Kaleb joined Wulkun in firing up at the floating Master of the Faceless. He hoped that the Brute Clan would charge the mansion quickly. But until they did, he and the others would have to either fight or run. Glancing over at his two friends he saw Wulkun concentrating on his aim and Roy swinging wildly at other Faceless on the stairs.

The younger Nova swung his two batons in wide arcs. More intent on keeping the two or three Faceless from coming down the stairs then hitting anyone. We have to get off the stairs, at least. Kaleb thought. They were being jammed between Faceless members downstairs and the large brawl going on in the lobby. They were keeping The Master busy for now, but eventually the tall masked man would deal with their constant barrage somehow.

“Roy!” Kaleb shouted as he vented his Cybar pistol.

“Yeah?”

“Get ready to move. We are going for the door.”

Kaleb shared a nod with Wulkun before he shouldered his way through the melee below. Kaleb heard Wulkun stop firing his gun and chase after him through the crowd followed closely by Roy. Pushing and shoving his way through the crowd, Kaleb heard The Master growl angrily before a shower of white daggers fell on the crowd.

The pain in Kaleb’s leg flared a little as the crowd pushed him this way and that. Wulkun kept his head low and helped push Kaleb forward through the crowd. The crowd shouted and yelled in pain as The Master’s attack rain down on them. Kaleb thought he heard Roy scream in pain, but he couldn’t turn and look. The daggers weren’t large, but The Master’s power propelled them quickly through the air.

“You bunch of half-animal bastards can get the hell out of my house!” Shouted the Master as the rain of white daggers seemed to slow.

“He’s loosing steam! Get’em!” Someone shouted from the crowd.

Kaleb stopped pushing his way through the crowd as a shadow appeared above him. Looking up, Kaleb saw a humanoid with the head of a rabbit leaping through the air. The rabbit-headed person sailed through the air aiming a kick at The Master who still floated fifteen feet above the foyer. Kaleb thought the balls on the rabbit must have been huge. The Master’s powers seemed to have slowed, but he was not powerless right now. He could still throw around plenty of sharp objects.

Sure enough, before the brave rabbit landed his kick The Master spun around on his floating platform. The Master tensed his body and summoned his power, forcing the rain of daggers to stop. The rabbit twisted in mid-air trying to avoid whatever the master had planned for him. But it was too late, The Master thrust his arms forward and white spears appeared in front of his hands, impaling the rabbit-man through the neck and chest.

There was an audible gasp from behind Kaleb at the gruesomeness of the act and the lobby seemed to grow quiet for several seconds. The almost as one, the members of the Phreaks seemed to surge upward. All trying to get at the floating Master.

The crowd surged around Kaleb as he resumed pushing his way toward the front door. The temperature in the room fluctuated like mad as different Magic users tossed spells upward. The Faceless in the crowd did their best to stem the onslaught on their leader. But most went down in a pile of bodies. The Faceless’ limited numbers were catching up with them.

Kaleb sighed as he pushed his way past a bipedal rhino-looking person and out the door. He heard Wulkun cough and sputtered behind him as they kept moving toward the Mansion’s gate. There were far fewer Phreaks out in the courtyard and most didn’t stop them as they moved. Once they arrived at the gate Kaleb turned and smiled at his two friends. Only, he was missing one.

“Where’s Roy?”

Wulkun panted loudly and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t… know.” He pointed over his shoulder at the mansion adding. “Must… Still be inside.”

“Fuck!” Kaleb shouted starting back toward the mansion. We he noticed Wulkun following him he turned. “Not you. You keep moving toward the Brute Clan. They should be on their way. Once you meet up with them, get back to camp.”

“We are not leaving you in there. Once I meet up with our Clan, we will march on this Mansion and burn it to the ground.” Wulkun said with a finality the brooked no argument.

Kaleb kept his mouth shut. He didn’t have time to argue, Roy was still inside probably hurt. Nodding at the old lizard, Kaleb turned and ran back toward the mansion. Thankfully, the rhino-person had charged through the side of the door, widening it a little more. As Kaleb entered, he saw that the melee had moved further in. The Faceless now battled on the stairs as their leader rained down concentrated fire on the Phreaks in the lobby.

Kaleb shuffled along the right side wall and looked around. The Faceless were retreating up the stairs as their rival gangs charged them. The narrow staircases helped mitigate the Phreak’s larger numbers. Forcing most to deal with the floating asshole that was The Master. The Phreaks were throwing whatever pottery and furniture they could get their hands on up at him. The Master would dodge or block the projectiles then return fire with those odd white daggers he constructed.

On the right side of the room as Kaleb moved, he noticed a small group of Phreaks huddled around something. As he moved forward, he heard them arguing about something and when he got closer; he saw Roy on the ground. A group of Phreaks surrounded him and he held one of his stun batons up defensively. Roy had white daggers sticking out of his left shoulder and leg, but Kaleb couldn’t see anymore than that.

“Hehehehehe we have to kill him just to be sure.” laughed a scratchy-voiced hyena-headed humanoid. He was crouched down near Roy giggling manically.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“We don’t know if he is one of the Faceless. He says he isn’t.” Said a bug-eyed human standing nearby.

A female with a human face but with whiskers and sharp teeth hissed. “What does it matter? He is here, and he isn’t one of us. Let’s kill him then deal with the floating fucker.”

Kaleb waited to see if anyone else would argue against killing Roy. When no one did, and the hyena moved to do something Kaleb charged forward. Shoving past the Bug-eyed man and a bird-woman, Kaleb grabbed the hyena’s giggling face and slammed it into a nearby wall. As Kaleb held the Phreak against the wall, he waved his Cybar pistol at the other.

Kaleb cast his gaze over the hyena-man’s friends and asked Roy. “You okay, kid?”

Roy grimaced in pain as he scooted to and put his back to the wall. “Sorry, Doc. The Master nailed me with his daggers and I fell. Really, I was lucky not to be stomped to death.”

Whisker-girl twitched forward causing Kaleb to snap his aim to her. “Once my friend is on his feet. We will be leaving. Try anything and I’ll crush your friend’s head against the wall and we will just shoot our way out.”

“Hehehehehehe Fuck you! Do you know who we are?!” cackled the hyena-man as he clawed at the wall and tried to get free.

Kaleb leaned all of his weight against his metal arm until the giggling hyena stopped struggling. “You are the Phreaks. Local gang. Enemy of The Faceless.”

“So you know you shouldn’t fuck with us.” Said whisker-girl.

Kaleb smiled as Roy used the wall to stand up. The boy only had the two daggers in him and thankfully he hadn’t removed either of them. As Roy stood Kaleb saw the dagger in his leg fall out, meaning that it wasn’t too deep to begin with. The one in the shoulder though seemed to be stuck deep.

“Ah, but you see. Do any of you know who I am?” Kaleb asked.

The group of Phreaks looked to one another confused. Eventually it was the bug-eyed man who spoke.

“No. Who are you?”

Kaleb felt the hyena struggle again. Roy was standing now, but he didn’t look like he would go anywhere too fast. “I am nobody.” Kaleb answered with a smile. When they all looked confused he continued. “If you let me and my friend disappear today. Who will know? Why bother with either of us at all?”

Bug-eyes and the Bird woman seemed ready to be done with the whole situation. But the chuckle-head with his head in Kaleb’s metal hand hissed and cursed. Whisker-girl looked ready to go either way until a voice spoke up from behind the three Phreaks.

“It’s not about who will know. It’s about respect.” Said a deep growling voice. Whisker-girl and Bug-eyes turned to see who spoke revealing a large barrel-chested man with the head and paws of a lion. The man shook his large man of hair and chuckled.

“And boy, you have disrespected us.”

Fuck. Kaleb mentally swore as he saw the lion’s words galvanizing the other Phreaks. Laughing boy redoubled his efforts to get free and the other three all seemed ready to attack. Kaleb sighed audibly as he scanned for the nearest doorway. When he found it he let his grip slip for just a moment. The hyena took advantage of the loosening of his grip and pushed Kaleb’s metal arm away.

*Thunk*

Kaleb activated his spike launcher and moved to help Roy slide along the wall to the nearest doorway. The hyena-man’s cackling stopped replaced with a sickening gurgle as the other Phreaks made sounds of outrage. Kaleb blindly fired behind him as he helped/carried Roy toward the door. Kaleb heard the lion-man roar in fury as the both passed through the door and into the what appeared to be the kitchen.

Kaleb found the lock on the door and turned it just as something heavy collided with the door. Roy propped himself on the counter as Kaleb looked for something heavy to guard the door. Finding a large cabinet full of dinnerware Kaleb tugged and pushed it in front of the door.

“Doc.” Roy said getting Kaleb’s attention and pointing toward a second door along the north wall.

“Shit!” Kaleb said running over to lock the second door.

Before he got there bug-eye and the girl with whiskers charged in. Kaleb momentarily ignored them and slammed the door closed, locking it. Turning to deal with the two intruders, a clawed hand scratched across Kaleb’s face. Meanwhile bug-man punched into Kaleb’s midsection. Kaleb felt lucky that his armor took the brunt of the punches, but the claws had cut deep into his face.

Kaleb tried to get a shot off with his pistol but someone seized and held his gun arm pointing it away. He heard Roy trying to shuffle closer to help, but the blood from his cut face was trickling into his eyes stinging them. Kaleb kicked out at whoever was holding his gun arm getting a satisfying impact and grunt noise from one of his attackers. Kicking out again, Kaleb felt the grip on his gun arm loosen and he yanked it free.

With his gun free Kaleb backed up to the door and wiped the blood from his face. He was just in time to see the whisker-faced girl pouncing forward like a cat, both clawed hands extended forward. Reacting, Kaleb jabbed his gun forward into her head and fired, causing the red energy from his pistol to engulf his attacker’s face. Kaleb felt the woman’s clawed hands collided feebly with his armor. His blast had not only fried her face but the force of it had snapped her neck back forcefully, probably breaking it.

Kaleb reoriented himself and got ready for the bug-eyed guy to charge. But nothing happened, the man was standing in front of Kaleb still as a statue. Kaleb briefly wondered what happened when the man’s segmented eyes twitched and black blood seeped out from his mouth. The man fell down to his knees then collapsed completely revealing a bent over Roy behind him breathing hard and holding a blood-soaked white dagger from his shoulder.

“Jesus, Roy.” Kaleb said worriedly, moving forward and helping Roy stand.

He moved the boy over to the kitchen counter and looked for something to stop Roy’s bleeding. Thudding noises came from both doors as Kaleb found a tablecloth and tore it up. He tipped another cabinet in front of the second door as he moved to help Roy. As he passed a cupboard a jar of gold-colored liquid caught his eye.

“Yes!” Kaleb hissed as he opened the cabinet and grabbed the jar of honey.

“What is it?” Roy asked breathing hard.

Kaleb smiled at his friend and held up the honey. “Natural antibacterial. It will disinfect your wound. Lay back.”

Roy laid down on the large kitchen counter as Kaleb began sopping up the blood from the boy’s shoulder wound. Once the blood was out of the way, Kaleb used a butter knife and spread the honey on the small but deep cut. Roy hissed in pain as Kaleb finished and plastered a few sheets of cut up tablecloth over the wound. After wrapping the wound as tight as he could Kaleb made a sling so Roy wouldn’t move his arm too much.

The pounding on the doors didn’t let up throughout Kaleb treating Roy’s wound. When Kaleb finished, Roy tried to sit up up but gave up tiredly.

“Thanks, Doc. Just give me a minute then we can fight our way out.” Roy said leaning back and closing his eyes.

“Sure, dude. Take your time.” Kaleb said, sighing loudly.

Kaleb knew that Roy was coming down off an adrenaline high. Plus, the blood loss couldn’t have helped at all either. It wasn’t much, but it probably wasn’t good. The pounding on the doors slowed and Roy’s breathing even out. Kaleb guessed that they were in the calm before the storm. One way or another, they would have to try something. The doors couldn’t hold for too long.

As Kaleb sat against the kitchen counter and sighed, he noticed a glowing icon in the corner of his vision. Thinking it looked familiar, Kaleb mentally clicked on it.