The True Endgame

It is only now that he realizes that her back-left paw has been completely broken off from her leg. The sight may not be gory as she is just made out of rock, but it"s still enough to fill Fenrir with a rage that makes him want to track down the guards who did this to her.

Aside from that, her body is chipped and cracked in several spots, and the top half of her left ear has been broken off as well.

She took a heavy beating before he got over here.

"d.a.m.n it, I"m sorry, Rock. I was just so focused on apologizing to that girl," Fenrir apologizes to Rock, letting the back of his hand stroke the side of her head. "I should have seen what was going on sooner. Maybe none of this would"ve happened. You wouldn"t have been hurt, and Nell wouldn"t have been found."

Rock turns her head just enough to lick his hand.

Fenrir smiles and gently traces his fingers across her halved ear. "Does it hurt here?" he asks.

Rock barks. He a.s.sumes that she"d be wincing or whining if it hurt.
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"Fen," Serra says as she and Ca.s.siel reach him.

Ca.s.siel gets down on her knees and places her hands on Rock right away. Fenrir can see light, mystical energy flowing into Rock from Ca.s.siel"s hands. "Restoring her body is going to take some time, but I can get her back up to full Health," she explains.

Serra hugs Fenrir"s side. "I"m sorry we didn"t do anything. Are you okay?" she asks.

"It"s alright, there wasn"t anything you could have done. We got beat," Fenrir answers, clenching his fists again.

Serra moves her hands down to his own, gently wrapping hers around his.

"I promised her that I wouldn"t let them take her," he says.

"We"ll get her back," Serra replies.

"And how are we supposed to do that? We"re not going to start a war because I refuse to put NPCs at risk, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d from earlier is probably going to target us doing the tournament, and we"re seven against thousands – that"s just counting Ull and all of his soldiers. If we get on Blackstache"s bad side, then it"s us against all of Ull"s forces and this entire city."

"I don"t know, but I believe in you."

Serra"s words are part comforting, part stressful – mostly stressful.

He lost Nell, Rock got severely injured, and the only reason they"re all alive right now is because Ull spared them. Blackstache was ready to sink The s...o...b..ll and hang its crew, so the only reason they are alive right now is because Ull thinks that Fenrir is fun and that just angers Fenrir even more.

"We don"t even have any resources. Every other game, we"d always at least have a good stockpile before getting involved in this sort of stuff. All we have is—"

Serra cuts him off, "Each other."

Fenrir looks at her. She surprises him with a kiss the moment he"s facing her. "Yeah, we"ve got each other."

"And The s...o...b..ll!" Tabitha reminds them, coming aboard the ship with everybody else.

Fenrir even catches Rod pulse a single time over near the ship"s bow.

Even with this crew, The s...o...b..ll, and Rod, Fenrir has no idea what he is supposed to do. Every single plan that pops into his head is immediately shot down.

"Excuse me," a familiar voice says from the pier.

Fenrir looks up and sees the dark elf from before.

"I – I couldn"t help but see and overhear everything that has happened. That girl who was taken, you were trying to help her, weren"t you?" she asks.

"Yeah. Tried," Fenrir answers.

"And you refuse to put NPC"s lives at risk?"

Fenrir nods.

"I"m sorry, I know this may not be the most appropriate time for these questions, but may I ask why?"

"Because they"re living and breathing here just like the rest of us are."

"I see," the dark elf says, her tone softer now as she smiles. "Thank you again for apologizing earlier, captain of The s...o...b..ll."

"Why are you asking these questions?" he asks. The rest of the crew is looking at the dark elf as well now.

She holds a single finger in front of her lips and winks before walking off.

"She is an odd one when you are not putting her in a bad mood," Corwin says.

Fenrir watches the dark elf walk down the pier. Something about her is suspicious, but he has no idea what. "Yeah, she is," he responds.

"Are you feeling better, Rock?" Ca.s.siel asks.

Rock struggles to get up without one of her paws, but with Fenrir"s helping hands, she gets up onto the three paws she has left and happily barks.

"You"re not in pain or anything, right?" Fenrir asks.

She barks again.

"What about you?" Ca.s.siel asks, looking at Fenrir.

"I"m fine. That p.r.i.c.k made one of his b.a.s.t.a.r.ds heal me," he answers, looking down at his clothes. He definitely doesn"t look fine given that his shirt has been torn up from various blades and is stained with his blood, but there are only scars left where he was once wounded.

"It was awesome when you bit that guy"s ear off," Serra says.

Everybody looks at Fenrir now.

"ah, aha, I uhh, don"t even remember doing that," he explains.

"Seriously? How do you not remember biting a guy"s ear off?" Ca.s.siel asks.

"It was cool," Serra reiterates.

"I didn"t know you were so into ear play," Oleander chimes in.

Oleander"s usual s.e.xual humor is enough to bring a smile to Fenrir"s lips.

No matter how much everything may suck right now, no matter how much he wants to rescue Nell, get revenge for Rock, and see both Ull and that annoying Alexander sink to the bottom of the ocean, The Soaring Wolves still have each other.

That is enough reason to smile.

Fenrir looks down at Rock and pets her some more. "Thanks, everybody," he says.

"We just need to take this one step at a time. We don"t have enough time to come up with a plan, so let"s just enjoy the tournament for now. This is just a game, and you told us that Nell said Ull never touches her, so it"s alright if the princess is a damsel in distress for a few more days," Oleander explains.

"Yeah, you"re right, but we"re definitely going to get revenge still," Fenrir replies.

"Well, duh."

"Sink blondie, save Nell Nell, avenge Rock, steal Blackstache"s ship, sail away," Serra says.

"We"ll see about that second-to-last one," Fenrir says, patting Serra on the head when he sees her pout. "I"m going to go gather some rocks for Rock."

Serra and Ca.s.siel say that they"ll go with him, and Oleander and Corwin decide to help out by gathering rocks elsewhere.

"I stay with ship," Bonekraka says.

"Yeah, I"ve got some last minute finetunin" to do, and I"ve got to make sure those long-eared, wannabe Viking kiddies didn"t do nothin" to my baby here," Tabitha says.

With that, the crew splits up.

Serra and Ca.s.siel pick up on just how fluctuating Fenrir"s mood is. When they are talking to him and trying to make him feel better, it works, but he returns to looking miserable less than a minute whenever they stop.

They return to The s...o...b..ll after an hour of gathering rocks.

While Fenrir may clearly still be borderline depressed, Rock looks to be in absolute heaven when Fenrir"s group and the other two lovers make one giant pile of rocks on the deck for her.

Rock stumbles a few times as she excitedly hops around on her legs, seemingly forgetting that she"s missing one of her paws. It is both an incredibly sad yet adorable sight. Though, knowing that she isn"t in any pain is the only thing that prevents it from being just sad.

The rocky pup wastes no time digging in and stuffing her mouth full of rocks. Her own rocky teeth somehow crunch into and break down any rocks that she takes into her mouth. Any small fragments that fall from her mouth are licked up before moving onto the next rock.

"Is that enough, girl?" Fenrir asks.

Rock gives a happy bark and moves onto the next rock.

"Good. I think I"m going to wake for now," Fenrir says.

"Ehh? You sure? There"s that seafood festival," Oleander asks.

"Yeah, just not really feeling like being in-game. Think I might go watch some TV and get some ch.o.r.es done so that I don"t have to worry about any of that during the tournament." He turns to look at his girlfriends. "I want you two to go and get lots of great food, alright?"

Ca.s.siel looks ready to refuse, but Serra grabs her hand and nods. "We"ll have fun," Serra says.

"Take some screenshots and send them to me later."

Serra nods and gives a thumbs-up.

"Alright, I"ll see you all tomorrow. Let"s kick a.s.s in the tournament."

Fenrir turns to leave but gets stopped by a certain somebody.

"You"re forgetting something," Ca.s.siel says, looking to the side with flushed cheeks.

Fenrir kisses Ca.s.siel and then Serra before heading below deck.

"Ya leavin" already, cap"n?" Tabitha asks.

"Yeah, I need to go relax. Make sure that The s...o...b..ll and your inventions are ready for tomorrow. We have no idea what"s going to happen," Fenrir says. "Please make sure."

"You"ve got it, and don"t worry about orderin" me around. Just didn"t like the tone ya used earlier."

"Got it. Night, Tabs."

"Oi, it"s like the middle of the day."

Fenrir shrugs, gets into his hammock, and wakes.

No words are said to his ceiling fan this time around. Instead, Ryouta slips off his headset, rolls over, and stares at his wall.

"d.a.m.n it," he says. "First that Alexander a.s.shole, then Nell gets taken. What am I supposed to do? Isn"t there any plan I can come up with? No, there"s not even a point thinking about any of this outside of the game. I won"t remember any of it anyways."

He rolls onto his back and stares at the ceiling.

"I"m a failure. What kind of man breaks his promise to an innocent girl?"

He rolls back onto his side to stare at the wall, this time hugging one of his pillows against his chest.

Most of the rest of the day is spent like this. He does get up to clean up for a few minutes so that he technically wouldn"t be lying about doing ch.o.r.es, but other than that, he spends the day either lifelessly watching television or being miserable in bed.

Lying in bed once more, he looks down at his hands. He could have sworn that his fingers had claws when he attacked the guards. Yet, by the time his short-lived rampage was over, his fingers just looked like regular fingers.

His mind once more returns to how sad Nell looked when she was being taken away.

"d.a.m.n it!"