The walk to the Costco building was tense but short without any mishaps along the way. Joe was impressed with how Kelly handled the children and that they all stayed calm was a testament to her calm, caring demeanor. And maybe a spell or two? They all made their way down a few side streets and passed by a large building materials center on the left and a small copse of trees on the right and then found the Costco parking lot. Iona stopped their progress as they waited for Mirabella to return from scouting around. The Halfkin woman appeared only minutes later with a promising report.
“There are survivors inside, although it looks like it cost them to take the building from the saurians. As you can see from here, they’ve managed to move a good number of the local vehicles in front of the main entrance as a barrier. There is a large service entrance that is similarly barricaded and a few doors that are locked. I picked a few, but they are blocked from inside. Overall, I’d say this is a pretty good defensible position.”
Iona, however, disagreed. “This building may look formidable, but tis surrounded on three sides by forest what’s within a quarter mile. And if there’re supplies and food inside, t’will call to all manner of nasty beasts to come for a look. T’would be better to gather the survivors inside and keep looking about for a better place.” She looked at Joe in the huddle, “Tis your town, any place better’n here?”
Joe sat in thought for a while before answering, “My sister’s house is a few blocks from downtown. Just the other side of the river is the main county building. It’s the tallest building in that area and it’s made of concrete and steel. It’s also large enough to house a butt load of people. Plus, it’s close to the river so there’s a good source of water. We’d be able to see a long way from the roof.”
Kelly added, “There’s also a cafeteria in the basement and plenty of space for the children.”
Kier stood and dusted off his hands, “A’right then. We’ve a plan.” He looked to Iona, “If you don’t mind a slight change to your marching plan? I think we need Joe leading the way as he knows where we’re bound to. Mirabella can range behind, if you donnae mind lass?” He directed at Mirabella. She shook her head, and the plan was set.
Joe spoke up, “For now, though, I think maybe Gabe and I can approach the people here and see if we can get them to come along.” He swapped his armor for his tunic much to Kelly and Gabe’s surprise. Joe smiled at their reactions, “Less murder demony?”
They both smiled and with a quick backup plan discussed, Joe and Gabe stepped into the parking lot and slowly made their way towards the front doors. Like all Costco’s that Joe had ever seen, the main entrance was at the top corner of the building with two sets of large glass doors. The cars in the parking lot had been pushed and dragged to form a defensive wall in front. It wasn’t much of a wall, but it had been bolstered by large boxes of different heavy appliances like dishwashers and stoves. It would not stop a determined foe, but it did limit sight into the store.
The two had made it to within about fifty feet of the makeshift wall when a gruff male voice rang out, “Stop right there!” Joe could not quite make out where it came from inside the barricade. “Who are you and what do you want?”
“My name is Joe, and this is Gabe. We’re survivors just like you and we’d like to talk about connecting our groups together.” Joe and Gabe held out empty hands, showing they were unarmed. Joe tried to radiate a non-threatening vibe as much as he could.
Joe borrowed Bixby’s senses and listened to several people whispering. “There’s only two of them.” “He said they have a group.” “Ask him how big a group. If they’re small enough, we could probably take them. Especially if they have any women. Arnold got those control collars from that fucked up slave dungeon.” “What if they have too many?” “Then let ‘em go, and we can follow them, maybe take them by surprise.”
Joe had heard enough and was mortified. He called out, “You know what, we’re good. We’re just gonna go.”
The voice called back a bit frantic, “Oh, no man, no need to go, we can totally take you guys in. Why don’t you come in and we can talk about what your group needs? By the way, how many are there? Gotta make sure we have enough on hand to feed everyone.”
Joe began backing up. He tapped Gabe on the chest and whispered, “If I say run, you book it back to the group.” At Gabe’s confused expression, he added, “They’re not good guys. I’ll explain later.” Joe calmly turned around and began walking with Gabe back to their group, all the while the voice called after them to stop and come back.
Once out of eyesight of the parking lot, Joe and Gabe caught up with their party. Joe quickly explained the conversation he overheard. Everyone was shocked except for the dwarves. Kier said, “You’ll find those that’d rather prey on other’s than do a’right. We should keep moving. Bella, watch our backs. Bixby, have some of your pack stay back and outa sight?” Bixby nodded and moved off to his wolves.
Only minutes later, they were all back on the move, giving the Costco area as wide a berth as possible. Everyone was on high alert. No one wanted to have to confront the people at the big box store. The children maintained a high level of discipline, continually impressing the dwarves and Joe. But like all good things their winning streak of behavior came to an end when one of the boys had to use the restroom.
Joe’s plan had been to move between two buildings and up a small incline to the last bit of the main freeway that passed by the area. He figured that moving across the freeway and down towards the downtown Santa Cruz area would allow the group straighter roads to travel as they made their way towards his sister’s house. They were just passing a building materials supply depot, Joe debating with Iona on the best course of action to allow the little boy to relieve himself when the decision was taken from them. Somewhere far off towards downtown they heard an explosion which caused all eyes to turn in that direction, which is what gave them time to defend themselves from the monster that arose from the supply depot.
The sound of rocks grating together echoed down the street while the group watched in shock as what appeared to be the entire depot yard began to stand up. Cinder blocks, asphalt and gravel all flowed and merged and scraped together to form the semblance of a humanoid figure about thirty feet tall. The sight of the composite giant was too much for the children’s self-control and they all began to scream in terror.
Cement Elemental (30)
HP: 5000
Status: Enraged
Vulnerable to Void and Divine Damage
Iona took charge, “Kelly! Gabe! Take the wee one’s and run! We’ll hold off this muckle dobber!” She moved towards the supply depot, “Ror! Kier! Flank it and take its legs! Joe, we need to get to the core of this thing! Tis a shiny rock in its chest!” She then cast her challenge spell and slammed her axe against her shield. The monster made awful stone grinding on stone noises as it moved and swung its ponderous bulk towards her. Her shield began to glow and a ghostly version of it sprang up in front of her.
Rory sprinted off to the left and began circling to the elemental’s side, while Kier began to chant from the middle of the road. Joe watched as Kelly and Gabe rounded up the frightened children and began hustling them down the street. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of hiding opportunities along the road. To the right was a large open parking lot with a few cement trucks parked in it. To the left was an unbroken wall of one-story buildings. Kelly was smart and took the kids on the sidewalk closest to the buildings. In the far distance several city block lengths away was a forested hillside that Joe knew was one of the local cemeteries. He really hoped she would not take the kids that far. Who knows what the System had conjured to lurk among the old tombstones? Joe watched several of Bixby’s wolves follow the group.
Turning his attention back to the threat at hand, Joe watched as the behemoth of moving concrete smashed a mighty hand down on Iona’s magical shield wall. The sound thundered in the air and Joe could feel the shockwaves in his feet, but Iona stood unmoved and apparently unharmed. Rory took advantage of the moment, ran in, and slammed his hammer into the side of a monstrous leg made of cinder blocks and gravel that shifted like sand. Gravel and chips of stone flew everywhere but the impact did not seem to even catch the elemental’s notice. A moment after that, a blast of radiant light erupted from Kier’s mace and burned a hole through the left shoulder of the creature.
The elemental staggered from the blast of light enough that Iona and Rory both lashed out at the same time. Iona’s huge magical axe effect landed on the mammoth thing’s leg causing it to drop to one knee, while Rory’s attack slammed into the downed creature’s hip, displacing a large amount of gravel and stone. Joe blinked behind it and fired a Void Bolt at its torso and watched in satisfaction as a huge chunk of its side twisted out of existence.
It roared in a gravel filled, grating bass voice and lashed an arm out in an arc, catching Rory and flinging him into the siding of one of the storage buildings. The dwarf crashed loudly and went completely through the wall leaving a crumpled hole in the metal siding. The swing connected with Iona and staggered her back several steps and Joe heard her grunt with the effort as she withstood the massive attack. He brought his hand up again to fire another bolt when a loud chorus of screams came from down the road where the children had run. It was enough of a distraction that several hundred pounds of stone, gravel and cinder blocks slammed into him and sent him sailing into the street.
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Joe impacted the ground and skittered along the pavement, limbs akimbo. Wow! That hurt! Through his armor and protective abilities, Joe felt the hit. His entire torso felt bruised. Kier dragged him to his knees. “Go! Protect the wee bairns! We’ve got this!”
Joe shook off the impact and did not hesitate to scramble to his feet and head down the street. He oriented himself on a large group that was only a few hundred feet away. He blinked twice and stopped. The scene before him caused his heart to beat heavily in his chest. As he took in the scene, anger slowly replaced fear and surprise.
Standing in the street were a large group of people surrounding the children. Gabe was laying on the ground, his staff in the hands of a man in jeans and a gray plaid flannel shirt. Kelly was being held by the hair with her head pulled back and a knife was at her throat. The man holding her was thin with greasy hair and a hawkish face. He wore dark brown leather armor adorned with straps and pouches along with multiple small knives strapped to various limbs, and the dagger he held cast a sickly green glow on Kelly’s exposed throat. The rest of the people gathered wore a combination of modern clothes and medieval style tunics and trousers. Two of them wore leather armor and one large man wore a set of gunmetal gray plate armor and carried an enormous sword. They all displayed various swords, staves and knives. Several had bows as well.
Standing between Joe and the raiders was Bixby, shoulders down, ears back and growling. Next to him was Mirabella and she moved like she was injured. A quick glance at her status in the Party screen showed that she was down about a quarter of her normal Health. She had taken a huge hit it seemed. Meanwhile, Bixby’s wolves were circling the group and the invaders were watching them with wary eyes and tight grips on their weapons. Joe counted thirteen people. The odds were not in his groups favor.
The weaselly man holding Kelly yelled out, “That’s far enough!” He sighed, “Look, I didn’t want this to happen, but your boy there made a move!” He nodded his head towards Gabe.
“Lies!” Mirabella spat. “They struck like cowards!” Joe could see the tension in the tiny woman’s body as she practically vibrated with anger.
The man smirked, “That’s a mighty strong accusation there little…” He looked momentarily perplexed, “Lady?” He glanced at the man to his right holding Gabe’s staff then back at Mirabella, “What the hell are you anyway?”
“Your demise.” She said coldly.
He answered mockingly, “Ooh, she’s a feisty little thing. I think I’m going to have fun breaking her.”
Mirabella took a step forward and the man pressed the dagger harder against Kelly’s neck, “Ah ah ah!” He taunted. “Take another step and sweetheart here gets a new smile.” He brandished a wicked smile that Joe thought was full of evil intent, “Besides, think of the kiddies. You come at me, and my crew here will do some very horrible things to the children.” This caused the children to begin a fresh bout of crying.
Joe’s eyes narrowed, “What do you want?” Joe began Inspecting the individuals in the group. Most were between level sixteen and twenty-four. The heavily armored man, his information named him Darren Alquist was a level twenty-seven Knight Champion and the man holding Gabe’s staff was named Robert Cale. He was a level twenty-six Conjurer. Surprisingly, the man holding Kelly showed only his name and level, everything else was blank.
Arnold (Hawk) Billings
Level: (B) 31
Race: -------
Class: -------
H: ------
S: ------
M: ------
“Well, now there’s a man that gets right to it.” His eyes narrowed. “Ah, I see you’re Inspecting us. Not very neighborly of you, but I understand. You’re probably wondering if you and your friends can take us. Maybe yes. Maybe no.” As if to punctuate his statement, a flash of lightning followed by a thunderous boom pealed behind Joe. “Heh. Looks like your buddies have their hands full at the moment so it’s just you two and your furry friends.” He glanced around at his crew. They all looked nervous but resolute. He then locked eyes with Joe. “You’ve got a very impressive stack of Titles and under other circumstances, I’d love to find out how it is that you’re apparently still level zero with no class, but I’m not a stupid man. If I can buy an ability to obscure my information, then you can buy one to alter it.” He shifted his stance and cocked an eye at Bixby who had taken a few steps to the side. “I don’t think you want your four-legged friend there to take any more steps.” Behind him, one of the men leveled a sword at the children. “You know what Spookyman, I digress. Let’s get back to your question.” He adjusted the grip on his blade and said, “I want you both to empty your inventories and drop any weapons and armor you have concealed or otherwise. Then, me and my guys will take it all…” He kissed Kelly on the side of her head, which caused her to flinch, “Then, we’ll take your lady friends with us. You can keep the rug rats and your lives.”
Joe’s vision was seeping towards red, but his voice remained calm and steady, “That’s very magnanimous of you.” Joe was making calculations in his head.
“I like to see it as a win-win for everyone.” Arnold replied with an oily smile.
Joe narrowed his gaze at the man, “Only, I see two problems with your plan.”
Arnold chuckled, “Oh? Do tell.”
“First, I don’t believe you. I think that as soon as we’re defenseless, you’ll kill us. It only makes sense. See, I don’t think you’re the kind of man to risk leaving behind someone that would hold a grudge and come after you later. And I am definitely the kind of someone that would hold a grudge like that.”
Arnold shook his head with an admiring look on his face, “Well, you’ve certainly got me there. You’re a pretty smart fellow. And the second problem?”
“Well, I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t take kindly to someone harming my friends and family. I’ve also been dealing with this System shit long enough to know that it creates all kinds of monsters. Monsters like you.” Joe paused and made sure he had the attention of the group, “And me? I’m the guy that kills monsters. So, I have a counteroffer. You let my people go, unharmed, and I’ll let you walk away, sins forgiven. But, if you continue down the path you’ve started walking, I will end each and every one of you.”
Congratulations! Your skill, Intimidation, has increased to Tier 2.
Joe quickly closed the annoying screen. The group across from him now looked nervous. The previous cocksure attitude of their superiority had been replaced with uncertainty.
Arnold laughed, but it was tinged on the edges with just a small amount of fear. His eyes flicked to behind Joe as the sounds of the fight with the elemental continued. “You’ve got some brass balls on you; I’ll give you that. But there is no way in hell that you can take all of us. Especially not with the children in danger.”
One of the men in the back mumbled, “Arnold, I don’t know about this man.”
Arnold hissed and spat back at him, “Hawk! You fucking call me Hawk!” He turned back to Joe, “And this guy is all bark and no bite. What’s he gonna do about his little girlfriend here with a knife at her throat?”
Joe took a deep breath, “You have until three to walk away.” He shifted his stance and the entire group of men turned to pay attention to him, ignoring the wolves ringing the group. “One…”
Arnold’s eyebrows furrowed in anger and frustration, “If you hit three, her head comes off.”
“Two…” On two, Bixby turned his head slightly and let out a tremendous gout of flame at the men furthest from the children. At the same time, Mirabella disappeared and Joe Blinked in front of Kelly. Arnold’s eyes went wide with fear. From there things happened swiftly.
Arnold drew his blade across Kelly’s throat and spun away from her, letting her go. Joe caught her and placed his Troll ring on her finger and dropped to the ground with her. He yelled, “Activate the ring!” And hoped she would understand. It was the only way he knew to save her. He looked up towards the fight and oriented on the Conjurer who was the highest-level person closest to the children. In his peripheral vision, he saw half of the enemy group was down from Bixby’s flame attack. Bixby had literally vaporized five of them and one man in leather armor was currently rolling around on the ground, aflame and screaming. The Knight Champion was surrounded by wolves and swinging his gigantic sword in deadly arcs around him, keeping the wolves at bay but also not able to enter combat with anyone else. Bixby had an arrow in his shoulder but was savaging the bowman who had shot him. Arnold had disappeared completely so Joe blinked in front of the Conjurer who was chanting a spell. Joe appeared just in time to watch a slim blade erupt from the man’s mouth. The bewildered man blinked in surprise and dropped to his knees. Mirabella appeared out of nowhere on the man’s back, her blade slammed all the way to the hilt into the back of his head. The tingle in the back of Joe’s mind told him many of his opponents were dead. Joe cast his Mantle spell and watched in relief as the soft glow briefly enveloped the children.
Mirabella yelled for Joe to look out and he turned in time to see a massive sword swung from overhead coming swiftly for his face. Before he could react, a shield was interposed between Joe and the comically large weapon. A loud clang was felt as well as heard and the weapon impacted and bounced off the shield. Iona took a step forward while the Knight Champion was recovering and Winter’s Bite slammed into the man’s side, carved a large gash into the plate armor, and instantly frosted it with ice. The man grunted and heaved his weapon back for another swing as Joe slid backwards and away from the fight so as not to crowd Iona. He backed up to the children and crouched, looking all around for any danger to the frightened kids while he called his swords to his hands.
The Knight Champion had his sword all the way back and ready for another strike, when his head caved in. Rory’s hammer came down on top of the helmet and simply crushed it like a soda can. The man’s body flopped bonelessly to the ground. Rory spit on the man and kicked him in the ribs before turning to look for more targets on which to vent his rage. Joe saw that Bixby had taken down the archer that had wounded him and Mirabella was standing on top of another man in flannel and jeans who had been wielding a pair of short swords. Next to her were several of Bixby’s wolves lying dead or wounded. The last surviving opponent was running hellbent for all he was worth across the parking lot towards the cement trucks. Bixby took off like a shot, but before he made it halfway to the man, a crossbow bolt sprouted from the man’s back and sent him sprawling onto the asphalt. He scrambled to his feet only to have another bolt appear in his left thigh. The man screamed and went down just in time for Bixby to land on his back. Joe turned his eyes away and tried to shut out the man’s last scream. The experience tingle told Joe that the man was dead. The entire battle took less than a minute.