IDWTBTHQ Chapter 118 - Losing your Head

Anak'si was nervously biting her own fingernails.

It had been hours since the ogres had brought her and the other prisoners to this big hunting lodge in the woods, and she had been restless the whole time. The anxiety of not knowing what was going on was eating her from the inside and sadly she didn't have any way to distract herself. She couldn't even speak with the other prisoners, since Turemalac was still catatonic and the others, mostly human women and children, utterly refused to make any noise —though they were justified in their case, since the ogres tended to eat those that annoyed them.

The environment didn't really help improve her mood either. When they had first arrived the mansion was lavish and cozy, basically the kind of place Anak'si had always dreamt of living in, but by now all that was left was an unholy mess that was depressing to look at. The ogres had thoroughly vandalized the place seemingly just for kicks and giggles, pillaging everything of value, and now they were dozing off on piles of ravaged pillows while leaving the prisoners sitting on the naked floor of the main hall.

Anak'si stealthily stared daggers at the ugly humanoids guarding her, fervently wishing for their death. But sadly she was too injured and weakened by the long captivity to act on her desire, so she forced herself to calm down and wait, clinging to the secret hope that kept her from giving in to despair —that the Blue Terror and his army would be defeated. The Arachne had revealed the oni’s plans to that spider-goblin two weeks before in exchange for a promise of being freed once Blueskin was defeated, and using that information the humans and their allies would have a chance to win.

It was a faint hope, especially considering the oni’s strength, but it was better than nothing. Besides, she had felt the spider goblin's presence multiple times ever since the orcs had entered the human lands, the last time only a couple of hours before, and if the goblin was tailing the army and knew of her position, then it was possible that the humans were actually prepared to fight the orcs in Grimdale and could be planning to honor their promise and rescue her.

Then, almost as if summoned by her train of thought, the spider-goblin’s presence reappeared.

It was quite faint, meaning that it was probably a bit far, but Anak'si could clearly tell that it was getting closer. Her mood immediately improved and she felt a sudden trepidation, but she forced herself to hide it in order to not alert the ogre guards. On the inside she was literally burning with anticipation though.

After a few minutes those doors slammed open... but it wasn't the goblin or the humans who got in.

It was the oni.

He limped visibly as he entered the hall and he was dirty and visibly tired, but despite this he looked even scarier than usual. His expression was dark, with a fiery, angry light burning in his eyes, and he all but radiated a murderous fury all around him.

The ogres, caught by surprise by the appearance of their leader, immediately struggled to get up to greet him.

“Hey boss!” One of them said, raising his hand in a sloppy military salute. “How did the battle go? Did we win?”

“Shut up!” Blueskin growled threateningly, causing the ogre to take a step back. The oni then walked past his subordinate without saying another word, and instead he made a beeline for the prisoners.

The captives trembled and crawled away as the humanoid approached, crying in fear. Only two of them remained completely still: Turemalac, who was staring to the wall with a blank expression on his face  —though a Piraca’s expression was rather hard to decipher— and Anak’si, who would have liked to run away but was absolutely paralyzed by terror.

“He knows!” She thought in panic. “He knows that I betrayed him and now he's gonna kill me!”

She tried to think of a way to defend herself, to lie about what had happened, but her mind was blank. She could only wait for her death like a mouse caught between a predator’s fangs.

However, at the last moment, the oni turned away from her and instead limped towards the Piraca Emperor, grabbing him with his hands and lifting him by his neck.

“You damn bastard!” Blueskin cried, shaking the unfortunate Piraca. “You will pay for deceiving me, you piece of shit!”

This was quite enough to shake Turemalac from his torpor, and the Piraca tried to scream, but the iron grip around his neck prevented him from emitting any sound beside a muffled gurgle. The bird-like humanoid tried to wriggle free, clawing at the oni’s hands, but it was all in vain. Blueskin wouldn’t let him go, and instead started opening his mouth, dislocating his jaw like a snake before putting Turemalac’s head inside his mouth and closing his teeth like a bear trap.

Blood sprayed everywhere, landing all around the oni. Some of it ended up on Anak'si's skin, causing her to scream in fear and scuttle as far away as she could. Meanwhile, Blueskin had swallowed the Piraca’s head, and now he was going through some sort of supernatural revitalization. All signs of exhaustion disappeared from the oni, and he stood up straight as his body seemingly swelled with energy.

“Amazing.” He mumbled to himself. “Had I known that eating that bastard would give me so much aura, I would have done so ages ago!”

He looked at the decapitated body of his old enemy in his hands for a moment, and then he threw it towards the ogres, like a master throwing leftovers to his dog.

“Here, eat up!” He said. “I need you to be fit for a long journey. We’re getting out of here now!”

The ogres exchanged a confused look, but then they shrugged —it wasn’t in their nature to refuse food— and picked Turemalac’s body from the floor, starting to devour it.

One of them though, while stuffing pieces of rubbery meat inside of his mouth, turned towards his leader with a puzzled expression on his face.

“Where are we going boss?” He asked. “And what happened to the battle?”

The oni stared dagger at him, but after a second he calmed down and answered the question.

“We’re going back to the Caligare Forest. The humans and their allies have proven to be tougher than anticipated, so I need to gather a stronger army to deal with them.” He paused and then added in an angry tone: “And have no doubt that I will do that! And next time, I won’t be playing around anymore! I will destroy and devour every single human I come across!”

Despite not being the sharpest tool in the box, the ogre knew better than to disagree with an obviously furious and murderous oni, so he just nodded and made a rather forced smile.

“As you wish, boss! Next time, we’ll eat the humans and everyone else then!” The humanoid said cheerfully, though his voice betrayed a little nervousness.

“Good. Now finish your snack and gather up our stuff. We need to leave as soon as possible!”

The ogre nodded again, but then he pointed at the prisoners and asked:

“What do we do with them, boss? If we have to leave them, can I eat them?”

“No, we’re bringing them with us.” The oni replied. “We do need provisions for our trip, after all.”

The captives started weeping hearing these words, but their captors ignored them. After finishing devouring Turemalac’s corpse, one of the ogres gathered the prisoners, lifting them up by the ropes that bound their hands, and forced them on their feet, while the others gathered up their looted goods. The oni oversaw these operations with a pensive expression on his face, almost as if he was trying to remember something.

Anak'si remained tense and scared, as a sense of desperation creeped on her. While she was glad that she was alive, the return of the oni had ruined everything she had planned. Sure, the spider-goblin’s presence was nearby, but now that the Blue Terror was here she had no idea how she could be rescued. Also, Turemalac’s death had rattled her. While they had never been friends, he had been a fellow Reincarnator, and his demise reminded her all too much of her own mortality.

And then, as she kept worrying like that, Blueskin suddenly turned towards her with a suspicious expression on his face.

“Who were you talking to, Anak’si?” He asked.

“Uh... what?” The arachne replied, confused. “I didn't say anything.”

“Not now. In the forest, a few weeks ago.” Blueskin said, his tone growing harsher. “Turemalac heard you talking with someone back then. Those memories are a bit foggy, but you were definitely speaking with someone. And you were talking about my invading plans.”

Anak'si silently cursed as she recalled that the oni could read the memories of those he had eaten. Turemalac had always been kept close to her and so he probably overheard her talking with the goblin, though she had thought he had been asleep at the time. But it seemed he hadn’t, and now the arachne had to quickly find a plausible explanation or risk being devoured like the Piraca had been.

“I... I spoke with no one.” She promptly lied. “Turemalac was often delirious in the past few weeks, so he must have imagined it. Besides, with whom could I have talked anyway? I was always in the middle of your army and heavily guarded all the time!”

Blueskin hesitated at those words, and for a moment Anak'si believed that she had managed to fool him. But then the oni grimaced and his expression became angry again.

“Maybe you’re telling the truth. Maybe not. The only way to know for sure is to eat your head and find the answer in your memories.” He gave the arachne a ravenous stare which made her freeze in fear. “Sadly, I may need your powers to raise my next army, so that’s not an option. So I guess I’ll have to make do with making you unable to speak.”

He lifted his right hand, while two of his nails turned into nasty-looking serrated claws.

“No!” Anak’si cried, trying to crawl away from the oni. “Please no! I said nothing! You have to believe me!”

“Sorry, but I’m not gonna risk any more possible leaks.” The Blue Terror said in a merciless voice, advancing towards the terrified Rantul Matriarch. “Now, stand still while I remove your tongue, or this will hurt more.”

He then took a step, but then, without any warning, the windows exploded in a shower of broken glass and countless dragonfly-like creatures swarmed into the room.

What followed was absolute mayhem. Everyone started screaming as the bug-like creatures flew in the faces of the oni and the ogres, trying to gouge their eyes out. Wild roars came from the humanoids, who tried to protect their eyes and fend off the attackers, while the prisoners, both the humans and the arachne, let out high-pitched cries of fear as they dropped to the ground covering their heads with their hands. After a moment, though, Anak’si realized that these bugs weren’t attacking her and only focused on her captors.

“The Vex!” Blueskin cried, fury and fear both present in his voice, swatting aside one insect only for three more to take its place.

The arachne didn't know what these Vex were, but she recognized a good chance to run away when she saw one. So she started crawling away as fast as she could, heading towards the door, only to stop when she noticed some huge, gorilla-like creatures covered in chitin that had just entered the room from there.

These creatures immediately charged against the humanoids and engaged them in combat, while a horde of smaller but still imposing mantis-like creatures came inside after them, filling the entire hall with a mass of chitin. However, despite the chaos that reigned supreme, these Vex, as the oni had called them, still paid great attention to not trample over the prisoners, and instead seemed to be trying to push the ogres away from them.

“Are… are they allies?” Anak’si wondered, while still not daring to move.

“No!” The oni screamed at the top of his lungs. “You won't get me again you bastards!”

He then proceeded to punch aside the gorilla-like bug that was fighting him, sending it flying against a wall, and then started running, smashing through all the other Vex in his way before jumping out of a window.

Seeing their boss fleeing the ogres tried to follow him, but they lacked the oni’s strength and struggled to get past their chitinous opponents.

And this delay cost them their lives.

A few moments after the Blue Terror had left the room, some new figures came inside from the main door. They looked like human knights in full plate armor, but they moved with incredible speed and precision, and they also charged the ogres, starting to hack them apart with their weapons.

The humanoid put up a desperate resistance, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the numbers of the Vex combined with the strength of those knights, and in less than a minute they were all dead.

As soon as the last humanoid fell to the ground and stopped moving, the Vex immediately retreated to the edges of the room, leaving room for the humans to provide assistance to the prisoners. The knights also immediately approached the captives to check their condition, telling them that they were free and that everything was going to be alright now.

However, they all steered clear of Anak’si, leaving her alone.

As the other prisoners started crying out of relief, the arachne just laid still and nervously watched both the knights and the Vex. She was incredibly glad for having been freed from the oni like everyone else, sure, but now she wondered what her fate would be. After all, she didn’t know any of these newcomers, and for all she knew they would kill her as soon as they had secured their own captives.

Then, a familiar voice called for her.

“Lady Anak'si?.”

The arachne turned, and felt incredibly relieved when she saw the spider-goblin with whom she had made a deal standing there.

“As promised, we’ve come to rescue you.” The goblin said.

“T-thank you.” Anak'si replied, as tears of relief finally started flowing from her eyes —all ten of them— when she realized she had actually been freed.

“You are welcome. After all, without your help, the battle would have probably been much harder.” He made a gesture, and four brawny hobgoblins came from behind him, carrying a wooden stretcher big enough to accommodate the Arachne’s huge body. “We are going to take you to a cleric to see to your wounds, so please collaborate and get on the stretcher, if you can.”

“Y-yes.” The arachne said, and crawled on the stretcher that the goblins had laid down in front of her. “B-but... let’s be quick please. I don’t know if the oni will come back.” She looked the goblin in the eyes. “He got away just before those humans came in.”

“I know. We planned for that to happen.” The spider-goblin explained, as matter of factly as always. “If we had seriously attacked him inside of here, then you and the other prisoners could have been caught up in the fight, so we needed him to flee. Don't worry though, he will be dealt with soon enough.” For a moment, his confident smirk got even wider. “He won't get far, trust me.”

“Thanks the heavens.” Anak'si took a sigh of relief as the hobgoblin carriers struggled to lift her weight. She couldn’t imagine what the spider-goblin had planned to do to kill Blueskin, but judging by how scared the oni had seemed, then maybe they had something that could threaten even him.

After a few tries, the hobgoblins finally managed to lift the stretcher and started carrying her away, out of the mansion. As she passed near the spider-goblin, the arachne extended one of her arms and swiftly but delicately caressed him. The goblin tensed for a moment at that physical contact, as if he had received an electric shock, but then he relaxed, though his eyes became a bit unfocused.

Anak’si let out a satisfied smile.

“Thank you for all you've done for me!” She said softly. “I hope we'll keep being friends from now on.” She paused and then asked: “What’s your name?”

“Arag.” The spider-goblin promptly replied in an automatic tone, though his eyes had become even more troubled.

“Well, thanks again, Arag.” The arachne said. “Come visit me again soon, please!”

The Matriarch’s smile widened as she was being carried away. All of a sudden, she felt much more safe, knowing that she had someone she could trust now.

Someone who couldn’t refuse her orders.