When the others came halfway up the crater, Zed still had his arm around his new friend.

He waved at the others casually as they approached.

“You don’t look like someone who should be waving casually.” Ronda was giving him a testy look, as if she had more to say.

Kid said it for her.

“What are you?”

“Tired,” Zed said. “I’d give it a good yawn but something tells me you’d just think I’m lying. Do mages yawn?”

He looked between them. Ronda, Kid, Jennifer, Festus and Eitri stood before him. Finally, he turned his gaze to the man seated beside him.

The man continued to look like a victim.

“Do you think mages yawn? You’re like, what? An Awakened? So you’re the closest thing I’ve got to a human. What do you say?”

The man trembled under his arm.

“Oh, right. Where are my manners.” Zed smacked his forehead dramatically. “Guys meet my friend, Newman. Yes, Newman, as in New and man. Which is just poetic considering we’re trying to make him a Newman.”

“How the hell are you still standing?” Eitri asked, filling the silence of the others. “You just… went in there.”

“I counted at least twelve shots,” Jennifer said.

Ronda shook her head. “I stopped counting at twenty-three.”

Zed whistled dramatically and failed. It came out as a breath of air. “Really got to get a hang on that thing. And you said you counted twelve? That’ll explain the helmet.”

They turned to look around, and Zed pointed out the helmet.

It was among the rubble with some of the dead. It was a pile of mess. Zed remembered taking at least four shots to the helmet but hadn't counted how many had actually struck it. The visor had given him the directions attacks were coming from but not where they hit.

He stared at the mess of a helmet. It was clearly more than four.

Festus was strolling up the crater, his steps casual while the others continued to contemplate in worried silence.

At the top of the crater voices were beginning to come alive. Voices that Zed recognized.

Festus looked about the rubble as he approached them.

He stared at Zed with a question in his eyes.

“I’m not omniscient you know,” Zed said when he didn’t say anything. “You want an answer, you’ve got to ask a question.”

“Alright.” Festus picked up the shattered helmet. There was a blown out chunk of it, and he pointed it at Newman. “What do you have there?”

Zed smiled. “A Newman. Literally and figuratively. Newman, meet people.”

He gestured dramatically at everyone else. Newman looked at them but didn’t meet their eyes.

Everyone still stared at Zed.

“If you’re going to keep acting this way it’s going to get awkward fast,” Zed said. “So I’m just going to tell you what I’ve learned from making friends and hope you all are on the same page.”

Festus let the helmet fall from his grip. “Why don’t we get out of this crater first?”

Zed made a disagreeing expression. “Something tells me the VHF wouldn’t be so quick to leave.” He looked at Jennifer. “By the way, how’s Nick.”

She shook her head sadly.

The joviality slipped out of Zed at the implication.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“The blast from the mana pulse was too much for him. With how much strain the suit put on him not long after a blast from it, the second blast practically fried his mana channels. He couldn’t handle the pain.”

“But he was alive when I got him.”

“Mana death,” Kid said.

“Never heard of it.”

“It’s like going into a coma or a vegetative state. The core breaks, can’t produce any more mana. The mana channels start to wither from over use and never heal. Mana stops flowing to the brain.”

“The heart continues to beat but the brain is dead.” Ronda frowned in anger. “Then the heart finally runs out of supplied mana. Then it just sort of pops.”

Zed winced. “Sounds like a bad way to go.”

“It is.”

The group lulled into a moment of silence. Zed wasn’t sure what to say. In fact, he felt the silence was needed, ceremonial in some way.

He couldn’t claim to truly understand what mana death was, but he could see the pain on their faces.

Whatever [Mana pulse] was, he hadn’t expected it to be capable of killing a person.

Kinda dumb of you, don’t you think? It rips the mana out of you. You’d think it would hurt.

When the silence was broken, it came from above and below.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Daniel called, casually walking out of the destroyed Olympian ship.

At the same time someone called out from the top of the crater.

“I swear when I catch you, you’re a dead man, Zed.”

Zed managed a small chuckle.

“I’ve missed you too, Ollie,” he called back. “The days have been lonely without you.”

Jennifer cocked a brow at him. “Are we going to address the new man?”

“Newman,” Zed corrected. “One wor—oh, I see what you did there. You meant the new guy. Well, yeah. Before anyone gets antsy and decides to shoot him in the head, I’d like to let you all know what he’s been telling me.”

Everyone fell grudgingly silent again as Daniel made his way up the crater.

Oliver was already at the edge, looking down at them.

“You shot me!”

Zed tilted his head back to get a good look at him. “In my defense I did it to save you.”

Oliver’s frowning silence told Zed that he knew it was true.

“Anyway,” Zed continued. “Rather than tell you, I’ll just have Newman repeat himself…. Because why not.”

He shook Newman’s shoulders a little. “Go for it. And remember what we talked about. No stammering like you did with me.”

“Was he always this cruel?” Kid whispered to Ronda.

“Cruel?” Ronda asked.

“Well, he just went through these guys in a very traumatizing way, now he’s asking the guy to repeat himself.”

Zed didn’t catch what Ronda’s response was. He was too busy contemplating on something.

Finally, he patted Newman amiably on the shoulder and said, “Tell them fast and tell them smart. I’ll be right back.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He wasn’t sure if he saw relief that he was leaving on the man’s face, or terror that he was being left with the others.

Regardless, Zed got up and started his climb up the crater.

“Where do you think you’re going, kiddo?” Festus asked.

“To see a friend from work. Please help me watch my axe.”

[Titan’s Axe] was still embedded in a corpse’s head where he’d struck it when he’d thought he would strike the ground.

Above the crater someone sighed. “You’re unemployed, Red.”

“As happy as I am to hear your voice, Ash.” He stumbled on an uneven ground before making it to the top. “I’m more interested in another person’s voice.”

When he got to the top of the crater, he staggered a bit. The world swayed around him in mild vertigo and it took him a moment to catch himself from falling.

Oliver took one look at all the blood on him and frowned.

“No,” Zed said when his vision wasn’t so wobbly. “You guys didn’t care how much I get beat up in the past, you don’t get to look sad when you see me covered in blood. I’ll put it on the record that you guys were more than half the reason I used to be covered in blood.”

Ash didn’t meet his eye. “That was more of Jason and Chris.”

“And you guys watched. But that’s not why I came running up.” Zed turned his attention to the reason he was up here so quickly. “How’ve you been, Chaning?”

Shanine was looking at him in worry and fear. Not fear of him, but fear for him.

“You mispronounce my name on purpose, don’t you?”

Zed shrugged. “It’s one of the few ways I know how to get your attention.”

He was hoping to get a smile out of her, wipe away a bit of the worry he was seeing on her face.

He failed.

But Shanine tried to put on a strong face, probably for him.

“I saw what happened,” she said.

Zed nodded. “Nasty thing to witness, that one.”

“Nastier thing to experience, if I’m not wrong.”

She wasn’t. Being shot countless times was a lot. And he couldn’t even protect himself with [Force shield] because that would’ve triggered enough magic to absorb enough blood mana. He didn’t want to end up activating [Bloodwrath].

“Are you good?”

Zed opened his mouth to say something witty but didn’t. The worry on her face was too heavy for that.

“A little dizzy from blood loss. But nothing I can’t live without.” He would’ve shook himself for dramatic effect if he thought he’d still be on his feet.

He wasn’t sure if his slight dizziness was from blood loss or mana loss. His core wasn’t completely tapped out, but everything he was doing now was technically scraping the bottom of the barrel.

He turned to Oliver. “Sorry I shot you in the back. I just figured that with Chris’ weight and your legs not carrying you fast enough, you wouldn’t have made it.”

Oliver shrugged. “You weren’t wrong. I just didn’t like being shot in the back.”

"Got it. Next time I'll aim for the front."

“You’re complaining about being shot in the back?” Shanine scoffed. “I think he threw me.”

Zed winced. “You felt that?”

“Woke up as I was flying through the air.”

“And you just assumed I threw you?”

“It was half assumption.” Shanine glared at him. “I thought it was possible when your friend said you shot him in the back. But seeing your expression I’m very sure you threw me. Who throws another person?”

Ash was staring between the both of them.

“I don’t mean to sound like some kind of masochist, but why didn’t I get any get away help. And why aren’t you asking about Chris?” she said.

“Because he doesn’t like Chris,” Oliver said with a touch of sadness in his voice.

Zed wasn’t sure what Oliver’s new found desire for him to get along with Chris was coming from.

Honestly, he didn’t like her. So getting along with her was clearly among one of the impossibilities of the world. Even magic wouldn’t be able to make him.

Right?

“Question,” he said suddenly.

Shanine perked up slightly. “I know this one. Answer.”

Zed gave her a thumbs up. “Good girl. Now, for the question. Mind magic. Can it make you do things you normally wouldn’t do?”

“Yes,” Ash answered easily. “The Mind Mage just has to be powerful enou—”

A gunshot exploded down in the crater and Zed winced.

He’d hoped that wouldn’t happen but still expected it. If Newman had told the Olympians the exact same thing he’d told them… well, it was sure to rile at least one of them up.

Personally, I don’t think killing him would’ve been the best choice.

Regardless, he sighed in resignation. There was nothing he could do about it now. He felt a bit guilty, though. He’d lulled the man into a false sense of safety, even if questionable. He’d been jovial and smiling, made the man think he was mad and they weren’t the kind to kill people when the fight was over.

“What was that?” Shanine asked.

“The three kings of orient stopped by during the fight,” Zed said easily. “One brought gold, another frankincense. And one old gazoot decided that a gun was a good gift to give angry people.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Ash told her. “He says a lot of rubbish.”

Shanine gave her an odd look. “I can't tell if you’re nice or insulting.”

“I’m confused?”

“He just told me the three kings of orient brought a gun, and you’re telling me not to listen to him because most of what he says is rubbish.”

Ash stared at her in confusion.

“The three kings of orient aren’t alive,” Shanine explained. “And they brought… You know what, never mind.”

Zed couldn’t help but chuckle. He was really beginning to wonder if her confidence was coming from the mana flowing in her body right now, or if she was really being honest about it coming from his presence.

“I’d say we should get down there, but I can already feel them coming to us,” he said. “So I suggest we wait.”

He walked up to Oliver.

“Let me just…” he rested his arm on his shoulder and leaned on him. “Let me just borrow you for a few minutes, until they come. Sorry about the blood.”

Oliver nodded absently. “It’s cool.”

Oliver adjusted properly so that Zed could lean more comfortably on him.

“I have a question, though,” he said after a moment.

“Make it quick,” Zed said. “They’re almost up and none of them will be smiling.”

“There was a time when we were on the ship, and you wanted to tell me something about your magic. Was it your specialization? Or was it something more important. You were talking about video games.”

Zed nodded absently, giving off a look of nonchalance. “I was talking about the same thing.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Video games, at least the type I was talking of. That’s my power.”

Oliver turned his head to look at him.

Zed smiled weakly. “You keep looking at me with those smokey brown eyes and I’ll have to start working on my best Imani impression.”

Whatever response Oliver had was halted by the sound of a person scaling the top of the crater and joining them.

Eitri pulled himself up and rolled onto the floor.

He was laughing like he’d just heard the best joke in the world. It was a full belly laugh with the cackling and wheezing.

Zed raised his head up from Oliver’s shoulders to look at the man. “Huh. I stand corrected. I guess not all of them will be angry.”

…………….

“I take it he told you.”

The rest of the group was standing above the crater now. They’d all come climbing up with different expressions. Ronda and Kid looked livid. Daniel was pensive. Festus was thoughtful. And Jennifer looked lost.

Eitri was the only one who was having a lot of fun.

“The great Olympians.” He was laughing hard. “Oh this is good. Hilarious even.”

“He was lying.” Jennifer worried her bottom lip beneath her teeth.

She looked really lost. As if someone had shaken the very foundations of her religious faith.

“He was lying,” she muttered with even less conviction than the last.

Zed didn’t think Newman had been lying.

Well one of you believed him. He looked at the guns in their hands. If not one of you wouldn’t have killed him for it.

Apart from Eitri and Festus, the rest of them were armed. The guns were not Olympian, they’d been taken off the dead anti-mages.

A notification flared up in front of Zed.

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

Quest: [Mad Max]

Unable to escape the dangers lurking around the corner, you have found yourself at the heart of it. Your continued refusal to die despite this is the only thing aiding in your mission to stay alive.

* Objective passed: Survive.

* Reward: [Riot shield] (rune carved).

* Bonus objective: Defeat enemies: 0/6.

* Bonus reward: +178 [Exp].

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

Zed felt a slight tingle as if someone was poking him in the side, trying to draw his attention. He pulled himself away from leaning on Oliver and turned.

A few paces away from him, lying in the ground was a riot shield.

Well, that’s new.

His body was now alerting him to the location of his rewards. Was it a category three perk?

For now, he ignored it. I can always get it before we leave.

Against all kindness, Eitri was still laughing.

“How does such a thing even happen?” he asked. “It’s just too funny.”

“He was wrong,” Jennifer repeated. “He was probably lying through his teeth.”

Daniel shook his head. “He wasn’t. You wouldn’t have shot him if he was.”

So she was the one that pulled the trigger.

Zed wasn’t sure how he felt about her killing a defenseless man.

“I killed him because he was one of the bastards that held Nick down,” Jennifer spat.

There was enough bitterness in her voice, but it wasn’t enough to mask the fact that she’d lied. It might’ve played a part in why she killed him, but it wasn’t it.

Daniel still looked disturbed.

“Even if it was a lie, I don’t think we’re in the right position to dwell on it,” he said. “We’ve lost too many men, and we don’t know when those guys will be back. I’ve sorted the ship out so we can’t stay here even if they weren’t coming back.”

“What do you mean you’ve sorted the ship out?” Ash asked.

“VHF protocol,” Kid explained absently. “You never leave any functioning tech behind.”

Shanine walked up to the edge of the crater and looked down. “I still see the ship.”

“Not for long,” Daniel said then started walking forward, gun in hand. “Let’s get moving.”

It was how easily he slipped into the commander’s role. He took a step forward and the rest followed. It didn’t matter how addled they seemed.

Zed almost didn’t want to say anything. But he had to.

“Uhh… Big guy.” He pointed in the direction he’d seen the remains of civilization when the ship had crashed into the ground and tossed him violently. “I saw some ruined buildings that way. I think it’s the closest we’ve got out of the forest.”

Daniel paused. Then he turned and headed in the direction. He gave Zed a quick bow as he passed him.

Zed turned to the others that weren’t Olympians. “So what we doing?”

“We’re heading out of here too,” Festus said. “If you want to get to the VHF headquarters, we’re better off following them. Daniel over there got a map from the ship when he went back in.”

That settled it. They were going with the un-armored Olympians.

“What did the man tell them?”

Zed turned to find Shanine standing beside him.

“Oh, that.”

He wasn’t sure how to break it to her without feeling bad for the Olympians. In the end, he chose to just say it.

“He told me that the Olympians had a traitor in their midst. Someone who was giving them all the information they needed.”

That silenced even her expression.

“Do you think it’s true?” she asked.

Zed had a lot of things to say on that. But, mostly, it was difficult to doubt.

“Of course it’s true,” Eitri chuckled as he passed them. He was enjoying this too much. “How else could they have possibly known where the ship was and how to bring it down. One EMP shot where the engine was located and a whole as Mana pulse. And only way an EMP was going to work that well was if the engine already had a problem.”

He laughed as he kept moving. “Dude told us everything himself.”