Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 28

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 28

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Shaderic

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There are severe limitations to having Harpies and Wyverns as a form of transportation. The biggest one is that they’re living, breathing creatures and not machines. They need to be trained, evaluated, and maintained on a person-by-person basis in every strategy. Talent is a factor, as is intelligence, temperament, and a whole slew of other things that make a person who and what they are. 

I’ve bridged the gap where I could with money, making insulated coats, masks, and even self-heating trinkets for the weakest of the lot, but there’s always a gap between the stronger, tougher Kindred and the weaker ones. Inherently, the Kindred are based off of monstrous species, so they are those born stronger and those born weaker, with the differences between the two being incredibly different. 

Thankfully, there’s ways to mitigate the individual, especially in Kindred that have pack-based hierarchies. 

The first step was to making the obvious leaders be the leaders. As territorial as they the Wyverns are, and as flighty the Harpies like to be, they acknowledge the strongest and most skilled in the ranks and defer to them. Typically, that means individuals who have talent compete with one another regularly, but if you schedule those Tournament Arcs away from the Battle Arcs, you can stall for time. 

Enough time to organize, train, and assign roles to the groups, according to their groups.

The Wyverns are the heavy lifters and, unlike Dragons, form swarms. They’re suited towards moving bulk cargo together, gripping the top of a long container with their legs and taking flight with their leader guiding them. Between four dozen Wyverns, and four containers, I was able to lift my Amazons and the explosives up into the night sky. Then, once we reached a high enough altitude, the container could be towed and/or glide to the air, in order to extend the range of the Wyverns.

The Harpies, meanwhile, acted as a coordinated reconnaissance team. They can see in the night, just like the Wyverns, but they were faster, lighter, and could conserve more energy.  While carrying only three-or-so satchels on their person, they could conserve energy, even while flying back and forth to report to the Wyverns. They scouted ahead, left behind marks for us to use on our way back, and kept us clear of the fortified cities of the Empire. 

Approaching an Empire city would be suicide by ballistae and magic, but in the dead of night, and in the night sky, we had no problems with using the world’s first, manned flight for the sake of violence. 

After landing, and switching to teams that would be individual be carried by Wyverns and Harpies, though?

We met a strange, different problem. 

…

Ur cast a little ball of light to help her find me in the dark of the cave. 

The gliders were packed away further back, their wings and frames separated and beings scrutinized by the Wyverns for damage. Initially, I’d intended for them to be one-time use affairs, with any forces sent into Empire territory simply having to fight their way out, but the Wyverns proved more skilled than expected when handling them and helping them land. 

But, while that fact was interesting, what mattered more was the reports Ur gathered and analyzed, while I changed what was required of my plan.

“As the Harpies reported, there’s signs of battle in various towns in the Empire. There’s no signs of Kindred in the vicinity, so it’s likely that there’s infighting within the Empire’s outlying villages.” 

“Who’s winning?”

“I imagine it’s the side not leaving bodies strewn about everywhere.”

Villages had been burning upon our arrival, as well as several dozen fields that would’ve fed the Frontier, and perhaps even the inner cities of the Empire. Given their glut of resources from their wards, the Empire could readily spread magic around so that they could easily, continuously harvest their fields. It’s how they’ve managed to keep growing as a society, even while backed into corner of a continent, without the normal agricultural techniques.

Therefore, it’s safe to say that whoever’s fighting the Empire is trading bodies for a strategic objective, as a way of resisting the Empire.

“It’s Reiser. It can’t be anyone else.” Ur’s crossed her arms over the sash covering her chest and frowned. I knew what she was about to ask, but I didn’t say it first, because I didn’t have a clear idea on what to do just yet. “Do you think it worth our time to assist her, save her, and bring her against the Empire?”

Oh.

Ur’s question was going to be about saving Reiser.

I thought she was going to ask me about which dam we’d blow up, so we can kill her and accomplish our mission.

“Eh? What? No. Absolutely not.” Jeez. What a silly question. Save Reiser? Take in a indoctrinated, crazed individual who’s lashing out against the Empire, just because her idyllic views of it aren’t true anymore? “We’re drowning them all.”

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. Nothing more and nothing less. Reiser is fighting her fight, so that’s to my advantage. Therefore, I’ll take that advantage, destroy more than I could previously, and return home with less casualties than I expected. There’s no reason for me to stick my neck out for Reiser, just because her idea of the Empire has been destroyed by the Empire itself. 

“She saved your life, Hachiman. Even as enemies, you ought to repay that debt.” 

“She kidnapped me and wanted to make me a slave again, Ur. I think that invalidates the one time she saved my—

“When the two of you fought together, she saved your life more than once.” Ur took a seat in front of me. The Wyverns went silent for a bit, but when I looked back at them, they were working and chatting away again. For a bunch of feared Kindred, nearly as threatening as Dragons, they sure were very interested in gossip. “It’s likely she saved your life dozens of time. Is that not worth you saving hers once, even with what she did to you?”

“Are you implying that we should risk our mission to cripple the Empire’s assault on Ylstu, because I have the opportunity to repay my debt to a woman that wants me to still be a slave?”

“I am implying that she cares for you, that she wished to protect you, and she ceased believing in the Empire, after it decided that you need to die.” Ur… Ur isn’t the kind of person to lie. Not now and not ever. Ever since we first met, when I did my best to keep her and the Amazons alive after all the suicide missions the Empire sent them on, she’s never lied. Not even to save herself. So, of course, I wasn’t able to come up with a retort as she looked me in the eye. “She fought beside you, beside all of us, and is much of a slave to the Empire that needs to be freed as all the others are. Her collar is merely different.”

Ur took a step forward and put a single finger on my chest.

“You may have forgotten these words, or have chosen to forget them, but I have not. Reiser is a good, noble warrior. I know this because you forced me to fight with her.” I blinked and somehow, Ur seemed a little more real. Instead of the stoic, tan, and black-haired Amazon, I looked a young woman who seemed nervous and afraid for another person. “She is one of us. Misguided, lacking in confidence, and without knowledge of what is right, but one of us nonetheless.”

Words that I never wanted to say left me before I could stop them.

“She isn’t. She left us behind. She chose her side, because once she had power, she left and let everyone die!” A hero. I wanted Reiser to be a fucking hero, but when she had power, she went right back to the Empire. When forced to choose between helping us or the Empire, right when the Kindred were starting to ramp up their attacks because there was a priority target in Ylstu, she left! “We were close to escaping. With her… we could’ve escaped after she took out the slave masters, but what did she do? Tell me, Ur. What. Did. She. Do.”

“She followed the only path that she saw, Hachiman.” Ur didn’t falter when I took a step towards her, but she paled ever-so-slightly when I found myself looming over her. Even though I knew it was wrong, I couldn’t force myself to step back. Something like a fire, just blazing inside me, stopped me from doing it. Stopping myself from forcing her back, and keeping my fists at my sides, took me everything. I hated my lack of control, as well as how I was directing it at Ur, but I couldn’t stop. “You know this. You’re simply letting your hatred color your vision… but I won’t allow that to stop you from doing what’s right, when she’s rebelling against the Empire and risking her life fighting against the same enemy as us!”

Ur’s words hit something inside me. Something that I didn’t know existed. It pushed down the anger, the rage, and hate, until I could force myself to step back. My heart pounded so harshly that I could hear my heartbeats ring. The edges of my vision were blurry, before I forced myself to take a breath. The palms of my hand felt sore, even though I wore thick gloves. 

For a second, the flames propped me up, until I a tidal wave of tiredness crashed on me and I had to take a seat and look away from Ur.

“Hachiman!” Ur’s voice didn’t carry any of the steel it had while she was arguing for Reiser. Why would she need it, when she didn’t need to hide any nervousness anymore? I wouldn’t be able to use it and throw it back in her face anymore. So, instead, she let herself care for me. Just like everyone else. In a second, even though I just had to take a seat and catch me breathe, she was by my side. “You… absolute fool! You told me that you rested and cared for yourself before this mission!”

“Being tired is no excuse, when lives are on the line, Ur.” I’ve told her those words many times, but this time they were met with an angry glare. She barked orders and I found myself dragged away from the crate and to where a few Harpies were resting. Soon enough, I was being looked over by people that should be doing something more important, while Ur loomed over me with a furious expression on her face. “Why the face, huh? You know you’re only be able to help Rei out, because I worked so hard, right?”

“Tanis is smarter than you and Kurama cleverer. You simply have them at your mercy, thus they do nothing in return for your stern words.” Ur pushed me down into a Wyvern’s lap and proceeded to throw a Harpy on me, before turning her back. I tried to get up, but she barked orders towards the two. “Force him to rest. That is your duty now. Hold him down, until he falls asleep. I am taking command of this operation. We will be only completing the bare, necessary objectives, because we a new challenge: the rescue of an old, wayward friend.”

Try as I might to rise, or even speak out, all my efforts failed in the face of a plush pillow and a living, self-heating downy blanket. I tried to stoke the fires of indignation, the anger that carried me, but not even the simplest of curses would come to mind… and that’s before the Harpy began to sing into the crook of my neck. 

Tanis’s parting words…

…Ur’s insistence...

…my surroundings...

…and, finally, the work I put in, so that I could launch the mission as fast as possible, to stop the Empire from coming into Ylstu.

All of things crashed upon me at once and forced me to fall into a deep sleep.

A deep sleep that I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up from. 

…

Picture the following.

You’re guarding a dam that’s never been touched before, just like you do every night, and being bored out of your wits. Then, suddenly, from the skies come the equivalent of a natural disaster. Dozens of Amazons, wreathed in armor, and carrying weapons meant to carve through enchanted armor descend, hanging off of Wyverns through specialized harnesses. They rappel from the night with ease, because their partners can see during the night, and swiftly rip off cave in your skull with the flat of a blade, before killing your friends, and setting explosives all over your dam.

They leave on their partners, while you stagger to your feet.

There’s a rumbling. One. Then, two. Finally, three. The dam that’s too for centuries, erected through magic, seems to hold, until one crack forms. Two. Three. A dozen. It all breaks around you, while you stagger away. A tide of water swallows the landscape, villages drowned, artificial and natural rivers flooded, and a whole city either sinking or filling up with water. 

You blearily see it all, along with some of your friends who don’t get killed. 

By the time you get to the nearest town, you hear that every single dam across the Frontier has been blown up.  Hundreds of thousands are dead. The Empire’s ability to move troops towards the front are crippled. Entire villages are dead. Then, finally, you find blame being put on you and every other survivor for not fighting till your last breath.

Ashamed of yourself, or at least shamed by society, you kill yourself, removing an Empire citizen from the world, and do the only good deed you’ve ever done in your life. 

I wanted at least for some of that to have happened while I fell asleep.

Instead I find myself looking at wounded Wyvern, while surrounded by nothing but harpies, with a message from Ur. The mission was a success, and she’d also rescued Reiser, but in my tired, crazed state and because of her tunnel vision, we’d both missed a rather important fact before changing objectives and going on with the mission. If there’s a slave rebellion on their doorstep, it’d be only natural that the Empire was going to try and put it down as firmly and quickly as possible. 

Ergo, my shock troops, my Wyverns, and Reiser were holed up in a dam, holding the line against an entire brigade of Empire Knights. 

Led by a Hero.

Goddammit, Ur, if you get yourself killed after everything you’ve done, I swear that I’ll bring you back just to kill you myself!

So, you better survive until I save your freaking life.

AGAIN.