Arwin could barely muster the energy to move. Even though Anna’s magic was working its way through his body and healing the damage he’d taken, he was just too tired to stand. His mind hurt more than his limbs did.
Jessen’s corpse sprawled out on the ground before him, charred to a crisp. The fire licking across the man’s features had burnt out. His head was a vile sight to behold. And yet, in the end, it was just another dead man.
As his breathing steadied, a glimmer of gold swirled through the air before him. The Mesh seemed to have been holding its breath throughout the fight. It had waited to say anything until just after he was lucid enough to actually register its words.
Title: [Indomitable] has been earned.
[Indomitable] – Your body has been beaten, and yet it carried on. Your mind has teetered on the precipice of oblivion, yet it refused to give in. Forged in the ghosts of the past and tempered in the present, your mental fortitude has been honed to a point beyond what most can comprehend.
Arwin might have laughed if he had the energy. He had no idea if the Title had come from managing to kill Jessen despite the sorry state he’d been in, or if it had come from seeing the man’s decimated body and thinking nothing of it.
In the end, it didn’t matter. The Title was a powerful one. Mental affects were some of the hardest to deal with, and anything that kept others out of Arwin’s mind was something he valued. He reached down and ripped one of Jessen’s gauntlets off. Then he took the other. Both were stuffed into the bag that Lillia had bought. He rooted around Jessen’s waist, finding a bulging knapsack tucked into his greaves. Arwin pulled it free and stuffed the whole thing into his larger bag, too weary to even look through its contents. He’d take a look when he had enough brainpower to actually process what he saw.
Arwin took Jessen’s boots and greaves as well, stuffing everything into his bag until it was bulging. He then jabbed his hands into the dirt, scooping out handfuls of dirt, and poured it over Jessen’s face.
Then he did it again. Footsteps behind him gave Arwin slight pause, and he glanced up to see Lillia arrive beside him. She’d pulled her cloud of darkness back so the others could see her again.
A much-needed laugh passed through the party. It wasn’t one full of energy or joy. It was a laugh of relief that they were still alive. It was of victory and survival, and it felt incredible.
“I rather like that,” Arwin said. “Menagerie. It fits.”
Nobody objected, and so it was. Their guild finally had a name — even if it wasn’t technically even an official guild yet.
They all continued through the forest, making their way back to Milten. Not a single one of them noticed the man standing in the trees behind them, his cold blue eyes tracing their every step.