Chapter 10 Epilogue

Eron woke to the sun shining down on him and it had never felt so nice.

He opened his right eye first before experimentally opening his left eye.

Blurry.

Which was better than the darkness from the previous night.

He sat up and noticed that he was in the bed of a truck out in the parking lot of a familiar warehouse.

There were people bustling about and one noticed him.

The woman yelled something into the warehouse’s open door.

Wytchraven came jogging out a few moments later. She beamed at Eron as she approached.

“Thanks,” Eron said. “You saved me from a fate worse than death and probably a lot of other people. If that… thing… had been able to add my strength to its…” he shook his head.

“No problem. It seems that the spires recognized that fact,” Wytchraven said. “I got an extra Quest on top of the same one we already had. Kinda weird though, right? Get a Quest and achieve it at the same time.”

Eron decided to check the Quest notification later. “What?” he noticed that Wytchraven had a weird look on her face.

“You’re not mad that I left you in my truck?”

“No. Why?”

“I figured being in the sun would be good for you. You’re basically like Superman. Eye beams, bullet proof, able to leap tall houses in a single bound, faster than a speeding train, more powerful than a monster. I washed your wounds, but that was all I could do.”

“Good guess. The best thing you could’ve done for me.” Eron hopped down to the ground. “Thanks for the pants. Why no underwear?”

Wytchraven’s face sobered. “You’re lucky I found some pants in my brother’s room.” She turned away.

That’s why they’re too big, Eron thought.

“A successful Quest notification means that the evil entity is definitely dead and gone,” Eron changed the subject. “Are there any other things I need to know? What happened while I was out?”

“Actually, Abuela Alejandra wants to talk to us, I mean you, I already told her what happened.”

“Okay, good, I’m guessing she’s inside?” Eron wanted to get this over with so he could take the stuff he was promised and continue on his journey south.

The Abuela was waiting in one of the offices.

Eron sat down and matter-of-factly recounted the previous night’s events.

He had to give it to the old woman. She barely batted an eye as he described the horror that was the evil entity with Tony’s face, skin. He shivered.

“Man, it’s like those folktales,” Joe had joined in partway through, “Tony must’ve gotten a Skindancer Class.”

“Don’t be stupid, pendejo!” Gabriel swiped at his cousin, but was too slow. “Why would they make something so horrible a class?”

“I don’t think it was exactly a skindancer. Those are more like shapeshifters that can wear different skins or change them. This thing was the skin,” Wytchraven’s face was haunted. She wasn’t likely to forget the sight.

“So was it Tony or not?” Alejandra only had eyes on Eron.

“I saw dozens of faces on the skin when it was dying, maybe more. Your community was missing three. No, it wasn’t Tony. Whomever or whatever it was came from somewhere else. I’m pretty sure Tony was just as much a victim as the rest.” Eron’s eyes darted to Wytchraven. The evil entity had used her younger brother to destroy her family.

“That’s too bad,” Alejandra said.

Eron scowled at her.

“Harris is mad, really mad. That thing killed the last of his cattle. His pride and joy.”

“And half his family. Man’s got a right to be upset.” Eron didn’t like Mr. Harris, but the old man was still human. He had suffered too.

“It would’ve made things more peaceful if he had his own right hand man to blame,” Alejandra said.

Wytchraven suddenly stood and ran out of the office.

“Abuela!” Joe said reproachfully before chasing after his friend.

“It’s a hard truth,” Alejandra said. “I feel for the girl. She’s the best of them, but I have to deal with the realities for everyone.”

“What happened last night? Who started the shooting?”

“They did!” Gabriel snapped.

“And they’ll say we did,” Alejandra continued. “Same old shit. Always blame somebody else for own problems,” she spat.

“Okay, before you ask. I’m done here,” Eron said calmly. “I just want you to fulfill your side of our deal. I’m not even going to ask for anything extra for killing the horrible thing that would’ve probably killed all of you and absorbed your skins. I’m not interested in playing peacemaker or policeman.”

“Eh…” Alejandra shrugged. “We can take care of ourselves. Is what we’ve been doing. You wait one week and deal done.”

“Okay.”

Gabriel glared at Eron with disgust as he stood and exited the office.

Eron left in search of Wytchraven and Joe. He had to use one hand to hold the comically over-sized pants from falling to his ankles.

He followed the sniffling and found them outside around the corner near the warehouse’s outer wall. Overgrown trees provided plenty of shade. He found a narrow sliver of sunlight to stand in.

“You’re leaving?” Wytchraven said as she wiped her eyes.

“In about a week.”

“Good, maybe you can punch my dad and brother to get them to stop being dicks,” Wytchraven spat.

Joe winced and shrugged at Eron.

“With time to grieve they’ll calm down… maybe,” Eron said softly.

“I did all this so that people wouldn’t die. Now the best part of my family is gone,” Wytchraven wailed. “We killed the monster, but what difference does it make if there’s still going to be hatred and violence?”

Eron didn’t know how to answer, so he kept his mouth shut. Ironically, he had gotten more cynical since the spires had appeared. He had witnessed the worst aspects of humanity outweigh its best. He wasn’t going to voice his thoughts for Wytchraven’s sake, but he had come to realize that laws enforced with explicit and implicit force was what kept people from turning on each other over the slightest differences. It was basically tribe against tribe all the way down.

“I think, maybe, if you’re willing, you can keep the peace long enough for things to settle down,” Joe looked at Eron.

“How?”

“You tell people what happened. You make it clear what’s out there. You tell them that terrible things aren’t just going to stay outside the city boundaries anymore. Might make them more concerned about dealing with that than fighting with us,” Joe said.

“Okay, but I’m not so sure that’ll make a difference,” Eron said. “Once I’m gone it’ll just go back to the status quo.”

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“You can stay,” Wytchraven said in a soft voice.

“Sorry,” Eron said. “I’m trying to get south to see the rest of my family.”

“Oh…”

Eron nodded, unsure what else to say.

“Well, you’ve still got a week to convince them,” Joe shrugged. “I do have an idea that would help us out.”

Eron frowned.

“Here me out. You’ve already traded us one drake thing. Why not trade more? The meat’s good. We’ve tested it out. Doesn’t taste the greatest, but it’s protein. A couple more would set us up for the next year.”

“It’s going to take over a week to process each additional drake. That means I’d have to stay longer.”

“Now that we know how to do it the next ones will be quicker. Or we can give you more from the first one.”

Eron thought about it for a long moment.

“Okay, but no promises.”

“If you can’t bring down any drakes, why not other animals?” Joe said.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to eat mutant animal meat. Smells wrong to me,” Eron said. “And there’s not a lot of normal animals left out there.”

Eron turned to leave.

“Wait,” Wytchraven said. “I have an idea on how you can help.”

Eron suspected he wasn’t going to like this, but he stopped to listen.

“Spend the week helping people get stronger. Take them out and watch over them as they fight monsters and mutant animals.”

Joe’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! We’re too scared to go out at night, but if you’re around…”

“Doesn’t work that way. You get Universal Points based on your contribution to a kill. If I do the work then you won’t get more than a handful of points.”

“Just watch and jump in to prevent deaths,” Wytchraven said. “I’ve seen you move. You’re fast enough.”

Eron didn’t want to run escort quests.

The spires had other ideas. A loud chime sounded in his ears. He dismissed it with disgust.

“Fine. Drakes are too dangerous. I’ll run noobs through the streets at night. No guarantees. Anyone that chooses to join in understands that injury and death are possibilities.”

Joe and Wytchraven nodded. The latter looked better. She had something to focus on now. She could hide the pain of her losses, at least for a time.

“I’m going to recover my strength and then try to bag a drake before sundown. I’ll meet you back here. Max five people in a group. If more volunteer then we’ll split them up and take turns.”

Eron left them. He needed a pair of pants that fit. Fortunately, he had a few left, back where he had stashed his gear several miles outside the city.

He took the time to walk rather than jump since he wanted to maximize his sunlight absorption time before exerting himself. He also needed to review his Quests.

“73k?” he cursed, disgusted with himself. It would’ve been an even one-hundred thousand, but the deaths had subtracted from that number. “Fuck you, spires.” It was difficult to see and hear peoples’ lives commoditized in such dispassionate terms.

Eron couldn’t bear to look at the Quest notification. He banished it with a curse.

A flap of leathery wings carried by the wind reached his ears.

Eron sighed. His left eye was still useless. Aiming was going to be a problem. He wasn’t going to be able to hit the drake from a distance like he preferred.

Which meant that he’d have to get up close.

“Great,” Eron said flatly.

Maybe he’d changed into his jeans after.

----------------------------------------

Eron grimaced.

The noobs weren’t paying attention to their six.

A mutant coyote had snuck around while the rest of its pack menaced the front of the group. The creature was a massive, misshapen thing. All blade-like teeth and over-sized muscles bigger than the largest normal wolves.

One of the young people, a mage, fired a small, stone dart into the eye of the lead mutant coyote.

The beast yelped and snarled in pain and rage as it flinched back. It fell back behind its own lines as another moved smoothly up to take its place.

Too smart.

Eron burst out of his hiding place in an abandoned storefront. Too close to the group and monsters and mutant animals wouldn’t attack. Too far away and he wouldn’t be able to bail them out when necessary, which was way too often for his liking.

The lurking mutant coyote didn’t know what hit it as Eron punted it across the street and into a light pole. Its body bent around the pole with a sickening crack.

Heads turned back.

“Don’t take your eyes off the monsters!” Eron snapped.

The mutant coyotes attacked en masse.

Eron had to rush forward to save the group. It has difficult since he had to minimize his damage output, while keeping the monstrous animals off the noobs.

His efforts worked well enough in keeping most of the mutant coyotes occupied, while the group was able to focus their efforts on one or two at a time.

Eron kept one eye on their battle.

Joe was pretty good with his bat thanks to a couple of passive skills that enhanced his physical attributes thanks to his triple Athlete Class. He had wrestling, baseball and football. Eron hadn’t known that was possible. The other people he knew with the class were limited to a single sport.

Joe bashed a mutant coyote’s skull, stunning it.

This allowed a Warrior to sink her axe into its neck.

The mutant coyote snapped, but she jumped back.

Another magic user stepped forward and bathed it in a spray of fire from his hands.

The second warrior stabbed it with a spear as it rolled in an attempt to smother the flames on its back.

Eron grabbed a mutant coyote by the scruff of its neck and tossed it toward the group. Six more to go then he had to take them back to the warehouse to switch out with the next group.

“Wooo!” Joe cheered as the triumphant group returned to the warehouse.

They were sweaty, bloody, and banged up, but they were alive and several hundred Universal Points richer. The mutant coyotes were above their level, but thanks to Eron’s presence they managed to pull it off with only a few injuries.

“What’d you fight?” Wytchraven exchanged a high five with her best friend.

“Monster coyotes!”

Wytchraven’s eyes widened. As did the rest of the second group gathered around her.

Eron was surprised to see a couple of fair-skinned teenagers with Wytchraven. He beckoned the young woman over.

“Are they old enough?”

“Over eighteen. Legal adults. Their parent’s can’t complain,” Wytchraven said.

Eron sighed. “I don’t think they’ll care about technicalities.”

“Well, that’s too bad. These kids want to get stronger and they’re not racist, so they won’t be a problem.”

“Kids, huh?” Eron eyed Wytchraven. She was barely older. Then again she had survived an encounter with an evil skin monster thing. He figured that probably aged a person.

“So… are we also going to be fighting giant coyotes?” Wytchraven said hesitantly.

“Worried? You’ve got that giant black bird summon spell. Mutant coyotes are going to be easy compared to the skin monster.”

“I can’t just pull that out whenever I want. It takes preparation, time and sacrifice.”

“I see… well, you’re in luck. There aren’t any packs left on this side of the city. So, I was thinking we’d go through the abandoned buildings and kill gremlins for a few hours. If the group looks good then maybe try to claim a building.”

“But that means we’ll have to fight a boss monster,” Wytchraven gulped.

“Boss and secret boss,” Eron said lightly. “Next group! Let’s go! Night’s wasting!” he raised his voice.

He walked off into the dark street as the group nervously chased after him.

The week went faster than Eron expected. He worked the noobs relentlessly.

He mixed the groups up in an attempt to build camaraderie. More young people from the east side of town joined in to the consternation of their parents.

Old man Harris had attempted to threaten Eron in an attempt to put a stop to it.

Eron laughed in his face. He was done with the old man’s bullshit. He knew what he was doing to the balance of power in the town.

That’s what scared the older people.

They had the guns, but their ammunition supply was dangerously low due to the foolish firefight.

Their young peoples’ strength grew in leaps and bounds thanks to Eron’s babysitting runs. The old would soon be eclipsed by the young. They’d need them to fight the monsters and mutant animals.

The Abuela was pleased. Her side of town had the majority of people with effective classes. Their food issues were taken care of in the medium term thanks to the two additional drakes Eron had brought down. As for the long term, she was confident that they would soon have the leverage to negotiate better terms for grocery store access.

Eron departed on schedule with more items than his initial deal.

He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he had gained more than he had spent.

“Why are we walking?” Joe said. “Why didn’t we take your truck, Raven?”

“That’s what I said,” Wytchraven scowled at the back of Eron’s head.

“And I told you that a vehicle is a drake magnet,” Eron said flatly. He didn’t add that he had hoped having to walk a few hundred miles would dissuade them from following him.

Why did he agree to take them along? He couldn’t remember. He already regretted the decision.

He glanced back at his ‘party’. Wytchraven, Joe and a diverse mix of teenagers trailed behind.

Massive leathery wings flapped in the distance.

“Someone hand me a throwing spear,” Eron said lightly. “And maybe get ready to take cover.”

“We’re in the middle of the 5… what cover?” Wytchraven rolled her eyes.

Eron let out a long breath before he searched the bright sky.