“Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!” Kaleb swore as he ran.
The mob of Phreaks chased after Kaleb as he ran at the oncoming Brute Clan. It wasn’t a long way to the relative safety of the Clan; The lizards were charging quickly across the dirt street. But there were some fast Phreaks too.
As Kaleb ran a few Phreaks with animal legs caught him rather quickly. But once they made a grab for him, Kaleb avoided them. That is until one jumped right on top of him. Kaleb went down on his face and rolled in the dirt while his unwanted passenger hissed in his ear. Kaleb twisted on the ground as the Phreak on his back shifted around to mount his front. He stared up into the hissing, elongated face of a Phreak with fangs.
Great. Kaleb thought as he put his metal arm up to defend his face. The Phreak’s head snapped down biting into Kaleb’s arm. Kaleb saw a fang puncture into the metal of his arm as the snake-person bit down hard, drool oozing down onto the metal. Kaleb raised his Magic gun and put it against the Phreak’s midsection when he heard a lizard’s voice.
“Raise him up, young one.”
Kaleb turned his head to see Pacrath charging toward him with his blunt sword ready to swing. Raising his metal arm up, Kaleb saw the snake Phreak start and try to scramble away. But it was too late Pacrath took a running swing at the snake’s head slamming his sword into him. The snake’s head jerked at an odd angle and he fell into the dirt next to Kaleb.
Kaleb sighed and looked at his metal arm finding one of the snake’s fangs still embedded in the metal. Damn, that’s not good. Kaleb thought as he glanced back up to see Pacrath grinning down at him. All around them the Brute Clan collided with the mob of Phreaks. Kaleb took Pacrath’s outstretched hand and stood, taking the fang out from his arm and pocketing it.
Pacrath watched him with an odd look. “Battle spoils?”
“More like study material.” Kaleb answered.
Pacrath continued to look at Kaleb until the big lizard just shrugged his massive shoulders. “Well, once the battle is over, you can study what you wish from the bodies.”
Kaleb nodded as Pacrath grinned again and dove into the melee. Kaleb checked his guns and Spike Launcher before moving to the side of the battle. He didn’t want to shoot into his allies so he moved to flank the mob of Phreaks and fired with his Cybar while charging his Magic gun. Kaleb decided to go with electricity Magic as he fired on the fringes of the battle lines.
The lizards were fewer but better trained. The Phreak’s were relying on pure numbers but they kept getting in each other’s way. Once again though, Kaleb noted that the Brute Clan’s weapons were still subpar. They wielded large pipes, blunted swords, and shoddily built maces as they bludgeoned the Phreaks into submission. There were a few outliers amongst the Phreaks who were proving a decent fight, but mostly the line of lizards were beating through them.
Kaleb waited until his temples were pounding before he released his magic. A bolt of electricity spiked from the end of his gun and into the bodies of several Phreaks. The lightning arced among the several before the Phreaks backed away from him hurriedly. Once the Magic stopped Kaleb faced a group of pissed off Phreaks for what had to be the third time.
Pocketing his Magic gun, Kaleb fired his Cybar and spike launcher. The edge of the lizard’s battle line tried to extend to stop the group from charging Kaleb but they lacked the numbers. Kaleb fired until the group of Phreaks got close then went hand to hand. Really need a melee weapon. Kaleb thought as he slammed his metal fist into the face of a man with over-sized hairy arms.
Kaleb spun his Cybar pistol around in his palm and used it as a makeshift club. Batting aside a wild punch to his stomach, Kaleb jammed the butt of his pistol into the unlucky Phreaks throat. Hands gripped his lab coat jerking him further into the mass of bodies, so Kaleb batted them away. Luckily, the Brute Clan fought their way to him and helped before they overran him.
Kaleb fell in line with the Brute Clan and preceded to bash and shoot the Phreaks in the scrum of battle. Soon after, the Phreaks must have decided that enough was enough and a large mass of them made a run for it. Kaleb fired into their backs as a few of the Brute Clan gave chase while others mopped up the stragglers lost to their instincts and bloodlust. Kaleb saw Aqwen fighting a man with tentacles for arms and moved to help, but Titus stopped him, shaking his head.
Understanding that Aqwen would be pissed if he interrupted her fight, Kaleb went on a looting spree. He soon discovered though that the only bodies he could loot were the ones he had finished himself. Sighing at the loss of so much loot and blueprints, Kaleb waded into the mass of bodies touching them to activate the loot drops. He drew curious stares from a few of the brute clan, but he ignored them and went about his work.
Oddly enough, most of the Phreaks dropped vials of their blood and credit sticks as their loot. The money wasn’t a surprise, but he wasn’t sure what he would do with so much genetic material. Then again, with such a large library of mutant blood, what couldn’t he do? Kaleb smiled to himself as he picked up another vial and, this time, a blueprint.
He had shocked a good deal of the Phreaks, a few of which didn’t get back up. So his chances for blueprint drops could be good; at least he thought so. And he was being proven correct, he had collected a three blueprints from the bodies. Fittingly, they were all animal themed, Tiger Claw brass knuckles, a spear made from a rhino’s horn, some weird feathered pants.
What shocked Kaleb was when he looted the snake-man he and Pacrath killed. The single fanged face disappeared in motes of light and in its place was a vial of blood and another blueprint. Except for the first time, the blueprint was more of a recipe for poison instead of equipment. Kaleb could kind of get it, the person was part snake, so he dropped a blueprint about making poison. It was just surprising.
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Shaking off his surprise, Kaleb shoved the blueprint into his overstuffed pocket and moved toward the coup de grâce. He wasn’t sure the system would count him as Kaleb’s kill, but he had finished the lion off. As he moved toward the courtyard he passed Aqwen who was repeatedly slamming the end of her staff into the prone body of the tentacle-man. She so violent. Kaleb shook his head as he passed the courtyard gate and moved to the lion-man’s corpse.
Kaleb inhaled then blew it out slowly as he reached out to loot the body. The lion man had been a leader amongst the Phreaks. So Kaleb expected the loot to be epic, at least he hoped it would be. He sighed when the window popped up asking if he wanted to loot the lions corpse. Mentally clicking ‘yes’ Kaleb shielded his eyes from the bright light that came with looting a body. Blinking away the light, Kaleb looked down at the loot.
Kaleb grinned like a madman as he stared down at a vial of blood, a gold credit stick, and two blueprints. He pocketed the blood and money before opening the first of the blueprints. The sketch was a little shoddy but Kaleb could still make out the full face lion helmet. He was a little worried about how he could scale it to fit his face until he remembered the Resizing Rune.
Carefully placing the blueprint in his pocket Kaleb picked up the second blueprint. Only once he had it in his hand he realized it was much smaller than the first blueprint. Opening it revealed that it wasn’t a blueprint at all, it was a letter. A letter that had given the lion his marching order. Kaleb scanned the letter before he glanced around for a lizard he knew. He was about to run back to Aqwen before a voice spoke by his ear.
“What you got there, doc?”
Somehow Roy had snuck up on him, startling him. “Christ, Kid! Where did you come from?!”
Kaleb gave Roy a once over noticing that he had a bunch of new cuts and bruises. Roy smiled down at Kaleb’s crouched form.
“I was in the fight Doc. Me and Wulkun joined the second wave although they had finished most of the fighting when we got here.”
Kaleb briefly tried to remember when a second wave of Brute Clan lizards had joined the fight. But he quickly pushed it from his mind. Standing up, he hurriedly asked Roy.
“Where’s Wulkun? I need to speak to him.”
“And why is that, Hatchling?” Came Wulkun’s voice siad from the courtyard gate.
Kaleb quickly moved toward the old lizard, letter clutched in his hand. “Because of this,” Kaleb said holding the letter out for Wulkun to see. “They were planning on moving kidnapping you from the Faceless and using you just like the Faceless would have.”
Wulkun’s eyes flitted across the paper confirming Kaleb’s words. When he finished Wulkun sighed loudly.
“I feared this would happen. Those around us, see us only as a source of cheap labor or cannon fodder for their petty little gang wars.”
“Then change that.” Kaleb said looking around at the bodies of the Brute Clan’s enemies. “You have the skill to defend yourselves. Show them that the Brute Clan aren’t just mindless thugs for their armies.”
“Plus, you have a perfectly good headquarters now.” Roy added pointing back at the Faceless’ mansion.
“What are you two suggesting? That we take over the Faceless’ territory?” Wulkun asked sounding surprised and a little angry. When Roy and Kaleb both nodded the old lizard puffed himself up before shouting.
“We are not a gang of vagabonds and criminals! We are the proud Brute Clan and we will not debase ourselves by taking part in the petty squabbles over territory like the rest of Under-Town!”
“And I’m not asking you to. But you need a place to call your own down here. Somewhere where the Brute Clan can prosper. All the other gangs have carved out pieces of Under-Town for themselves, why don’t we do the same?” Kaleb said soothingly trying to convince Wulkun.
Wulkun’s angry lessened a little, but he still argued. “Because we are not a gang!”
“No, we are a clan.” Kaleb agreed. “A clan without a true home. I am saying lets make one right here. Let’s use the Faceless’ territory to carve out a home.”
“We don’t have the manpower, or the resources, OR the weapons.” Wulkun said feebly, wavering on the idea.
“Then call the others.” Said a female voice from behind Kaleb.
Turning Kaleb saw Aqwen and a few of the other lizards had been listening in on their conversation. Her voice had snapped Kaleb out of his fervor. He wasn’t sure why he was so keen on giving the Brute Clan a home. Kaleb wasn’t even sure if it would have any real in-game benefits. He just knew that he liked the Brute Clan, they had accepted him. Kaleb felt like they were his people.
Kaleb wondered if the game was affecting how he felt about things. There were cases of people staying too long in Deep Immersion that they confused the game with reality but that had never happened to Kaleb before. Then again, he hadn’t been playing games too much in the recent past. He thought that maybe he should log out for a bit and get his head straight when he realized that Wulkun had asked him something.
“Hmm? What? Sorry I blanked out there.” Kaleb said to the assembled group as they stared at him.
Aqwen huffed in derision as Roy hid a smile. Wulkun sighed loudly before asking his question again.
“I said: if I wrote to the other Brute Clans would you send the letters off. I know of drop-boxes used my some other refugee camps.”
“Whoa,” Kaleb said. “Letters? Like physical letters that people have to deliver themselves?”
“Yes.” Wulkun said sounding annoyed.
“Retro. Yeah, I can do it. I can also work on getting you guys better weapons.”
“WE can help with the weapons.” Roy corrected.
Kaleb nodded as Wulkun smiled at both of them. “Then I guess the Brute Clan is setting up shop here.” Wulkun said before he barked orders.
“Titus, go tell the camp to pick up stakes! I want everyone here as quick as possible! Pacrath, set up patrols around the area! We do not need surprises! Aqwen, gather some scouts and see how the gangs are reacting!”
Kaleb smiled as he and Roy walked off. They still needed to collect Daivor and head home if they needed to make weapons. But half a step later a vice-like grip seized Kaleb and Roy’s shoulder.
“And where do you two think you are going?” Wulkun said sticking his snout between them.
“We were going…” Kaleb began.
“Help clean up these bodies! We don’t need our front lawn looking like a graveyard!” Wulkun ordered.
“But we…” Kaleb tried again.
“GO!” Wulkun shouted.
Kaleb and Roy shared a look, mentally cursing the old lizard as they moved to help the rest of the Brute Clan.