Thanks to Olear, we were teleported to the outskirts of the engine room. It was an easy enough job we were tasked with. Make sure that the vroom box could still go vroom.

I took confident strides, as Eshami followed with caution. The lights within the room flickered sporadically as they cast shadows that taunted me and my lack of mechanical expertise. How do they know I’ve never worked on an engine before?

“I don’t think there’s anything in here,” I loudly announced to Eshami with a disappointed tone.

“Shh!” She glared at me like a disapproving mother, and pointed up toward the ceiling.

As I followed her gaze, I realized hundreds of small purple spider-like creatures had latched onto electrical boxes, power lines, and other engine components.

Then it slowly dawned on me what these creatures were doing.

The engine was still operational, but these power grid-disrupting freeloaders were mooching off the system like entitled brats — and they must be stopped!

I drew my sword and pressed the button on the hilt as the blade extended. I faintly recalled hearing somewhere if you pressed the button harder it performed better. Maybe it was in a past life but regardless, I increased pressure for maximum results.

With overwhelming glee painted stupidly across my face, the sword continued to extend to gargantuan proportions. The blade now swung wildly about several dozens of feet overhead as I proceeded to use my new spider-smasher to mash, bash, and ker-squash the helpless beings.

“This is too easy,” I beamed as I looked over my handiwork with glee.

A chilling voice crept down my spine:

“You missed one…”

I turned to look and saw a humanoid creature made of broken bone and mismatched flesh. Its deep hollow eyes that leaked black liquid blinked slowly while staring at me, or into me; it was difficult to tell.

“Do you think he’s here to sell cookies?” I asked Eshami as I readied my now disappointingly average-sized sword. She offered me a confused look in return to my joke.

The creature sighed with disappointment, then extended its arm to unnatural lengths to kill a spider nestled on the ceiling. “You had such an easy task and you still failed,” is said with a scratchy voice. “Why do you even bother?”

Its words stung my ears and hurt my soul. I did such a good job, I was sure of it! Even my father would have given me a pat on the back, but somehow this creature’s dissatisfaction with me cut deeper than the time I was left alone at the market as a child.

“What do you want? I have plenty of people to disappoint in my life already,” I weakly retorted.

Its gaze shifted to Eshami as its head tilted to the side. “Your love partner is quite ugly. Why do you keep her weak and frail body around?”

“Hey! You better watch it!” I took a threatening step forward in defense of Eshami.

“You’re too slow to do anything about it,” the creature sighed as it extended its arm and rapidly propelled it toward Eshami. Its spiked harpoon-like hand pierced through her stomach, and she dropped to her knees.

“Hero… You failed me…” she muttered. “If I would have known you would be such a disappointment… I never would have looked at your face.”

“No!” I cried out in defiance. The creature’s words cut deep, but Eshami’s were a dagger in my soul. The blade was deep and she twisted it just to see me wither and squirm.

For a moment I felt anger well up inside me, but it was quickly washed away by the fear and anguish. What was I thinking, coming to a place like this? I’m no real hero.

I’m a fake.

A fraud.

I am a disappointment and a failure.

The heroic light within was dying. The fight barely started, and I’m ready to throw in the towel. Perhaps I should have quit a long time ago. My father never did approve of this line of work, after all.

But where was all this coming from? Moments ago I was so happy with my larger-than-life sword that was definitely not overcompensating for anything. What happened to all that…?

My eyes shifted over to the creature. Its harpoon hand was still inside Eshami as her blood pooled around her still form. With a spark of rage, I lunged at the abomination and sliced its arm off.

The creature sighed and swung at my head. I narrowly evaded the attack as I thrust my sword through its chest. With any luck, this heartless bastard would die.

It stared into my eyes and sighed again. “You are terribly bad at this.”

“Go to Hell!” I growled, as I pressed the button on my sword. It burst into a glorious plume of flames that consumed the creature in a raging inferno. 

I ripped my sword out and ran to Eshami, “Are you okay?”

She didn’t move, as blood continued to chug out of her. “I know what I must do, Devon, but I can’t bring myself to do it…” she murmured. “What’s the point?”

“Of course, you can do it. Just use your magic. Heal your wounds! Please!” I pleaded with her, as tears began to well up.

The longer the flaming creature withered and squirmed in pain, the more Eshami began to move. Slowly at first, she reached up to her gut, and the brilliant magical light flowed into her and reconstructed the damage that had been done.

I realized that much of her clothing had been destroyed and the underside of her brilliant breasts were now exposed to the world. Despite how badly I wished to stare, I forced myself to avert my eyes, then removed my cloak and offered it to her. I managed to catch the glimpse of a smile out of the corner of my eye.

“Thank you, Devon. You are both kind and noble,” she said as she placed an affectionate kiss on my cheek. She wrapped the cloak around her slender form and stood up. “Let’s not stay here any longer if you don’t mind?”

Her words barely registered as I was still recovering from the brief moment of intimacy. I reached a hand up and touched the side of my cheek.

“Oh, yeah… Let’s get out of here.”

A special "Thank you!" to Bradan Writes Stories for his original contribution to the series (on which this chapter is based)