisfaction: "OK, I got it. Let"s get going."

"Just like that?" Doevm asked as they both walked through the night. "You"re not even going to question how I got it?"

"Nope." Frey said. "I"m still working my head around how you"re Jameson"s son. There"s way too much stuff being thrown at me right now. I"ll think it over when I wake up tomorrow."

Doevm laughed, "You"re probably right. I only knew about most of this, but I"m still knocked off balance. There"s too many lies."

...

"There"s too many lies!" Thomas yelled through his locked bedroom door. "Father won"t tell me anything, even when he"s telling the truth. I refuse to train until I get some answers."

"Thomas, open the door this instant." Reginald pulled at the door handle to no avail.

He turned to Jameson, who backed away with his hands up: "Look, he needs the truth. I brought him back once, but he"ll keep running away."

Reginald scowled, "You"ll be sorry for this." Before he stormed off he muttered, "Don"t feed him until he regains his sense.

"Yes sir," Jameson looked at the door, then down at his feet. "but that doesn"t mean I agree with you." He notified the closest maid to keep watch and left to attend to other matters."

...

"So..." Frey said as he walked. He looked around at the trees, fiddled with his fingers, and came up with nothing to do. They had walked until it became night. He had cleared his head a little, but pieces of information kept resurfacing. When he finally wrapped his head around Jameson"s blood relations.h.i.+p with Doevm, he realized that Thomas didn"t know how his mother died. The only way to get some relief was to talk, but he didn"t have anything to say. "This weather is nice for a walk."

"Yes, I hope it stays like this." Doevm responded. "Clear nights are the best, but it"s a little cold. Once we get closer to the front lines it"ll warm up."

"Hmm," Frey kept spewing more half-baked thoughts. "Have you ever been out of the lord"s area?"

"From now on we say Virility lands." Doevm corrected. "We don"t work for him anymore and we never knew him, and yes, I have been outside the area. Have you?" As they walked, trees came up more frequently to the left and right of the dirt path. The gra.s.s gradually faded into moss and rich dirt.

"I have, but that was a long time ago." Frey looked around. "Did you hear something just now?"

"No," Doevm said. His hand reached into his pocket and wrapped around the horn. "I didn"t hear four of anything." They kept walking deeper into the forest. The green trees faded into a darker red. Brown trunks reddened as well, until it reached a light pink. As the moonlight s.h.i.+ned through the leaves, it turned red. Frey brought his spear into an underhand stance and went back to back with Doevm.

"You can come out now, we know you"re there!" Doevm yelled into the thick vegetation. "Let"s not waste each other"s time."

"I guess you found us." A voice called out. Three people emerged from the shrubbery with swords drawn. At the front was a large muscle-bound goon with scars all over his face Doevm named Leader. To his left and right were two people Doevm internally named Numskull and Goon.

"Hand over your stuff and we"ll only take everything." Numskull said. "And drop that spear before you get hurt." he let off a little bit of thin green mist. "This is just a warning, we"re experienced raiders."

"You"re just in my way." Doevm pulled the horn into his sleeve before anyone noticed and dropped his bag and throwing knife belt. "Please don"t hurt us, we"re just transporting our lord"s spear."

Goon stepped forward and looked into the bag, "These are just normal clothes." He kept digging through Doevm"s belongings until he got to a jingling purse at the bottom. "Or so I thought. Boss, take a look at this." The second he turned around, Doevm tackled him, and held a horn to his throat. He stood up with the hostage facing away from Numskull and Leader. Frey leaped back to back with him. "Am I out of the fourth"s range?" He asked.

"Yeah, just stay tight behind me." Doevm said. "The one in the bushes is probably an archer. He wouldn"t shoot through his comrade. On my count, you fight the two behind us, and I"ll get the archer."

"W-What happens to me?" Goon pleaded.

"You"re just a degenerate." Doevm whispered into his victim"s ear. "I bet you"re the kind of person who doesn"t give power stones to an author for free content. People like you, don"t have a place in this world." Red life essence entered Doevm"s eyes, enhancing his eyesight beyond their normal capabilities. A few dozen feet into the bushes, he found the archer. "Found you!" He stabbed the horn right into Goon"s coronary artery, then ran for the archer"s hiding place.

He and Frey pushed off each other for an extra boost of speed. Before Numskull even knew it, his head was separated from his body by an exquisite spearhead. Doevm took out a couple throwing knives and launched them at the archer, who rolled away and shot a couple arrows. Doevm ducked under them. He applied life essence to his legs and jumped to the archer"s level. He pulled out more throwing knives while the archer pulled out a dagger. It only took a couple of moves for the archer to be full of knives and his own blood.

Frey had an easy time as well. Even though he had never used such a heavy spear, its quality made up for it two times over. In one swipe, Frey broke through Leader"s sword and sliced him into two. "Was that all of them?" He asked, ready for more action.

"Nope, that was it." Doevm started dragging all the bodies together and recovered his belongings.

"This spear was awesome." Frey didn"t even have to clean the blood off. It absorbed right into the spear.

"I know," Doevm said. "My dad gave it to me." he searched the raider"s pockets for weapons. "Although, I have no idea how he could afford it."

"You got that right," Frey leaned the spear against a tree. "But even if I didn"t have the spear, this fight was extremely easy. I thought humans would be harder."

"Is this your first time killing someone?"

Frey backed away a bit, "This isn"t your first time as well?" Doevm shook his head.

"Come on, let"s set up camp for the night."