Then, Texas
The front porch of the home turned hotel was surrounded by hundreds of the mayor’s fighters.
Elliot stood at the foot of the steps leading up flanked by several of his strongest people. He trusted the Furies to keep him safe. Yet, he felt genuinely afraid as he stared up at the young man with the strange shadow, which even now was moving around despite the fact that its owner was standing still.
He spared a silent curse at Leon for agreeing to do the mayor’s work for her. Then he gave another to himself for following the order.
“This fucker killed Kath,” Hayden whispered venomously behind him.
He recalled that the leader of the Furies had some kind of personal relationship with the leader of the Hearts. He leaned back and turned his head to whisper back. “Remember what Leon said. Do anything and your contract will be canceled.”
“Worth it,” Jayde said as she punched her fists together.
The third member, Dayana, tapped Hayden’s steel pauldron. “Say the word,” she added.
“Do anything and you’re all out. That means your families lose your benefits,” Elliot growled. “Leon has a plan. Trust him. He’d screw himself over before he’d do us.”
“Fine… for now,” Hayden hissed.
Elliot turned his attention back to the mayor’s man negotiating with the Dread Paladin. He snorted at the thought of the name. He’d laugh at the edge lord, except for the fact that the fucker had gone to the guild with the Hearts’ heads in a bag.
“What will you do if I refuse?” the Dread Paladin said.
The young man’s voice sent a shiver down Elliot’s back. He felt the Furies bristle.
“Steady,” he warned them and his other fighters. Too many hands had been drifting to weapons or getting ready to cast spells. “He’s just a man with a class, like all of us.”
The mayor’s man looked like he was about to piss himself, but managed to point back to the hundreds of armed men and women. “You will be escorted out beyond our walls and be banned from entering all our settlements.”
The young man regarded the mass of people. He seemed to grow taller, his shadow darkening the space around them despite the bright sun light. His eyes darted up to the yellow orb for a split-second.
Too quick.
Elliot decided that he had been mistaken. Those piercing eyes had never left them. Nope, they just continued to bore holes into his very soul.
“You’re going to pay me ten times that bounty to fight with these eagles?”
“That’s right, you’ll fight under, Mr. Espinoza,” the mayor’s man pointed down to Elliot.
He had to tighten his stomach and clench, but managed to speak out in a loud and firm voice. “You like to fight? Then you’ll get all you can want. We’re going into uncharted territory. No one knows what kind of monsters, cannibals or other assholes we’ll find out west. Follow my orders and I’ll guarantee you opportunities to gain levels. You’ll also get a share of whatever treasure we find or the cash equivalent if that’s what you want. That’s on top of the mil you’re getting from the mayor.” Which was bullshit, but he kept that part quiet.
The young man’s eyes bored holes through Elliot before lancing to each of the Furies in turn, ending on Hayden. His head tilted slightly to one side. “If I refuse, we will fight. Many of you will die.”
A statement of fact.
There was no fear or even nervousness in the young man as far as Elliot could tell and he was pretty good with reading people. He couldn’t get anything from the young man. Almost as if what was said was merely a foregone conclusion.
“This is only a small fraction of the Golden Eagles,” the mayor’s man said. “They have 500 strong fighters. The mayor has thousands. You can’t seriously think of going up against those odds?”
Elliot held an arm out to bar Hayden from moving forward. “Don’t be stupid, young lady. This isn’t the time and place.”
“It isn’t,” the young man agreed to Elliot’s surprise.
“Okay, I’m in. Do you guys have, like, a bank or something? I’d like to leave most of that cash here for when I come back,” the young man said.
Elliot blinked.
The menace, the dread had instantly almost vanished.
The Dread Paladin didn’t look like the worst monster he had ever seen anymore. He seemed like a normal, if sullen-looking young man.
Elliot was still nervous and a little afraid, but could unclench without worrying about leakage.
“I’ll take care of those details,” the mayor’s man said.
“Tell him where to be tomorrow morning. We leave at first light,” Elliot barked with forced bravado. “We’re done here,” he stalked off followed by the rest of his people. The mayor’s fighters parted for him like he was a regular Moses.
What had Leon dropped into his lap?
The expedition was going to be hard enough.
The distance they were going to cover was unprecedented.
None of their previous trips had been more than a few hundred miles away from their base here on the outskirts of the city.
Vegas was over a thousand miles away.
“Maybe I can put him in front of a stampeding herd of mutated longhorns,” he muttered.
“Or we can jump him once we’re on the road,” Hayden said.
“None of that. You aren’t going to besmirch our company name. Now, if he goes rogue,” he shrugged, “well, you’ll probably have to get in line. You aren’t the only one that thought highly of the Hearts. Plenty of people wouldn’t mind the chance to get them payback.”
----------------------------------------
“I am soooo tired of life… it’d be nice to just not wake up for once,” Ledge said.
Hayden regarded the man. He wouldn’t have looked bad if it wasn’t for the dark bags underneath his eyes and the perpetual sad face. She bet he would’ve looked years younger than his 30-whatever year’s of age.
“I thought Elliot talked to you about crying like a little bitch all the time,” she said. “At least I’m pretty sure he said to do it in private and not in front of the noobs.”
Ledge’s blue eyes narrowed. “How’d you know about that?”
“Dunno… meeting or a memo,” she shrugged.
The thin, fit man sat up from his cot. “What does the MVS want with me at such an early time?”
Hayden jabbed a thumb to the teenage girl slouching behind her. “She needs to be attached to a squad when me and the Furies are doing the hard jobs. Stand up straight!” she snapped.
The girl straightened to her full height, which allowed her to see over Hayden’s head. “Hello,” she waved hesitantly.
“More like a swan than an ugly duckling,” Ledge said.
“Don’t start being a creep now. I’m only leaving her with you guys cause I know you aren’t a dick and it’s only when all of the Furies aren’t around to keep an eye on her.”
“What’s your name?” Ledge said.
“You don’t need to know that.”
“Kinda do if you want me to keep the other LT’s and Elliot from realizing you’ve brought a stowaway with you,” Ledge sighed.
Hayden bristled and the air around her crackled. The tall girl yelped as she hopped back with her long blond hair rising for a moment.
“Relax, Sparky,” Ledge waved a dismissive hand, “I don’t care why. I just think it’d be impolite if I called her ‘girl’ or ‘hey you’,” he regarded the girl, “pleased to meet you. My name’s Ledge, short for Legend, cause my dad, rest his soul, was the epitome of the Type-A shark tank lawyer and he had expectations, oh so many expectations.”
“Go ahead,” Hayden told the girl.
“Prim,” she said.
Ledge regarded her for a second. “You know, that actually fits. Good to meet you Prim. I’ll be honored to occasionally babysit you.”
“I can help. I can do jobs. I can train, spar,” Prim said.
“Cool cool… why the need for hiding anyways?” Ledge said. “MVS can get away with anything.”
“Most Valuable… Sparky?” Prim turned to Hayden.
“Don’t ever say that again,” she replied with a set of eye daggers for Ledge as the air around her crackled once again.
“Sparkplug, Most Valuable Sparkplug on account of what she does,” Ledge grinned.
“Sparkplug?” Prim said.
“It’s—” Ledge sighed. “You’d a been a practical baby when the spires showed up. Not gonna pry, but you probably don’t have a lot of knowledge about the B.S. days.”
“Don’t ask him about that,” she warned Prim. “Spark plugs play a part in getting the engines in our vehicles started.”
“Oh, like your electricity,” Prim nodded.
“Except they’re a lot weaker.”
“I take it you’re not going to explain any of this weird shit?” Ledge said.
“Nope. All you need to know is that Prim’s my squire,” she said with a straight face.
Prim nodded fervently.
“You might sorta look like a knight with your armor, Hayden, but you ain’t no Knight. Nobody’s gonna buy that,” Ledge said.
“As long as you keep your mouth shut, no one will ask. Once we get far enough on the Quest then it’ll be too late and Elliot can’t send Prim back.”
“Hmm…” Ledge mused. “True enough. He won’t like taking a kid on such a dangerous expedition— which begs the question, why you’re doing it? Thought you’re smarter than that.”
“Like I said, you don’t need to know.”
Ledge rolled his neck. “He won’t waste the manpower taking you back, Swanchild.”
“She’s got a name,” Hayden growled.
“Now she’s got a proper company name, Sparky,” Ledge grinned. “This should be entertaining. I bet it’ll drive Elliot nuts when he realizes that there isn’t a ‘Swanchild’ logged in the rolls. Guarantee he’ll spend a day second guessing whether he just forgot. Might give me a reason to live for a bit.”
“Ignore his melodrama. It’ll get old and annoying soon enough.”
“Yes, Hayden,” Prim nodded.
“I’m counting on your aversion for dangerous things, Ledge,” she said.
“I don’t foresee that changing, though I can’t promise you anything,” Ledge replied.
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Hayden snorted before leading Prim out of Ledge’s tent.
The fortified camp was a bustle of activity as the support crew was busy getting lunch ready.
The Golden Eagle’s 1st Company was a day out of San Antonio. The monsters roaming the area were a known quantity so they were fairly relaxed aside from those on guard duty.
“He was just waking up,” Prim said.
“He’s the worst and best lieutenant depending on perspective,” Hayden said as she led her charge back to the Furies’ tent. “You’ll be safest with him when we aren’t around.”
“I— thank you for doing this,” Prim said.
“None of that. You don’t owe me or anyone anything. I spent a few years at Saint Antonio’s. Ms. Daniels and Kath were friends. Got me my start with the adventuring stuff. From what I understand you’d have been fine if Kath hadn’t been murdered.”
“I hope Ms. Daniels will be okay. They’ll be upset that I vanished,” Prim said.
“Fuck those rich old pervs. Fuck them up their asses. Ms. Daniels would have more than enough to feed all the girls if the mayor and her fuckers weren’t such greedy fucks.” The air around Hayden crackled. “Shit! Sorry. I usually have this under control. First, Kath, then what they were planning with you. Part of me wants to go back there and fry them all.” Her eyes narrowed. “Pretty, sure I could do it too,” she growled.
“I’ve been learning. Even though they told Ms. Daniels not to let me learn too much. She let me when they weren’t watching. I know I can be useful to you. I won’t be a burden,” Prim said.
“Already told you not to worry about that,” Hayden sighed. “So, what’ve you been studying. I remember I only cared about the fighting.”
“I practice that. Philosophy, science, math, cooking and magic. Everything I could,” Prim said.
“Impressive, but are you good at them all? Some? Or are you equally bad at them?” Hayden laughed.
“Jack of all trades, master of none,” Prim recited. “I have the Mage class,” she whispered.
Hayden’s eyes widened. “What level?”
“Level 15.”
“What about your junk classes?”
“I don’t have any. I didn’t pick any others up.”
Hayden whistled. “Now that is smart. Kath would always warn me about wasting levels on Cook or Cleaner,” her face twisted, “or Escort. I was lucky that I turned out to have a power and not a class.”
“Ms. Daniels told me what they had planned for me, so I knew what to watch out for and avoid.” Prim’s eyes focused on the dirt-covered ground.
“None of that. You don’t want to be like Ledge, mopey bastard,” Hayden said. “You can cook, right?”
“I’m decent even without the class,” Prim nodded.
“Alright,” Hayden ushered Prim into the Furies’ palatial tent, “let’s wake up the others and see what they want for lunch. We’ve got time so I’d rather give your cooking skills a shot then eat that slop the camp’s Cooks put out. Don’t get me wrong, it ain’t bad when you’re out on the road and far from home. Thing is… we ain’t that far from base yet and I want to put eating that junk off for at least another few days.”
“We don’t have any food here besides MRE’s,” Prim said.
“We’ll go to the Quartermaster. I can get enough for the four of us. Privilege of being the MVS,” she grinned.
Hayden roused the other two members of her team with shouting and kicking when the former didn’t prove sufficient.
Following that, she dragged Prim back out into the camp.
They returned with enough raw ingredients for a promising meal when a horn call sounded the alarm.
----------------------------------------
“Gear! I’ll see what’s up,” Hayden barked.
An unnecessary order seeing as how Jayde and Dayana were already putting on armor and grabbing weapons.
“What do I do!” wide-eyed Prim said.
“Stay here with them. They’ll protect you if the camp is breached.” Hayden grabbed her chains and a long spear, whose wooden shaft was wrapped with an insulating tape and thin copper wire.
Camp was a bit of a misnomer.
Mobile fort might have been a more apt description.
The core of the expedition was the roughly 100 dedicated combat personnel while another 100 or so made up the support staff. However, the latter were all combat capable to some extent as per Golden Eagles policy that required everyone to have a few levels in classes that had uses in a fight.
The interior was a frenzy of activity, not panicked, but orderly. Almost like an ant hill responding to an attack.
Hayden rushed toward the sound of the horn at the western side. Past the tents. Past the parked vehicles. All the way to the spiked wooden barricades the marked the outer edge.
The fighters on guard duty at that spot had already been joined by two of the squads stationed closer to the interior. She knew that the scene was being copied at the other three sides of the camp. Although Elliot’s presence here told her that they expected the main threat from this direction.
The huge cloud of dust in the distance confirmed her thoughts.
“I’m confirming it,” Elliot lowered the high-powered binoculars from his eyes. “Scouts got it perfectly. We’ve got mutated longhorns incoming. Standard family unit. The bull, two cows and two calves. Good job, guys.”
Hayden suddenly shivered.
Something—
She bristled and brought the lightning running inside her body to the cusp of eruption.
The others gathered near her stiffened and half-raised weapons as heads turned in search, away from the visible threat in the distance and toward the interior of the camp.
The Dread Paladin stalked toward them.
Hayden wanted to scoff at the young man’s self-proclaimed title, but found her mouth going dry.
The way the pitch black shadows moved around him in the bright sun made it hard to keep her eyes on him.
The pale-skinned young man followed one of the Golden Eagles right up to Elliot, who visibly steeled himself.
“A threat for you to eliminate,” Elliot pointed at the large dust cloud across the dry, dusty plains.
“What is it?”
Hayden was struck by how young the Dread Paladin’s voice sounded. It broke through the fear in her heart for a split-second. So fleeting that she forget it had happened just as quickly.
“Mutant longhorns,” Elliot replied.
The Dread Paladin stared at him silently.
“Captain! Estimate that they’re a mile and half out.” the spotters eyes were glued to high-powered binoculars.
“… you know what those are, right?” Elliot continued
“No.”
“You look 20. You were a kid before the spires appeared. Didn’t you watch college ball? Everyone that grew up in this state should know.”
“I didn’t and I don’t remember. Some kind of deer or goat?”
“Cattle.”
“Mutant cows with long horns.”
Elliot blinked in confusion for a moment. “Except, now that they’re mutated the horns aren’t so nice to look at. They could have multiple horns or multiple points going off in random directions.”
The Dread Paladin nodded once and began to walk toward the dust cloud.
“One mile!” the spotter barked.
“What are you doing? I need you to fight them away from camp,” Elliot gestured to the motorcycle with the sidecar that one of the Golden Eagles just pulled up in.
“Unnecessary. They won’t reach you.”
“Despite being twice the size of the normal animal, they’re faster. You might be able to kill one, but the rest will stampede right into our camp,” Elliot tried, but the young man was no longer listening.
Hayden ripped a pair of binoculars from a nearby man. Ignoring the angry protest she rushed up to one of the spiked barricades.
She saw the mutant longhorns rumbling at the head of the dust cloud.
“Shooters get ready, but don’t fire unless I say. The last thing we need is to draw more attention,” Elliot said.
At fifty yards out the Dread Paladin summoned armor and weapons from the shadows around him. Thick, dark gray plate and chain. A heater shield and a spear both in black with shadows that seemed to writhe around them.
Hayden recoiled from the binoculars.
That was what Kath and the Hearts had seen before they were murdered.
Part of her wanted to get on the motorcycle and spear the bastard in the back. Even if she couldn’t get through that thick armor thousands of volts would be sent into him. Then she realized that the dark gray armor wasn’t just ordinary metal. Whether it was magical, from a Skill or a mixture of the two probably meant enhanced defenses.
The best thing for her to do was to watch closely and learn more about Kath’s murderer.
The mutated bull longhorn had closed to within 500 yards of the Dread Paladin. Despite being much larger than the rest the massive creature was faster. It was a particularly ugly specimen. It looked to have two deformed faces with a third twisted horn coming out of the middle of its head, through the cheek of one face. Much worse than the others Hayden had seen over the years.
The Dread Paladin moved so fast that it took a few seconds for Hayden to register that he had hurled his spear.
She couldn't follow it.
A loud boom washed over her, sending a cloud of dust that obscured her vision.
When it cleared the mutated bull was much closer.
“He missed…”
No.
She scanned through the other mutated longhorns trailing after the bull.
There had been two cows and two calves according to Elliot and the scouts.
One of the calves was missing and one cow had skidded to a stop and looked back with a deep moo of what sounded like dismay to Hayden.
Another spear appeared in the Dread Paladin’s hand.
A second loud boom.
When the dust cleared, the remaining cow had joined the first in turning around. Only the bull remained charging.
They were terrible monsters, but killing the babies was cold.
The Dread Paladin held his right hand out to the side.
A long length of dark chain coalesced, snaking down to the ground in coils.
The mutant bull was within fifty yards.
He whirled the chain over his head.
As it spun to blinding speed a great spiked ball appeared at the end. It was much larger than a human head.
The bull was within twenty yards.
The Dread Paladin lashed out with the impossibly large head and long chain of his flail. He struck the mutant bull on the side and sent it crashing to the ground, carving a deep furrow into the dirt and throwing up a great cloud of dust.
Before the mutant bull could rise, the Dread Paladin whipped the flail head up and slammed it into the creature’s head with an audible crack.
It reminded Hayden of one of the power hammers they used in the foundry.
The pit in her stomach grew larger.
The amount of physical strength to wield such a large and heavy weapon like it was weightless was staggering. Let alone completely overpowering a musclebound creature that weighed as much as a truck.
Two hits!
She thought of the Hearts. Of the fear inside of her at the thought of her own team suffering the same fate. She swore to avenge Kath and the others. Was that even possible? Or were her friends going to end up like them? Dead, heads in a bag.
While Hayden was consumed by those thoughts the Dread Paladin broke off into a sprint.
He gave the impression of a heavily armored juggernaut.
The immovable object.
It was a shock to everyone watching when he dashed across the desert plain like a world champion sprinter.
The giant flail had disappeared. Replaced by a longsword, just as black as the other weapons and the shield.
Two mutant cows remained.
One saw him charging.
She lowered her horns and thundered toward him.
He met her in a collision that made a car crash seem peaceful.
The impact echoed across the landscape and sent a shock wave that cleared the air dozens of yards around the pair.
He lifted his shield and tossed the thousand pound mutant over his head like a sack of potatoes.
It hit the ground and remained still.
Neck already broken.
He spun.
The sword slashed in a blur that barely any of them could follow.
The second mutant cow’s body ran for a few more strides before collapsing.
Its severed head had been left behind. One of the twisted horns got stuck in the dirt A gruesome tribute flag to the Dread Paladin’s strength and skill.
Hayden couldn’t discount the latter.
The young man had overwhelming strength and speed, but he had also moved with precision. He wasted nothing.
“It’s too bad we can’t eat that meat. That much beef could’ve fed the whole expedition. Less expenses means a bigger cut for all of us,” Elliott laughed.
It sounded terribly forced to Hayden.
Judging by the nervous chuckles from a few of the others they caught it too.
The rest were too stunned at what they had seen to do anything other than close their mouths.
She caught Elliot eyeing her, so she walked over.
“I tried,” Elliot said in a low voice.
“Try harder.”
“Mutant longhorns are just about the strongest things out here.”
“There’ll be worse on the road… probably. If not, then we’ll have to do it ourselves.”
“Are you stupid? I thought you weren’t stupid,” Elliot hissed. “You did see that, right?”
Hayden said nothing.
“Whether it’s the magic armor or not, he’s the strongest person I’ve ever seen… by a wide margin. He’s fast and he knows how to fight. I’m not surprised he got the H—” Elliot scowled. “No offense, but you’ll just end up dead if you try it.”
“We’ll just have to get him before he summons the armor.” Hayden clung to that hope.
“Just… no. If you start a fight in the middle of our camp you’ll endanger everyone else. I promise I’ll put him in front of every horrible mutant, monster or thing we come across out there. Meanwhile, do what you did today. Watch and learn. Find weaknesses, vulnerabilities, whatever. If he’s still alive once we’re done with the expedition, then you can do what you want. No sooner,” Elliot warned.
“What happens if he keeps winning? Everyone is already pissing themselves. Can you imagine what that’ll be like at the end of this?”
“I don’t like it. He… bothers me, but the expedition’s success is the priority. I’ll deal with the creepiness if it helps all us come out of this with more levels and the wealth that allows the Golden Eagles to keep our autonomy from the mayor. I hope you understand that,” Elliot said.
Hayden gave him a curt nod and stalked back to her tent. She told herself that it was because she didn’t want to risk losing control and attacking the Dread Paladin when he returned. She tried to ignore the voice that warned her to get as far away as possible.