As soon as Darius saw the massive group of people, he triggered his newly acquired Emergency Repair System and immediately three hundred thirty-six Energy Points drained from his Power Bank and the nano repair bots set to work restoring his remaining systems and fixing his armor plating. It wouldn’t fix everything perfectly, but it would bring him up to one hundred sixty-five durability out of his two hundred maximum, and with the ten percent durability buff from the blessing still having sixteen minutes left on it, he was up to forty-five defense. Also dismissed and re-conjured Rain of Fire, since it was the cheapest option, Mana wise, to replace his spent missiles. Once he had everything prepared, he locked on to the person marching in the lead, with both Doombringer 3000 and Rain of Fire, just in case.

As Darius checked over his people, he was glad that he didn’t even have to say anything to them, as everyone immediately stood up and readied themselves for a potential fight. They were outnumbered ten to one, and the people approaching were fully decked out in armor, weapons, and a dozen suits of Power Armor. they didn’t just have the cheap Leather armor either, many of them wore what looked like full suits of metal armor, like what I knight might wear. There were also robed individuals that carried an assortment of staffs and wands.

Once the opposing group was about a hundred feet away, the person in the lead held up their fist and the entire group came to a stop. Then, the one in the lead looked at the two people by their side and the three of them walked forward until they were twenty feet away.

Aside from being ready for a fight, Darius wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. The only people he’d interacted with were the people rescued, or the assholes that people needed rescuing from, and even then he didn’t talk to the assholes, just took them down. Darius took a moment to look over the three and pull up their information with Identify.

The woman in the center position wore a vivid blue hooded cloak that was draped over her dark forest green robes with what looked like combat boots peeking out under the hem.

Headman, Emily Pierce

Volcanist Level 12

HP: 84/84

SP: 192/192

MP: 486/486

The person to her right was in a suit of Power Armor like Darius’s own, with the same green tinged copper color of Orichalcum. But he had a three-foot long medieval looking shield and a sword in his other hand.

Kevin Jacobs

Mechanized Infantry Level 11

HP: 171/171

SP: 342/342

MP: 156/156

The person to her left also wore Power Armor, but it had the whitish color of Titanium and four sets of earthy yellow lines coiling around his armor. Based on what Darius had learned from the cultivators in his team, I could hazard a guess that the man had cleared either his muscle or skin meridians, stomach or spleen, his brain and his bone Meridians. He also carried a massive, sci-fi-looking rifle with an over and under barrel.

Anthony Redding

Cultivation: Body 4

HP: 80/80

SP: 170/170

Ki: 150/150

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I said, who the hell do you think you are, ruining our ambush like that?” Kevin demanded.

Darius was confused for a moment. With a name like Kevin, he’d assumed he was a white man, but even with the slight distortion from speaking through the PA system all the Power Armors came with, the man’s voice held that indefinable quality that said he was as black as Darius himself was. “Wait, you’re black? But your name is Keven.”

“What the fuck? Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?” Kevin swore. He raised his shield a bit higher and brandished his sword. “I ought to cut you down right here and now!”

“Easy, Kevin,” Emily said. “I know it’s a sensitive subject, but there’s no need to resort to violence just yet. Take a step back.”

“But-“

“I said take a step back. I’ll handle this.” The tone of authority in her voice rang out at first, but then she eased back and finished softly.

Darius could tell by the way Kevin reluctantly stepped back and eased his stance that he respected and trusted the woman who was issuing orders. Between that and the Headman’s title, he knew she was the one in charge of her forces.

“My name is Emily, and I would like to have a cordial conversation,” she said, then she pulled her hood back and Darius could see her face for the first time. She had thick wavy dark brown hair that fell to her shoulders, with hazel eyes that contrasted with her light olive skin tone that highlighted her high cheekbones, slightly curved nose and full lips. To Darius, she looked like a Greek goddess at how beautiful she was. “Would you show me your face as well? I swear by the System that no harm will come to you from my people unless you attack first.” A golden shimmer of light encased her whole body for a moment before fading away. Darius didn’t know why, but he was sure she was telling the truth.

With an exertion of will, Darius’s faceplate split down the middle and slid back to either side, revealing his face for all to see. “I’m Darius. What did your guy mean, we ruined your ambush? We’re at war with these fuckers. They invaded my home and tried to kill us and take my people.”

“Look, I think we’re all on the same side here,” Emily said. “we got hit by a probing attack yesterday. War was declared for us as well, and we know for certain that several smaller groups of people were taken. We also know that the people taken are being turned into these monsters.”

“How do you know that?” Darius asked. Then he realized it sounded like he was doubting her word, and quickly clarified before she could take offence. “I mean, I believe you. I figured they were taking people over like that, but you sound certain. I just wanted to know how you figured it out for sure.”

“We were keeping an eye out for more undead to come out of that bubble of fog, and one of our scouts recognized one of those Draugr things. It was the leader of one of the groups of people who were taken. We had been in talks about getting them to join us at Elysium. That’s how we know. We don’t know how, exactly, they are converting people, just that they are.”

Darius nodded, still feeling a lot of tension in the air. Had a thought. “How about we make ourselves all a little more comfortable? We can conjure chairs for everyone to sit. I’ll even have all but two of my people fall back a ways.”

Emily considered it for a moment before nodding. She seemed to realize it was an olive branch of sorts and that Darius was trying to keep things calm. “Very well, Tony, will you give the signal for everyone to stand down, please?”

Anthony, Tony, nodded. He then turned around, brought his hands over his head and waved them twice before bringing them to shoulder level and patting downwards a couple of times before he turned back. Darius watched as the large group began shifting around and looked to be talking amongst themselves. Nodding to himself, Darius looked over his people, trying to decide who should stay with him. He wished his uncle was there. He was so much better with people than he was, but he knew he would have to make do.

“Billy, Avery, you two with me. The rest of you move back at least a hundred feet, please.”

The others nodded and slowly moved away, while Avery and Billy stayed with him. Then, slowly, so as to not trigger anyone, Darius raised his hand to the side and used Create Utility Eidolon seven times. First, he conjured a large round table, then six chairs to go around it. There were still rotting corpses all over the place, but it was the best he could do at the moment.

“Would you care to have a seat?” Darius asked once he was finished. When he saw the hesitation of the others to sit first, he decided to make the first move and slowly walked over, pulled out a chair and sat on it, resting his hands on the tabletop. Avery and Billy both followed suit, then Emily, Tony and Kevin sat down as well.

“First things first,” Darius said. “I would like to apologize to you, Kevin. I didn’t mean to upset you when I questioned your name. While I was caught off guard, it was rude of me.”

When Kevin just sat there, his posture giving off sullen vibes, Emily snapped at him. “Kevin! This man is apologizing to you for being rude. Are you going just going to be rude back? if that’s the case, you can just go back home and I’ll do this without you.”

Grudgingly, Kevin unfolded his arms. “It’s fine.” And that was all he said. Emily signed and Darius thought he heard a faint chuckle from Tony, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Now that that’s behind us, the original point of contention still stands. You interfered with our planned ambush, preventing us from completing a quest in the process.”

“The warmonger questline?” Darius asked.

“Yes, I take it you have the same quest as us? Warmonger two?” Emily confirmed.

“Kind of, well, sort of. We just completed it.”

“You just completed it… was there another quest in the chain?” Emily asked, her pretty eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“I think so. I haven’t finished reading my notifications yet when you and your people showed up. Here, give me just a sec.” Darius opened his notifications and swiped away several that weren’t all that important until he got to the new Quest.