ANDRY

The knight in the strange one-wheeled armor landed a few yards away, seemingly unharmed from the sonic blast. Andry chased after him and the two squared off, glaring at each other. Andry dropped into a fighting crouch, eyeing the odd Regalia warily.

“So it's a duel then,” the bandit said, an odd gravity to his screechy voice.

“I guess so,” Andry said.

“I already know who you, Andry of the Lion Regalia,” the bandit said. “So I will introduce myself. I am called Galzin, holder of the Einrad Regalia. You blood will drip from my sword this day.”

There was a drawn out moment of silence as the wind whistled between them.

“....later.”

“Hey!” Andry shouted, but Galzin had already turned to chase after Aurina. Andry ran after him, pumping as much auram as he could into his limbs. “Get back here!”

“Why should I?” Galzin called back. “You'll be easier to kill when you're all emotional 'cus I'm juggling your sister's head.”

“There's another knight up there with her! You sure you wanna do this two on one?”

“I can handle a little kid!” Galzin cackled confidently.

“Dammit,” Andry growled. The wheeled regalia seemed built for speed. Andry wasn't. Oh he could run faster and longer than anyone without auram in their bodies, but there was a reason Regalia users still used vehicles. Besides lions stalked their prey. He didn't have the cheetah regalia. In only a few moments Galzin disappeared over a hill.

Panic drove Andry faster than he'd ever run before, and the sounds of battle coming from the far side of the hill as he approached did nothing to calm him down. When he crested the hill himself, he looked down to see the jeep on it's side, Aurina trying to push it over and Galzin slashing his scimitars against the daggers of Rimni's Rat Regalia.

“Where have you been?” Rimni demanded, darting around the bandit.

“Running!” Andry panted. That had been stupid. He'd tired himself out for no reason.

“You're useless!”

“I'm not the one who let him turn over the jeep,” Andry pointed out. “And he was running atyou.”

Rimni just growled. Andry left him to deal with the bandit for now and ran over to the jeep, turning it back on its wheels with his auram infused strength.

“Thanks,” Aurian said.

“No problem,” Andry smiled. “You're my sister. And now that we're here, I've got a better plan. Hey squirt! Hurry up or we're gonna leave you behind!”

“You jerk!” Rimni snapped, darting away from the fight. Galzin's face was a picture of asolute confusion and rage. Andry smirked.

You can handle a little kid, huh?

Rimni dropped into the passenger seat of the jeep while Aurina climbed behind the wheel. Andry clambered up the back and sat there, facing behind them.

“Let's go,” Andry said.

“You're not getting away!” Galzin shrieked, racing after them on his regalia's spinning wheel.

“Alright you pain in the ass,” Andry said. “Let's try this again, only this time you gotta run towards me.”

He thrust his fist, firing a sonic blast in the bandit's direction. Galzin yelled and swerved to get out of the way, slowing down. But that just meant he couldn't dodge the second one that came right after. It only clipped him, but it sent the bandit reeling. He was back up and moving a few seconds later, but Andry was already firing again, a stead stream of sonic bursts from the lions on his fists.

“Hey that's actually pretty cool!” Rimni said appreciatively. “You're like a rear mounted cannon! Hey can you hear that bandit jerk? We've got a rear mounted lion!”

There was a garbled scream of frustration from behind them, and Galzin began to disappear into the distance.

“What if he goes back and helps the other one fight Tyram?” Aurina asked worriedly.

“Tyram's tougher than that guy,” Andry said confidently. “He'll sort himself out let's just get back to the village. The whole point was rescuing you, remember?”

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“Not like she really needed it,” Rimni said, almost sullenly. “She coulda told us she had a Regalia.”

“Wait what?” Andry asked.

“It's a long story I'll tell you later,” Aurina said. “Do you hear that? Almost sounds like the rotor fan on the robot harvesters.”

“You're right,” Andry darted his eyes around. “What is that?”

It took him longer than he was proud of to think of looking up. When he did it was almost too late. Galzin had his swords out to either side, spinning his body like a helicopter blade to lift himself into the air and give chase. By the time Andry noticed he was already in position. The bandit turned his upward spiral into a downward slash, curved blades plummeting towards the jeep.

“Everybody out!” Andry shouted, and all three of them dove out of the way as the bandit slashed the jeep to pieces. Aurina took off running into the weeds, and Andry nodded. Better that she try to get out of the way rather than getting mixed up in a fight when she didn't even have a working weapon, let alone a Regalia. Unfortunately, Galzin was still determined to chase after her. The bandit vanished into the fields of grain behind her. A few seconds later, they heard Aurina scream.

Andry and Rimni pelted through the grain after them to find Galzin standing outside the ruins of an old, rotting farmhouse. It took Andry a second to realize there wasn't actually any blood on his swords. In fact the bandit was looking around confused. Aurina must be hiding somewhere. Good.

Andry punched the confused bandit in the back of the head. The accompanying sonic blast threw him forwards through the house in a small explosion of wood and debris.

“Hey I remember now,” Andry said. “This is the old Fipkin's place. They abandoned it because of a flesh-mite infestation.”

“That sounds horrible,” Rimni said.

“Biggest problem we had around here before the bandits came.” Andry shrugged.

“This guy's kind of pathetic though,” Rimni pointed out. “I mean he's fast, but I don't think he fights other Regalia users much.”

With an inarticulate scream Galzin exploded out of the wreckage, swords flashing. A few feet before he reached Andry, Rimni darted under the swinging swords and kicked the wheel at the bottom of his Regalia. Galzin pitched forwards, and Andry met him with another sonic-blast uppercut. There was the sound of cracking bone, and the bandit spun away through the air as if launched by a catapult, blood trailing from every hole in his face. He landed with an ugly thump and lat still.

“Wow,” Rimni said. “Got'em. Okay, that wasn't bad.”

“Aurian?” Andry called out. “We got the bandit. Are you okay?”

“I'm fine!” Aurina's voice called out from the farmhouse, strangely distant. “I just...fell.”

They found her in the basement of the farmhouse, surrounded by dead flesh-mites. The bodies were rotting, but they'd all been neatly cut in half as if with a razor.

“Help me out of here!” She insisted. In the end, they had to dangle Rimni down by his ankles to grab her. But they got her out, then loaded up on Booky to head back to pick up Tyram and head back to the village.

JALGOZ

“Get that thing fixed!” Jalgoz roared as his men hurried to put the communications set back together. “I need to tell Grandfather we're not dead. I can't believe those pieces of shit interrupted my call.”

“There's a lot more than that we can't believe.” Jalgoz turned. His brothers stood in the hallway behind him, glaring. Well, Jurgo glared. Jayban just looked sort of more intensely disinterested. Jurgo was, unsurprisingly, the one talking. Jayban wouldn't waste energy talking if he could get someone else to do it. “Do you have any idea how big a mess this all is?”

“Yeah,” Jalgoz growled slowly. “It's one hell of a mess. But I got one question...where the hell were either of you?” He punched them both in the face. One good thing about Jarlo being gone was he finally had as many fists as he had brothers. They both went down clutching their new bruises as he towered over them, glaring. “I know my guys we sent out to get hostages got beat. I know we lost our own hostages. And I know they took the Chrumegoedon. But I don't know why you two were off somewhere with your thumbs up your asses while all that was happening!”

“We were in town!” Jurgo said petulantly, climbing to his feet. By “town” he meant Hadrim, planetary capital, the only thing vaguely like a city on the whole planet. “Picking up some...supplies.”

“Drinking and whoring,” Jalgoz snorted.

“Damnit Jalgoz don't get high and mighty with me!” Jurgo snapped back. “We're not the ones who lost the Churmegoedon. What are we supposed to trade for that ship you wanted now, huh? And if we're still based on this planet when Grandfather dies, Birger and the others will--”

“Do you think I don't know that?” Jalgoz bellowed. “Everybody knows that except the enforcers. I don't know how the knights found out about it, but they came and got it so they must know what it is. I know what will happen if we can't get off world soon, I know all about Birger and the rest of them, I'm the one who came up with the plan that's gonna save your sorry hides and I am working on making it happen. So how about you two get off my ass and start helping for a change!?”

“Everyone's so loud,” Jayban complained. “Come on bro, we just feel like you're not taking this very seriously is all.”

“I'd have an easier time taking that from someone who wasn't lying on the ground,” Jalgoz said.

“Standing's a lot of work,” Jayban complained.

Jalgoz shook his head in dismay. His brothers. Jarlo had just been an idiot, all around. But Jurgo and Jayban should have been stronger than Jalgoz. Jayban had more talent, Jurgo had more raw strength. But Jayban was terminally lazy, and Jurgo was painfully stupid. Neither of them had developed their fighting skills, their bodies, or their Regalia as much as Jalgoz had. He supposed he should be grateful for that, since it meant he got to be in charge, but it could be very, very frustrating sometimes.

“Well do it anyway!” Jalgoz sighed. “We're heading out as soon as I talk to Grandfather.”

“We're gonna attack the town again?” Jurgo said. “But what about the hostages they took? I mean I don't care if those idiots live or die, but a mutiny would be a real pain in the ass.”

“Lot of work,” Jayban agreed.

“Look around,” Jalgoz said. “Ain't you noticed yet? Right now they've got about as many of our men captured as we have still up and moving around.”

“But isn't that a better reason not to--”

“It means we either take care of it now or it doesn't get taken care of,” Jalgoz cut him off. “Or we quit, back off. Disappoint Grandfather. And lose the Churmegoedon for good.”

“You're right,” Jurgo shuddered. “We can't disappoint Grandfather. If Grandfather was mad at us and we had no way to get off world...”

“Yeah,” Jayban said, climbing to his feet. “Alright, I suppose I'm up. You're always the one with the plan, Jalgoz. What do we do?”