They drove back in near silence. They had a direct line back as Teddy set a waypoint on his minimap and they just had to follow it. One buggy held Lucy and James with the prisoner in the back, still trussed and gagged from when they picked him off Ragnar. The second buggy had Teddy, Kyra and Ragnar. Teddy was driving and they had collapsed the right hand seats to form a stretcher for Ragnar to lay down while Kyra administrated him from the back seat behind Teddy.
There was a heavy contemplative mood in the tiny convoy. It they had used the buggies before like this but there were normally multiple conversations going on, messages back and forth on the interface between the group and individuals as well as general chit chat in the buggies. All of the occupants were silent, wrapped in their own heads.
The countryside rolled past as they went, large open flatland with sporadic rock formations. They saw few of the fissures that mimicked the huge canyon that Stonewall sat in, the buggies either having to make a short hop over or paralleling until there was a crossing.
They saw lesser monsters scurrying out the way or small animals scuttling to burrows away from the approaching vehicles. Lechuza swooped down, dividing her time between scouting for trouble and hunting the small prey. James watched as she swooped down on a small creature that was a mix between a large rat and a vulture, a tiny brontosaurus shape but a disgusting naked neck of a vulture that Lechuza snatched in her beak and carried it off.
After a few dozen miles Ragnar woke up. Part of why he had been mistaken for a boulder was he had gained multiple instances of his Titan armour encasing him and protecting him from the beatings from the gang. The gang member who specialised in rope conjurations that acted as limited suppression collars had met an unpleasant end. He had tried to tie down Koda and the bear had gone berserk, ripping the conjured pitons from the ground and throwing his head around and whipping the man with the ends. He had then jumped on the man while Lucky stood behind him, tripping him backwards. Being mauled by a magically enhanced bear you tried to trap is not a pleasant way to go. As soon as they had beaten up Magnus the man had started to becomes lazy with restraining the prisoner, choosing to beat him into submission than lock down his powers.
Kyra had been steadily healing him as Teddy drove, gently guiding his recovery and watching the titan armour disappearing as he regained health out of combat. When he woke up he tried to rise, Kyra put a hand on the back of the crystal stretcher and it rose up like a lounger letting him sit reclined.
“Well met fair travellers. I told my god there was no need to fear and I was right.”
“Hey Ragnar, how’re you feeling?” Kyra asked with a sad smile, it was all she could manage even as she was happy to see him awake.
He raised a hand and held her under the chin, concern on his face plain through the mass of bruising.
“Shield maiden, what troubles you? That battle was met and won, the righteous were victorious and the wicked struck down. Good won here today and we move on to do more good works!”
Kyra gave him another sad smile. Grateful there was no keeping the big character down.
“I wish it was that simple Ragnar.”
He looked from Kyra to Teddy, then at the other buggy and read the mood.
“Stop. Stop the vehicles now.”
“What’s going on?” Teddy asked.
“Stop now!” He almost shouted with force.
Teddy stamped on the brakes, the wheels although magically magnetically attached digging furrows into the shallow sandy ground.
[What’s going on?] James asked as he turned his buggy around to wheel in an obit around the stopped buggy incase there was trouble.
Ragnar pretty much flopped out of the buggy and stumbled to his feet. Taking a few stumbling steps before looking up and standing with a straight back. He gazed around for a while to centre himself. When he was ready he turned back to the buggy and pulled his shield from the back. He strode away from Teddy and Kyra calling over his shoulder.
“Make camp here, we will rest tonight, I will be back momentarily.”
Teddy and Kyra looked at each other in confusion but he had given them no real option, he hadn’t even turned around to command them before wandering off.
They set up a small campsite, having to dig through their storages to find all the creature comforts they had collected to travel with before they got the Serenity and no longer had to slum it under canvas.
They were sat silently around a fire just after the sun had set when Ragnar came back, all staring into the flames without speaking. Ragnar looked around them and smiled.
“A visitor apon this visage might think you were too late to save a friend rather than liberate him!” Before they could respond he raised a hand at them. “Sit be still, I have communed with my god and sought guidance for this moment, I would like to help.”
He took his double headed axe off his back and rested it on the ground on its head, it unnervingly stood straight upright even when he leant the big kit shield up against it and he sat on the floor with his back propped up against it.
“You are all showing the signs of mourning. A privilege normally reserved for friends and family that have lost someone close to them. You have been in this world for some time now but this is the first time you have had an experience like this, I have spoken to Ms Kyra about the pirate on the boat. Contrition in the face of killing is a natural reaction, a good reaction from those pure of heart. But hark! Hear me, those people, that gang, were killers. They were a blight upon the land and thrived in the misery of others. James, we saw their reaction against that silver rank monster, a dozen warriors that would not engage when two brave men would stand tall.”
He took from his dimensional sack a rolled up scroll, he handed it to Lucy on his right who was closest and she opened it and had a look before passing it around the fire.
“My village was in a part of this world where conquest through feats of bravery marked you as an adult in the eyes of your people. This meant raiding the local villages. The dichotomy of this approach is what caused me to seek out Hero as my patron. Whilst some would plan to raid to further themselves in their communities it would often be those that made sacrifices in the defence of the village that were lauded and made full members. There were those who…” he paused, plagued by a dark memory. “Those who took it too far, there is no honour in torture of another. When I spoke to my father upon becoming a full member of mine own village on this matter he gave me sage advice. My father was a mountain in my eyes, an almighty power standing up to the skies with an unshakeable base and unfathomable power. He never raised a weapon until an enemy was at the gate. He told me something that I took to the temple of hero and added to the annuls within. ‘Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save.’.”
Teddy frowned, sure he had heard that before. Ragnar continued.
“The people you went against were cowards, I was tortured and treated with cruelty. You saw my condition and still gave them the option to surrender. That was mercy. You chased for days to save me and I thank you. I have a great love for you people before this day of capture and rescue and I’m sure you do for me also, but truth under my god is that you would do the same for any stranger. You are all heroes.”
Everyone was quiet for a while, processing what Ragnar had said. The man himself seemed content to wait for someone else to pick up the group therapy session. After a while James spoke up.
“I spoke to Daishō a while back, when we last went back to the academy actually. He told me of a contract that he went on that was basically a mission to execute a rogue gang of iron rankers and below on his own. In his naïveté he didn’t realise this and ended up with a dead gang in front of him even when offering mercy much like we have. The advice I gave him…”
“…Was from Malcom Reynolds, a space pirate who was on the losing side of an intergalactic war.” Teddy chipped in.
“…Some of it was, but the piece of advice I gave from me was; It’s the ones that never question that they’re on the right path you need to watch out for. I think we’re all trying to think of another way to do what we did, and while there might have been I don’t think we can regret what we did.”
They went back to pensive silence, James topping up the campfire a little bit. There was a small smile on Ragnar’s face at the success of getting the family to start opening up. Teddy took a deep breath that he didn’t need and squared his shoulders.
“Regrets are for people who have another choice. They knew what they were doing in taking one of ours and they knew the consequences.” He looked over at Magnus still bound. “At least he knew, if they had listened they might still be alive and running.”
Magnus had tried to panic explain himself and his actions when they took off his gag momentarily to feed him a spirit coin, they had got the gist and gagged him again.
“We were provoked, we went to them with a measured approach and tried. There is no risking family.” He looked at Ragnar, making it clear how close they were to the big man. The bearded giant put his hand to his heart in salute. “Guys this isn’t going to be the first time we go through this. The killing part, the kidnapping is hopefully going to be more rare. As long as we all keep each other sane we can do this.”
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Lucy looked concerned as she sat still. “I’m going to need your help guys, James and I have spoken about it and I felt it when you realised it during the fight Teddy. I could go properly wicked witch of the west with these powers of mine, they scare even me, which is why they work so well on the bad guys I guess.”
“Using evil looking powers doesn’t make you a bad guy Lucy.” Teddy said comforting her. “As long as you’re using them on the people that deserve it and you take no delight in it you’ll be fine. If you find yourself torturing people for fun then let us know and we’ll pull you back.”
“I have been tempted to keep giving you illusions of hair whenever I see you looking in a mirror…”
Teddy raised his hand. “All in favour of burning the witch before she ensnares us all as her minions to take over this planet?”
The mood lightened after that, they all needed to unburden what they had just done and Ragnar had forced the conversation. It was the kind of thing they knew would eat away at them until they worked it out but no one wanted to start it.
They got back to the canyon that held Stonewall a few days later, they had pushed hard to chase the gang and although this time they were travelling in a straight line they weren’t straining the buggies performance. They camped each night and laughed and joked, healing from the trauma of what they had been forced to do.
When they rolled up to the top of the canyon like they had done months previously they encountered a familiar sight. A small caravan of vehicles was parked at the top and a small crowd waiting for them.
[You would have thought they’d bring more people this time?] Lucy said on the interface.
[Mistress, there are hidden forces in the rocks to the west and a small band on the far side of the canyon.] Lechuza informed them, so high above the ground she was a mere speck in the sky.
[Ok guys, No Serenity this time so we go on foot for some tactical flexibility. Lu, did you work out how to put the buggy into follow mode?]
[I did, you want me to leave the prisoner in here and jump out?]
[Affirm rubber ducky. Game faces on everyone, lets put on a show of strength, familiars out. Lanterns as well. Make as big a frontage as we can.]
The family moved forward on foot. One of the buggies trundled behind them maybe a hundred meters behind.
Kyra released Lucky who understood the assignment straight away and instead of his normal happy self he lowered his head, teeth bared as he stalked forward. His hackles were impressively large raised along his back giving no doubt he was ready to fight. Kyra then took out a mirror and looked at a nearby patch of rocky ground and a diamond dust circle appeared. She then looked at her hand with the mirror and a large spiked crystal appeared in her hand, the tips of each spike coming out from the middle were different hues blending into the crystal clear of diamond in the centre. She looked at Lucy then they both nodded and she tossed it into the centre of the circle. When she activated her summoning power her usual golem appeared but the intersecting hexagonal plates that made up the ball-like body took on the hues of the spike tips on some of them. As they walked forward the plates that were affected became darker in colour and Kyra felt a little excited to see what the new temporary modification would do.
James released Koda, the bear had been getting larger as he grew stronger in bronze rank, his fur was darker and his eyes showed more intelligence. He too stalked towards the crowd with hackles raised, the teeth in his snarl were terrifying, wide as a beer can and bigger than most daggers. James himself conjured his Mud Rhino armour, leaving his head uncovered and summoned his staff. Snakes uncoiled from invisible gaps in his armour that weren’t really there, the magic allowing them to appear, they coiled around his arms and staff.
Lucy didn’t have much to show off, she drew her sword and her mana lantern familiars came out. They would be recognised as mana lanterns by anyone competent but Teddy was right in wanting a show of numbers. Her illusions and powers couldn’t effect so many people in one go without a large boost and she wanted to keep Lechuza as a tactical reserve high above. What she did do was set up a dual layer combat ritual in front of her left arm, the runes streaming from her eyes and down her arm to form the first circle. She pumped her arm through it and it seemed to attach to the end, the runes continued to form the second circle which she also pumped her arm through and spread them out a metre or so apart. With her wand sword in her right hand, dual layer rituals attached in front of her left and a lantern familiar over each shoulder she did actually look quite impressive.
Teddy decided to go full Sith. With his hood up on his dark robes with only his divine bracers showing he conjured his dimension blade in a flickering red double ended sword. His aura control over it made it oscillate up and down through a dark blood red to bright crimson and back. His twin shadow lanterns swirled around him like a constellation, blurring his form and making him harder to look at. He had played with his portal abilities for summoning and as he had shown when they interacted with the gang he could hold his Unleash the Void power open and empty until he needed it, he did so now and had it follow behind ominously as they slowly marched towards the group.
They each released their auras, overlapping and somehow strengthening each other. Kyra’s aura masked and protected them from the higher ranks against them, it meant they could focus their own aura strengths without having to fend off aura suppression. James’ aura sharpened their vision and senses while Lucy’s sharpened the mind like taking four shots of espresso. Teddy’s aura slowed enemies under the influence, for every enemy affected there was a marginal speed increase to allies within. Between the four auras overlapping there was a considerable benefit.
Ragnar was a little stunned as he strode forward with the Mitchells, he was now fully recovered after a few days on the road with Kyra’s administrations and was ready to fight. He had released a hand axe with a long handle that tumbled and floated along around him. He had his giant double headed axe in his right hand and his large kite shield in his left. The shock was due to the strength of the auras he felt. Individually he knew the Mitchells were competent adventurers, even highly competent. They had told him about the guild offers they had received and asked his advice. What he felt now from their auras was incongruous from what he should be feeling from bronze rankers. The effect of each aura was multiplicative and he realised it was from the bond they shared. He was still getting used to the interface as a temporary team member and investigated to see if there was an explanation.
You are receiving benefits from the entire Mitchell team.
Effects are enhanced by all four members being present.
They still had a way to go, a tense stillness between the two groups was thick. As he marched forward Teddy was impressed at the effect on their group. He focussed on the woman they knew to be a silver ranker, her hair was tied in a braid similar to how Kyra wore hers but couldn’t match the lushness that his wife’s had. He could see the individual hairs that had escaped the braid wafting in the wind and they were still a couple hundred metres out.
On the other side Sebastian stood nervously with Miss Beatrix, he was aware that she would sense his unease but he had always had an openness with her. This was not how he wanted this to go down. He had rushed back to the settlement to let her know what that idiot Magnus had done. Miss Beatrix had then laid out their options. She recognised that chasing her city families intent was a potentially lethal option, however, it was not one that she could ignore. The opportunities that came from having a family network were further reaching than just those in Greenstone and they could not afford to be ostracised as remote as they were.
They had come in moderate force, prepared to fight incase the Mitchells decided that was the only option. Miss Beatrix had prepared a weregild, a death payment for a family member. There was no doubt seeing Magnus hogtied in the back of their vehicle that this had been a good idea now. By now he would have told of Sebastian’s involvement and who he worked for.
They had still come for the contract. There had been a slim chance that the gang got the upper hand and taken out the family. A slightly higher chance that they may have killed the big warrior friend or one of the family members and they no longer had the desire to fulfil the contract. The reality was that that they had all survived, taken a prisoner and were unsettlingly more powerful than she had last seen them. Last time it had only been the blonde that had alighted from the large vehicle, this time they were all on foot and she saw new weapons and armour that she hadn’t seen before. Knowing that they had spent all that time in Stonewall she guessed that was their origin and had no desire to test the efficacy of weapons made by the masters of weaponry. The aura hit them like a wave. Almost a physical force it was unlike anything she had felt before, she knew there were powers that could use aura physically but she could sense what these auras were doing but only just, she was shocked to feel her own silver rank aura no only couldn’t penetrate theirs but she was feeling the effects from the bronze rank group.
The Mitchells got within spitting distance and stopped, waiting for the stationary group to make a move.
Miss Beatrix came to a decision. She saw the small force against her and recognised the difference between an elite unit with exotic powers that she didn’t recognise and her own forces which were opportune and rag-tag.
They had reached the point of concession, her careful balancing act had come to the point that she needed to save face and salvage what was left of the situation she had been forced into to keep the most amount of power. She turned to Sebastian and drew a long dagger from his belt, having no weapons carried herself. She took two careful steps forward and threw the dagger point down into the ground.
Teddy pondered for a moment then dismissed his sword, portal and lanterns, stepping forward and dropping his hood back of his bald head.
[Arr a parlay they say? Aye, remember boy, the code is more like guidelines than an actual set of rules.] Even though it was typed on the interface by James everyone, except Ragnar who had no context, obviously read it in their own heads in a pirate accent.
[Not helpful James, I think we can get away without fighting here.] Teddy scolded.
“Hello, would you care to explain what is happening here?” Teddy asked in a neutral tone.
Just before Miss Beatrix could answer the ground next to the canyon exploded and a small tunnel appeared with a shallow slope. The prow of the Serenity emerged. There was a new addition which made a striking appearance on the already surprise entrance, the gold rank cannon that had been built for Honshuraskil was mounted to the front deck. The huge double quad barrelled gun was being run by a peaky-looking young Stonewaller, a further two Stonewallers were at the rails holding what looked like a magicked-up M40 machine gun in either hand that were mounted to the rails. On the prow was another young Stonewaller who was pointing the huge speargun that Lucy had purloined from the pirate ships attacking the cargo ship what seemed a very long time ago, as the Serenity drove out they could see the other spear gun attached to the rear but unmanned. The serenity stopped in a cloud of dust, broadside to the two groups in the middle with the prow facing between Teddy and Miss Beatrix.
There was a silent beat before the Mitchell team moved, they could see the Stonewallers weren’t doing so well being out of the array so they took a gamble that they wouldn’t set off the opposing force they ran and jumped onto the deck. They relieved the Stonewallers who gave mumbled thanks and took long legged strides and loped off the back deck into the tunnel and out of sight.
Teddy had remained out front, not looking away from Miss Beatrix as he ran through the conversation on the interface with the others what they were doing and watching the feed from Lechuza to make sure no one else was moving. Miss Beatrix couldn’t help but look surprised and concerned, suddenly very grateful she hadn’t hesitated to begin negotiations before the warship turned up.
“Sorry for the interruption, you were about to explain what was going on here?” Teddy asked again.