It took two trips with the van, but they eventually managed to get the rescued people and Darius's people back to the hamlet. Everyone was packed in like sardines, but they made it work, and the poor abused people were just happy to never see the mansion or those assholes again. since Darius and his people were more than capable of taking care of themselves if monsters attacked while they were waiting, he decided they would wait for the second trip. While waiting, he went ahead and set his people to raiding the rest of the fancy homes for their furniture and anything else that might have been of value or useful.

"So… what are we going to do with these?" Marcus asked. They had the five, still damaged, suits of Power Armor laid down in the back storeroom of the Headman's hut.

"Pax says that if someone equips them, it will Soul-Bind to the new pilot, though they will effectively be reset to factory settings, losing any upgrades the previous owners chose," Darius replied. He looked over his uncle and the missing leg caught his eye, like it had since day one. Still feeling guilty over it happening when his uncle had been out looking for him, he made a snap decision. "why don't you take one? I bet it would work like a prosthetic leg. You’d be able to walk around, no problem."

Marcus seemed to think it over for several long minutes, but in the end, he shook his head. "I don't think so. While getting around easier would be nice. I think it should go to those of you putting your lives on the line to keep us safe."

Darius had expected the answer, but he knew he had to try. "The question, then, is who should we give them to?"

"That is the question. So far it's just you, little Billy, and that Avery lad who have one, right?"

"Right," Darius replied.

"What about Chad? He seems to be pretty strong and level-headed to boot."

"I actually already talked to him about it. He said he wanted to focus on his bloodline, to see how much he could get out of it if he cultivated it properly. He thought it might interfere or something."

"Why don't you offer one to that Japanese girl and the other one… Aisha, right?"

"Akira and Aisha? That would make our team more effective, with everyone having Power Armor. we could end up being something like a special elite force. That's not a bad idea, but what about the other three?"

"That Evelyn girl might be a good fit," Marcus suggested. "She's hell on wheels with that bow of hers. Let's see, that Akira girl, her father’s a pretty good fighter too. I bet he would put one through its paces. The extra Mana the suits produce would help that Jackson fellow. I think he knows more kinds of magic than anyone else. Just imagine what he could do with all that extra Mana. you could go with Liam, the one with that silver bird. Then again, Javier is a good kid, and he's quick on his feet. I bet he would do as well as Billy with one. Then there's Mei Ling. She's having a rough time losing her eye today. Getting a suit of Power Armor might give her the distraction she needs. And last but not least, Sophia. he's the one with that big ass crossbow."

Darius went through all of his uncle’s suggestions carefully. He hadn't seen Jackson do much yet, but he thought he remembered that the man had Conjuration like Darius himself did, but also had Summoning, which like Conjuring, but instead of creating custom items and equipment, it made creatures that fought for the caster. Darius knew how much of a Mana hog Conjuration was, and could only assume Summoning was easily just as bad, if not worse. Darius went ahead and added him to the top of his list of candidates outside his own team. Now, do I focus on the more up-close fighters, to beef up their defense, or do I help the ranged fighters gain more mobility? Why not one of each? Darius considered the options for a while longer before he settled on offering the last two suits to Liam and Sophia. He might have given one to Mei Ling, but, while he felt bad about the decision, he needed to wait and see if she recovered mentally from losing her eye. If it ended up breaking her spirit, then giving it to her would end up being a waste of a valuable piece of equipment.

Darius told his uncle his conclusions, and when Marcus agreed, Darius turned to leave. As he turned, he felt a sharp twinge of pain in his side, right where he’d been stabbed earlier. He touched the spot, but there was no blood. He pulled up his status and saw a red kidney shaped symbol next to his heath bar, and just then noticed the last five percent or so of his health and almost a full quarter of his Stamina was greyed out. Focusing on the symbol, a prompt appeared.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

You have suffered Kidney Damage, Moderate.

Description:

Kidney damage impairs the body's ability to filter waste and balance fluids, leading to significant health and performance issues. This debuff affects physical endurance, stamina, and overall vitality, reflecting the strain on the body caused by compromised kidney function.

Kidney Damage, Moderate: -5% Maximum Health, -10% health regeneration, -20% Maximum Stamina, -30% Stamina Regeneration.

Duration: Persistent. Damage will remain until appropriate treatment is applied..

Warning! If injury is not treated within 68 hours, the damage will change from Persistent to Permanent.

Seeing the severity of what he was dealing with, Darius wasted no time seeking out one of their miracle healers. He already knew regular magic healing wouldn’t be enough, otherwise Avery’s healing would have taken care of it. the first person he came across was Hiroshi. Once Darius explained what was going on, Hiroshi took Darius to the side and performed the healing ritual that came with his stylized sun medallion. It took most of an hour to perform, but it cleared the Debuff completely and Darius felt better than he had in a long time, though it did leave him with a severe need to relieve himself. Fortunately, Hiroshi had warned Darius, otherwise, when Darius might have started to panic when he was pissing blood.

Once all that was taken care of, Darius was finally able to track down everyone on his list. Once they’d all agreed, he’d brought them in to the Headman's hut and watched as they bonded to their Soul-Bound Power Armor for the first time.

Each person touched one of the suits and froze for a moment, then the Power Armors seemed to collapse in on themselves and started forming plates, starting with the hand touching them. In just a handful of seconds, each one was completely encased in the steel grey metal and stood frozen for long minutes. Eventually, one after another, they morphed and shifted until each one was as unique as the pilots that were now bonded to them.

Jackson's Power Armor was the first to finish upgrading. Its steel-grey color shifted to the smokey white of titanium. What really caught Darius's attention was the light blue backlighting on each place and darker blue lines traced all over the armor like some strange circuit design. It was more sleek than Darius's own Power armor, with a helmet reminiscent of an ancient Greek design.

Aisha's Power Armor was very similar to Darius's. it was slightly bulkier than Jackson's and was made with the same green-tinged Orichalcum for its base material. There were two key differences though, first was the faceplate of the helmet. It had a stylized gorilla mask that reminded Darius of the mountain tribe from the Black Panther movie. A good-sized war hammer also formed itself out of Orichalcum and was attached to her back, with a short handle sticking up over her shoulder.

Shortly after Aisha finished, Akira's finished its changes. It had the most dramatic change out of any Power Armor Darius had seen before. It took on the appearance of ancient samurai armor, complete with a demon like mask. She didn't appear to have any weapons, but there was a golden, stylized sunburst symbol in the middle of her chest and on the palms of her hand, the same as the amulet her father wore around his neck.

Liam’s Power armor was different from the rest. Where he thought Jackson’s power armor was sleek, it didn’t hold a candle to Liam’s. instead of resembling full plate armor, with big plates covering entire sections, Liam’s was made up of much smaller pieces, reminding Darius of scale male, but all over. Three glowing lines of what looked like Ki traced their way across his body. One of the lines resembled Liam’s skeletal system had been traced onto the armor, another traced it’s way up from his core and wound around his helmet. The final let of lines seemed to spiral all over, covering the entire surface with thinner lines. If Darius had to guess, those lines represented the three Meridian’s Liam had opened. If he was right, then the more lines would appear as Liam progressed in his cultivation. Comparing Darius’s own Power armor to Liams, was like comparing Ironman’s with Iron spider, minus the extra legs sticking out of the back.

Sophia was the last one to finish upgrading her Power Armor. she shone with polished steel, a protruding barrel stuck up from her forearm, and a large riffle was strapped to one side of her back while her Soul-Bound Crossbow was attacked to the other side. both weapons in easy reach to rapidly deploy in a fight. She also had earthy-yellow lines running across her armor, but not in the same patterns as Liams. One line restricted itself to coiling in long loops in her middle, about where the stomach and intestines were, another seemed to trace along every single muscle under the armor. Darius wasn’t sure, but he thought those represented the stomach, muscle and skin meridians.

With everyone’s Power Armor finally finished and left to go test out their shiny new toys, Marcus turned to Darius. “Now tell me what’s bothering you.”