Otherlife Nightmares: The Selfless Hero Trilogy (20 page)

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Rabbit. I’m afraid I’m speeding along merrily on my dark descent.”

Hours later when he returned to camp, when everyone was abed, he found a single plate resting in his usual spot by the fire. Smiling sadly, he picked it up with a quick inspection.

Item: Grilled steak and vegetables

Quality: Great

Effects-

Full: Constitution increase

Nadine would have made it. Made it for him. Even when angry at him. She fussed over his health and his infrequent meals despite him reminding her he technically did not actually need to eat.

Choking back a shaking breath, he ate quietly, grateful to the little merchant queen who forgave him, even when he would never forgive himself.

Chapter 8 - Norwood Arsenal -

1:39pm Sovereign Earth time

11/13/43

Two days had passed since his falling out with Nadine. Though she did not speak of it again, it was clear she was still upset with him. Forgiveness could be given, even if one didn’t forget.

Of the thousand-strong army that had been sent, eighty were qualified to use magical items. All of them had been drafted into the newly created Special Ordnance team. They also happened to almost all be people heading to rebuild North Wood Fort. Which made it all the easier to give them orders.

Especially after having Awakened them.

Runner had been spending his evenings crafting long-barreled breech-loading cannons. With any luck they would hopefully give him an edge when they finally engaged the enemy. The work also kept his hands and mind busy. Letting his thoughts wander was a danger lately.

Looking like a long tube mounted on a wooden carriage, each cannon left quite a bit to be desired in appearance. At the rear of the weapon, a pair of long screw-like rods were set into the carriage. A seating bracket for the cannon had been placed between them and could be adjusted easily to shift the cannon up or down. Crude as it might be, it would serve its function well, allowing the gunner to change the angle smoothly.

Locking mechanisms could be slid into place to hold the barrel at the chosen angle, providing accurate repeated shelling of a target.

Enchanted to put out a magnificent volume of air in a sliver of time, it acted like a giant blowgun. A touch of help from Srit and he had even managed to rifle the barrel. For whatever good it might do
.

He really wasn’t sure if it would do anything to add to its accuracy. Physics here weren’t always analogous to the real world. Couldn’t hurt though.

Serving the role of armory was an obelisk of stone. It stood six feet high and a hole had been carved out of the center. A cradle sat in the rock, waiting to catch the payload upon activation. It was capable of producing a single
Splatterhouse
round every thirty seconds.

He had put together three mockups that would fire solid slug rounds instead of
Splatterhouse
rounds.

The real obelisks had already all been created and were awaiting deployment.

No need to go all in quite yet.

In teams of two, the SO crews worked to fire rounds at a distant hillside, swapping out after each activation so they could experience a fresh reload. Learning the basics of preparing an unloaded cannon.

Nodding his head in satisfaction, he left his teams to their work and trudged away.

He had his own weapons to practice.

Coming to the realization that he should embrace his charisma, rather than flee from it, Runner had sat down and created a charisma boosting spell that was similar to the other stat enhancers.

Now his equipment and subsequent bound spells reflected this change in mentality. He tapped open his character screen and gave himself a final check.

Time to see what Prince Charming can do.

Trailing along behind him came Nadine and Isabelle. Nadine wanted to keep an eye on him, and Isabelle was here to be the guinea pig.

“Right, then,” Runner casually said over his shoulder. “I’ve given up on the idea of ever being anything but second, or even third place, to everyone else. I shall endeavor to become a master of my own bailiwick.”

Among the open fields that ran in every direction for miles were small valleys. Small enough to hide a scouting element or monsters, or someone who did not wish to be seen. They now stood in one such gully between two raised mounds.

Turning to face the women, he smiled broadly and cocked his head to one side.

“Isabelle, as I said earlier, I’d like to use you as a test subject for some spells. They’re non-damaging, but they’ll affect your status and your self-control. You can decline this request. You don’t have to do this.”

The whump of cannons could be heard in the distance as he talked. Practice would give the gunners confidence, even if they did not realize it yet.

“I’m honored to participate, my lord,” Isabelle said eagerly.

“You say that now. Please understand you can quit at any time. Please try to describe what it does to you, as best as you can.”

Runner had been working with Srit to build a repertoire of spells based on social interactions and
Spell
Weaving.

Many of the spells he had made with her were grounded in and based on already existing spells in other schools of magic. These new spells used charisma as the modifier instead of intelligence
.

The work itself had been very similar to his previous spell work. Truly, the main difference had been the difficulty in understanding the result. There was no way for the system to give him a tool tip, or even a suggestion, since he had gone far astray from the original limits.

There was another entire line of spells he’d have to work on next: using charisma to push people in a meta-physical sense. Like telling people to be well and them suddenly healing. Or telling people to run faster, and they actually would.

Hence the testing and the need for more down the road.

There were a few more interesting toys he had been working on that wouldn’t be brought out today. Armored transports with hard points for portable
Splatterhouse
cannons.

Handheld
Splatterhouse
rifles with a much smaller explosive round.

Giant tubes that would launch huge
Splatterhouse
rounds as an indirect fire method. Vastly more akin to twentieth-century mortars than anything else.

Even self-propelled artillery.

Much of the arsenal he was working on happened to be with the idea in mind of arming the peasantry. Crafters. Villagers. People without a true class and who might never have the luxury of changing that. If he could arm them, he could tap into a resource of soldiers most would disregard.

History had shown a drastic shift in the way wars were fought once a peasant could pull a trigger and kill a trained knight.

Today he planned on working on the magical side only.

Bringing up the test spell he had tentatively called
Fear,
Runner targeted Isabelle. He flicked his fingers out towards her, and the tightly coiled spell of
Intimidate
and
Persuade
flew at her.

Striking her in the chest, the pink ball exploded around her. Her eyes flew open, her fingers closing into fists, and she promptly turned and ran away.

“Fear definitely works. I wonder when she’ll stop though.”

“She’s fast.”

“Indeed she is, Rabbit.”

Sprinting, Isabelle kept on for a full ten seconds. Her athletic build fluidly pushed her along with a grace he had to admire. Forcing his eyes to a screen instead of her hips, Runner busied himself.

Eventually she halted far in the distance. She spun herself around and began making her way back to them with as much dignity as she could muster. Given the situation, that is.

At least she can’t wet her pants.

“I…ahem. My lord, I experienced overwhelming fear of you. Uncontrollable, utter terror. I…I wanted to get as far from you as possible,” Isabelle reported, her voice quavering.

“Thank you, Isabelle. That was the intent of the spell, so it’s a success.”

Runner created an enemy-only AOE version of the spell with him as the focal point. Labeling the single target spell as
Linda
and
Scott
as the AOE version,
he then put them on a new hotbar.

Wondering about Isabelle’s reaction, he could only sympathize. His nightmares had been ramping up in intensity as of late. That feeling had made a great frame of mind to start with when he constructed the spell.

Considering how badly they haunted him, he could only imagine what she had felt. He woke up frequently in the night, panting. The worst was the disorientation he felt upon waking. Night after night.

Whatever the pod was supposed to do, it wasn’t doing it. Runner had even gone so far as to confirm it was administering drugs to help balance him and subdue his sleep. It wasn’t enough.

Thana and Katarina were now taking turns sleeping next to him, poised to bring him back to reality when he had an episode.

There was a part of him that could not deny the pleasure of lying next to a beautiful woman. Pity he could not truly enjoy it. That and the pod wouldn’t do anything for blue balls. He was starting think that his wandering attention towards Isabelle was an extreme hormonal response.

Or so he hoped.

His choices had pushed him to a point that he no longer looked forward to sleeping. He dreaded it. Ted, Michael, Jeff, Vick, James, Ben, and Devon all waited for him. Staring at him. Dead accusing eyes. Bloody eyes. Blood coating everything and everyone.

Giving himself a firm shake, he pressed a palm to his forehead. Taking a deep breath, he cleared his thoughts.

“Right, then. Isabelle, the next spell will have a different reaction. Much like the first, please try to describe it as best as you can.”

“What will it do, my lord?”

“If I told you, it’d color your perceptions of it by creating an expectation. It won’t hurt. Promise,” Runner said with a smile. He meant it too. Nothing he had built would cause any harm. At least physically.

Next in the list of spells to test was
Enrage.
Pushing
Provoke
and
Intimidate
together in nearly equal parts, he hoped it would force the target to engage him.

Glancing at Isabelle’s sword at her side, he frowned. He opened his mouth to ask her to disarm, but stopped. Blowing out the breath he had taken to speak, he shrugged his shoulders instead.

Whatever. Will make the test real.

Flinging his arm forward, he cast
Enrage
on Isabelle. Immediately her face contorted into a sinister snarl. Instead of running from him, this time she ran at him. Spreading his stance out to receive her charge, he opened his arms.

“It’s okay, Rabbit! This was expected, I’m not in any danger,” he yelled out to Nadine. Her reaction might end up hurting the lively little mercenary. “Except for maybe getting a vicious hug.”

Isabelle leapt at him, catching him under the armpits. Wrapping his arms around her, he let her carry him off his feet and onto his back. He wrapped his legs around her waist, pressed her in close to himself, and held on for dear life.

Snarling, hissing, and biting at his neck, Isabelle wanted to rend him limb from limb.