He had to pull hard to get the hatch to budge. The pressure inside the bridge being considerably higher than the void of space. Once the seal was breached, he had to hold on even tighter, as the suction caused by the air being vented into the room below threatened to slam it closed again. Enhanced strength or not, it was a battle he almost lost, that was, until Nine pushed the shaft of her spear into the gap to keep it from closing.

“Thanks,” he said between panting breaths.

“You’re a real freak, you know that?” Nine said in return, the light in her eyes taking any potential sting from the words.

“…thanks,” Ethan said again, somewhat unsure. Their conversation, such as it was, ended there. Since they were both too distracted by the storm being whipped up to continue.

For a moment, Ethan thought the bridge was burning. As everywhere he looked, the small potted oaks, and the creeping fig vines, were turning to ash. Ash that was being captured in the suction still flowing into the small gap between bridge and cargo hold below. Then, his mana sense picked up on what was happening, and he understood. Luna was draining her creations to ashes, to fuel her expansion. It wasn’t just the plants now, the stoats, and the goblins were beginning to crumble away too, as their mana, the force that sustained their very lives, was syphoned away.

With a feeling of horror, Ethan felt a slight tug against his own mana pool as well. Not waiting to see how much Luna would pull from him, Ethan grabbed Nine up in one arm and darted from the bridge. The draw on his pool ceased the moment he moved out of Luna’s domain, and Ethan let out a sigh, before dropping a very confused Nine back to the floor. Checking to be sure he was entirely outside Luna’s domain, Ethan filled her in quickly.

“Luna is sucking all the mana from her creations to fuel her expansion. I felt a draw on my own pool and decided not to test her restraint.” At Nine’s emphatic nod, Ethan turned his attention back to the bridge beyond the still open hatch.

Everything had turned black. Luna had ashed every living thing she’d built to that point. Moreover, since the cargo space under the bridge was of a similar size to the bridge itself, plus the fact the gap between was so small, it was taking a while for the air levels to stabilize.

“Poor Davis,” Nine said with a dry chuckle. “The kid must be so confused right now, getting an ash bath wasn’t part of the original plan. Ethan, who was only half listening, nodded. Most of his attention was fixed on the movement of mana. Watching, or feeling he supposed was more accurate, as it gathered up around the small orb he could now see shining through the storm of ashes once more, glowing even brighter than the soft glow given off by the walls. Before it surged through the hatch to spread out and cover every inch of surface area below. Where it slowly sunk in. Until, as the ash twister settled away to nothingness, the walls below were now glowing the clear blue he associated with Luna’s core.

“It’s done,” he said at last, walking back into the bridge. Where he was instantly gripped by a mental hand, and his mana was rapidly drained away. It flew from him, so fast he thought that if he’d been able to open his eyes, he might even see it happening. Until, when he only had a few dregs left in the tank, the suction stopped.

“Ethan,” Nine said, rushing to his side as he collapsed. “What happened?” As she helped him sit up, Ethan looked up to see the ceiling was now covered in creeping fig, and five stoats were huddled together around the ship’s core looking out like a protective detail.

Sorry about that, Captain.

Luna projected out for everyone to see. Including the ensign, who’d just come up through the floor hatch, covered in ashes.

When you left the room, you deprived me of some much-needed mana. I had to burn everything I had to finish the expansion. Thanks to your donation upon your return, however, I now have a fresh source of passive mana to work with.

Ethan, who’d suffered full mana drain several times before, was already well on the way to recovery. Breathing shallowly, since the oxygen levels were currently lower than normal, he felt himself over. Something his shaking hands had a tough time with, since Nine was busy doing the same thing.

“Luna,” he said in a low voice, climbing to his feet with the help of a worried Nine. “If you ever draw mana from me again without my permission… and I do mean ever, for any reason… I will crush your core myself and damn the consequences. Do you understand me?”

Since the consequences you are referring to would mean the end of your life. I somewhat doubt your sincerity. Still, I shall endeavor not to drain your mana again without a warning first. Though, I will make no promises where my existence is concerned. You must understand that, Captain.

“Hey, Ethan.” The Ensign called, having been too distracted by something on the ground to pay attention to Ethan’s hushed tones or read the writing Luna projected into the air. “Where did this exoskeleton come from?”

“What does she mean when she says you will die?” Nine asked at almost the same time.

That exoskeleton belongs to the Captain.

Luna answered both of them before Ethan had a chance to say anything.

The Captain suffered from an advanced case of the wasting disease when he boarded my ship. His brother, my former captain, brought him out here to heal him using kill energy. Captain Ethan was injured and almost died during the crash. I extended a contract to him that would both save him and hold the wasting disease at bay with mana. Not to mention all the physical advantages he enjoys. All for the low price of protecting my core for the rest of his life.

“Oh, damn. That’s kinda heavy dude.” Davis said, after reading the words with a distracted frown. “But you’re healed, right? That’s good, right?” He said, looking back down at the exoskeleton with longing. “Sooo, if you don’t need it anymore, can I use this thing? I’ve got something in mind that I’m sure you’ll like.”

“What the hell, kid?” Nine snapped, having an entirely different reaction to the words than Davis. “Show a little respect will you, he’s bound…” weak as she still was, Nine was working herself up into a proper rage.

“It’s fine, Nine.” Ethan said, placing his hand on her shoulder. “We can talk about it later, but now’s not the time.” Turning to the ensign, who was suddenly looking bashful, he continued. “Don’t worry about it kid. I’m sure from your prospective it seems like a win-win… anyway, you can have the suit. I honestly hate looking at the thing.” Having said his peace, Ethan moved to the newly uncovered command chair and reached down to grab the orb up from the midst of the five snarling stoats.

Captain, may I ask what you are doing?

Luna asked, letters appearing in his vision since he was looking down and holding a hint of worry behind them.

“What’s the matter Luna?” He asked with a weak laugh, “thought you didn’t believe me? Any of those stoats’ bite me though, and I’ll kill them all, burn the figs, and wait for you to go full automaton before I interact with you again.” Threat delivered, Ethan plucked the blue glowing orb from between the five, now cowering, stoats.

“I’m just going to sit down,” he added, shewing the rodents off the command chair before sitting down. Then as if noticing something for the first time, he asked. “Luna… I didn’t notice before, since the bridge was covered in debris, and creeping fig since I first woke up… But what happened to the command console?” Looking around now, Ethan didn’t know how he had missed its absence. It was a table sized display Mark used to command the ship. It also projected the holo screen on the front wall of the ship. Now, with the plants being burned away completely, its absence was obvious.

The command console was damaged beyond repair. So, in the interest of free space, I absorbed it, along with all the other broken or unnecessary equipment on the bridge. Don’t worry though Captain, I am perfectly capable of flying the ship without any of those things. Once you get me a mana engine and battery that is. Any idea when you will be able to acquire those things? The sooner you do, the sooner we can get off this rock you know.

“But, how…” Davis started to say, before Ethan cut him off.

“You’re right Luna,” he said the words after exchanging a silent glance with Nine, who seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he was. “We’ll work on that next. But tell me, how does it feel to have your domain expanding again?”

Good, I’m glad to know your priorities are in the right place. The expansion is wonderful, though I don’t have enough creatures to fill it yet. Something I would like to focus on, if you don’t mind.

“Then, If you’re done with us for now Luna, I’d like to borrow Ethan and the ensign to go over plans to restore more of your hull and recover the mana equipment you need to be space worthy again.” Even as she spoke, Nine was ushering Ethan and Davis off the bridge, not waiting for the ship core to respond. Ethan, who’d been shoved out of the seat he’d only just taken, set the core back down before leaving.

“So, what do you have in mind to fix the rest of the ship?” Davis asked when they’d entered Nine’s room and closed the door. The kid was already busy raiding the crate filled with ration packs, working around the war dog resting on the floor, he handed a pair of them to Ethan, who clearly needed to eat. “I don’t know how wise it would be to do exterior work with emergency panels, but we don’t have anything else to hand. Nothing that Luna can replicate anyway. Not to mention the fact that its going to take her a few days to build her mana back up…”

“Forget the repairs, Kid.” Nine snapped once it became clear he wasn’t going to stop talking anytime soon. “You didn’t see it, because you were too busy drooling over Ethan’s old prison, but Luna all but told us she’d drain Ethan to death if it means getting her into space faster.” Nine had grabbed a ration pack too, though unlike Ethan, who couldn’t be bothered to heat them, she’d pulled the heat tab on hers and was waiting for it to warm.

“It’s not worth getting upset over.” Ethan said, since it was clear the kid had no idea what to say now. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I became a dungeon boss. What she said is true though. I’m stronger than ever, can recover super-fast, and I’ve been able to help you recover a little too. It’s not that bad right now. Besides, it won’t matter if we never get off this asteroid anyway, will it?” Did Ethan believe what he just said, not really, but he didn’t see a point in making all three of them worried about it.

“that’s bullshit Ethan and you know it.” Nine snapped, turning her angry blue glare on him. “Not to mention how stripped the bridge is.” She continued including Davis in her glare now. “The command console is gone. There are no computers, no monitors, no sensor packs. Nothing one would normally find on the bridge of a spaceship. She absorbed anything and everything we could have used to fly this ship without her direct intervention.”

“I noticed that too,” Ethan said, while Davis nodded. “But does that really matter? She said the ship can’t be flown without a ship core. So, as long as we have Luna…”

“If the ship couldn’t be flown with a command console and monitoring screens and all the computers. Then why did they get installed in the first place, and why did she feel the need to take them all away.”

“Maybe she just wanted the blueprints.” Davis said with a shrug, “she’ll need to expand throughout the whole ship eventually. As it stands, she only had one room. Now, she still only has the bridge and the cargo hold.”

“That doesn’t fit.” Nine said with a shake of her head. “If she was supposed to have blueprints, I think she would have them already… and don’t give me that she somehow lost them all excuse Ethan. I think it is far more likely she wasn’t allowed to absorb anything before, and the crash somehow freed her from whatever constraints she’d been under. With her personality, there’s no way she wouldn’t have made herself known to you in some way, over eight months of traveling on board this ship. If she had the ability.” Ethan was forced to nod at that. The way Luna had acted since she’d gotten a few mana under her belt had been nothing short of hostile.

“I’m not seeing the problem,” Davis said with another shrug. “She’s a ship core. No one really knows anything about them. Maybe the captains all do but keep it on the low. Besides, she’s only expanded into the cargo hold. Not much she can hurt down there. And it’s always possible the command console really was damaged beyond repair. You saw how badly crumpled the nose of the ship was. It wouldn’t surprise me if…” Even as he was speaking, Ethan and Nine had made eye contact when he mentioned the cargo hold. Both their minds seemingly jumping to the handful of crates that were secured to the wall down there.

Two minutes later, the pair of them, with a very confused Davis following behind, opened the hatch in the improvised wall Davis had made, and looked into the cargo hold Luna had claimed. The walls glowed softly with the lights Ethan associated with Luna. Revealing a room that was completely empty, apart from the ensign’s tool kit.

“Damn it,” Nine said bitterly. “We should have looked in those crates before we let Luna have access.” Ethan nodded, noting the absence of the three coffins that held the old crew member’s bodies as well. A bitter taste filled his mouth, and he was just glad he’d put Mark outside her reach.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

“So, what do we do now?” Davis asked, looking much younger than his twenty years. “Luna isn’t human, she might not understand what she’s doing is something we wouldn’t like. Besides, unless we find another ship, she really is our only way home, and… without her, Ethan…”

“Without her, Ethan is a dead man.” Nine spat out, before taking a deep breath. “But… you have a point. So, here’s what we’re going to do. First, Davis is going to retrieve his tool kit. While Ethan and I will grab the leftover emergency panels from out here. I don’t want you inside her domain again until we figure out how to keep you safe from her mana drain… Then, we’re going to make new armor.”

“What’s wrong with my armor? I worked on it for hours you know.” Ethan said, upset at how often he’d been ribbed over how his armor looked, and really not wanting to think about getting ashed.

“Apart from how spaced out the panels are, not much.” Nine said with a shrug seemingly ok with the subject change. “But after you get stabbed twice with spears, and a dog bites through the gaps once or twice… I think you can admit it could use some work…” Ethan really couldn’t argue the point, so he only shrugged. Davis didn’t say a word, clearly cowed by the weak woman’s strong personality.

“Next, once your mana pool or whatever you’re calling it, is filled up all the way. You are going to finish healing the war dog, and I’ve got a few experiments in mind for you to run too. It’s still fairly early in the day. But we are going to spend the rest of the day, and night, preparing ourselves.”

“What are we preparing for, exactly?” Davis asked, clearly uneasy at the direction the conversation was going. Ethan didn’t blame the kid. Their situation wasn’t good to start with, now it looked even worse.

“We’re going out foraging.” She said with a wicked grin, hoisting the taser rifle up, from where it hung over her shoulder to emphasize the point.

* * *

Nine hadn’t been kidding when she said they’d be working all night. They’d scavenged through all the rooms, looking for anything useful, before getting to work on the armor. Ethan had to admit once his set was finished, that it was considerably better than what he’d made on his own. In concept, the suits were the same. Emergency panels cut and shaped to cover his vitals, sewn into a skinsuit’s durable fabric to keep it all in place. Where it differed was the size and placement of the armored plates. He wasn’t sure how they’d done it, but the Davis, Nine duo had managed to cut thin slices from the panels and mount them on the inside of the skinsuit. Allowing them to glue the plates through the fabric without compromising integrity with all the holes, he’d been forced to drill around the edges.

Nine had maximized the size of the vital plates where she could, and where she couldn’t, she’d shaped them into diamond shaped scales. Allowing for a full body covering that his old armor could never match. It was heavier, and a little less flexible, but in every other way it was superior to his old armor. To his surprise, he wasn’t the only one to receive new armor either. As both Davis and Nine now sported new suits themselves. Though in their cases, Nine had skipped the large plates and simply covered them with the smaller, thinner, and lighter, diamond scales.

They’d run short of materials pretty quickly, not to mention food, and Nine had gone into the bridge to discuss using Ethan’s mana pool, which was currently much larger than Luna’s, to get what they needed made. Ethan hadn’t been allowed in during the talks, but he watched Nine stun all of Luna’s stoats, even going so far as to step on one of their heads, killing the poor creature, before they reached an understanding.

Ethan had been drained twice by Luna in order to give them the skinsuits, emergency panels, adhesive and ration packs they would need for an extended trip away from the ship. As well as a few other odds and ends, such as bullets, flashlights, things like that. None of that, apart from her methods, had come as a surprise to Ethan. She’d told them right up front they were heading out after all. No, what had come as a surprise had been the experiments she wanted him to try after he healed the war dog to full health.

“… you want me to do what now?” He’d asked when she told him her plan.

“It’s not that complicated,” Nine had said with exasperation. “I want you to envision Crescent here, as being the size of a pony and being covered with bone plates.” As she spoke, she pointed at the war dog, Ethan had healed back to full health a little while ago.

“Who’s Crescent?” Davis asked, coming into the room to grab a few emergency panels. He was set up in Dale’s room, doing whatever he’d planned to do with Ethan’s old exoskeleton. There wasn’t enough room for all three of them, plus the eleven animals, to share the small ten by twelve-foot space. Not and have any room to work at any rate.

“It’s what I named the war dog,” Nine said, now pointing specifically to the dog’s shoulder blade where the injury had been. Ethan had healed it, but there was still a scar. A scar that looked remarkably like a crescent moon.

“Oh cool,” Davis said, before hurrying back out of the room again.

“But what makes you think I can even do that in the first place?” Ethan asked, getting back on topic now that the kid had left. “I haven’t had much luck with any of the experiments I’ve tried to date. Hell, it took me an entire night of trial and error to figure out how to heal you. And since I did, you haven’t let me heal you once.” He said, pointedly bringing up how she kept putting him off.

“I’m feeling a lot better, thank you very much.” Nine said, glossing over how tired she clearly was after all the work they’d done. “Besides, we’re going out soon. I’ll get all the kill energy I could want here soon enough… but not if you don’t hurry up and work with me here. Now. Try. It’s a war dog, the armored war dog was the same only larger. It stands to reason that a war dog can become an armored war dog. Maybe it’s an adult version or something. I don’t know, and you don’t know, that you can’t do it, until you try.”

Ethan hadn’t been able to argue that, so, he’d tried. It had been both parts success and failure. As the war dog’s body had soaked up all the mana he’d pushed into it, but hadn’t changed in any measurable way. The conclusion was that it was going to require more mana than they had time to spare at the moment, and that next recharge they would try to grow the stoats.

That experiment proved more fruitful. Fiftyish, units of mana had swelled the tiny rodent to the size of a ferret. Though there was considerable loss in the transfer. Nine instructed him to spend all his mana as he got it, pushing it into one of the stoats. To see if there was a hard cap to growth, or if it might mutate after it reached a certain threshold.

“I mean, Ok.” Ethan said with a shrug, “but what is the point of this anyway. They’re just stoats and a war dog. Luna can make more of them whenever she wants.”

“Yes, Ethan.” Nine said as if he’d just provided the answer himself. “Luna can make more of them. Not you. These ten stoats and one war dog are a resource, one I’d be surprised if she will give you again. Not unless you can make it worth her while in some way. As such, we can’t afford to waste it. Each time an enemy attacks one of these creatures, it’s an attack they aren’t sending at you, or me, or Davis. So, making them as durable as possible only makes sense, yea?”

The night passed in that way. Davis sequestered in his room, working on his pet project. Ethan assisting Nine with her preparations, while pumping his mana into a stoat whenever his pool got over half full. It was tiring work, and Ethan spent almost half his time eating. To the point where Nine decided they’d need to get another two hours’ worth of ration packs from Luna before they left. In addition to that, two more oxygen scrubbers for Nine and Davis. These two went together much quicker than the one Ethan had made, thanks entirely to Davis’s knowledge rather than Ethan’s experience from making the first one.

By the time morning came and Nine told everyone to get a few hours of sleep, Ethan was in such a state of exhaustion, coupled with the nausea mana drain brought on, that he honestly couldn’t say what was in the bags they’d prepared the night before. What he did know, however, was they now had a stoat the size of a small badger, which hadn’t hit any sort of hard mana cap yet. As well as a war dog wearing a set of armor, very similar to the ones Ethan and his companions wore.

* * *

When Ethan woke up, his mind felt clear for the first time in, well he wasn’t sure how long. Stretching his arms and popping his back, Ethan sat up. Glancing around he realized he’d fallen asleep in Nine’s room. The woman herself was seated on the edge of her bed, clearly waiting for him to wake up. She wore her new armor. The small diamond scales the same grey as his own, only looking more refined somehow, more polished perhaps? She didn’t bother with shoes, considering her feet were prosthetics, she really didn’t need them, and there was a goblin spear leaning against her thigh, while the Martian taser rifle was slung over one shoulder. The thing held ten pre-charged rounds, and she’d negotiated with Luna to create twenty more last night.

“Sorry, did I keep you waiting?” Ethan asked, climbing the rest of the way to his feet. Looking around, he realized most of the bags they’d packed up the night before were nowhere to be found. “Where is everything?”

“We’ve been up for a few hours,” Nine said, climbing to her own feet and throwing a small bag over her shoulders. Despite its small size, the bag nevertheless looked large when compared to her small frame. “Don’t worry about it though. I put the kid to work, loading everything up, but I wanted you to be fully rested for the trip out. No matter what we encounter out there, you’re going to be our front man. So, we need you in good shape before we go.”

“Understandable,” Ethan said, looking to the last bag in the room. “I get the axe then?” He asked, looking at the hobgoblin’s war axe, which leaned against the bag. Right beside a round shield constructed from emergency panels. It was something like two feet across and had a loop on it so it could be carried over the shoulder.

“Of course,” Nine said with a scoff. “Davis isn’t a fighter, and despite my charming personality I’m really not up to swinging that thing around. Besides, I’m going to be using this bad boy.” She added, patting the taser rifle’s stock to indicate what she meant. “When the time comes for me to get into combat, I plan to use a spear. Long range, and thrusting will be less a strain on me then slashing… and if you say ‘that’s what she said’… I swear to mother moon.”

“Say… what who said?” Ethan asked, a bit confused, not sure exactly what she meant. With a dramatic sigh, Nine just shook her head at him.

“I really don’t know what to make of you sometimes.” She said with a crooked smile, then she slapped him on the arm and said. “Come on big guy, the kids waiting outside with the animals. I told him I’d wake you up and head out. You can follow me to the last hatch, then lock the doors after me. You can climb out the back hatch, that way, the ship should be as protected as we can make it until we come back.”

“Sure thing,” Ethan said, with a nod. “But all these preparations… how long do you plan on being away from the ship anyway? I mean, where else can we go?”

“I don’t know,” Nine said, already walking away. “Is there really anything here for us though? This place has lights, and Luna can produce ration packs. Ration packs she makes you pay for from your own mana pool I might add. Why don’t we go out and see what there is to see? If there really is nothing else out there, then we’ll come back. But until then…” She shrugged, not bothering to look back as she walked outside and shut the door behind her, leaving Ethan to lock the hatches and climb out just as she’d said.

“What the heck?” He asked, shock written all over his face, once he’d reached the lip of the ship and could see Nine and Davis standing in the trench behind the ship.

“Pretty sick right?” Davis asked, taking a slow turn. “I had to steal a few batteries from Dale and James’s rooms, and the power cells won’t last long under this load… but overall, I’m happy with the outcome.”

“I can see why,” Ethan said, as he watched the kid do a slow turn. He was wearing Ethan’s old exoskeleton. Only, it had been heavily modified. Before, it had essentially been a frame that strapped to his torso, along with both his arms and legs. There were straps that hooked onto his limbs, and the machine worked basically as an amplification tool. Whatever motion he made was amplified many times over by the suit. His legs were too weak to hold his weight, but the suit could. His muscles couldn’t make him walk, but they could twitch in a manner that resembled walking. The suit took it from there, amplifying the movements and letting him use his body almost like he would be able to without the suit… only, not really. It had been bulky, and the suit’s hands, controlled by slipping his own hands inside the forearms and waggling switches around, were the size of dinner plates. Somewhat hard to live normally when you couldn’t open a soda can without fear of smashing it.

That had been before. Now, it looked like nothing so much as a small mecha. Davis had added several supporting rods and affixed emergency plate armor around the entire thing. So that what once was a simple skeletal frame, designed to help someone walk, was now a completely enclosed suit of armor. The only thing that spoiled the imagery of an ancient knight of the battlefield, was the massive crate strapped to the suit’s back. A crate that was loaded down with all the rations, weapons, clothing, and whatever other odds and ends Nine and Davis had managed to pack in there.

“Nine and I were talking while you were asleep.” The kid said once he was facing Ethan again, his head was barely visible inside the suit, only a narrow opening had been left for him to see through, and even that was covered by a space helmet’s clear shielding. Probably the one from Ethan’s old broken helmet, if the minor cracks were any indication. “If it’s ok with you, I’d like to start by going back to the remains of the tower ship, as you called it. This suit goes through batteries like crazy, and that ship had several of them up in the medical pod room. Along with several other potential goodies we could make use of.”

“Sure, it’s close by and I really don’t see why not. The crater is over a mile across, but that’s really not that big, when you consider it’s all the breathable atmosphere there is for us on this asteroid.” An asteroid, that Ethan didn’t even know the size of. It was from a planet after all. It could curve around just outside his sight line, or it could be the size of his home, the moon.

Getting the nod of approval from Nine, the trio set off. Only waiting long enough to load up the stoats into hard sided carriers on their backs. Davis carried the two largest stoats, while Ethan and Nine had four of the smaller ones each. The war dog, Crescent, walked at Nine’s side, keeping her company, and providing her with some protection.

Ethan walked at the head of the group, feeling good about the preparations they’d made. That feeling of confidence lasted until they walked into the forest. A forest that seemed to have expanded closer to the Luna since the last time he’d been out here. No sooner did they enter the tree line, than the kid stepped on a downed branch. The cracking sound was instantly followed by a loud howl in the near distance.

“Sorry guys,” Davis said, fumbling for a large shield Ethan hadn't noticed before, while taking in the armored exoskeleton.

“Don’t worry about it,” Nine said, walking up to stand beside the kid, whose exoskeleton towered nearly two feet above her head. “The whole point of coming out here was, in part, to farm kill energy, remember?” Ethan saw the kid nod, before raising the shield to cover both himself and Nine, who used the lip of the shield as a rest for the taser rifle.

“What… ah…” Ethan said, looking between the two who clearly had talked about more than where they were going while he’d been asleep. It was probably a good thing because he didn’t have a plan. Still, it would have been nice if they’d have told him what it was beforehand.

“Don’t worry about it.” Nine said, readjusting her footing as the howling sounded off, much closer than before. “Just get ready, if I miss anything it will be up to you to take it out.” With those words they were out of time to prepare, as the first goblin rider came into view.

Leaving the shield on his back, Ethan raised the axe up in both hands, ready to swing it the moment the rider came within his reach. He took a deep breath, trying to let out all his anxiety on the exhale, as a second, then a third rider came into his sightline. Finally, the fourth and final rider could be seen. While the first to appear was no more than ten feet away. Before he had a chance to wonder what Nine was doing, muffled shots rang out, the pneumatic powered taser rifle shooting out one pre-charged taser round after another.

She hit the war dogs first. Starting with the lead mount. Ethan watched in wide eyed amazement, while they all went down, each letting out shrieks of pain, as the electrical shock tore through their systems. Next, Nine turned the rifle on the goblins themselves. In a similar amount of time as it took her to shoot the dogs, roughly six seconds, the goblins were writhing in agony as well. Just like that, the fight was over.

“We each get two,” Nine said, her voice completely steady. “A rider and their mount. Crescent will take the other two kills. Hopefully the energy will help turn him into an armored war dog.” Without waiting for a reply, the small woman walked forward and slammed the blade of her spear into the lead goblin’s neck, then followed it up with a strike to the war dog’s throat as well. Turning around, she noticed Ethan and Davis staring at her, mouths open. “What?” She asked, as blood dripped from the end of her spear, and kill energy pulsed throughout her system, strengthening her disease riddled body.

“Just who are you?” Ethan asked with awe.