“Here we are. At last.”
The weary tone in Clara’s voice made Alex smile. She hadn’t expected the Acolyte to be so travel-worn compared to her, but it had been a long trip. Her father had dropped her off with her duffel bag at the train station nearly three hours ago. The train had been behind schedule, which had cost a good amount of time, and then the ride north had spent well over an hour. Once they’d arrived, the company had sent a bus, which had then spent another half an hour at least, weaving its way through the city’s traffic-choked streets to the Red Blade Securities compound.
The bus ran over a speedbump, lurching slightly as it went, and Alex straightened up in her seat. When she’d signed up for serving out the rest of her contract with the new company, she hadn’t expected them to drag her into the city rather than letting her stay at the portal she’d already become experienced with, but the transfer had been one of the first things that Red Blade had demanded of her. Construction crews had already been tearing down the old containment area around the former Golden Swallow portal, and she’d been denied permission to enter that portal again for the foreseeable future.
Not that it had been a surprise, given how terribly things had gone under her last company. Hopefully, this corp was better than Golden Swallow had been—for the sake of their stockholders, at the very least. Golden Swallow had gone so bankrupt that the news anchors used a faintly glowing crater to represent them whenever the news discussed their fall. The official reasons had been buried under mountains of technical jargon, but rumors abounded.
She just hoped that her name was kept out of it. Time would tell.
Alex caught sight of a new set of buildings appearing outside of the window and went a little tense. Clara gave her a grin and then went back to staring at the place that would be their new home.
It was a solid box of buildings that rose above street level. A massive blank wall surrounded the whole complex, cutting it off from the outside world. Clusters of large multistory buildings had been crammed into the space inside. None of the architecture was all that inspiring; it seemed like whoever had designed the place had been a fan of plain concrete and rebar, with an almost prison-like design. From the outside, at least, it looked either the world’s most restrictive boarding school, or a small penitentiary right in the middle of downtown.
Of course, the city hadn’t been particularly happy about the compound, but it didn’t have much of a choice. The center of the compound was where her assigned portal was located; the information that Red Blade had given her said it was a low D rank portal, with eight square blocks reserved around it. Fortunately for the surrounding neighborhood, that buffer zone appeared to have locked the magic energy inside. Alex couldn’t even smell it yet.
The bus reached the one spot in the wall that had been fit with a gate; it paused, waiting for the doors to swing outwards, and then slowly turned into the compound’s garage. Alex tried not to feel like the place was swallowing them whole. She shivered despite herself.
“Uh oh. The team captain is scared.” There was a bit of nervousness in Tim’s voice, but he just laughed when she twisted around to glare at him. “Relax, Alex, we aren’t going to get ambushed by Grue here.”
“That’s what you think.” Brian glared at him. “Now that you’ve brought it up, I’m sure we’ll get there and Red Blade’s going to announce that they have this brand new genius idea for us to help them with…”
Joanna snorted from her seat. “I’m pretty sure that plan would be dead on arrival, Brian. No more Anchor Points on earth.”
The Squire grimaced. None of them were ever going to forget that sight, or what it had taken to stop it. “Not this year, maybe.”
Audrey tossed a piece of a chip at the man, grinning widely. “Oh please. The only thing I’m worried about is keeping up with these guys. They’re supposed to be absolute monsters, only taking on the toughest portals. Did you hear that half the people who sign up drop out before their first year is up?”
“That seems… unsustainable.” Sam shook his head. The Adept did look worried, though he had spent most of the trip in silence. “Still, at least they seem like they don’t lose Surveyors very much. At least not through casualties.”
“That’d be a nice change of pace.” Alex turned back to face forward and slumped down in her seat. From their first group of twenty-four Surveyors, only eight of them had survived the missions that Golden Swallow had given them and kept fighting. They’d lost six to the company’s lethal risk-taking. Six more had taken a long look at the deadly chaos they’d survived and walked away, unwilling to continue putting their lives on the line for a faceless corporation. The last three, Rudy, Ruth, and Marcel, had managed to survive the destruction of the Anchor Point, only to quit with sizable ‘discretion’ bonuses from the Portal Regulation Agency for keeping quiet.
The final four Surveyors had been crippled, unable to ever work as Surveyors ever again. Those ones were her fault, not Golden Swallow’s… but she didn’t feel bad about them at all. Griefers who preyed on other Surveyors earned what they got. Always.
She was still smiling to herself when the bus pulled out of the garage and into a small half-circle of pavement that seemed to be set up especially for new arrivals. It ground to a halt, and she looked out over a group of Surveyors who were practicing in a wide-open space that had apparently been set apart for duels. They wore dull grey uniforms with red shoulder slashes, with the red sword of the company logo on their backs. A tall, severe-looking man in a black version of the uniform was watching over them, at least until he glanced back at the bus.
Then he tapped a watch, and the drills all suddenly came to a stop. With eerie coordination, the Surveyors gathered up their practice weaponry and trotted over to form three lines of ten, all facing the bus. Each Surveyor had the same stance; arms folded behind their backs, feet shoulder width apart.
At that point, the bus driver glanced back at them and opened the doors. She motioned for them to disembark. Alex exchanged a look with the others, none of whom looked anxious to lead the way. Clara simply met her eyes and raised her eyebrows.
With a sigh, Alex levered herself up and out of the seat. She was the first off of the bus.
The moment she stepped off the bus, a wave of magic washed over her. It was strong, though not as strong as the waves coming from the last portal could occasionally get. She wrinkled her nose for a moment, feeling a slight difference between the smell of this portal and the last one. Her mother had mentioned that every place felt different, but Alex hadn’t expected it to be that obvious a change.
Then she shook her head and stepped forward, sweeping her gaze along the lines of Red Blade Securities Surveyors that were staring back at her.
Some of them were watching the new arrivals with bland interest, while others were ignoring her to stare directly ahead. A handful seemed almost hostile, with faint snarls on their faces. She tried to remember those ones for later. If there were griefers here like there had been at Golden Swallow, she would need to find them sooner this time. Better to deal with problems early.
Alex finished her brief inspection by looking at the black uniformed man. At Golden Swallow, they would have called him a team sergeant or captain. It had been a bit of a joke, considering that the Golden Swallow officers really never entered the portal, and barely qualified as anything more than middle management.
This man was different. His expression was hard, and his dark eyes were calculating and cold as he examined them. Where the Golden Swallow leads had been soft and out of shape, it was clear that this Surveyor had seen recent, brutal training, if not a mission through the portal. His hands still bore the scars of combat, and he seemed to be favoring his right side a little. Her last sergeant had practically been fueled by sheer pettiness and sabotage, but she hadn’t been much of a direct threat in the end. Unless she was mistaken, Alex was looking at someone who could probably threaten her as much as Forsmith ever had.
It was going to be different, having an actual, competent Surveyor as a supervisor.
He seemed to realize that she was studying him, and blinked. His hands twitched at his sides, and Alex had to suppress a wince. What had that meant? The last thing she needed was to have problems here. Not so soon after the last company. She broke eye contact to get another look over the Surveyors, and then walked towards the back of the bus.
The others filed out of the bus behind her, performing a quick, habitual check of their surroundings as they spread out along the curb. They wandered back along with her, forming a kind of line of their own. Once Joanna came off the bus, the last of the group, Alex stopped walking and turned to face the other Surveyors again. As the others followed suit, she fell into a relaxed stance. She wasn’t about to ape their faux-military stance, but she wasn’t going to cower in a group, either.
A silence fell over the area, and the black uniformed Surveyor blinked again. Then he nodded and walked forward, taking up a position midway between the Red Securities people and Alex’s group. He mimicked the same stance from the rest of them, looking around at them in silence.
Then he smiled. It was not a nice expression. “Well, isn’t this a lovely sight! Eight new recruits for our proud cause. Isn’t that right, troops?”
The Surveyors behind him responded immediately, their voices a joint shout that echoed across the practice area. “Yes, Chief Wells!”
Alex felt an abrupt sinking feeling in her gut. Maybe it wasn’t going to be so nice after all.
Wells stepped forward, his eyes searching the new arrivals. He began to walk up and down the line, inspecting each of them as if to size them up. “Unfortunately, they aren’t exactly fresh new recruits, are they, troops? They’re transfers, leftovers from some other, weaker company. From what I’ve heard, they have been mistreated. They were cheated of the superior training, resources, and direction that Red Blade Securities provides. Weren’t they, troops?”
“Yes, Chief Wells!”
Alex could already see her friends starting to tense up along the line, their expressions becoming glares. She could even see Sam and Audrey curling their hands into fists, as if ready to lash out as Wells walked past them. He didn’t seem to notice, continuing his booming tirade.
“And so we see the consequences of that neglect! Out of twenty-four personnel, there are only eight left. Eight, who didn’t even manage their portal well enough to avoid an Escalation Event that nearly brought down their whole company. A waste! A sheer, unmitigated waste.”
He stopped in front of Alex as he said that last word, glaring down into her eyes. Alex just looked back up at him blankly. A part of her knew well enough what he was doing and was irritated by it. Then again, at least nobody had used any acronyms or tried to kill her yet. It could be worse.
Wells drew back slightly and then walked back down the line. “So here we have eight beaten, broken little Surveyors. Castoffs looking for a new home. Failures.” Then he paused and looked back at his own teams. “Yet do we blame them, troops?”
“No, Chief Wells!”
“That’s right!” Wells continued his walk, oblivious or uncaring about the fact that Sam looked ready to stab him. “They didn’t have the good fortune or clear foresight to choose a better path. The Red Blade Securities path! Their flaws and failings are not theirs alone, but the fault of the company that sent them unprepared into the fires of combat.”
He paused where Joanna was flexing her hands, as if picturing her sword in her hands, and reversed course. His voice grew louder, if anything. “For that reason, we welcome you, new recruits! Your flaws will be corrected here. Your fears will be forgotten. You will be reforged and remade into something that will never fail again.”
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His slow, measured stride had nearly brought him back to Alex. “Here at Red Blade, you will learn your Skills as you never have before. Every day will push you further than you could have ever believed. Normally, this means that a large number of our newest recruits will leave before completing their first year. Nearly half our troops choose to fulfil their contractual obligations as support staff instead of real Survey work, but they survive. Their lives are not wasted, even if their rewards are reduced. If you choose that path, it is not a shame.”
He glanced at Alex before walking back towards the middle of the line. “But at the end of the day, every time you step through that portal, our regimen will provide you with the best chance of walking back out again. You will not be allowed to be anything less than a perfect, sculpted avatar of humanity, ready to support you brothers and sisters in arms. Isn’t that right, troops?”
“Yes, Chief Wells!”
Wells nodded in clear satisfaction. Then he smiled, a sardonic grin that clearly ate at some of the former Golden Swallow Surveyors. “Now, I can see skepticism in your eyes. Doubt, even. It is understandable. You’ve only known failure and pain, after all. Why should you trust anything I say?”
“So here’s what we’ll do. We’ll have a little contest. Who’s the strongest one here?” He raised an eyebrow at Sam, who was staring at him slack-jawed. “Is it you?” The Adept shook his head, suddenly caught between laughter and snarling, so Wells frowned and looked back towards Audrey. “What about you? You seem ready to fight.”
Alex sighed. The rest of her friends were starting to relax and glance in her direction already, so she stepped forward on her own. She might as well get it over with. “Chief Wells? I am.”
He turned with slow satisfaction. Dark eyes examined her for a moment, narrowed and cool. “I see. And your name is?”
She looked back at him a moment. “My name is Alex. I’m a level four Page.”
Wells tilted his head. “A distance fighter?”
Clara snorted, and Alex gave her a quick glare. “No. I fight in melee.”
“A Page in close quarters! Well, we certainly have a novelty.” Wells shook his head and looked back at his own Surveyors. “Well, I think we can definitely find a challenge for you. Ed!”
One of the Surveyors stepped forward. It was a boy about a head taller than Alex was, with dark brown hair and green eyes. He was built well, and moved with the familiar confidence of someone who’d been through plenty of fights. There was a long, two-handed practice sword in his hands, and Alex felt her eyes narrow.
Wells looked back at her. “Ed is a level four Porter, and a good example of what the preparation we provide can give you. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind trading a few blows with him?”
Alex looked at him. Unlike some of the other Red Blade Surveyors, he wasn’t smirking at her. Instead, he was watching her closely. She nodded. Maybe it would be a good measure of what she could expect here. “Sure. I just need an axe and shield.”
The team leader nodded and gestured for one of the other Surveyors to fetch the weapons. Alex ignored the murmur from her former teammates and stepped forward, watching Ed. He had hefted his sword and swung it a couple of times, as if to loosen up. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to tell whether he moved faster than what she’d seen in Paul and the others. At the very least, he’d be less of a problem than Liliana had been, at the end.
She hefted the shield and axe when they were handed to her. They seemed good enough. When she looked closer at them, they didn’t seem to be damaged or sabotaged, either. Satisfied, she stepped forward. “All right. Where are we doing this?”
Wells paused for a moment, as if taken aback by her lack of bluster. Ed simply shrugged and gestured for her to follow. The others from her group trailed along behind, even as the Red Blade Securities folks made a near-circle around one of the dueling areas they’d been using before.
Ed waited for her in the middle of that space, his sword still in his hands. He didn’t look around at the other Surveyors. It was as if his entire focus was on her, and her alone. Alex felt her eyes narrow. That kind of attention was a bit disconcerting. It made her glad that she hadn’t reset her Skills during her last mission after all.
Wells took up a position on the edge of the circle. He raised one hand. “The duel will continue until someone yields, or cannot continue. Now, begin!”
The instant he let his hand fall, Alex charged. She didn’t know what kind of skills a Porter could have that would make Wells think he could take on a Page in a duel, but she wasn’t going to wait to find out. Better to rush him and finish things early, before any tricks could happen.
Ed’s reaction proved that she had been smart about not taking him for just an empty uniform. He lashed out with his sword in a textbook stab, meant to thrust the point through Alex’s chest, right where her heart was. For a moment, she almost saw Paul’s image superimposed over him; the griefer that had nearly killed her had tried a similar move out of desperation.
Just like with him, she stepped to the side and brought her axe down. She wouldn’t chop through Ed’s wrist, but it would be a solid hit, maybe even enough to make him drop the sword.
To her surprise, Ed reacted with shocking speed. He jerked his sword back, and Alex’s hit rang off the blade rather than his forearm or wrist.
Then he pivoted. Alex jerked her shield into position. His counterattack bounced off her shield, even as he moved out and away from her. Ed backed off a little, his face now locked into an intense scowl as they began to circle.
She watched him move, trying to spot a chance to catch him off balance or distracted. Part of her regretted never getting a Skill like Battle Trance, but her main Skill, Battle Maneuvers, was probably a pretty large part of why she was still standing at the moment. Between that Skill and the two lower level Melee ones that she’d brought to maximum level, she could probably match whatever crazy training camp they had set up here.
At the very least, their first exchange had drained some of the confidence from the Red Blade pack. They were staring warily at her now. Ed himself seemed undeterred, however. His feet slid over the smooth floor of the training grounds, keeping him centered and balanced. She watched his sword shift in his hands, twisting this way and that as if it were a snake, testing the air before a strike.
She waited another few moments, trying to familiarize herself with the way he moved. Then she charged again, her Speed helping her to cross the distance in what seemed like an eyeblink. Ed jerked backward slightly, his sword coming down to point at her face. Alex grinned and brought her shield around to match.
Then, just as she’d nearly closed the distance, Ed jumped forward, his right arm extending like a spear. The sword flicked out, aiming for the outside edge of her shield. It hit just hard enough to twist her shield out of the way, and then Ed pivoted around it. A single clenched fist came straight at her face.
It would have hurt if her mother hadn’t pulled a similar trick on her repeatedly for years. Alex ducked low, feeling the fist brush past her cheek. She pivoted fast, bringing her axe around in a flat arc. Ed stepped past her, his expression morphing into one of clear surprise.
Then her axe caught him in the side, and she drove the breath out of him in a single hit. He staggered to the side; if the weapon had been sharp, he’d have been bleeding badly. Alex beamed in triumph.
Her sense of victory lasted until the Porter spun. His sword stabbed back at her, and she barely put her shield in the way. The impact shoved them apart, and he managed to get some space from her again. She watched him rub at his side for a moment, and then his expression of pain eased.
Alex grunted as she realized the problem. Porters had Life as their main attribute; someone with a high enough level there would be able to take and recover from hits that would flatten her. His endurance would be superhuman too, especially if he had a high-level Recovery Skill.
It belatedly occurred to her that the duel wasn’t over on the first hit. It would be done when someone surrendered or couldn’t fight anymore. How did she put him down if he could just shrug off all the damage a practice axe could do?
His expression flickered as he seemed to sense her realization of the situation. He gave her a crooked grin that provoked one from her, too. Then Ed raised his sword high, taking a stance that would allow him to rain blows down on her. It left him open, but he was probably willing to take a hit or two if he could flatten her in response.
Alex nodded and mentally shifted her strategy. Beating on a Porter wasn’t going to be the best way to finish this fight. Instead, she needed to make him give up.
So, as her breathing steadied again, Alex studied his stance. Then she charged.
This time she went straight for him, not bothering with any real tricks. She needed him to see her as a threat, but one that was a headlong attacker. Nothing tricky or deceptive. Just a willingness to risk trading blows.
His eyes widened as she came after him again, but he didn’t back up this time. Instead, Ed set himself and tightened his fingers on the sword. She recognized when he was about to strike, Battle Maneuvers feeding her that small clue as to his intentions. Only a fast block kept her from being smashed; as it was, she still went backwards. Ed followed it up with another pair of hits.
Alex backed away again, circling for a time. Ed appeared willing to let her go and watch, conserving his energy as she darted back and forth. When she charged a second time, she could have sworn his face tightened in something close to disappointment. Once again, he smashed her aside, following it up with a second strike that nearly caught her as she backed away again.
She grinned at him as she started to circle again. “Third time’s the charm?”
Ed grunted, his eyes still fixed on her. He shifted, making sure that he faced her squarely. The sword was unwavering as it pointed skyward.
Alex gave him a mental nod for sticking to his strengths. Then she charged one last time, holding her shield just a little lower this time. She wanted it to seem like she was getting tired, like she had forgotten to hold it up correctly.
Sure enough, this time he actually stepped into her charge, extending his reach in a critical heartbeat of time. It was an excellent counterattack. If she hadn’t been watching for it, the swing might have caught her.
Time seemed to slow as the sword descended. She brought her shield up at the perfect angle, aiming to let the sword glance off and a bit to the side. It would rob the blow of some of its strength and let her snatch at the weapon itself.
The hit was just as heavy as she’d feared, but Alex gritted her teeth and held her ground. Her axe lashed out while the sword was still smashed against her shield, and she hooked the blade around the end of her opponent’s weapon.
Then she stepped back, pivoted, and yanked, applying as much leverage as she could to the sword. She felt the Porter fighting the motion; it felt like a couple Grue Knights were fighting her instead of just one kid, but she just fought harder. Alex let out a whoop of joy as the sword abruptly came free, spinning out across the practice yard.
She had just enough time to celebrate disarming her opponent before he pounced, shoulder-checking her while she was still turned half in the wrong direction. Alex staggered, fighting to try to regain her footing, and Ed slipped low, kicking at her legs. The move nearly sent her to her back, but Alex knelt instead, slipping backward as he tried to shove her by the shield. He tried another kick and even reared back for an overhand punch.
Then she belted him across the face with her axe and complimented it with a shield-check that sent him staggering back. Ed shook his head, gave her a half-offended look, and then took off running for the sword that lay halfway across the ring.
Alex had no intention of giving him that chance. She charged again, trying to ignore the twinges of pain running through her thigh where he’d landed his kick. It took only a handful of strides to catch him, well short of the sword. Ed spun just as she reached him, arms outstretched for a bear hug.
He got a shield-check to the face instead, followed by a low swing from her axe that hooked his ankle. Ed flopped backwards onto his butt with a grunt, but he continued to try to scuttle away to get to his sword.
At least, he did until she sprinted around him and crouched in front of it. He’d managed to reach his hands and knees, but he looked up to find her holding her axe high for the kind of overhand chop that even a superhumanly thick skull would feel. She raised an eyebrow at him.
He looked up at her and then grimaced. Ed sat back on his knees and waved his hands defensively. “I give, I give. This one might be a bit tougher than we expected, Chief.”
The ring of Surveyors had gone oddly quiet. When Alex looked around, they were all watching her warily, as if she was some kind of dangerous threat. Not that she minded that, of course. She transferred her axe to hold it together with her shield and stuck out her now-free hand. “Here. Good fight.”
“Not good enough.” Ed considered her hand for a moment and then grabbed it. She nearly fell over pulling him to his feet. “Still, that just means you’ll do well here. Maybe you all will.”
“That remains to be seen, Mr. Morat.” Wells’ voice was thick with anger, and Alex gave him a surprised look. The supervisor walked over and picked up Ed’s sword. He gave Alex a thin smile. “You’ve apparently had plenty of experience with smaller challenges. Let’s see how you do when you are facing something much more dangerous.”
Alex blinked. Wells was obviously not an E rank Surveyor. If he was a D rank, she might have some small chance—maybe three times in ten she would win—but if he was a C rank, there was no hope. He would be in an entirely different category when it came to a fight.
Feeling determined, Alex shook her head as he fell into a stance. She was probably going to lose, but at the very least, she wasn’t going to just lie down. All she had to do was get a hit in and…
She frowned. There was something hauntingly familiar about that stance, but she couldn’t place it. It didn’t match anything Forsmith or any of the other Surveyors had used at Golden Swallow, but she could have sworn she knew what his next move would be—a straightforward, blinding lunge, with a horizontal cut. Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to dodge, but she simply narrowed her eyes and set herself.
The attack came just as she expected, but faster than anything she’d ever seen before. One moment she was staring at Wells, the next her practice shield had been smashed aside and she was flying across the exercise yard. She hit the ground and rolled a bit, eventually coming to her feet outside the ring. Clara immediately reached over to steady her, but Alex just waved her away. Instead, she looked over at where Wells was standing, wondering if he’d just misjudged his own strength.
Wells smiled, a vicious look that immediately assured Alex that the hit hadn’t been an accident. “New recruits, gather your equipment and follow Mr. Morat to the dormitories. Since he has let down the company, he can act as your guide for the rest of the day. The rest of you, return to your training. We obviously have plenty of work to do. Mr. Morat, I’ll speak with you later.”
Ed grimaced again, but he set aside the practice sword without any complaint. Alex gave Wells a narrow look—it didn’t sit well on her for the man to punish someone he had put in harm’s way just for failing to live up to the braggart’s expectations, or for him to beat on someone so obviously lower in rank—and then looked back at her friends. They seemed to have been more than satisfied with things. Audrey and Clara were both glowering. Tim and Brian were exchanging meaningful looks. Even Joanna was scowling, though Sam was simply watching the other Surveyors as they went back to their work with a neutral expression.
She sighed and set down her own equipment. At least she’d have a chance to put her stuff away before Wells had any new surprises for her. At least, that was what she hoped.