Chapter 25: Dark Side Of Humanity (IV): Under Arrest
Chapter 25: Dark Side Of Humanity (IV): Under Arrest
Rezar gave swift orders to the moles, with the exception of Screet and cowardly mole, the rest of the zombie moles surged forward to meet the incoming crowd of giant fire ants. Rezar kept a close eye on the battlefield, for some reason he just couldn't help put all of his focus on the way his undead surged in the crowd of fire ants, there was no order to it, and quite honestly they were dying a lot faster than he wanted them too, even with the obvious fact that they were zombies and as such had fewer restrictions to being in a fight, they were still too scattered to make any sort of difference.
"All of you attack from the left flank!"
However all they could do was stand there simply and stare at him as they were cut down by the fire ants. It almost drove Rezar insane with anger, they just had no idea what they were doing, o9r rather couldn't understand one smidge of the words he was saying to them, and quite frankly it pissed him the fuck off.
"The fuck is wrong with you guys? Move! Move!" Rezar yelled at them, sorely tempted to pull a fistful of his bleach white hair off his head.
"Stop yelling at them! You and the undead are too low leveled to be a cohesive unit! Just have them run interference by attacking the fire ants! That way they can prevent the scenario of us being surrounded and swarmed. You can make more later, now move!" Lenore or as Rezar knew her; Red yelled at him.
She was right, but that didn't mean Rezar was unhappy about it, because quite frankly it meant that his zombies were stupid because he was too low leveled. Well she wasn't wrong about that though, even his drop kick had no effect on the guard he had attacked. So he had no choice but to have his zombies, his cheap workforce become nothing more than cannon fodder. And honestly, it made him feel pain deep in his heart.
"All of you attack the ants!" at least that was an order they understood, yet Screet and cowardly mole stayed behind, maybe that was because in his heart Rezar didn't want this two joining the fight without him. Either way he had to get Cowardly mole to a high level so that he would be able to evolve the mole when he goes back to town.
He charged into the fray much to the surprise of everyone else, his broken sword found purchase in the head of an ant as cowardly mole and Screet both united to take down another ant, their deadly sharp claws ripping through the chitinous armor of the fire ants like hot knife through butter. The ants had really poor defense, however when they were killed, they bled out a sort of a fiery green liquid that was scalding to the touch.
Rezar made it a point to avoid said liquid, it seemed like acid to him, and he was pretty sure that wouldn't feel good on his skin. He sheathed his sword and grabbed the harpoon form his back, throwing his foot forward to smash into the face of an ant, bring its head crashing to the ground before cowardly mole pounced on it, its claws severing its head from its body.
The dog sized mole quickly scurried behind Rezar, shocking Lenore and her militia at the surprising level of self preservation the mole was actually showing. Either way Rezar pretty much expected this and he actually supported such a course of action as it at very least guaranteed the moles survival. He swept the harpoon out in a sweeping motion driving the fire ants into each other and making a rather rough pile that was quickly set on fire by Lenore.
He stretched out his hand and used [ROT] on an ant in the middle of the seemingly endless formation, causing it to crash to the ground as a couple of its comrades piled on top of it. It was in that moment one of the militia men rushed past Rezar and jumped into the air, he held a massive war hammer above his head and brought it smashing down to the ground with extreme prejudice.
*BOOM!*
The shockwave from the strike pushed even Rezar backwards as a crater with an eight meter radius and half a meter depth was formed. The ants caught within the range of the strike had been reduced to unrecognizable pulp, while the shockwave pushed quite a few other backwards, and it was in that moment Lenore displayed a small measure of the power that made so feared.
"Chain Lightning!"
Purple bolts of electricity traveled from one ant to another, electrocuting and frying them all to0 a crisp in an instant. Rezar watched as the lightning went from one ant to the other, eliminating dozens within the first 3 seconds, and by the time it got to the 5th second, there was barely any more giant fire ants left standing.
Of the ones that remained, they didn't need to be told twice before they turned on their heels and ran back up the slope, heading with frantic urgency back to the cave they had made their home. Rezar looked at Lenore and the back at the fleeing group of ants; he couldn't help but ask her.
"Couldn't you have used that spell the first time around?" Lenore didn't seem all too willing to answer him as she ignored what he said and instead went over to take a look at not the ants they just killed, but his zombie moles. Which now that everything had calmed down, Rezar noticed had also been killed, caught up in the chain lightning spell.
"You killed and resurrected all of these cavern moles yourself?" Lenore asked as her voice had a calm note.
"Well not alone, I had a little help from Screet, we did it together." Rezar answered with a confused look on his face, not at sure why this question was relevant.
"I take it Screet is the Infant mole-Man?" she asked again as she crouched down in front of Screet and Cowardly mole (who needs a new name).
"Well yeah that's Screet, but I don't understand why all these question are important, have I done something wrong?" Rezar asked as he surveyed the battlefield, for some reason he was feeling a little uneasy, the men from the militia had subtly surrounded Rezar when he was talking with Lenore. Fearless but not stupid, something was up.
"Rezar there has been a string of murders since the last time you visited the spire, the entire town is on edge, and quite frankly the only suspect we have is you. I'm here to arrest you." But of all the things Lenore expected Rezar to say or the list of reactions she had simulated in her mind, it didn't prepare her for such an unenthusiastic or fearless reply, all he said was..
"Oh! Can I bring Screet and Cowardly mole along, I would like to make a quick stop at the spire, also I've mined like a shit ton of ores and precious gems and all manner of weird goodies. I haven't sorted through them yet, but after the journey to the town, id like permission to come back and sort through what I want to sale. And then hand over the stygian ores and clear my quota for a very long ass time."
It wasn't just Lenore who was no shocked, all of her militia men couldn't understand how this kid couldn't understand the severity of the problem he had suddenly found himself in. if this went badly, it wasn't too farfetched to say that Rezar would end up very much dead and on his way to his next reincarnation. It was out of character that one of her militia couldn't help but ask.
"Aren't you afraid? You might end up executed!" Rezar looked at him with a raised eyebrow and then said.
"Really? But I didn't kill anybody! I've been here mining with my zombies since then, except for the first three days when I tried making a door and failed miserably, then Screet and I went fighting in that caver of cavern moles, pretty sure I spent at least half a day in there. And then since then we've been mining, except for today when we went exploring and ran into these hated ants."
Honestly they all thought that Rezar was pretty much retarded and that he wasn't that smart as a person, he was just too innocent. However that could only be farther from the truth, Rezar was not innocent, he was innocent, and even beyond that he was incapable of being afraid. But it would best if he acted as normally and at ease as possible, any suspicious activity on his part could make things end badly for him.
"We'll just have you come with us to answer some questions, after that we would pretty much be letting you go if your alibi checks out. But even then, you can actually increase productivity of the mine by an estimated 300% you're much too valuable to be killed. As long as you're innocent you have nothing to worry about." Lenore said to him and gave him a stiff nod; there was still no show of emotions on her face.
"I don't have any problem with this, as long as you guys find who's responsible and give due reparations for the slander against me." They were shocked, he didn't just believe he was innocent, but he actually believed that when all this was over they would hand him an apology, seriously?
"Who do you think you are? You're a filthy death class holder; you're not supposed to even have any rights!"One of the militia men with bright green hair and the half tipped ears synonymous with half elves spoke, but Rezar looked at him blankly and turned to Lenore.
"Let's go Red; I really want to be back in time before the carcasses of these giant fire ants are scavenged by other monsters. That would be a waste of cheap labor." And then Rezar picked up Screet and Cowardly mole, overturned the sack he had on his back, throwing out all of the earth worms in it, before putting both mole-man and cavern mole in it.
It was a tight fit, but Rezar didn't care, and he knew they both wouldn't be complaining of discomfort, so he marched into the darkness towards the rail cart, guess he wouldn't be exploring today but clearing his name for a crime he didn't commit. However he knew that might be too hard if not impossible, not when everyone seemed convinced that he was guilty.