Then, Texas
For Cooper Church the waking world blurred with the nightmare. It had started almost six months ago. He was a young Fighter. One of those tasked with protecting his small community. They were a gathering of several large, extended families that had managed to carve out a relatively safe existence out of their connected farmlands.
They weren’t close to any stores, but food and water was plentiful thanks to a nearby river that fed into the lake, their animals and vegetables.
Occasional trips to the nearest small town helped them fill in the gaps with other supplies, like medicines and morale-boosting junk food, while giving added leveling opportunities in addition to fighting off the monsters and mutated wildlife that periodically attacked their farmsteads.
Cooper had been a boy when the spires had appeared. It had been hard for him to remember what life had been like before and despite the constant threat from the outside world he had thought that his was a mostly happy existence.
He had lived and fought side by side with family and friends. He and his cousin, Jemma, a bright and sunny girl, but the most vicious Fighter out of them all, had been planning to form a team to go out and see if there was something more beyond the range of their lands. For a hope that there were other Americans out there, still fighting for home, like them. They often talked about that hope during the long, boring duty on the night watch. That one day they could take their country back from the monsters.
It was on one such random night that their carefully crafted world, one they had fought hard for was shattered.
A night of fire, pain, lust and all manners of corruption swept through.
Monsters, but in the form of men and women.
Led by an impossibly tall and thin figure, stronger and faster than their best fighters while casting spells that crushed their best magic users with ease.
They had overwhelmed Cooper and the other defenders.
The memories of that night plagued him. Even as they blurred between vague impressions and vivid pictures
The pain and ecstasy blended in impossible ways.
He remembered Jemma dueling the inhuman looking leader and losing despite fighting the best that she ever had.
Her cries—
He heard them still.
Somehow, they had overlooked him as they proceeded to torture everyone he had ever cared about.
Cooper had fled. His body had been torn and broken, but the fear, the terror that filled him gave him the strength to move. He had found himself stumbling toward the spire in the middle of the Burnett’s cattle pasture.
He had heard himself praying to God to save his family. When there was no answer he pleaded with anything and everything. He didn’t care.
Something had answered.
He was sure that it wasn’t the God that he had prayed to all his life, that wasn’t there when they had needed him.
It had been something else.
Something else.
Fear and terror had filled him.
Something else had pulled all of that out of him and given him freedom.
Anger had remained.
A figurine of writhing shadow had appeared out of the sudden distortion of air in front of the spire.
Cooper hadn’t hesitated. He had reached out and grabbed it like something else had told him.
A bargain had been struck and sealed with the flash of pain in his hand, followed by fear seared into his soul.
No.
That was wrong.
Not fear, rather dread.
Cooper found himself clad in dark gray plate armor that seemed to create shadows around him that didn’t make sense..
A purpose had been burned into him.
He welcomed the strength he felt surging through his body. It would be enough to save his family and friend. It had to be.
He had rushed back only to find that days had passed.
All the farmhouses had been emptied.
Broken things and blood stains had been the only reminders of the happy lives that had once been.
Cooper had nothing left, besides the bargain to fulfill.
A Vow that he couldn’t escape.
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“Hey—”
Cooper’s dark eyes flashed to the man standing behind him in the open doorway.
“Er… I’m trying to get in,” the man looked away. He had seen something in Cooper’s eyes that he didn’t like.
Cooper stared for several long seconds before deliberately turning away and proceeding into the building.
It had been a large home once. One of those mcmansions he had heard about. A long table had been set up near the front door, in front of the wall that the kitchen or dining room hid behind. The living room to his left was set up like a reception area with round tables and narrow stools straight out of a bar.
There was quite a number of people inside.
They eyed him, but most couldn’t maintain eye contact for long.
He knew what they saw. It was what he had seen in the mirror ever since that night months ago. Dark eyes that lived in the shadow. That seemed to contain an endless well of… something else.
He stepped up to the pretty young woman seated behind the table.
The reason he had come here.
It was a strange place, this Adventurer’s Guild. He didn’t know what to make of it. They seemed more like bounty hunters from what he had heard walking through the populated suburbs on the outskirts of the city.
Still, it was necessary.
He had a Vow to fulfill and he needed to find an outlet soon.
The man he had become demanded it and the young man he had been wouldn’t be able to keep him in check for much longer.
It had been easier during his travels from his home in the north. There had been plenty of monsters and animals he could kill. The people he had encountered had been almost universally scum. Bikers that raped and pillaged at every opportunity. Communities that treated each other and outsiders without any notions of the what the word should’ve meant. Not like what he had once.
He had to find those responsible. Use those responsible for the bargain he had to make to feed that Vow. Problem was he had no idea how to find them and so he wandered south, aimless.
“Um… excuse me?” the young woman said hesitantly.
Cooper had lost himself again. “I want your biggest bounty thing.”
“Oh… uh, here,” she pushed a piece of paper toward him.
He scanned the application form. “I’m not interested in joining.”
“Well… there are tons of benefits if you become an official member of the Adventurer’s Guild. You are entitled to discounts practically everywhere around here. Food, housing, gear purchasing and maintenance. Priority insurance for all your medical needs. A conscription waver…” she trailed off at the look on Cooper’s face.
“Give. Me. The biggest bounty,” he scanned the cork board behind the young woman. “This one,” he reached over her head and tore the bounty free. An unknown number of thieves stealing from the stores. 20K for each individual, dead or alive. He frowned. Was that in U.S. Dollars? “What’s the point of that?” he muttered.
“Sir?”
“The reward… is money?”
The young woman quailed. “Yes,” she squeaked.
Cooper felt her fear verging into terror.
Satisfaction and guilt warred within him.
The Vow was being fulfilled, but the old him was ashamed.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll return with these thieves,” he turned to leave.
“Wait— sorry, but I need to mark you down. Even if you don’t want to sign up as a member. I need to note whoever takes a bounty. Please, sorry.” The young woman’s words came out in a rush.
Cooper could feel her terror spreading to the others watching.
Other people responded to fear by lashing out.
He didn’t know these people. Didn’t know if they deserved what he brought.
“You can write down Dread Paladin.”
Cooper ignore the young woman’s stammering as he left the house with purposeful strides, the crumpled bounty in a white-knuckled grip.
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“Get that damn mask back over your face, Ant!” Dave hissed in a low voice.
“Chill… I just need a couple of seconds. Need fresh air. Hard to run around with this over my face,” Ant said.
“You’re always bragging about your cardio for being so big and strong. Don’t tell me a thin piece of cloth is too tough for you to deal with,” Tori smirked.
“Quiet,” Kath warned. “And mask up, Ant.”
“Yeah, boss, on it,” Ant grumbled but followed the order.
The four team members were gathered inside a small pizza shop with sight lines to the Walmart they were planning to hit. There had been gremlins inside the shop, but those things were easy kills. They had cleared it without opting to claim the structure by fighting the bosses.
“Do you think it’d be okay if I made a pizza while we wait for Josue?” Ant whispered.
“Can’t use the facilities without claiming it first,” Tori replied.
“Really? Are you sure?” Ant whispered.
Kath ignored her team. She only had attention for the twenty men and women outside the Walmart’s front entrance. The mayor’s militia out on patrol. Just her luck that they happened to be at the same place she had targeted. Hopefully, they were only stopping for a dinner or water break rather than keeping guard all night.
“We might need to abort if they don’t leave soon. Once it gets deeper into the night they’ll have to go inside for shelter. Not to mention even we’ll have trouble fighting our way back home,” Dave said.
“If Josue says the inside is clear then we can sneak around through the back. I’d bet good odds that the militia didn’t split their numbers,” Kath said.
“You’re probably right on that. I don’t recognize any of them out there, so I’d say they’re mostly in the low 20’s, maybe mid 20’s for their best ones. They wouldn’t halve their strength guarding both front and back. Plus, they don’t run groups bigger than that for simple patrols and guarding shit,” Dave said.
Kath waited for what felt like hours, but was only minutes according to Dave when a soft knock sounded at the back of the pizza shop.
They let Josue in and found out that the inside of the Walmart was indeed empty.
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Kath looked at her team. “Thoughts?”
“They’re weak. We can knock them around, grab the stuff and get back before it gets really dark,” Ant said.
“We can’t leave them outside injured,” Tori said.
“Bring them inside then,” Ant shrugged.
“No one’s watching the back. It’d be easy to sneak around and get in, even for you, big guy,” Josue poked Ant in the ribs.
“A fight is too risky. It’s harder when you’re just trying to knock someone out. We’ve got a huge level advantage, but anyone could get lucky or unlucky depending on your perspective. I say we abort. Try the secondary target. It’s on the way back home, which will limit our exposure to the worst of the monsters,” Dave said.
Kath mulled it over. “We can’t come out of tonight with nothing. We go around the back,” she decided.
True to Josue’s words they way was free and easy.
They were almost done stuffing various supplies into large packs when Josue stiffened.
Dave caught it immediately. “From where?”
Josue’s eyes darted to the front of the store. He nodded. “It’s at about 9.”
“Shit!” Tori whispered as she dropped her pack and pulled the M4 from behind her shoulder.
“Hearts, we’re moving! Grab those bags! Let’s go!” Kath urged.
The screams from outside broke the silence.
“Do we… help them?” Ant readied his large round shield and submachine gun.
“Boss?” Dave looked to Kath.
“Damn it,” Kath muttered. “I suppose we have to. Masks up.”
The team hustled to the front.
“Wait,” Josue said as he cupped an ear toward the front. Enhanced Hearing. “They’re not fighting. It sounds like they’re running away,” his eyes widened, “we need to get out of here,” he warned.
Too late.
The doors slid open. A figure in plain dark gray plate strode through.
“Are you the thieves that have been stealing from the people?” the figure’s voice was deep rasp.
It sent a shiver of fear down Kath’s back. The shotgun in her hands shook.
Eyes seemed to glow with an unearthly color behind the narrow slit of the blank-faced helmet. Shadowy wings emanated from the helmet’s sides while seemingly moving in a nonexistent breeze.
This was bad. She knew that this man was more dangerous than anything else she and her team had ever faced. Somehow, she knew.
The thought turned that fear into terror.
She was on the verge of turning and running when a voice cut through to her.
“Inspire Courage,” Dave said in a wavering voice.
Kath’s terror became fear once again. She could stand in the face of the gray-armored stranger.
“Boss, his shadow isn’t right,” Josue whispered in her ear.
When had he moved there? He had been on the opposite side of their formation.
“It’s like it’s moving around randomly. It’s not where it should be based on the lights,” he continued.
Now that Josue had mentioned it, Kath couldn’t unsee it. It was wrong in a way that caused her to shiver. “We aren’t thieves,” she managed to say.
“You take without paying,” the gray figure rasped.
“And who should we pay, huh? The stuff we take reappears the next day. No one is spending resources to produce them. Not anymore. Not after 11 years. We don’t profit from this. Unlike the mayor and her ilk, we give it away to people that can’t afford them otherwise. Food, water, medicine. Things that everyone needs to simply live.”
“That’s—”
The gray figure appeared to wrestle with something.
Tense seconds passed.
Kath subtly signaled with her hand.
The rest of her team slowly backed away toward the rear of the store.
They’d have to ditch the supplies they had come for. There was no choice.
Whoever this was wasn’t someone they could beat.
“— irrelevant,” the gray figure said.
“Boss! Everyone! Get out of here!” Ant stepped toward the gray-armored figure and emptied his magazine.
The bullets bounced off the plate without effect.
Ant dropped the submachine gun and pulled the long-handled sledgehammer from his belt, banging it against the edge of his shield. “Taunt!”
The shadows around the gray-armored figures hands darkened and grew almost tangible.
A split-second later he wielded a black spear in one hand and a small, curved, triangular shield with the slightly-rounded tip pointed to the floor.
“Backing you up!” Dave rushed toward Ant’s left side.
The gray-armored figure cracked the floor tiles with every step as he blocked Dave’s pistol bullets with the shield. He moved with surprising quickness.
The spear thrust out faster than their eyes could follow.
Ant grunted as his wooden shield was pierced.
“Bulwark!” Ant cried out.
The gray-armored figure pulled his spear.
Despite Ant’s Skill and mass, Kath saw that her tank’s boots slowly sliding across the floor.
“Oh god! The spear’s moving like it’s alive!” Ant cried. “Concussive Strike!”
Ant’s hammer struck the gray-armored figure’s shield with the sound of thunder.
Boxes of cereal and granola bars went flying from the shock wave.
The sound had been deafening, but the gray-armored figure didn’t appear bothered. He continued to pull Ant.
“Disarming Strike,” Dave growled as he slashed at the gray-armored figure’s wrist.
The thick-bladed chopper clanged against the gauntlet.
The spear slipped a fraction, but remained in the gray-armored figure’s grasp.
Kath was boxed in the aisle. She couldn’t move to get a clear angle to shoot. The spray from her shotgun would’ve definitely struck one of her guys.
Tori didn’t have that problem form her location far behind everyone. “Piercing Shots. Steady Aim.”
The gray-armored figure raised his shield.
Tori’s gun barked.
Kath saw the spark as the bullets penetrated the shield and struck the gray-armored figure’s helmet.
“Fuck! He barely moved. No penetration!” Josue called back to Tori.
“I can see that! Going to try for the eye slit! I need a distraction!” Tori said.
“I’m dipping out and coming back at six,” Josue said.
The coded-words were clear to the team.
“Vanish.”
“Enhanced Coordination: Team, The Hearts,” Kath said. “You can do this, Tori,” she urged.
Dave struck again and again, while Ant did the same.
The gray-armored figure was like a towering juggernaut, practically immune to their blows.
Tori eased her breathing and focused down her weapon’s sights keeping it trained on the moving slit of the gray-armored figure’s helmet.
“Find Vulnerabilities,” Josue said as he suddenly appeared at the gray-armored figure’s back. He stabbed with a short, pointed dagger in one hand and sliced with a curved blade in the other. The neck, under the arms, back of the knees. His daggers kissed every spot that was only covered by mail.
Tori’s gun barked repeatedly.
The spear was ripped loose from Ant’s shield.
Josue fell back from a swing.
“You missed,” Kath said.
“I—”
The gray-armored figure shifted his grip on the spear and let fly in the blink of an eye.
“Interc—” Ant was too late.
Tori hit the ground with a thud.
Stunned, Kath froze like a statue.
The spear stood out of Tori’s chest like a planted flag. It had gone through her armor like cardboard.
Kath couldn’t fight the rising dread in her chest even as she watched the spear dissolve into the shadows underneath Tori joining the growing pool of red.
“Watch out!” Josue’s cry was a beat too late.
Dave and Ant had been distracted by Tori’s death.
The gray-armored figure shattered Dave’s buckler and the hand and arm behind it with a punch. He cried out as he backed away.
“Shield Slam!” Ant powered his shield into its counterpart. The Skill-enhanced force pushed the gray-armored figure back and gave the big Warrior an opening. “Concussive Strike!” he drove his sledgehammer into the gray-armored figure’s chest.
Metal clanged on metal.
The blow sent a shock wave out that blew Kath back a few steps.
“Ant! Fall back!” Kath called. She could see that the powerful strike had only moved their enemy back a step. “Everyone back! I’m giving us space! Empowered Spell: Force Orb.”
It took her a few seconds to gather her mana. Time in which her guys fell back. Josue and Dave flanked her while Ant rushed to Tori’s body.
The gray-armored figure moved with surprising quickness.
He was suddenly right in front of her raising a wicked-looking spiked black mace in place of the spear.
When had he pulled that out?
Kath pushed out with her hand almost on reflex. She was lucky that the spell was ready.
The boom threw the three of them back and sent everything on the shelves flying.
The gray-armored figure vanished out the front doors in a shower of broken glass.
“We have to run, Boss!” Dave grimaced. His ruined hand and arm held tight to his body.
Kath nodded.
They went out the way they had come in with one less member and none of the life-saving supplies so many people needed.
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Now, Somewhere in the California Desert, Near Barstow
“What the hell is that!” Nila said.
“It’s huge. I don’t have my awesome Threnosh helmet to give me measurements, but judging by the cacti, it’s leg is about as tall as the average human,” Cal said.
“It has no head, but it has antlers— how does that even work? How does it eat? What does it eat?”
“Souls?” Cal shrugged.
He had seen many strange creatures since the spires had appeared. On this world and another, but the giant monstrosity several hundred yards distant was something else.
It was a huge, four-legged creature without a head, but an impressive rack of wicked looking antlers emerging from the shoulders of a roundish, muscular body covered in brownish fur.
“It’s at least as big as an elephant. Probably,” he murmured.
“Do you think it’ll come this way? You’re blocking our presence from it, right?”
“Yeah, totally. Nothing should realize we’re here. Even if they get close they’ll just walk around us. It’s like a persistent field ‘These are not the droids you are looking for’,” he tapped his temple, “pretty easy to generate and maintain. A lot of this stuff is like on autopilot now. Used to be mostly the walls, but I’ve been improving. Losing my powers in the fog was a good kick in the butt.”
“Well, that’s nice and all, but it’s moving in this direction,” Nila stood from the folding chair and left the warm surroundings of the campfire. “I’m going to get in my armor and check on the baby,” she entered the RV.
The monster was getting closer as it rutted its antlers into the desert dirt. “Don’t come here mister headless moose-elk. You’re a horrible monster that’d eat us if given the opportunity, but I’d rather not fight tonight, although…” he eyed the massive hand cannon in the custom holster strapped to his right thigh, “a test against a giant monster would be useful.”
He patted the Hawkmoon copy. Mr. Del Campo had done it perfectly. From the look of the engraved feathers on the stainless steel barrel to the backward sweep to the rear sights that evoked the image of wings in flight. It even had the single, talon-like spike on the bottom of the black grip.
The whole thing was about 20 lbs. A solid hunk of metal to handle the stresses of firing the custom round.
The most powerful the old Gunsmith could make meant something akin to a nitro express round. The kind used to hunt big game.
The bullet was larger than the typical handgun round. The entire round was much larger than a human finger.
Sadly, the only thing Mr. Del Campo had failed to do was to give it the perks from the game.
This was fair. A possibility to be explored in the future. Perhaps through a collaboration with Jake and the technomagic kids.
Cal’s hand fell away from the grip as he watched the creature circle their camp and vanish into the cold desert night. The strain on his mind was nonexistent even as he maintained two telepathic effects.
“How is he doing?”
“Baby’s still sleeping,” Nila came back armed and armored, “where’d that thing go?”
“Off into the sands,” Cal waved in its direction.
“More like dirt and rocks,” Nila snorted.
“So… baby’s asleep… we could bring a sleeping bag out and—”
“No. Not while there are giant headless monsters wandering around out there. Plus all the mutated rodents, insects, snakes, lizards.”
“You forgot the birds,” Cal sighed, “oh, and whatever that whispering thing was. Couldn’t get a read on it before it vanished.”
“Ghost. It was a ghost,” Nila said.
“What do you want to do then?”
“Eat, drink and talk sounds nice,” Nila said.
The RV door opened and a pack of playing cards floated into Cal’s hand. “We can play a game while we do that.” The wooden spoon stirred the pot of chili at the campfire. “How about we bet stuff? Like, say, diaper changing duties.”
“You can read my mind,” Nila gave him a flat stare.
“Which I don’t and I won’t… I swear.”
“Alright, you’re on. No limits to the number of changings,” Nila’s eyes narrowed.
“Agreed.”
Cal shuffled and dealt.
“This is nice. Sitting by the fire. The cool breeze— which is completely blocked by the armor,” Nila sighed.
“You can get out of it. I told you it’s safe. If anything happens you can get back in a matter of seconds. I can protect us long enough for that.”
Nila stood and the armor’s front opened with a hiss to let her step out. “Much better,” she said as she sat back down, “warm fire, cold drink, hot food and loved ones.”
“Yeah, I wish this was more the norm than the exception.”
“We should enjoy our moments,” Nila smiled.
Cal’s heart warmed as he shuffled and dealt.
“I’ll bet 3 diaper changes on this game,” he said.
“That’s fine… do you have any 2’s?” Nila said.
“Go fish,” he replied.
By the time Nila went to bed, Cal was down 23 changes of the diaper.
“Well… fuck,” he muttered as sat in his chair and cleaned up the rest of the campsite.