Broken

Chapter 68

"Alright, we'll hear your request." Carson stated, exchanging a look with the group as a whole.

None of us questioned it at all. I mean, it may be strange having a chat with a cat-man in the middle of an instance- probably odder to have one outside of an instance- but said cat-man was offering what basically equated to the walkthrough for the instance. We weren't mad enough to turn that down without at least hearing the guy out.

"Very good." Prangarrel said, a lopsided smirk on his face. "then I will get right to it, as it'd be best if you get it done before nightfall. These lands are not forgiving when the sun goes down."

"Err, good to know..." Said Nick, looking over his shoulder to see how high in the sky the sun was now. My best guess was that we had, maybe, four hours left.

"As stated before, I am a death knight of the Frozen Throne. The skeletons you no doubt encountered out on the tundra are my fallen men. It's supposed to be my job to command them in the service of the Queen."

"That makes sense." Said Carson as we all spread out so that we could better see and hear what Prangarrel had to say.

"As a death knight, the only way to free me from my servitude would be to slay my summoner: the Queen herself. A near impossible task. But my men, they can yet be freed from this life."

"Aren't they just skeletons at this point?" Argus asked, arms crossed. 

I crossed my arms and glared at the insensitive man as Prangarrel sneered. "Indeed. Their souls are long gone. However, I am loath to think that their bodies are being used as mere tools for the madwoman who killed them. My ask for you is to go out and destroy what remains of their bodies."

"We took down many on our way here." stated Bryce, looking thoughtful. "How many men are we talking about?"

Prangarrel nodded. "I have no doubt you had to fight several of them. However, simply defeating them would not be enough. They will be resurrected by the Queen's magic in a day or two- earlier if she cared to direct her attention this way. No, what I ask of you is to completely destroy them. Shatter the bones to pebbles and dust. Only then will they be free of their eternal wandering." He sighed, suddenly looking rather old and tired. "As for the number, there had been 150 of us when we came to assail the Frozen Throne, but I don't know the exact number that've been turned into the undead. But, if you can clear out a vast majority of them, I will consider our contract fulfilled."

"Alright, do you mind if I discuss this with my guildmates first?" Carson asked the knight. Prangarrel didn't say anything, just nodded, looking meaningfully towards the sun, as if to remind us that time was short.

Carson took us a few steps away, not bothering to look for much privacy. Who knew how good the hearing of an undead death knight was. I did know that they were among the highest classes of undead servants.

"What do you think." Carson asked me directly. "Going on this little side quest- as odd as it is to even have this happening- will mean taking time out of solving the curse issue."

I shook my head. "We've been wandering this tundra all day, but haven't even seen a hint to the location of the other three bosses. My guess is that the information we get from the death knight would save us more time then what we loose wandering around blindly, hoping the solution pops up in front of us like Agatha had."

"That was my thought too." He turned to the rest of the group. "Any objections then?"

"Not from me. Besides, by my calculations, we already have it half cleared as it is." Alex nodded seriously. "Between my fire, and everyone else being bored and getting a little carried away... my guess is most of the skeleton soldiers are already pulverized. And we definitely came across nearly one hundred and fifty of them throughout the day. We just need to retrace our steps and destroy the already defeated skeletons we've previously handled."

"Sounds boring, but if it means we can get Aoife better faster, then I'm in." Eric said, patting my back so hard I stumbled forward, tripped over a rotted chunk of building, and almost fell flat on my face. I was saved by John lunging forward and catching me. Though, he also managed to punch me in the face at the same time.

"Sorry!" both men said at the same time. Though, were John sounded mortified, Eric only seemed amused.

Holding my throbbing nose and retaking my feet, I sighed. "It's fine... I'm used to it." Had a truer statement ever been spoken?

As it turned out, Alex had been right. As had Eric. The job was both simple and boring, requiring us to just go back to the area's we'd already explored and make sure that the skeletons stayed dead. Between torching already defeated bones, or crushing them into powder, the only source of excitement had been when Greyson 'accidentally' gained the attention of a small group of the mammoth like creatures.

According to <Honesty> (which can now read monsters of lesser intelligence, apparently) the gorilla-mammoths were called mammots, and had no magic based skills what-so-ever. They did, however, have insane strength, stamina, and vitality. That is to say: all of us could actually fight the damn things for once, but it took an age and a half to finally take the damn things down.

It then took another age for Carson to finish chewing out the twins. No one had any doubt that they had worked together, and that it had been no freaking 'accident' that we were dragged into that fight. So Carson didn't spare a single breath in telling them off soundly.

At least John finally had something to jot onto his little make shift map: the location of the mammot corpses, as well as clear instructions not to- under any circumstance- aggravate any more roaming groups should the collection team, with the B-team guarding them, come across them. If it had been an hour long chore for us- the main strike force- then the others would probably not make it out with everyone in one piece.

"If we had the time, I'd go and clear them out." Carson had sighed after he'd finally finished telling off the not-very-apologetic twins. "Not only are they good experience and training fodder, but I don't like the thought of the others accidentally running into them. But we have a time crunch here, and the mammots only attack if you get too close, or purposely aggravate them. No need to make more work for ourselves."

He didn't mention that the hide and tusks of the beasts would probably be worth a pretty penny. But I suspected that money had never been a driving factor to the members of the Chaos guild in the first place. 

As it was, it was getting dangerously close to nightfall when we eventually returned to Prangarrel's ruined fortress at last. The sun was kissing the horizon, and I could already feel the temperature dipping drastically.

Normally we'd have returned to base camp before the night came on, but the mission had left us no time. Carson had Alex send up three fire balls, high in the air, at previously agreed upon intervals. It was an established signal to the base camp that we were both alright, and also that we would be spending the night away from camp. That way the others knew we weren't in any sort of danger when we didn't return on time.

"Is it done?" Prangarrel asked, still seated exactly where we'd left him hours ago. I guess one of the dead didn't really get muscle cramps. The cat turned his head, watching the sun start its decent below the horizon.

"Yes." answered Carson as we all stood in a semi-circle before the Maomasa. "You said the night is dangerous, however..." he added, also watching the sun.

Prangarrel nodded. "Very much so. But the area within this camp is safe. She will not come here." With that ominous tidbit, Prangarrel turned away from the sunset and addressed us seriously. "Thank you for completing this selfish old cat's request. Sit, light a fire, and listen. I will tell you of my tale, and what you can expect from the enemies that lie ahead for you."