Benjamin Vryce

They had been moving steadily closer to the rift for the past few days. He thought it likely that they might even reach it by tomorrow. They had been on the run nearly nonstop since entering the service tunnels again, so he hadn’t had an opportunity to make any armor for Kali. Upon reaching this small alcove however, they had passed nearly an hour without being chased out. So, he decided to take the time now, while they had it, to gear up the party before they reached the rift.

Setting Nyx and Kali to guard, and reminding Kali to wake him should he be endangered, he let Jade know what he intended. She hadn’t argued a bit, the poor woman was exhausted. She hadn’t upgraded her body as much as Benjamin had, she was running essence into her muscles, yes, but that wasn’t the same as remaking them with essence entirely. They had talked about it while they ran, she seemed receptive to trying, but there wasn’t time now.

Closing his eyes, he entered his void space, and was greeted with Ice giving him a firm nose bump.

“What has kept you, my rider?” she asked in his mind. “I have searched the acorn world many times over, and yet, you do not return.” She was obviously bored. He couldn’t blame her, he hated being stuck in here too, but he didn’t have time for it right now.

“Sorry, Ice.” He said, moving over to his meditation chair. “But the battle for the station is going to happen any time now, I need to craft Kali some gear and make Nyx some stronger equipment as well. If we are to have a hope of surviving this anyway.” She seemed to understand because after a snort of discontent, she settled down at his feet and watched as he began to work.

He started with Nyx’s shield; the crazy demoness broke her current one every time she fought. he didn’t want to make it too much heavier than what she already used, but the obsidian was far too brittle for the job, now that she was so much stronger than before. He had wracked his brain for the last few days trying to figure out how to solve the problem. Eventually, he thought he found a solution.

He remembered watching an episode of some TV show or another about how stuff gets made. They had talked about carbon fiber, how strong and light it was when compared to steel. Now, he didn’t exactly know how to make the stuff just from one half forgotten episode of a TV show he hadn’t really been watching, but he did remember it was sort of…woven together, like fabric almost.

In the end it didn’t really matter if he understood the concept or not. He had no idea what the atomic breakdown of obsidian was either, and he made that just fine, so he assumed he would be able to do it here as well, as long as he didn’t over think it. Pulling up the pattern for Nyx’s current shield, he stripped it apart. Separating the obsidian into strands he wove them back together again, using a healthy dose of his dual essence to fill in the gaps in his knowledge.

Once it was done, the shield had a checker board pattern, like he remembered most carbon fiber products having. He was pretty sure that wasn’t necessary, so he altered its surface layer to resemble what it had before. Now, he had to test it. Transforming into his werewolf form, he called up the original version of the shield and smashed his fist into it, it shattered like glass.

Well, if he wasn’t mistaken obsidian was a form of glass. Dismissing the unhelpful thoughts, he pulled up the new shield he had just created and punched it just like he had the first one…and it also, shattered like glass. He frowned, realizing that just because he could throw what amounted to magic at a problem, didn’t mean he could overcome his own lack of understanding. He sighed; this was going to be a long crafting session.

* * *

Jade Benz

“Wow, this is boring. I mean, I don’t miss the whole running for days on end through the tiny tunnels bit. But damn, how long does he plan to make us wait here?” Jade couldn’t keep herself from the outburst, they had been waiting in the tiny room for six hours. She had popped into her void space for a bit, but Drake had beaten her at checkers, and that had kind of taken the fun out of it for her.

“Master carried you in his arms for days, while you messed about in your void space. You can wait a few hours for him to fix my shield…and get Kali some armor.” Nyx snapped, glaring at Jade from her place near the door.

Jade looked at the red skinned demon woman with narrowed eyes. She wasn’t the meek little mouse that Grace had been, she had watched her in action several times over the last few days. The demoness was scary in combat, not as strong as Drake, not even close, but she was skilled and willing to take damage if it meant defeating the enemy.

“Is that so,” she said looking at the demon woman. “I thought my skin had those warm goosebumps a girl gets when a man like Vice has had his hands on her for such a long time.” Here she paused and ran her fingers over the skin tight curves of her red leather armor. “Maybe I aught to return the favor.” She finished, beginning to crawl over to where Benjamin sat cross-legged.

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“Don’t Jade,” Nyx said rising to her feet. “Lord Benjamin has asked us for time, we will give it to him.”

Jade probably would have pressed the attack, if she hadn’t noticed the red lizard woman had also risen to her feet. Neither one of Vice’s new girls was any fun, all they wanted to do was fight. Whenever she managed to get one of them talking, all they wanted to talk about was fighting. They were so boring. The worst part, she didn’t doubt the demon would smack her down if she actually tried to crawl into Benjamin’s lap.

She glanced over to Drake, the ‘dragon kin’ as Benjamin had called him, hadn’t moved. She could see the coiled tension in his legs however, a word from her or a wrong move from the red sisters, and he would be on them. strangely enough, that thought didn’t comfort her. She remembered a time when that damn Viking, Stomper, had played rock paper scissors with her boys. They had gambled broken bits of stone or shell or whatever, she couldn’t remember the details. What she remembered however; was the comradery they had all shared.

It was different now, because Vice was different. He still treated her well enough, but that shy playful side of his was gone. Or, at least it was buried in there too deep for her to find right now. She understood that a person needed time to greave but damn, how long was he gunna be like this.

“You’re no fun red,” she said with a huff, settling back against the wall. “I miss Grace, she always had a pretty green blush waiting whenever I made a dirty joke. Hell, and Stomper, and Tik and Tok. Even the red and blue royalty and the big ass wolves. Vice was a lot more fun back then.” She wasn’t really talking to Nyx anymore; she was just reminiscing out loud. So, it surprised her when she got an answer.

“Lord Benjamin misses them too, a lot of who they were went into making me who I am. I used to remember what it was like to be them, you know? But the memories have faded with time, I’m only me now. Master was happy when he still had his goblins and his wolves, I remember that much.” She trailed off when she noticed Jade’s expression. “What?” she asked hotly.

“Nothing girl, just…for a second, I could see the little green girlie in there. Say, you wanna play checkers?” Jade replied, pulling the board from her void space. It was a combination set, so there were other games in there too, but she didn’t know the rules for the other ones and didn’t feel like reading the manual. Maybe she could get Vice to do it.

She watched the demoness’s face as she set the board, she was probably trying to figure out if Jade was messing with her. Or, she might be worried about leaving him unguarded.

“My lady, if the demon Nyx does not wish to play you then I would be happy…” he had to stop there, because Jade raised her hand in a ‘be quiet’ gesture.

“Thanks, big guy, but I’ve lost to you enough for one lifetime. No, you take over Nyx’s guard duty. Help Kali keep an eye out for enemies while me and the red girlie here have some girl time.”

Dutifully, Drake got up and moved over to the small rooms entrance. He couldn’t fit through the door, thanks in large part to his wing span. Jade had had to dismiss him, and call him back once inside. The same as she had when they left him on the other side of the welded-up panel. It was easier to sacrifice someone as a rear guard, when they wouldn’t actually die after all.

“I have never played a game before,” Nyx said, moving over to the board. “I remember games, vaguely, but that is all. You will teach me this game, Jade?” she asked almost confusedly. “Why?”

“Why not?” the little blonde woman asked back. “Me and Vice are gunna be partnered up for a while. By the sounds of it the whole damn universe is gunna fall apart without us little human souls to patch it back up…or something. Anyway…you’re Vice’s new front liner, gunna be around a while too I’d guess. So, we might as well get to know each other better.” She almost added ‘in case Vice wakes up feeling frisky’ but she had a feeling Nyx wouldn’t have blushed. So, she kept that last part to herself.

“Alright, thank you.” the demoness said, settling down to learn the game.

It only took six games for her to start regularly beating Jade. That put the blonde in quite the mood, but she had initiated the games so who could she blame. After losing four straight times, she called over for Drake to give it a go against the demoness. Jade got up and took his spot at the door, next to Kali, and watched the two, monster people do battle with checkers.

The first two games ended in a draw, and the third was just heating up, when there was a knock on the door. It was a quiet tap, tap, tap, like something small was wrapping on it. The room exploded into hushed movement. Drake, reached out and wrapped her up in his massively powerful arms and drew her back to the far wall. Nyx, pulled her sword from thin air, still not having a shield she gripped its hilt with both hands. Kali didn’t move her position; only drawing the four daggers she had belted on her back and waist.

They each looked at each other and then the door. no one wanted to make the first move, and set another battle into motion. Jade looked to Benjamin, she really wanted to wake him up, but it seemed a little cowardly. He had managed just fine while she was out, and he only had one creation for most of that time. Here, she had three of them all ready to kill.

“Pardon the intrusion, miss Benz and Lord Benjamin. It is I, the renowned chicken known as Drumstick. I’ve come on the behest of my lord, the Shipwright. He wishes to undo the…mistake…that…I made…and has sent me here, with one of his elites, to escort you directly to the rift.”

Holy shit, did that stupid asshole chicken just deliver itself to them? Jade couldn’t hold back the smile as she tried to move for the door, only to be stopped by a strong hand. She looked at the owner of that hand, it was Nyx.

“What?” she asked, not understanding why she had been stopped.

“This is likely a trap, even if its not, we need to wake Lord Benjamin before opening that door.” she replied evenly.

Jade wanted to argue, but she knew the demoness was right. Vice was good in situations like this, and besides if anyone knew how to get her that chicken it would be Vice. The man had sticky fingers when it came to picking up patterns he wasn’t supposed to have after all.

“Fine,” she said crossing her arms. “But I got dibs on the chicken’s pattern.” She added in a whisper. The mechanical squawk she heard from the other side of the door, indicated that the bird might have heard her.