“Would you shut up?” Mort snapped with exhaled breath. “Did you come all the way here just to stick up your nose at the rest of us? You don’t know everything, Lucian!”
“Wouldn’t it be more fitting to choose a Low Level gate instead?” Lucian asked, ignoring Mort. “If you’re starting out as a team, a green gate would fit your purposes more.”
The group of Anointed didn’t bother answering and simply stared at him as if he had just arrogantly declared himself the king of knowing all things about being Anointed.
“Excuse us,” Gabriel apologized with a wary smile to everyone before pulling Lucian to the side. “Lucian, what are you doing? Why are you always trying to pump the brakes on this once in a lifetime opportunity?”
“That’s a blue gate, Gabe,” Lucian emphasized, pointing at the spinning energy vortex, “Blue gates are for pros, not amateurs. These guys have questionable gear and they chose this kind of gate instead of Low Level, not to mention they’re Scavs—”
“Lucian! If you’re too pussy to go in, just say so! I’ve got a family to feed. You got your ego to feed. Which do you think matters more to me?”
“Gabe, what the fu—”
“¡Ya basta!, enough with this,” Gabriel fumed, waving off Lucian with both hands then stomped away.
Lucian’s teeth clenched as his temper flared. He and Gabriel had fist fought before and he had come out on top all three times. However, before his thoughts of violence came to reality, he thought better of it. He took a deep breath and released it in a long sigh. Gabriel had a sick daughter. There weren’t any lengths a man would not go to save his baby girl, even going so far as to mistreat a friend.
Lucian tilted his head back and forth to crack his neck. After another deep breath, he went to stand with the other MHS workers, waiting on the Scav team who had just walked into the Monster Gate. Their jumpsuits flapped in the turbulent winds coming off the gate.
“What? You got more made up facts to share?” Mort taunted, catching sight of Lucian behind them. Gabriel only gave Lucian a momentary and indifferent stare before turning away.
“Just don’t slow me down when we get in there, Mort,” Lucian retorted and pulled out his Gatetech cutter.
Mort’s face grew shades redder but he held in his indignation and remained silent. It wasn’t flattery why Gabriel called Lucian the best Skinner, and being a part of the same Skinner group for so long, Mort knew that fact more than the others.
A quarter of an hour later, a young woman with rosy cheeks and pink hair poked her head from the Monster Gate like a ground hog. She wore a black and pink mini dress made from monster materials and high boots of the same make. Vance had introduced her as one of the attack type Anointed, Vivian.
“Okay, MHS dudes,” Vivian hollered and waved them forward, “Time to earn your keep.”
Lucian and the other workers stepped through the spinning blue energies to emerge on the other side and were confronted by a dense jungle. Obnoxious animal sounds carried through the air like locusts, coming at them from all sides. The dense humidity immediately caused them to feel sticky. Zippers were tugged down on their jumpsuits in response to relieve them of the incoming heat.
“Jungle environment,” Lucian murmured, examining their green surroundings, “most likely filled with stalker-predator monsters or monsters living in troops that rely on ambush tactics.” He quieted when he saw the pink haired Anointed look over at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t mind him,” Mort remarked to Vivian, noticing the interaction between them, “that guy’s full of hot air. Don’t believe a word he says.”
The Anointed showed no reaction and led them through tall grass to enter the jungle. Another Anointed was there to greet them, a lanky man in his thirties, dressed in a wizard’s robe. He had been introduced as Yol, another attack type. On the ground beside him lay what looked like canines with two legs, the heads resembling the heads of hyenas. Hide armor wrapped around sparingly over their bodies, leaving most of their spotted fur exposed. Wooden spears lay beside their defeated forms.
Lucian sighed in relief, “Good. It’s just Gnolls.” He caught Gabriel turn his head toward him but he soon retracted it. This was one of those moments Gabriel would lean on Lucian’s knowledge on monsters, but tension was still present between them so he held back.
“They look like werewolves,” commented one of the other MHS workers, “how is this good? Those sharp teeth look horrifying…”
Lucian nodded in greeting toward him, recognizing the worker as Jeff, another of the Worker Ant Company that had come on work this Wild Gate. A large wart in the middle of his forehead was his defining feature besides his paranoia and conspiracy theories.
Lucian then explained, “Gnolls are stupid. They can wield weapons but their ability to strategize is barely above that of chimpanzees. They hit and run only. Most Anointed simply send a defense type forward to draw them out of hiding and then the rest of the team wipe them out, only to repeat the process over and over until the Gnolls are dead. The Gnolls never adapt.”
Gabriel involuntarily began to nod his head in understanding despite pretending not to listen. The other MHS workers began to relax hearing that the job just might go smoother than they had initially thought. The two Anointed, Vivian and Yol, looked to Lucian then to each other, silently impressed that Lucian pointed out a tactic their team was currently using. The reason their Scav team picked this gate was strictly because as Lucian put it, Gnolls were dumb. Despite their ferocious fighting capabilities and bestial athletic gifts, Gnolls weren’t suitable to fight opponents with the capacity to think and plan strategies.
Lucian didn’t waste time and began to skin the Gnolls and separate meat from bone to save the bone for transport along with the skin. The others joined in seeing him begin.
“As if you know anything…” Mort grumbled, squatting to turn over a Gnoll corpse to begin working.
Lucian finished two corpses by the time the second fastest MHS worker finished one. By the time the work had completed, Lucian had nearly dressed half of the Gnolls himself. Mort prickled hearing how impressed the other MHS workers were with Lucian.
“Wow. He’s fast,” complimented one.
Another whispered, “Did he go to school for this?”
A third added, “I'm glad he isn't in my Skinner group back at work. He'd make us look lazy!”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Trust me,” Jeff laughed, “We used to work in the same company and let me tell you, I’m glad he was never in my Miners group!”
Gabriel was working silently at the side, tying up materials with straps to ready them for transport. That was when Mort slid up next to him.
“Why’s Lucian such a showoff?” Mort asked, looking sideways at Gabriel with a deceptive glint in his eye.
“He works fast,” Gabriel responded curtly, “You already know that. You were in the same Skinner group as him back in the Worker Ant Company.”
“You’re right. Maybe I’m jealous.”
Gabriel threw him a skeptical glance hearing Mort admit to something half complimentary toward Lucian.
“He’s probably going to become CEO of the new company the Anointed promised us,” Mort sighed, giving a meaningful look at Gabriel.
“…You think that’s why he keeps talking about his monster facts and working so fast—to make himself look better to the Anointed?” Gabriel asked in surprise, then looked over to Lucian who was outpacing everyone still, even in tying up the monster materials.
“I know you two are friends but let’s face it. Lucian looks down on you. Everyone at work saw it but didn’t want to say anything. He’s always correcting you with his so-called facts. It’s like you’re his kid or something.”
“I already have a papi and Lucian’s not him.”
Recognizing Gabriel’s irritation beginning to grow, Mort pushed further with a menacing grin and remarked, “And why should a guy with no kids, who's always wasting time daydreaming about being an Anointed, become CEO? He has no stakes in this life. He has nobody to look after but himself, while we have families to feed. That guy is so greedy, I swear.”
Gabriel’s teeth clenched together in rising fury as he watched Lucian finish up his work before anyone else, the appearance of showing off apparent to Gabriel now. When Lucian walked up to talk to the two Anointed watching over them, Gabriel bristled.
“You're right about his speed,” Mort said with a sneer, glancing over at Lucian chatting with the two Anointed. “He sure works fast, doesn't he? He’s already smoothly ingratiated himself with them.” He sighed, “Lucian was quick to get their attention when you both arrived as well. I wish I was that conniving. Oh, sorry. He's your friend.”
Gabriel pushed past Mort to finish strapping the materials down, his head spinning with rage. Lucian always was smarter and better than him at everything. He never thought Lucian was looking down on him until Mort pointed it out. In that moment, he wished he had never become friends with the lonely guy next door to him in the Meager Palace.
Lucian had to back off. The two Anointed didn’t want to hear him. He had advised them to tell the members of their team that fought in melee range, to not use their Heartbreak weapons in case the gear broke on impact, yet they wouldn’t bother hearing him out. They were too prideful to take advice from a normal human.
Lucian wasn’t trying to be a nuisance. He just wanted to survive and get paid.
“At the end, we will help you all transport the materials back once we acquire the Boss Key,” announced the Anointed in wizard robes, Yol. Grateful smiles grew on the faces of the MHS workers. Without proper machines, the transport of materials would’ve been back breaking and troublesome. With the strength of the Anointed behind them, they knew that transporting what they had harvested would be a breeze.
“For now,” Yol continued, “We move on. I will go ahead while Vivian here will escort you.”
The MHS workers followed along like ducklings behind the pink haired woman and processed more Gnoll corpses once the fighting noises had stopped and a signal was sent into the air for them to move forward. The cycle of wait—process—wait—process, went on for hours. Only after when they saw the big chinned Anointed, Vance, and the other Anointed of his team waiting for them, did they begin to feel relieved that things had gone smoothly.
All that was left was the Boss Monster. Lucian had to admit that before, he wasn’t confident in amateurs like these Scavs to be able to raid a Moderate Threat Level gate successfully. Now, he felt he had judged them too harshly.
“Hey, Gabriel,” Lucian said, walking up to the man in the cowboy hat, “Sorry for acting like a know-it-all and—”
“Save it, man,” Gabriel spat back, “I know what you’re up to, Lucian. You’re trying to get ahead of us and become CEO when it’s really us who needs that money.” Lucian couldn’t follow along, unable to guess what Gabriel meant. “Yea, I figured it out. I’m not so much of an idiota as you thought. You really are so pretentious, Lucian, always writing in your shitty little monster book.”
“Gabe, I don’t know what the hell you’re on about.”
“But you know what, Lucian? I know inside that you’re really weak, that’s why you look down on people like me. You’re always complaining about ‘Her,’ that girl who’s always controlling and manipulating you, but you still mess with her! Get lost, pendejo! I can do bad on my own.”
Lucian had felt his fists ball up, ready to swing punches at Gabriel, but he stopped when “Her” was brought up. He suddenly deflated hearing about the girl who haunted him in both his dreams and his reality. When Gabriel walked away, Lucian was still stuck in a downward spiral, wrestling with the weakness Gabriel had pointed out so accurately.
“Alright, MHS fellows,” Vance bellowed loudly, “The light at the end of the tunnel is here! We’ll rest for now while our scout goes find the Boss Monster’s location.”
Suddenly, a thunderous sound of laughing filled the air and caused the leaves on the trees to tremble. Critters of the jungle began to scatter across both land and air, fleeing the bestial laughter and ominous presence. In the wake of the eerie mirth, an unsettling silence settled over the jungle, broken only by the distant calls of fleeing birds.
“What the hell was that?” one of the Anointed wondered aloud.
“It couldn’t be…” Yol murmured in disbelief.
Lucian snapped out of his stupor and hissed, “You idiots! Did you let one of the Gnolls get away?”
“Who do you think you’re talking to like that?” an Anointed in leather armor snapped, “I could break a civ like you in two, like a twig!”
“It’s the expert again…” Vance grumbled, eyeing Lucian with annoyance.
Yol ignored Lucian’s disrespectful tone and asked him, “Was that the Boss Monster?”
“What else would it be?” Lucian derided sarcastically, beginning to back away, his eyes trained on the jungle trees in the direction the laughing had come from. “Troop and tribe monsters always report to the Boss Monsters when their forces drop to a small amount. That’s why you have to kill every member of the group before that can happen. You bunch of amateurs!”
“I’m sick of this one...” one of the Anointed hissed, light surrounding him—Mana from what Lucian knew about Anointed—a magic users’ source of energy.
“Lucian, you stepped into it this time!” Mort sang with vindictive joy, seeing the Anointed’s show of wrath, “This is what you get for being a smart ass all the time!”
A spotted dog creature on two legs suddenly tore through the jungle and appeared before them like a vision of fur and fury, drool dangling from its sharp teeth that showed in a crazed smile. The monster’s eyes were dark red and its stature towered over them, nearly able to touch the tops of the trees with its fur covered hands. A sharpened thick stick, more like a tree trunk with a point, was hoisted up like a spear in its grips.
“Alpha Gnoll,” Lucian uttered grimly, his eyes locked on the hulking mass of fur. He scowled at three other Gnolls emerging from the nearby foliage. These hyena creatures were larger than the corpses he had encountered so far, their fur painted with barbaric designs. “It has sub-bosses with it!” Lucian knew sub-bosses were only below Boss Monsters in power, named ‘sub-bosses’ since they were stronger than the lesser minions that filled a gate.
Without a moment of deliberation or hesitation on what to do, Lucian turned and ran.
“What a coward!” Mort mocked loudly, watching Lucian disappear beyond the brush.
“Lucian…!” Gabriel sputtered, shocked to see Lucian suddenly escape, causing him to feel compelled to move as well. Lucian was anything but a coward or foolish. If he ran, that meant something had gone horribly wrong.
“We believe in you, Anointed!” Mort screamed with all he had in support for the Scav team. The other MHS workers started to find their resolve with Mort’s display and began to cheer in encouragement along with him.
Vance’s smile had long disappeared at the appearance of the Boss Monster. With a raised hand, he gathered his team around him.
“I’ll block the Boss Monster,” he said to them, planning and raising his red crystal shield before him, “You all kill the sub-bosses while I keep it busy.”
The Boss Monster and its sub-boss minions began snickering seeing Vance and the other Anointed charge toward them. The MHS workers were watching with anticipation, their shouts and cheers growing louder for the Scav team. As soon as the Boss Monster collided with Vance, his shield shattered like glass on impact, scattering magenta colored crystal shards across the jungle floor.
Silence fell upon the MHS workers as they and the Scav team looked to the Scav leader in shock.