Xangô POV: Day 42
Current Wealth: 0 silver 0 copper
Current Debt: 6 gold 44 silver 20 copper
We sat around for quite some time, pondering the best time to stalk our way back to the site of combat and check which side had won. Fortunately, it didn’t take us long to stumble onto the obvious. We had a perfectly effective way of checking whether we’d secured a victory for our allies or not, and it was built into my head.
[Appraisal]
* Class: Revolutionary
* Level: 7
* Condition: Haggard
* Modifiers: +4 Speed, +2 Alertness
* Statistics: Strength 7(5), Speed 10(7), Dexterity 8(6), Stamina 6(3), Toughness 6, Alertness 8(7), Charisma 3, Intelligence 10
* Inventory: Jeans, T-shirt, flick knife, dagger
* Class abilities: Detect Element II
* Current Experience Points: 43/160
* Unspent Skillpoints: 2
My heart lurched in excitement at the sight of Solitaire’s level progression, and I quickly turned my gaze on Beam to verify.
[Appraisal]
* Class: Dragonknight
* Level: 6
* Condition: Haggard
* Modifiers: +1 Strength, +1 Speed, +1 Toughness
* Statistics: Strength 10(8), Speed 9(7), Dexterity 8(6), Stamina 9(7), Toughness 9, Alertness 8(7), Charisma 6, Intelligence 5
* Inventory: Jeans, flannel shirt, spear
* Class abilities: Beloved II
* Current Experience Points: 100/150
* Unspent Skillpoints: 2
I told my friends about the result, and after some quick mental maths from Solitaire, we’d established a few more facts. Namely, each level required 10 more experience to progress than the one before, and we’d managed to secure ourselves a haul of fucking 250 from this fiasco. It almost made the days spent shitting ourselves worth it.
And it wasn’t all we’d be getting.
“So, money.” Solitaire began, reading my mind as usual. “What are the odds we’re going to have some big, horrible man come up behind us and cut our throats when we go over to collect it?”
It was a rhetorical question, of course, Solitaire always thought people were trying to kill him. But this time he had a fair point. We’d tipped the scales a lot in our side’s favour, used the enemy’s disorganisation against them, fought hard- and, of course, the giant fucking bomb hadn’t hurt either. But that would be working against us, now.
The more men Hengrard had left, the more emboldened he’d feel to just kill us. After all, he had a lot of rebuilding to do, and we intended to demand quite a lot of money. So how to play it?
“I could sneak up on him.” Beam suggested. “Negotiate at knife point.”
So help me, I actually considered the suggestion. But no. The last thing we needed was to make this more volatile than it already was. Oddly enough, Solitaire was the one who came up with the ideal solution. I had to say, it was quite in-character. And it was a good one.
Good enough that we all agreed on it quickly, and moved to encircle the base. Outside it was a…Well, a warzone. Bodies piled around, blood spattered everywhere, discarded weapons being collected by those who remained on Hengrard’s staff. We waited, watching from afar, picking out a suitable mark. Then Beam came up behind the poor sod, clobbered him and dragged him into an alley with us.
Beam was the strongest, but Solitaire was by far scarier, so we had him speak to the poor guy. He was about our age, bless him, and trembling like it was a blizzard as the world’s angriest paranoid stared into his eyes.
“Make a sound and I’ll cut your balls off and stitch them onto your chin.” He snarled. The man seemed to believe him, and we waited a few moments to take the hand off his mouth.
“You know who we are?” I asked. He nodded without speaking, apparently taking the threat to heart. Good. “That’ll make this faster, then. We have a message for you to deliver to Hengrard.”
It didn’t take long to convey, the bastard was terrified enough that I could see him committing every word to memory even as I said them. He scurried away quickly, after that, leaving us to our own devices. I took the time to activate my Appraisal again.
[Appraisal]
* Class: Emperor
* Level: 7
* Condition: Worn
* Modifiers: +5 Toughness
* Statistics: Strength 5(4), Speed 5(4), Dexterity 6(5), Stamina 5(4), Toughness 9, Alertness 8, Charisma 9, Intelligence 8
* Inventory: Jeans, shirt, jacket, dagger
* Class abilities: Appraisal II
* Current Experience Points: 123/160
* Unspent Skillpoints: 1
So, only one level for me. A shame. Still I wasn’t complaining, if it meant I’d be that little bit tougher, I’d take it.
I could see the familiar looks of concentration on my friends’ faces, and no doubt the same one plastered itself across mine as I started pouring the Skillpoint into myself. It was easy, now, barely even a conscious decision. Within moments I had my choice allocated.
Strength, this time. I could still remember the sight of that bald giant barely blinking at my punches and kicks. I didn’t want to see that again, not when whatever I struck was killing my friend.
[Strength increased to 6, temporary Strength increased to 5]
I blinked. That was new, and convenient. Was it my Appraisal’s improvement? I’d be pretty disappointed if all my upgrade got me was a few skipped lines of text. I made a mental note to experiment later, eying Beam and Solitaire, in that order.
[Strength increased to 11, Toughness increased to 10]
[Alertness increased to 10]
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“Alertness?” I questioned Solitaire. He shrugged.
“I wasn’t faster, reactions-wise, even with all the extra Speed. There must be some stat that improves that, there’s plenty of people with inhuman reflexes in Redacle, so I’m betting on Alertness.”
My thoughts about spending an entire Skillpoint on some experiment were…Mixed, but before I could even say anything, I felt a sudden lurch of surprise as text flashed once more before my vision.
[Alertness, primary Characteristic. Governs reaction time, nerve conduction speed and awareness]
It took a second for the knowledge to sink in, and I grinned when it did. Experimentation was important, compiling information was vital, using what you knew to build even more knowledge was life-saving. But damn, did it feel good to just be handed free intel sometimes.
“What are you smiling at?” Solitaire asked, with his characteristic uncertainty. Beam looked curious too, and both of their faces lit up at my explanation.
“What did I do?” Beam demanded. “With the weird, glowy sword thing, can you tell me that?”
I frowned, eyed him, and got nothing. Fuck.
“Apparently not.”
He deflated, but didn’t look too surprised. Solitaire still had enough enthusiasm for all of us.
“Whatever that was, and I’m actually pretty sure it wasn’t in Redacle originally, it was definitely magical.”
We both stared at him, waiting to see where he was going with the observation, and he sighed.
“God, apes. Both of you. Beam can use fucking magic, geniuses. Maybe we can all use more magic, eh?”
That gave me pause. I was well familiar with all the kinds of magic our world had to offer- well, except for a certain olympian’s brand- but I’d never even given it any thought until now. Always assumed that it was beyond us. We weren’t born here, were we?
…But we’d gained other abilities in the transit. My Appraisal, Solitaire’s Detect Element, and whatever it was Beam had done, I’d bet it was called Beloved. If we could get abilities like that, why not the native magic of our world?
It was a dangerous thought, because it flirted with the most terrible emotion a person could feel in times like these. Hope. But damn, if it wasn’t tempting to just indulge for a moment.
“We’ll need to test it.” I said at last, and Solitaire nodded. “It will cost money.” I added, and he nodded again.
“We’re about to get money.” He noted. “Or die, at which point I imagine we’ll be past caring.”
Horrible sense of humour, as always. I wouldn’t have laughed at all if it weren’t for the adrenaline still churning away in my veins. We stood there together, killing more minutes with conversation and planning until we caught movement from the building. It was Hengrard, walking carefully out, and with only a single man following him.
He seemed nervous. Good, that meant he was taking us seriously.
I moved out to meet him, marching on alone, and bidding my friends goodbye. For now. It was a damned scary thing to be doing, but there was no helping it, this negotiation wouldn’t work if we all showed up together.
We’d arranged a meeting spot some miles from the base, and both Hengrard and I reached it around the same time. Standing in an alleyway, face to face, shivering from the cold and panting from the brisk walks.
It was the very same place his men had beaten us near to death. Perhaps a bit overdramatic, as far as meeting spots went, but I reckoned I’d earned a bit of melodrama.
“You saved my skin.” Hengrard noted, eying me impassively. I eyed him back. Said nothing.
“You and your brothers are dangerous men.” He continued. “Powerful, and getting more powerful, hm? If you wrangled five gold from me in a few weeks, I’ve no doubt you’ll be sitting on a lot more before long. And you all seem to have a knack for killing.”
That, at last, was blatantly untrue. I was known for my fighting ability in the same way fire was for its water resistance. I let him talk, though, already fairly sure where this was going.
“Unfortunately, you’re too dangerous to leave alive. I can’t pay you, not with my operation the way it is, and I can’t afford to leave a group like you with no less than two grudges against me. Where are your brothers?”
His man came up around him, then, moving with the telltale grace I’d come to expect from those with levels in excess of 1, and Skillpoints spent on raising physical Characteristics. I Appraised him silently.
[Level 6, Strength 8, Speed 7, Toughness 8, Alertness 7]
There was a meat cleaver in his hand, a big one. If we fought he’d probably kill me, and if I ran, in my condition, he might well chase me. So I did the only thing I could do.
I spoke.
“They’re behind you.”
He didn’t believe me at first, but his man did. Glancing back to see that Solitaire and Beam really were walking up at the pair’s back. Solitaire had one man slung over his shoulder, blood dripping from an opened-up neck. Beam held two.
They’d been the men Hengrard had sent to follow him from a few hundred paces back, and close in to ambush us after he lured us in for the deal. Predictable, as far as betrayals went.
The gangster got a single word out of his lips before Solitaire spoke with all the niceties of a drill sergeant.
“Fuck off, or you’ll die with your moron boss.”
He didn’t take long to respond, turning and sprinting away without another word. Hengrard eyed us all, thought for an instant, then turned to run.
Something flashed in the air, a knife. Solitaire’s. He wasn’t a bad shot, landing it neatly beneath the man’s rib cage and sending him scraping to his knees. We were all on him before he could rise, kicking, punching, stomping. Something happened to the three of us that I can’t quite explain. I guess it’s similar to the feeling that overcomes gangs when they egg each other on into lynching someone. A sort of group fury, fuelled by our memory of what he’d done to us- our discovery of what he’d tried to do again- something that grabbed all our collective savagery, and dragged it up to ever higher levels.
By the time we were finished, his corpse wasn’t recogniseable as having ever been his. Head smashed open, brains splattered out, bits of bone jutting from the wreck. We all took a seat by the mess we’d made, and talked.
We talked about our new home, because somewhere between arrival and stomping people to death it had actually sunk in that we wouldn’t be leaving. We talked about our financial position, everything we’d lost, gained, and might still steal back from Hengrard’s gang while they were disorganised without him. We talked about shelter, and how we were all sick of living exposed, rubbing elbows with the savage morons who made this land their home.
And in the process, we decided on our next move. Because something the smarmy bastard had said before we killed him had stuck with me. We had gained a lot in these last few weeks. And our biggest payoff by far had come by killing humans, not monsters.
Which more or less made our decision for us. After all, Redacle was a very mercenary world.
Might as well be mercenaries ourselves.