Chapter 51: Good and bad, aftermath

After a while of thinking, Eldrian lied down on the wall, having turned around to face the inside of the battle and making sure the area was relatively clean. Lying against the edge he gazed at the clouds moving overhead and fell asleep.

...

Eldrian woke up after half an hour. Looking up he saw that it was becoming darker, the day clearly nearing its end.

'Well, I guess it is a good thing. I really want to sleep some more.' He mumbled to himself as he started closing his eyes again, but a familiar voice stopped his actions.

"Ah, you are finally awake." Turning his head Eldrian saw that William was sitting next to him, also staring at the clouds while smoking a pipe.

"Such a beautiful day filled with death. It often makes me sad." William said as he breathed out the smoke. His pipe seemed normal and even average. Eldrian was curious why someone of such a high status would use such a cheap-looking pipe.

"Curious are you?" William asked when he saw Eldrian's look.

"It is simple really. It was a friend's, they would always smoke after a long day, or a bad one. After his death, I took it upon myself to continue this."

"To be honest I do not know why. It helps me cope, I guess." William said, shrugging on the end.

Eldrian didn't know what to say. He certainly wasn't going to condone it, and he didn't know how to praise it. So he just stayed quiet.

"You must be curious why I am here?" William asked after another moment of silence.

"I am. Is everything fine now, has everything been sorted?" Eldrian asked. Curious why William, a Great Mage, would be sitting next to him. Not helping somewhere or just relaxing on his own.

"To answer your question, yes. Almost everything has been sorted by now. Our losses were far more than we had expected. But we managed to save the border area, for now. And more effort will be placed in this endeavor from now on."

As William said this he released a sigh before adding, "I wish it didn't always come to this."

Eldrian found this statement confusing until he started thinking about a more general theme. Realizing that William was talking about wars. He agreed with this, also finding wars a bad thing. Still, he couldn't say he didn't like them in games.

But this game was starting to feel too real for him, making him despise this war. Just like he did in reality. This realization shocked Eldrian, making him contemplate this for a while.

"How is Vivian doing sir?" Eldrian asked after his thoughts had returned to the losses of war.

"She is doing alright. From what I heard she has been healed, but she will need some time to get back to normal."

"An-and how is Jack?" Eldrian asked, curious how the other person who had been revived was doing.

"He hasn't woken yet. He and some others are currently being transported to Synoro."

Eldrian nodded to this, turning his gaze to the distant town. Seeing a small group of people walking towards the town. This group of people seemed to be farmers from the town, they weren't in armor and every two had a person on a stretcher between them.

Seeing this Eldrian felt a happy feeling rising in him. He had no idea what it was, but he realized that the death had been for something.

"May I ask something else?" Eldrian inquired after another moment of silence. During which he had observed these groups as they slowly made their way to the town's walls.

"Sure," William replied, taking a long pull after.

"Why did you and Old Sword not help in the fight?"

"The beasts were far craftier than we had thought possible. Simply put, we had been played."

"But how?"

"The worst-case happened. The first Alpha was a Beast Lord, while the second and third were both Chieftains."

"In the start, I sent that massive attack to the Beast Lord Alpha, which Old Sword then targeted. But before he could finish it off another Alpha rushed to help it. Then another joined and he entered a standstill. I could only help from afar and later the other pack's Alpha also joined, making it a 4v1 with me only offering help from a distance."

The thought of having to fight against 4 Alphas left Eldrian flabbergasted, making him realize that the situation had been far worse than he had thought. Taking a while to overcome this shock, which William gave him, Eldrian asked, "What do their titles mean?"

"Mmmh, let me see. A Chieftain is a Tier 4 beast and a Beast Lord is Tier 5. And what makes them so dangerous is that Chieftains will be able to fully use their natural element, while a Beast Lords can learn other magics outside of their natural talent. Some Beast Lords can even learn to communicate via telepathy, if their talent lies within a few specific magic branches that are."

"And we think this one was in one of those branches. They were too coordinated, due to this we had to focus and kill them early. And that took time, Old Sword even almost died a few times. Especially in the start, when the other two Alphas ambushed him. Right after the first attack."

'So that is why they never really helped us. I had thought it was very strange, makes some sense now.' Eldrian thought.

"In any case, I came to try and figure out what your anomaly is." William suddenly said, interrupting Eldrian's thoughts.

"Did you find anything?"

"Nothing, you seem perfectly normal. Well a few small differences to humans, but you are an elf. So I can't really say if they are normal differences or not."

"Oh..." Eldrian said, feeling down that even William couldn't offer him some help in his mystery. After a few more moments of silence, William spoke again.

"I will go tell Vivian you are alright."

"Wait, I will come with you," Eldrian said, standing up. Only to feel a wave of dizziness assault him again. This wave was far less than previous and he managed to stay standing, only swaying slightly.

William chuckled when he saw Eldrian's actions. Completely understanding the feelings Eldrian was having, and finding his hasty actions cute.

"Sure, follow me. She is over there." William said, pointing to the far right where corpses were being piled next to each other.

As they were walking over Vivian spotted them before they could reach her. She immediately left her spot and made her way over.

Looking at her Eldrian felt a lump form in his throat. The battle had clearly been very harsh on her. She had a few light scars on her face, which would likely soon fade. But she had a large scar over her right arm and her left arm was in a sling.

Looking at this arm Eldrian quickly realized that it was the one that had been torn off. The arm had a light zigzag scarring above her elbow. Just seeing this wound Eldrian felt the lump grow causing his eyes to start tearing up.

The image which popped into his head enforced this lump. Making him hope that she had passed out soon after receiving the wound. That she hadn't needed to fight while in such pain.

Before he could say anything she wrapped her right arm over him. Starting to cry as soon as she embraced him.

After almost a minute of just standing there, they finally broke apart. William had long left them alone.

"I am so glad you surv-vived" She said, her voice breaking in the end. Stopping her from saying any more.

"How are you?" Eldrian asked in concern after seeing her mental state, which seemed on the edge of breaking.

"I-I'mm, I'm doing better now." Stuttering she answered slowly, her voice becoming softer as she spoke. Seemingly wanting to deny the words being spoken.

Eldrian didn't know what to do. He never really interacted with people, often being a loner or just having a few friends. He certainly hadn't been there for someone who had lost friends and lived through such a horror.

All he could think of was offering her a shoulder to cry on. It was something he normally did for his sister after she had a breakup with either a friend or boyfriend. He knew it worked far better than words.

As such he embraced her again. She immediately started crying again, resting her head on his shoulder.

After a while, she spoke into his chest, "I'm really glad you are alright."

"What do you mean?" Eldrian asked in confusion, not understanding her worry. He was a Chosen, so he couldn't die, so he asked himself what she was worried about.

"I heard you were having a completely different situation compared to the other Chosen. And hearing this. I couldn't help but. Start thinking you might also die." She said, stuttering and gasping every few words.

"I am doing good now, so don't worry anymore."

After this, they separated and started walking to where Vivian had been standing.

Eldrian wanted to ask what happened in the fight, but he felt it would be a very bad idea to bring this up now, since Vivian had just calmed down.

Arriving at the spot they waited.

Eldrian didn't know for what, but he decided to just stay there. Vivian was leaning against his shoulder while they waited and he certainly didn't feel that he should break the mood.

They stayed together as they enjoyed the sunset.

Looking at the blue and purple clouds Eldrian thought back to his second day in-game. After which he and Vivian had also gazed at the clouds.

'Reality has both good and bad parts.' He thought to himself, trying to enjoy the good which was being presented to him.

Trying to not think of all the pain he and everyone else here had gone through.