Frank sighed. The enmity in Maria's voice was completely justified. Pretty much every action she took so far had been. He just found her dislikeable. Circumstances had changed though. Both her display of mental fortitude and the sudden risks associated with bringing anyone else along moved the needle. He'd take her with him.
Bill was in a better space than he was before, but he still wasn't seeing things clearly. He'd just replaced the grand narrative in his head with a more accurate one. One that appeared to rely on Frank. That was workable though. If he failed it kind of all became irrelevant, so Bill putting his eggs in that basket was not the worst thing.
Rina was fine, given the circumstances, but probably not suited to be more than a supporter. Maria simultaneously had more potential later, and more ability now. He just couldn't justify letting the fact he found her disagreeable make the decision anymore, given who he had to compare her against.
Maria was waiting for a response with a flat look, so Frank moved away from his evaluation and back to what she'd just said. "Have something to eat, even if you don't feel like it. Then, we will head to the city hall as a group."
Frank followed his own advice, scrounging up a bag of chips and some pepperoni, which he chased with a bottle of milk. He hadn't known the milk sold in these stores was shelf-stable until after it all expired, last time. He'd get to drink milk again for at least a few months, now.
He waited a few minutes for the others to eat, or in Rina's case, not eat before he called out to everyone. "Let's go check for skinwalkers. It'll help everyone else out if we weed any who are already there. We can also confirm the identity of Hugo."
The three all got up and shouldered their packs. Frank did the same and took the lead.
"Rina, make sure you have your pouch out and be ready to throw. Bill and Maria, you'll want to be ready to grab one out and throw it as well. Don't fall behind, and keep an eye on each other."
They took the high way down to the main street and turned into the town proper. Jim's sign was still there, directing people to the city hall. The walk was silent and tense. The combination of potential threats and the current mood left no one with anything to say. Frank took the time to consider how he would handle the situation if there was actually a skinwalker there.
There was a big issue. If other people didn't have enough knowledge to detect them, how was he to convince anyone there that a skinwalker he found was an enemy? He could picture himself prevented from dealing with one simply because no one was willing to believe his word against the skinwalker's. Simply ambushing any he found immediately might be the most effective means of handling the situation.
He'd need the other three to be on board with it, though. The body would prove it's inhumanity quickly enough, but without backup, the immediate reaction might either put him at risk or force him to hurt someone who simply didn't know better. Frank spoke up, the first words uttered in several minutes.
"If I see a skinwalker, I'm just going to take it out as soon as possible. I need you three to be on board with that. I don't want to play word games trying to get everyone else to agree. That means that there will be people who might try and stop me or go after me afterwards. If you can stop them with a stone or just brandish your weapons to scare them off, we can avoid anyone getting unnecessarily hurt."
All three turned to Frank. Bill responded first.
"Can you give us some warning?" he asked.
Frank thought for a short moment. "I'll scratch my head with my right arm."
"Why are you going to just do that without asking questions? And are we going to give my dad a chance?" Maria inquired.
"I don't want to get into an argument with a skinwalker, especially when I don't expect people to be on my side," Frank said, simply. "As for Hugo, if the opportunity presents itself, I will. Don't get your hopes up though. Do you see him agreeing to kill someone on my word?"
Maria didn't respond to that. Rina remained silent.
The group made it to the city hall a few minutes later. Several people sat outside, a couple of them unfamiliar. Frank didn't know whether they were introduced and he'd just forgotten them, or whether they'd filtered in over the last couple days. None of them recognized his group. They all looked with some surprise at the sight of the four of them in matching hiking gear and pants, two with swords. Frank idly realized that they really did look like a team with their matching clothes, even though it wasn't intentional. Were the pants then more communication from the system?
Jim met them inside the door. "You made it back. That's great. Me and Laura were worried about all four of you.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Everyone so far appeared fine. Frank greeted him respectfully. Jim responded in kind."I'm sure we can work it out with Greg and Sasha if you wanted to stay. What you've done so far, Frank, I'd vouch for you. So would Ghulam and Laura. Margarite too, so all her brothers will support her. Think on it." He pivoted to Maria.
"Maria, your dad just got back. Honestly hadn't even realized he'd woken up and left until Greg told me. He's upstairs talking with Greg right now."
There was a strained edge to his voice that peeked through his gracious welcome. Maria nodded at him.
"We met him on the way back. He went ahead," she said, her tone perfectly even and conspicuously devoid of emotion.
Jim looked at her with confusion but ushered the group inside.
"Where is everyone?" Frank asked. It was later in the evening now, so he had been hoping that the survivors of Redstone would be gathered.
"Everyone's upstairs right now. Greg and Sasha are doing a meeting every evening, organizing people into groups to get supplies and such. We've seen a few of the goblins around the edge of the town, so no one is moving alone anymore. I'll leave you to go up and say hi."
Jim wandered off into an office on the first floor. Frank could see candlelight through the frosted glass panels separating it from the hall. He headed for the stairs, the other three following him. Upstairs, people were gathered in the same room as before. Frank headed for it, putting aside his pack in the hall before approaching the door. The couches and other furniture had been largely removed. Instead, the room was filled with cheap folding chairs, allowing it to seat many more people. Tables in the corners were full of lit candles. Maybe two dozen people were assembled. Some survivors, or skinwalkers, had filtered in while he was gone.
A casual glance revealed two of the assembled to be skinwalkers. One was level nine and looked like an older woman, the other level ten and teenaged. They stood on opposite ends of the room, both chatting with others. Frank stepped into the doorway, keeping the hand holding his sword behind the frame.
People started to look towards him as his presence cast a thin shadow, lowering the amount of light in the room. He gave an awkward look and scratched his head. The good thing about looking awkward was you could fake it even if you couldn't act. Frank wasn't sure what gave it away, but as he dashed into the room with a sudden burst of speed, one of the skinwalkers was already fleeing to the back of the room. The other one reacted almost simultaneously, but as it was closer to the door, Frank didn't give it the chance to flee.
A couple strides closed the difference as it started to move away from him. Frank's sword whipped out towards it, catching the teenaged imitation in the shoulder and cleanly slicing through into its chest cavity. He used his momentum to shoulder the creature off his blade, and it fell limply to the ground. It never had the chance to respond.
He continued on, moving towards the other one, who had picked up a knife from somewhere. People started reacting to the sudden display of violence, fleeing wildly and screaming. Frank kept part of his awareness trained on them but focused mainly on the other skinwalker. As he crossed the room, people cleared towards the corners away from him. So did the skinwalker, but he systematically cut it off, letting others move out of the way.
"Help, do something! Someone! He's a maniac!" The skinwalker screamed in a shrill voice as it continued to try and avoid him. No one was forthcoming immediately, but no doubt someone would come to investigate the noise. He went in for the kill, feinting an attack that had everyone sprawling out of the way, then kicking the skinwalker in the face hard as it tried to scramble away.
The creature was stunned only for a moment, but that was enough. Frank's sword plunged into its chest and put an end to it.
Skinwalker(Level 9) and Skinwalker(Level 10) defeated. Frank awarded 12815 experience.
The entire ambush had taken less than fifteen seconds. People were still hollering and fleeing, giving Frank a wide berth. He turned to his three companions and motioned them into the room. They stepped in after him, the similarity in clothing causing them to inspire similar amounts of fear. Once they cleared out from the doorway, however, the people in the room flooded out. He could see once again his actions made them leery. He thought it was the fact the enemies looked human.
"Someone will probably arrive soon, let's wait for them. Don't put your weapons away. No point in expecting a friendly greeting. There might also be more skinwalkers."
Bill immediately acquiesced, and proactively took a position a few steps away from the door. Rina and Maria chose to stand by Frank. It took less than a minute for four people to show up. Jim, Greg, Brook, and Hugo all arrived together. Greg led them.
"What the fuck?!" Greg yelled in alarm as he saw the two corpses on the ground, slowly dissipating. "What the fuck did you guys do?" He took a step back, surprise and fear mixed. He was holding a machete, but that wasn't really something that'd be able to deal with what he saw.
"Killed a pair of skinwalkers," Frank said, flatly.
"The fuck do you mean? I just spoke with them this morning. You've lost your fucking mind, Jesus." Greg shouted. "Don't fucking move. I'm not letting any of you out of this fucking room."
Frank just scratched his head in response. Brook wasn't human either.
***
Sasha woke up groggily. His head felt like mush. It was a struggle to remember what had happened in the past few hours. Everything he tried to think about seemed to be obscured by a mental fog. It took him several minutes to get the energy to try and sit up. He found he couldn't. His arms and legs were bound by rope, though he hadn't been able to feel it. He was tied to his bed. He used everything he had to try and remember what had happened.
Brook. It'd been Brook. Why? Sasha couldn't understand and in his horrid condition, thinking it over was too difficult. He'd realized Brook had swapped his medication, he remembered vaguely. His anti-anxiety stuff. Fuck, he'd gone to confront him about it. He couldn't remember anything else. How had he realized? It was a blur.
Sasha fell limp. He didn't have any energy. Even just thinking taxed him into exhaustion. He soon collapsed unconscious.