“Chatrig! End of the line! Everybody prepare to disembark!”
The conductor’s voice echoed in the passage outside our private room as she walked along the train. I didn’t need it; I had eyes in the air above the train telling me that we were approaching a town, and more eyes already above that town feeding me information about it. I stretched out a foot and lightly touched the bottom of the sheriff’s boot, jostling it gently. The old man snorted and uncrossed his arms, reaching for his deck and pushing his hat up from his eyes as he awakened instantly. His eyes looked clear and focused, and he gazed at me with instant recognition as his body relaxed.
“We there?”
“About thirty minutes.”
He sighed. “It’s my turn, ain’t it?”
I nodded with a grin, and he turned to look at the bunk where Chomai slumbered. The woman lay on her side, snoring lightly, her pale hair tumbled across her face and her mouth hanging open just enough to let drool leak onto the pillow. He reached out and clamped a hand over her face, pinching her nose and mouth shut and cutting off her air. Her eyes shot open, and she jerked awake, cursing and sputtering as she slapped at the hand touching her. Her hand fumbled for the pistol that was on the belt hanging from a hook on the other side of the car, and she sat up with a thunk as her head clunked into the bunk above her.
“Son of a bitch!” she swore, rubbing her forehead and wincing. “Dammit, old man! How many times have I told you not to do that?”
“If you count this as one of them times?” He shrugged. “Eight.”
“Then why the hell ain’t you stopped?”
“I’ll stop when you start waking up like a reasonable person, without all this cussing and fussing,” he grinned at her.
“A reasonable person don’t like being woken up at all.” She rubbed her face and swung her feet toward the floor. “We getting close?”
“Yeah,” I nodded.
She jerked her chin upward. “You woke him, yet?”
“No, not yet.”
She grinned evilly and slid out of the bed, moving slowly and carefully as she climbed up to peer into the higher bunk, where the last person in our group slumbered away.
“Wake up, asshole!” she shouted gleefully.
Ishar started awake, jerking to a sitting position. Like Chomai, he slammed his head into the roof of the train car with a loud curse, then swore again when he jerked his hands to rub the injury and caught short on the handcuffs pinning him to the bedrail instead. Chomai cackled wickedly and dropped down to the floor, grabbing her boots and sliding them on.
“You’re a damn child, woman,” Ishar growled, shaking his head.
“And you’re a damn fool,” she snapped back. “One that’s just me being one bad mood away from sitting on a scattergun and spitting out pellets, so shut the hell up.”
He took a deep breath, apparently calming himself, and looked down at me. “Chatrig?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, standing and walking over to unlock his handcuffs. “Time to see what’s waiting for you.”
As the cuffs dropped away, he rubbed his wrists but otherwise stayed still until I was back out of arm’s reach. That was a lesson he’d learned before we boarded the train, a lesson that still showed from his purple, swollen nose. As I’d brought him out of his cell, he lunged at me, striking with a pair of quick fists aimed for my skull. I reacted without thinking, blocking the first and catching the second, twisting his arm and bringing his bent-over body around in an arc. I slammed his face into the steel bars of the cell, rammed my knee into his stomach, and cracked my fist into the back of his skull. He dropped like a sack of wet feathers, and he’d woken up with a broken nose, throbbing head, and his hands cuffed behind his back.
After that outburst, the marshal behaved himself, especially once he found that while he’d be riding with us just in case Kamath contacted him, the other marshals–now handcuffed and dressed in regular clothing–would be traveling in the livestock car with my pets. If he so much as breathed the wrong way, they’d die horribly, and he knew it. Neither he nor the other marshals had really liked the idea of their riding along with the beasts, but after seeing my newly upgraded pets, none of them dared breathe a word.
I’d spent the six days waiting for the train alternating between hunting with the moonstalker and sparksnake to help them grow, drawing new cards for my hidden deck inside my weapon, interrogating the marshals for more information on their towns, and handling whatever small issues arose in Shadewood. It was pretty boring, all things considered, and the thought of seeing my newly upgraded pets made the days drag. At last, though, Sara told me that the first of my pets was ready to hatch, so to speak, so I rode back out to the site north of the city–the monster bodies and tainted wood had long since been burned to ashes–and waited as my cloudglider tore itself free of its now crimson cocoon. The stench was awful as the thick fluid within the chrysalis splattered onto the ground, but my Freshen rune kept that from being a problem, cycling fresh air around me to carry away much of the odor.
The bird that emerged was much larger than the cloudglider had been, three feet tall easily. When it stretched its wings, they loomed over ten feet across. Its feathers were dark and thin at first, but as it dried and preened itself, its plumage proved to be mottled light and dark gray like a storm cloud. Its eyes blazed bright silver, and its large, hooked beak shone the same color. As it fluttered its wings, wisps of what looked like fog or mist drifted off them and coated its feathers like a layer of cloud. The creature stared at me, and I felt its expanded presence plunge into my mind. Fortunately, I’d had plenty of practice controlling the inrush of sensations by that point, so I simply contained its thoughts and pushed them to the edge of my mind, then analyzed the upgraded beast.
Cloudhunter (Greater)
Type: Air
Bond: 814
Attack: 130 Defense: 30 Damage: 87
Speed: 175 Dodge: 65 Heal: 40
Special Attacks: Swift Dive (118), Crippling Claws (118)
Special Defenses: Cloud Coat (55)
Weaknesses: Earth, Ooze
Over the next day, each of my pets emerged from their cocoons. The fogrunner was now a mistfreezer, six feet long with ice blue fur, transparent teeth and claws that glittered with frost, and emanating enough cold that the breaths of everything around it misted. My stormracer became a galestrider, growing to twelve feet in length and gaining a deep blue mane around its throat and a fourth tail. Its coat continually crackled and sparked, and the hair on my arms and back of my neck rose whenever I drew near it. As the sheriff had predicted, the heartraptor became a terror eagle, gaining a wingspan of over twenty feet, daggerlike talons, and a glittering ruby beak. Its feathers shone a brilliant, glossy black streaked with crimson, but its underside gleamed like pure white marble, incredibly reflective and nearly blinding to look at.
The shellsnapper was the last to emerge, and I admit that I was fairly nervous about its appearance. I’d boosted it two entire ranks, and Sara warned me that its evolution might be unpredictable. That, it turned out, was an understatement. The creature that tore its way free was as tall as my roadwalker and looked like a sea anemone growing out of the back of a faceless, eyeless crab. Its legs were jointed and emerald, as was the carapace wrapped around its lower half. A pair of darker green pincers jutted out of its base. A bright purple tube rose from the base, glistening with thick fluid and sporting a half-dozen waving eyestalks along its sides. A crown of wispy, lavender filaments grew like hair from its top. A small insect of some sort flew past it, and its “hair” suddenly exploded outward, filling a space six feet in every direction with the wispy filaments. One of them wrapped about the insect, and a tendril of steam or smoke rose from the creature as the monster sucked it into the central tube, where it vanished.
The sheriff whistled in amazement as he saw the thing gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight. “That’s a wave horror, boy,” he told me with an admiring tone. “It’s a dangerous High beastie. Those filaments of its are covered in acid and are strong as steel; once they wrap around you, they suck you into the middle to be eaten real slow.” He shook his head. “How the hell your Lesser shellsnapper turned into one, I can’t guess, but it’s definitely more dangerous than the shorecrasher you would have gotten normally.”
I analyzed each creature individually, but the simple fact was, I needed a better way to look at them all at a glance. Fortunately, Sara was happy to oblige, and my new pet screen was a lot more useful to me.
Pet Stats
Name
Bond
Atk
Def
Dmg
Spd
Dodge
Buzzfly (Simple Glowwind)
223
41
15
39
50
22
Cloudhunter (Greater Air)
814
130
30
87
175
65
Galestrider (High Wildstorm)
1,973
225
102
244
197
125
Mistfreezer (High Ice)
2,196
161
142
143
216
215
Moonstalker (High Predator)
1,776
278
97
239
199
132
Sparksnake (High Lightning)
2,259
183
114
268
230
153
Terror Eagle (High Wildwind)
2,623
368
104
265
370
156
Wave Horror (High Water)
2,874
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
79
292
116
150
422
Pet Specials
Name
Special Attacks
Special Defenses
Buzzfly (Simple Glowwind)
Lightning Bite (58)
None
Cloudhunter (Greater Air)
Swift Dive (118), Crippling Claws (118)
Cloud Coat (55)
Sparksnake (High Glowwave)
Paralyzing Venom (356),
Lightning Eyes (343)
Shocking Scales (77), Afterimage (77)
Mistfreezer (High Ice)
Ice Storm (169), Cloud Run (169)
Mist Aura (184),
Freezing Fur (184)
Moonstalker (High Predator)
Frightful Bellow (164),
Shattering Bite (164), Savage Leap (164)
Stone Skin (156)
Wave Horror (High Water)
Acid Flower (107), Envelop (107)
Ooze Armor (347),
Spurting Stalks (331)
Galestrider (High Wildstorm)
Lightning Strike (277),
Shocking Touch (274), Thunderblast (279)
Repulsive Hide (102)
Terror Eagle (High Wildwind)
Fatal Plummet (243), Terrorstrike (241), Sunderscream (248)
Blinding Plumage (170)
Pets Ranked by Role
Attack
Defense
Dodge
Damage
Speed
Terror Eagle
Wave Horror
Wave Horror
Galestrider
Terror Eagle
Cloudhunter
Mistfreezer
Terror Eagle
Moonstalker
Wave Horror
Galestrider
Sparksnake
Cloudhunter
Terror Eagle
Cloudhunter
Moonstalker
Terror Eagle
Mistfreezer
Sparksnake
Mistfreezer
Mistfreezer
Cloudhunter
Sparksnake
Buzzfly
Sparksnake
Buzzfly
Galestrider
Galestrider
Cloudhunter
Galestrider
Sparksnake
Moonstalker
Buzzfly
Mistfreezer
Buzzfly
Wave Horror
Buzzfly
Moonstalker
Wave Horror
Moonstalker
Fortunately, thanks to Sara’s help in planning, none of my pets would take drastically different roles than they had before the rank-up. My terror eagle was still my main ambush attacker, with my galestrider and moonstalker aiding it. The wave horror and sparksnake were my primary defenders, with the mistfreezer able to step in as needed, and my cloudhunter remained as my scout. Thanks to its new Cloud Coat ability, it could drift in the air surrounded by a haze of cloudy mist and resemble an actual cloud so long as it didn’t move too quickly.
Now, the terror eagle soared above us, easily able to keep up with the train, while the cloudhunter floated over Chatrig, watching the town with its piercing gaze. The buzzfly clung to the outside of our door keeping an eye on the hallway–I hadn’t ranked it up since doing so wouldn’t really serve my purposes for it–while the rest of my pets watched over the two captured marshals in the livestock car.
It had been a relatively quiet trip, except for the constant wrangling between Chomai and Ishar. She took every opportunity to trip him, shove him into things, or insult him. He, on the other hand, simply looked defeated and accepted her abuse for the most part. Kamath had contacted him twice since he’d been captured, and each time, the Head Marshal basically tore Ishar a new asshole over the mess he’d made of Shadewood. As the sheriff predicted, he questioned the captured marshal extensively about the attack, mostly about how Ishar hadn’t seen the trap waiting, how he hadn’t managed to sever me in time to stop me from springing it, and how that loss of life was on Ishar’s shoulders. He’d also questioned the man about the status of the town and the extent of the repairs, which led me to believe that I’d found all the marshal’s eyes and ears in the town, something that gave us a small reprieve.
As we approached Chatrig, we spent some time discussing what we might find there and what we would do in various situations. Now that we were close, I knew what awaited us, and it was time to start putting those plans into action. I went to my pack and pulled out my stolen marshal uniform, then tossed it to Ishar as he sat on his top bunk. The man caught the coat and hat and gave me a steady look.
“They’re waiting for us?” he asked calmly.
“They’re waiting for you,” I corrected. “At least, I hope so. There’s only two of them and their pets, so if they’re here for all of us, then either they’re ridiculously strong, or Kamath’s really stupid.”
He nodded, climbing down from the cot and slipping the coat and hat on. I also tossed him a gun belt, and he caught it with a look of surprise.
“You’d look suspicious without it,” I shrugged. “It’s not loaded, though, so I wouldn’t get into any gunfights with it.” The man sighed, then wrapped the belt around his waist.
“Remember, you’re going out first, and alone,” I told him. “You left one of the surviving marshals in Shadewood and the other in Tinford.” My buzzfly flitted over and landed on the man’s shoulder, crawling down beneath his jacket. “I’ll be watching and listening. Stick to the script, and everything’ll be fine. Start doing something I don’t like…”
“Don’t worry,” he sighed again. “There’s no way these two are here to just replace the marshals we lost. Not after the way the Head Marshal’s been talking.” He grimaced. “I’m not expecting to live through this.”
“Not with that attitude,” the sheriff chuckled.
Ishar glared at him, but his gaze softened as he looked at Chomai. “Chomai, look, I…”
“If you’re about to spout some nonsense about apologies and forgiveness, just shut your damn mouth,” she cut him off flatly. “There are over a hundred people you’d need to apologize to first, and sadly, they ain’t never gonna hear you–or anything.” She spit on the floor by his feet. “If I had my way, I’d be marching you out there and feeding you to those marshals’ pets my damn self, one bit at a time. That tell you which way the wind’s blowing?”
“Pretty much,” he nodded. The train shook as it began to brake, slowing in preparation for its arrival in Chatrig. “I guess that’s all that needs to be said.” He nodded to me and stepped to the door, sliding it open and moving out into the hallway.
“I still say we can’t trust him,” Chomai fumed.
“And we ain’t trusting him,” the sheriff said placatingly. “Naasi’s got that fly in his pocket, listening, and his hunter in the sky, watching.”
“He’s bait, Chomai,” I said grimly. “Nothing more. He’s here to lure out the marshals and give them something to focus on other than us. Nobody’s trusting him in the slightest.”
She stared at me, then grunted. “Fine. But if he lives through this…”
“Then you’re getting a scattergun,” Ramka chuckled. “We know, girl. Hell, I’ll even hold him for you if you want. Let’s just get through this, first.”
We packed up our gear and waited for the train to shudder and grind its way to a full halt. It slowly eased forward until it reached the platform, and as it did, we made our way to the exit opposite the one Ishar had taken. We were all dressed in plain clothing, nothing that would draw attention, and there was a bit of complaining when I pushed through the crowd to be the first to get off. Those complaints fell silent when people caught a glimpse of Chomai’s face and saw her hand resting on her pistol, and people quickly cleared a path for us.
Reaching the exit, I stood on the stairs and watched as Ishar strode calmly onto the platform. Two figures in long black coats waited for him, along with a half-dozen monsters of varying shapes. Most were smaller, probably Lesser creatures. I guessed that the ten-foot-long creature that resembled a mastiff with curly fur and a pair of scorpion-like pincers jutting from its shoulders and the beast that looked like a seven-foot-long golden snake with bat wings folded against its sides were probably stronger monsters, though. Just to see how strong, I quickly analyzed the two larger monsters.
Scorphound (High)
Type: Predator
Bond: 1,159
Attack: 232 Defense: 69 Damage: 182
Speed: 152 Dodge: 76 Heal: 63
Special: Bond Drain +41%
Special Attacks: Agony Toxin (96), Stunning Howl (96), Severing Strike (96)
Special Defenses: Poison Blood (94)
Weaknesses: Prey, Slowing
Goldserpent (High)
Type: Metal
Bond: 1,606
Attack: 116 Defense: 137 Damage: 76
Speed: 91 Dodge: 109 Heal: 175
Special: Special Defense +39%
Special Attacks: Corrosive Venom (97)
Special Defenses: Blinding Scales (132), Reflective Hide (132), Rigid Flight (131)
Weaknesses: Earth, Lightning
The pets fanned out in a semicircle around Ishar, but the older marshal ignored them as he stood before the pair of fellow lawmen. His lips moved as he spoke, but over the hissing of the train, the slamming of doors as the railroad workers opened the cargo trucks, and the murmurs of the people around us, I couldn’t hear much. Fortunately, all I had to do was shift my senses to the buzzfly to listen in.
“…party, marshals,” Ishar was saying as I focused my hearing on the bug’s. The man’s voice sounded deeper than usual, and an odd buzzing sound overlaid everything that I thought was coming from the fly itself, but it was still recognizable.
“The Head Marshal sent us here, Marshal Ishar,” one of the marshals, apparently a woman from the sound of her voice, replied. “He has some concerns with what happened in Shadewood.”
“I’m surprised he’s not here to address those himself,” Ishar said easily.
“He’s got bigger concerns,” the other marshal, a man, snorted. “One marshal who can’t even take down a single rogue handler without losing eight of his deputies ain’t worth his time and consideration.”
“Well, that’s a real shame. So, he sent the two of you, instead?” He shook his head. “And just what, exactly, are the two of you supposed to be here to do, Lasya?”
“Like I said, the marshal’s got some concerns,” the woman replied. “We’re just here to discuss them with you, nothing more.”
“Then discuss away. But before we start…” The man put his fingers to his lips and whistled, and as he did, I sent a mental command to my pets. The terror eagle swooped low over the platform, its huge wings shading the marshals below and dragging their gazes upward. A moment later, my mistfreezer practically flowed down the track onto the platform, its long body low to the ground as it took up position not far from the group. The galestrider came next, bounding down the track, loping easily and jogging to a halt near Ishar, followed by the rest of my pets. They arrayed themselves around the marshals, not making any aggressive movements but obviously radiating threat.
“Are–are these the critters you took from that Naasi?” Lasya asked in a quiet voice.
“Yep,” Ishar replied. “See, that damn Naasi’s trap killed my steelscuttler. Left me without a pet, so I took his in return. You know how easy it is when they’ve been severed.” The male marshal looked around, his face obviously concerned by what he saw, but Ishar kept speaking.
“Now, here’s what I suggest we do. I think you two should turn around and head on out of Chatrig. Go back to the Head Marshal and tell him that if he’s got an issue with how I handle things, he can damn well come tell me himself. Meanwhile, I’ll just wait here for him to come–or to send the replacements he told me about. I’m fine either way.”
“We–you know we can’t do that,” the man said uneasily. “The marshal told us to bring you to him, and there ain’t no way we can go back without you. You want to talk to him, that’s fine. You can just come along with us, nice and peaceful, and see what he’s got to say yourself.”
“And if I say no?” Ishar asked.
“Well, then…” Lasya flicked a finger, and one of the smaller creatures, a foot-long chipmunk with fox ears and three tails, suddenly leaped forward. It soared upward, flying at Ishar, and the man stepped back, ducking instinctively. The chipmunk’s body twisted in midair and shifted its path to track him, crashing into his head. Its claws latched onto the man’s hat, and it leaped away, plucking the covering off the man’s head. As it did, Lasya pulled out a card and tossed it onto the ground. The card exploded with light, and I felt a wave of pressure slam into my skull as the severing rune plucked at my bonds, trying to yank them from me.
The card I’d palmed in my hand pulsed with sudden power, and a ripple of energy surged outward. The magical claws tearing at my bond shattered as my Severing Shield swatted them away. I dropped the card onto the train step as it and the severing rune both burst into flame. I stamped the card near me out before it could be noticed, then pulled more cards from my pack and held them surreptitiously.
“What–what the hell?” Lasya asked, taking a step back from Ishar and the flaming card on the ground. “What did you do?”
“Didn’t you know, Lasya?” Ishar laughed. “There’s a way to counter that rune, now–and I’ve got it. You want to take me in? You’ll have to beat me fair and square–and I don’t think you can.”
The male marshal replied by pulling out a card and charging it, while the pets closest to Ishar rushed the marshal. A creature with a cat’s body and a snake head leaped for him, its claws extended, and its fangs bared, while a jackal-like monster with coppery skin instead of fur charged forward, its head low.
Neither came close to touching him. My eagle swept downward with a scream that struck the two creatures in a visible wave. The jackal tumbled sideways, scrambling to its feet, but the eagle snatched up the cat-serpent and carried it aloft. Its claws wrapped around the monster, digging in, and the monster froze, paralyzed by the fear the raptor’s claws poured into it. The jackal scrambled forward again and made it all of three steps before a wave of thin, hairlike filaments wrapped around it, lifting it from its feet into the air. The canine struggled and snapped, trying to tear itself free from the grip of my wave horror’s tendrils, and a fiery pulse rippled out from it that seared away a couple of the filaments. The horror pulled the monster steadily toward itself, and the creature howled once as it vanished into the water beast’s body.
The rest of my creatures surged forward as Ishar quickly backpedaled to take himself out of the fight. The sparksnake moved to flank the wave horror, shooting arcs of lightning into the scorpion-dog as it rushed forward. The winged snake leaped into the air, opening its mouth to unleash a blast of some noxious fluid downward, but that blast splashed against my wave horror without seeming damage. In return, my mistfreezer opened its mouth and belched a cone of ice shards that batted the snake from the sky and covered its wings with a layer of frost.
The opposing marshals pulled out cards and charged them, but I did the same, chaining my buff and debuff runes together in a string of power that bathed the battlefield. The enemy pets stumbled as muddy grit swirled into their eyes; the wooden planks grew soft and clingy beneath their feet; their movements slowed as ice crusted around their bodies; their skin, fur, and feathers dried and shriveled under the curse of Plague Wind. At the same time, my own pets’ skin glowed copper as metal infused their natural armor; their skin glistened beneath a thin coating of slippery fluid that made attacks slide off them; their claws and fangs lengthened and grew serrations that increased their damage.
It wasn’t really much of a battle. It looked like the enemy marshals didn’t have the stats and pets to really fight someone like Ishar–or me–and had been relying on the Severing rune to do their fighting for them. Any one of my High ranked pets could probably have eliminated their entire collection within a few minutes; together, they overwhelmed the enemy beasts with ease. A glowing muskrat with teeth that sparked died in my galestrider’s jaws, its electrical attacks useless against the similarly typed creature. A turtle-shaped beast with a wicked-looking beak and long metallic claws fell as my sparksnake’s fangs plunged through its shell and filled it with paralytic venom. My eagle ripped a strange wormlike monster with horns running along its body and a piercing proboscis like a mosquito practically in half.
The two marshals turned to flee as the battle turned against them, but the mistfreezer sped toward them and struck. The man collapsed in a shivering heap, his skin bleeding and black where the mink’s ice blast ripped through his skin. Lasya screamed once as the ‘freezer swarmed over her and tore out her throat with its dreadful fangs. The man fell still a moment later as the beast turned on him, as well.
Ishar took a step forward, then stumbled as I sent one final command to my pets. He clutched his chest and collapsed as the buzzfly’s Lightning Bite punched through his shirt, freezing up his muscles and frying his nervous system. At the same time, the sparksnake beside him lashed out, injecting him with a dose of paralytic venom, while the rest of my pets stalked toward him menacingly. He collapsed to one knee, then fell heavily onto his back. He still lived, but between the fly’s bite and the venom coursing through him, he wouldn’t for long.
Chomai pushed past me and strode swiftly over to the fallen marshal, ignoring the gathering pets and squatting down beside him. When she spoke, her voice was too quiet for anyone around to hear. Still connected to the fly’s hearing, though, I had no problems listening to her conversation with him.
“You understand why this happened?” she asked shortly, staring daggers at the man.
“Y-yeah,” he gasped weakly as his nervous system slowly shut down. He forced a weak chuckle. “S-seems…appropriate. Be-betrayed you…”
“This weren’t no betrayal,” the woman said coldly. “This is what you deserve. It should’ve been done a long time ago.” She spat. “I wish I’d done it myself, that first night we laid together. I would’ve saved the world a whole lot of hurting.”
“S-sorry.” His voice was barely a whisper as he struggled to gain his breath.
“Sorry and a taan’ll get you a slice of bread.” She rose to her feet. “I hope there’s a hell, Ishar. I hope that you burn a thousand times for every life you cost when you get there. And one day, when I join you, I’ll start the fires all over again.” She turned and walked away, striding through the crowd that parted around her without a sound.
The buzzfly struck again, and the marshal’s back arched as another jolt fried his nervous system. His breath shuddered to a halt as his lungs and heart shut down, and his eyes slid shut as his body relaxed in death.
Chomai never glanced back once.