Danger came to the people of Monde with such regularity that they were able to set their calendars to it. In the Argus continent it was common knowledge that Fall was for the Dragons, and the lean months of Winter drew the Demonbeasts to town.
Spring rains disturbed the graves of the unfortunate and caused the dead to rise. As for Summer, that was when the things from the outer dark came to visit.
Monstrous Outsiders who would come taking advantage of the dimensional permeability that came with a certain alignment of the stars. Attempting to retake what their forebears lost or failed to conquer in the ages long past.
*****
Harsh winds blew, shifting the desert sand, gradually wiping out the old dunes and building new ones.
Meallan rarely had rain, but when it did rain, it was hardly ever pleasant. It was like the heavens had given up all that they were withholding all at once.
LIke some trickster had snuck up into the sky and let loose an ocean.
Thunder rumbled overhead and bright flashes of lightning briefly illuminated the darkened sky.
Even more deafening than the thunder was the sound of gunfire and the hoarse, growling, shrieking utterances of those who called on arcane powers.
Fists were swung with the force of train collisions. Bombs of aetheric force were let loose. The battlefield lay in chaos, with rubble and bodies scattered everywhere.
All formation and tidy planning lost the very moment the engagement began. All while roars that shook both earth and sky came echoed throughout the heavens.
*****
Most Guilds and Companies operated with a standard ranking system placed on their contracts and requests. The ranks generally went from A to G, with G being the most basic and most common of contracts.
While A ranked contracts and requests were the most difficult and hazardous. Some groups like the KOG or the Seven Sons Mage’s Order would have additional ranks like the S rank and triple S rank.
Which would denote requests and contracts that were not only difficult but of a sensitive nature. Requiring a certain amount of guild or company confidence before one was allowed to undertake them.
This was the only reason that the first contract accepted by Edna and Billy’s, Bone Tree Company, wasn’t an S ranked contract.
It wasn’t arrogance or overconfidence that lead to this decision. It was just simple self-knowledge. While conversation and interaction with peers, loved ones and strangers was alien to him, the savageness of the battlefield was like being right at home again.
When most people thought of eternity they thought of scopes of time that went by in hundreds or thousands or millions of years. A googolplex was a length that stretched much, much, longer. Mind bogglingly long.
A span of time that surpassed human comprehension and for Billy most of it was spent either killing or trying not to be killed. Running and hiding while desperately learning methods of attack.
With any activity one spent a long time doing a certain amount of proficiency was eventually accrued.
Though he was yet to reach a level of cultivation that he’d consider ‘strong’, he was still sure that given enough time and preparation, regardless of whether he was facing a man, beast, spirit or god, even if he couldn’t win, he could at least escape, cleanly protecting his own life.
When the time for hindsight and self-recriminations came he’d find He wasn’t even wrong, he’d just made a single, critical oversight.
*****
Wind back to twenty-four hours ago. Reset the clock to before the job actually started, when two masked figures traveled up a winding road.
Riding a carriage that was led by a horse with glowing eyes and puffs of glowing smoke coming from its nostrils.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
This was three days after they joined the two guilds and established the Bone Tree Company. The two chief executives and sole members of the company were now on their way to completing their first ever contract. They’d taken one day to prepare and two days to get to the site.
The instructions on the contract had told them to rendezvous with the other companies and contractors, in Jelani. The second largest major city of Meallan and home to the main office and central headquarters of the EITC.
The first thing Billy and Edna saw as they approached the city was a long line of folks who were evacuating. Riding wagons and trucks and trains, using any available method they could use to get the hell out of dodge. Fleeing like rats from a sinking ship.
“This looks bad...Do you think we can handle this?” said Edna.
“Nh….Maybe.” said Billy, bluntly revealing his own personal lack of conviction or care. Part of why he’d accepted the job was because it was highly rated but had no penalty fee. In short success would mean great rewards, but failure would come with next to no downside. So long as one was able to escape with one’s life of course.
They entered the city and headed to the massive business district where the EITC lay. Right across the street from the Main Offices of the East Indigo Trading Commission sat the Mayoral Building. This was the meeting spot for all those who’d accepted the contract.
Inside the Mayoral Office was a motley mixture of over one hundred and seventy experts. Elite Practitioners who were all at the peak of the ruler layer or higher. To fill their ranks was a company of men made up of Jelani guardsmen and haphazardly hired mercenaries. A mixture of the cream of the crop and the bottom of the barrel.
*****
Billy and Edna walked into a hall with its ceiling enameled with pearl and its floors encrusted with silver and gemstone. The first thing they were supposed to do was to check in with the person at the head of their task force.
In this case it was the Mayor of Jelani himself. Enzo Maynard. Current Mayor of Jelani and a former executive of the EITC.
At exactly thirty years of age one could technically style him a wunderkind, having climbed as high as he had in so short a time. Enzo was tall, broad, bronzed and muscular.
He looked more like a boxer than a merchant but those hazel eyes of his held a keenness to them that made wise men wary.
“Mayor Maynard?” said Edna.
“Yes…”
“We’re the Bone Tree Company, coming to join the campaign. We were told to check in with you?”
Distracted with the issues of setting up and planning and his concerns for the future Enzo just nodded waving them off and pointing them in the direction of his assistant Darlene.
She was the one who had the clipboard and would confirm their arrival.
Later the two sole members of the Bone Tree Company were told to go sit in the main lobby of the mayoral office.
They were surrounded by others who all sat, either talking amongst themselves or staring at the art and the ceiling. Some of them wondering what those things would be worth if things went bad and they got a chance to do a little looting before they had to flee.
Billy sat down and Edna took the space next to him.
“Hey, Billy. There’s something up with all this...I’m nervous...Are you nervous?” said Edna.
There was no response, she turned and frowned, peering closely. Her frown becoming more defined once she realized that she could hear something that faintly sounded like snoring coming out from beneath the nine-eyed mask.
“Well now little lady, no need to be scared, Big Beau here can protect you... If you want him to.”
Edna was beyond startled when she heard the unfamiliar voice at her side. She had two choices, the first was jumping out her skin, the second was freezing in place.
Fortunately for the sake of her dignity she froze in place. When she finally regained control she turned to glare at the speaker. A large man with a head that looked slightly too small for his wide shoulder.
His muscles veiny in a way that hinted at heavy stimulant use. His smile bright and perfect. His red hair cut short in a spiky military cut. His gaze playful and full of itself, but still very calculating.
While she wasn’t at the level of a master, meditation, her bird-kin blood and aether’s augmentation of her physical traits meant that Edna’s senses were sharper than most. It spoke leagues about the man’s skill for him to be able to sneak up on her like he had.
“Um...Hi.” said Edna.
He stuck out his hand, not putting it away till Edna shook it.
“Big Beau Howards, the Millennium Strongman. Nice to meet you.” said the stranger.
Edna made herself smile, deciding to be polite since the man was almost certainly a colleague if not a superior.
“I’m Cold-Mercury Dancer, “he’s” my partner, the Nine-Eyed Asphodel.” said Edna.
The man’s eyes narrowed growing slightly colder, no doubt noting her refusal to share her real name, but the friendly look on his face never waved.
“Nice to meet you both. This your first time on a big job.”
“...Um...Yes actually.” said Edna. Her nerves making her slightly more forthcoming than she’d usually be.
“Ah...I wouldn’t be. We’re just here to buy time.”
“Buy time?”
“Yeah. Didn’t you know? The word’s already out. Complete victory has been deemed a near impossibility. That’s why this mission has two success requirements. The first is to eliminate the threat which, like I said, ain’t gonna be easy. The second is to hold on for three days time so they can finish evacuating the city which is a little more to our speed. Like I said. We’re just here to buy time. Hell even if we break and run before the target time it’s not like there’s a penalty. No one wants to die.” said Beau.
“Uh….Right.” said Edna. Not sure what else to say. One would think that having to options for success would be good news, however all she could think of was wondering what exactly they’d be facing.
What threat could make a city this large with as many practitioners as they should have had at their disposal, choose to break and run instead of fight.
Several terrible possibilities came to mind, then suddenly a leg knocked into her own. She looked and saw that Billy had lightly nudged her.
“Nh.... We’ll be fine.”
She frowned and then she sighed and then she found herself settling down. Breathing a little easier. While the boy was annoyingly tightlipped, he hadn’t lied to her yet. Thus it was easier to believe him. Easier to trust those words.
If he said they would be fine, she could only figure that he had something up his sleeve or some measure to make it so. Inside of her lived a mixture of peace and chagrin.
She trusted that they’d somehow get out okay and things would work out, but she hated that she had to just rely on someone else. She hated her own lack of power. Deciding that when they got back home, she’d put more effort into her cultivation.