Cryptbreaker's Surprise

Amongst the corroded desks and scattered pieces of paper strewn about were stacks of cash piled high toward the ceiling. Scattered around the pile were crates containing various supplies.

They included food, ammunition, explosives, gadgets, and numerous other valuable tools. However, the most helpful asset was propped atop a metal gray foldout chair.

He wore nothing besides a pair of torn blue jeans and thrashed violently, fighting against the thick rope that bound him to the chair's back to no avail. In fact, his struggles only served to make it dig deeper into his green-gray pecs and abs.

Upon seeing Leo and Charlotte, he began screaming out of irritation and pleading. "mmph hyou h*ckin' help me ahready?!" His words were garbled and muffled beneath the cloth gag stuffed into his mouth.

Charlotte and Leo, almost instinctively, raised their guns out of shock.

Screaming at them was a supposed ghost from their past. Someone who was supposed to be six feet under with a granite tombstone. Someone who once had a hole in their head big enough to fit a ping-pong ball through.

"Godd*mn zombies!" Leo shouted and prepared to loose a hailstorm of bullets.

He'd had enough of the undead during the conflict of Dead Summer three years ago. It was an uprising fostered by an outfit of necromancers hellbent on world domination.

Charlotte, too, readied her gun. However, unlike Leo, it wasn't a killer's glare she'd given. Instead, her eyes were narrowed in confusion.

'Is that...' she tilted her head out of curiosity.

"mphait hyou *ssh*les, wha're you doin?!'" the thing's eyes widened in fear, revealing every bit of white around its dark brown pupils. Following the question were several screams of frustration made unintelligible by the gag.

"Hey," Charlotte spoke through the mumbled shouting and loosened her grip on her gun's trigger, "I think it's actually him... Look! There's no wound in his forehead!" She proceeded to point to the creature's smooth temple.

Hearing her words, Leo pulled his trigger finger away.

He squinted his eyes to see that she was right. Like he and Charlotte, all of the creature's injuries were completely erased.

"Isn't that...impossible?" Leo said quizzically. 'It can't be him,' he inwardly said with skepticism.

It was definitely hard to believe since reviving someone with their memories and personality intact was typically unattainable.

Usually, a raised person would become nothing more than an empty, shuffling vessel. A mindless zombie to be controlled by the one who reanimated them.

'How is this happening?' Leo brought a hand to his chin to ponder.

"Mno iss mot h*cking imhossible hyou h*ckers! Rook at ee! Ow untie ee!" His veins pulsated in anger as he shook his chair, trying to break free.

Leo and Charlotte lowered their weapons, realizing the same thing had happened to them not a few hours ago. They were brought back from certain death, and they definitely weren't mindless.

Seeing how ornery and verbally abrasive the suspected undead was before them, he couldn't have been mindless either. No, that growling, snarling, and insulting green-gray mass before them was undoubtedly the real deal.

"It... I... Yeah, I think you're right, Yinny! It's 8-Bit! It's Gruunsk!" Leo donned a wide smile. The appearance of his old comrade pleased Leo, especially after he'd seen his head scattered across pavement. Gruunsk was one he'd known during his days of adventuring outside the walls, which made their bond stronger than steel.

"Vell voopty doo, fan hyou untie ee mow!" Gruunsk snapped back. Though his tone was still angry, his thoughts were nothing short of relieved.

'Thank you, Gruumsh, Lord of Slaughter. Thank you, Ner'Zhul, Lord of Desolation. Thank you all!' he thanked numerous Warrior Gods within the orcish faith. He thanked them that he wasn't dying today...again.

As Leo and Charlotte cautiously approached, Gruunsk's thoughts became more impatient. 'Would you hurry up already? God!' he squeezed his muscular hands tight from anger, forcing the snaking veins to his skin's surface.

Once Leo was behind Gruunsk, he flipped open a pocket knife he'd had and began slicing away at the thick bindings holding the orc to place.

Meanwhile, Charlotte was standing before Gruunsk. She noticed a strange, folded white slip of paper resting on his chest.

'What're you doing, Charlotte?' Gruunsk thought and glowered at her as she plucked the note from his chest.

She then proceeded to read the note aloud.

|Here's the main surprise for you two; I hope you use it well. You better; it cost me eight of my devoted to raising that insolent mass of anger from death.

Signed, You Know Who.|

Upon hearing the insult, Gruunsk started shaking even more violently. His rage was reaching its peak.

"Calm down, buddy! I'll end up cutting a finger if you don't stop!" Leo griped, then laughed. "So you got revived by him too, huh?"

Gruunsk bellowed beneath his gag in response. Though his words were loud and filled with anger, his thoughts were much more collected. 'He mentioned being revived... Does that mean they died too?'

After that, Charlotte's eyes looked over the rest of the mostly blank paper. Toward the bottom were a few more lines.

|P.S. Use. It. Well. I'm serious. Devotees don't grow on trees! And I'd rather not deal with him again. He's...unpleasant. Truly a barbarian of a creature...|

'I probably shouldn't say this out loud,' Charlotte giggled. Due to Gruunsk's unstable state, she thought it'd be best to not antagonize him further.

Upon the conclusion of Charlotte's reading of the note, Leo finished snapping Gruunsk's bindings free.

The orc immediately tore the gag from his mouth, stood up, and roared. "AGHHHHHHHHH! I'M FREEEEE! F*CK YEAHHH!" He then flexed his muscles and stretched.

Thanks to his orcish ancestry, he sported two large fangs that protruded upward from his lower jaw, and his fingers were equipped with claws rather than nails. He also towered above Charlotte and even Leo in stature.

"Glad to see you're doing well, buddy!" Leo slapped his palm against Gruunsk's bare back as a sign of camaraderie. However, Gruunsk returned Leo's sign of brotherly affection with a menacing glare.

"You..." his deep voice rumbled like a volcano's fury. "YOU ALMOST SHOT ME, YOU SON OF A B-"

"Now, now," Leo put up his hands in an easing gesture and smiled, "we didn't in the end. Isn't that what counts? I mean, you gotta admit that it's pretty unusual to see a friend rise from the dead and NOT be a mindless mess, right Yinny?"

Leo frantically gestured to Charlotte for reinforcements.

"Oh yeah, of course!" she replied cheerily.

"NO!!!!!" Gruunsk waved his hand and slammed it against one of the desks, shattering it to pieces. "AGHHHHHHHHH!"

"There, there, buddy." Leo and Charlotte were used to these kinds of outbursts from Gruunsk; it was in his orcish blood.

Orcs had always been prone to bouts of rage, and they needed an outlet to unleash it upon whenever it boiled over. This kind of behavior was why most feared orcs among anything else.

While some may have been terrified by the savage display, Leo and Charlotte chuckled. This was because they knew something about Gruunsk that others didn't.

Despite his rage, despite his hulking muscles and skull-smashingly large hands, he was, in essence, a complete coward.

Whenever there was a conflict, Gruunsk was the first to retreat. He was the type that'd shout "every man for themselves" when faced with insurmountable odds and run, leaving his allies behind.

The lovers sat stood back and watched the carnage unfold with stifled fits of laughter.

As he took out his frustrations on various objects around the room, Leo and Charlotte noticed a particular detail on Gruunsk's neck. Like theirs, he had a strange brand.

It was the one that Cryptbreaker used to control his reanimated slaves. The one that maintained the risen's heartbeats, their personalities, and memories. The one that didn't create mere undead but renewed life.

Somehow, someway, Cryptbreaker was defying the world's universal law and raising the dead...fully.

A distinct feeling of unease welled up within Leo and Charlotte. Both felt natural fear toward the enigma that was Cryptbreaker. If he had the power to defy the world's unbendable laws...what did he need them for? What was his grand plan for them?!