The team and Ragnar were all sat around the large square table at the back of the top deck. They had been going over the fight with the silver rank monster trying to find efficiencies and talk about how they would do it differently. There wasn’t much they could do about it as they had been rank jumping and they needed a stand-off.
The Serenity was coasting along the countryside. They were in a country so vast it had little in the way of road. Open landscape with rolling hills so wide they stayed on the horizon for most of the day at top speed. The Serenity was an incredibly capable vehicle, Fourth-Stage crystal vehicles were a luxury sought out from the discerningly wealthy all over the world. It had been outfitted with large rugged all-terrain wheels which Charlie had never done before, they had been added as a cost saving measure, the exorbitant cost of the vehicle was not normally a factor for the wealthy patrons that frequented Charlie’s workshop. An adventurer working at silver or above could afford to run a vehicle, luckily they had thought ahead and they didn’t have a problem affording the vehicle with the modifications Teddy and Lucy had helped build into the Serenity.
“So you reckon harpoon guns on the buggies then shoot for the legs and run rings around them?” Lucy asked in exasperation. “Where do you get these ideas?!”
Teddy and James gave each other a knowing wink.
“Well it would work better on something with four very long legs.” James said, agreeing with his brother.
Kyra’s face lit up in realisation as she figured it out. “Maybe we mount the harpoon guns to the rear so the driver just has to scoot by and gunner shoots?”
Teddy was sat with his arm around her slender waist and gave her an affectionate squeeze. James leant over the table to offer her a high five which she begrudgingly shuffled forwards to return.
“Eurgh” Lucy grunted at her own realisation.
“It shames me to admit friend Lucy but I do not understand your hesitation. This sounds like a wonderful hunt. To daringly test ones nerve against an opponent, riding the edge of folly to bring low a powerful beast. A happy day this would make!”
As he often did Ragnar got carried away when he was talking. He had a rich, deep melodious voice that was made for telling tales. As he said ‘hunt’ he slammed his ever-present tankard down for emphasis and by the end of his oration he was half standing off the bench as if he were about to find the next silver rank giant to try it on.
Both boys cheered and raised their cups to salute him with Kyra shaking her head regretting having joined in. Lucy placed her tiny looking hand on Ragnar’s huge bicep as he was making a fist in the air in his excitement, making hm sit down again.
“They’re talking about Star Wars Ragnar.”
“Star Wars? Forsooth an adventure I would deny all but the strongest of encouragement. My battleground is this good earth and the caves beneath. Water, sky and stars are an arena for some other bold hero.”
“No Ragnar, do you remember me telling you about the story? That’s what they’re talking about.”
“A plan to enact a tactic taken from story and legend then! It must be so.”
Lucy buried her head in her hands as all three boys cheers’d their drinks and she frowned as Kyra joined in a beat later.
Kyra shrugged. “There’s no beating them, might as well join them.” Quaffing her drink.
Teddy stood up and went to the drivers compartment. Taking it out of cruise control he slowed it down. The ground was smooth enough beneath them that the top of the deck was completely level at all times, you could balance a spirit coin on the table and it wouldn’t shiver although they were doing well over a hundred miles an hour on unprepared countryside. Even when the deep blue vehicle went up and down slopes the wheels magicanetically (James had decided to coin the term) adjusted so the occupants felt no difference.
In front of him Teddy cold see a sleeping bear stretched out on the deck with its nose on the prow. To Teddy it looked a very uncomfortable angle for his body to be sleeping, compounded by Lucky sleeping full body across Koda’s neck. Teddy had the first hand experience of that dog sleeping on him as Kyra sometimes let him sleep on the bed and he knew he was far heavier than he looked as he was a bronze rank summon. Beyond the lazy summons he could just pick out the settlement they were after. It was the last village they had seen before making their decision to hunt the silver rank monster, it was in tatters. The locals depended on clever camouflage magic to hide from everyday monsters up to bronze rank but the very active adventure society branch normally took out any silver rank threats before they became a problem.
Teddy normally ‘parked’ the Serenity on the outskirts of town as was polite for such a large vehicle then walk in. They had talked about this on the way in and he took the vehicle down the largest central street to the town centre. There was little to no traffic on the streets as the population had been decimated. Literally. There was definitely over ten percent of the population missing, the devastation of the giant’s visit would stay with the village for a generation or two, there would be gaps in every family.
Teddy killed the power in the empty market square. He started flicking long levers this way and that then grabbed a large horizontal handle on a double lever and slid it up. The wheels underneath moved up, settling the now flat hull on the hard packed dirt. The wheels started rippling with thousands of tiny scales, they then started to fold over and over, growing larger until the folding sections got bigger and bigger until there was a single flat sheet for each wheel that folded into the hull.
The others had made their way to the back drop deck that was now only a short step up from the ground it rested on. They tapped the floor and the reverse started happening of the wheels. A tiny group of square blue scales started rippling outwards, unfolding over and over then growing upwards and shaping into a pair of grills. James and Ragnar were both carrying two trestle tables under each arm and setting them up just outside the back. They opened cupboards that fitted seamlessly with the walls and started pulling food and drink out, making the tables groan under the weight.
The locals came out slowly at first, curious about the huge vehicle parked in their grieving town. Then as word spread they saw the entire population come out. The attack had destroyed farms first on the outskirts, whole herds, crops ruined, many of the workers with it. The village would be in desperate need of supplies from nearby and everyone would pitch in. Since they had acquired the Serenity they had bought supplies from every settlement they had travelled through, whether they needed to or not, taking advantage of the ample dimensional storage built in. They were emptying those stores now to offer the village, supplying them in their moment of need.
Hundreds of people formed a line and the team served them food and drink. The heavily normal rank population was harder to feed than a magical one where the essence users could get by on spirit coins. Once everyone had been through for food including taking a few days of supplies bagged up they hosted the newly appointed town mayor on the top deck. She looked uncomfortable, new to the role as the old town mayor had gone out to face the monster as was his responsibility. The new mayor was freshly bronze rank, as a core user in the small farming town in a low magic area she had no need to push for bronze. As part of her election to Mayor they had thrust cores upon her, normally a privilege but in light of the recent attack it was clear that position also came with danger.
“Madam mayor?” Kyra said, making the young woman jump where she had spaced out staring at the deck around her.
She accepted the mug being offered to her, she had forgone food as she said it should go to those that can’t make do on spirit coins and the Mitchells had offered her something much more palatable than a coin. As she sipped the gently steaming bitter smelling black liquid she could feel the energy within, like sipping an equal rank coin but much better.
“You were saying where you worked before?” Kyra continued to prompt.
The young woman was clearly intimidated. A young woman of mid twenties. Standing on the outlandishly fantastic vessel, surrounded by the expensively outfitted adventurers that had just killed the silver rank monster that half destroyed her town. She had a waifish figure, before her rank up they reasoned she must have downright weedy. She had thick brown hair that fell to her mid back, she was constantly fidgeting with it as if she was unused to it. She wore simple clothing but well made with care, nothing she wore marked her as the mayor.
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“Err thankyou for this.” She said, gripping the coffee mug like a lifeline. “Please call me Amelia. I was the deputy manager for the regional distribution hub, I worked in the harvest warehouses making sure our crop got to where it was meant to go.”
“Well hopefully that managerial experience will come in handy for running the town.” Lucy said encouragingly.
“Wouldn’t the actual manager be more suitable to be mayor?” James asked without thinking about the girls feelings and Lucy nudged his elbow reprimanding him.
“No he’s right. But the manager doesn’t have a full set of essences, he’s also quite old and…” she paused for a moment finding the right words. “And he also doesn’t have the appetite for fighting monsters to protect the town.”
“And you do?” Teddy asked, he had been quiet throughout and was now searching her with a piercing gaze.
“Ye-yes” she said shakily meeting his gaze.
Teddy’s eyes were black, not completely, there was still white around the outside but the centres were black holes, dark wells that seemed bottomless if you looked too far.
She took a breath, remembered that she was now the mayor and tried again. “Yes, I will protect these people.”
Teddy nodded and walked away to the stairs at the back and out of view.
[Keep her talking, try to find out her essences. BRB.] Teddy put on the interface that the team shared.
“So. Deputy manager of a warehouse? Bet you don’t have much monster fighting powers or experience.” James asked bluntly.
[Don’t worry, James is on it.] Lucy put on the interface with a facepalm emoji.
The conversation went on and they discovered she did indeed have very few combat powers with most being utility to help with her previous job, they fed it all through to Teddy on the interface and it actually populated an attribute sheet much like each of them had and anyone who joined the party.
After the conversation moved on for a while they began to wonder where Teddy had gone. An hour or two of chatting to the girl on the top deck she had relaxed and they were talking about their time in Greenstone and their training. Teddy eventually came back onto the top deck and motioned everyone to the rear table from where they were clustered on the front deck.
He opened a large cupboard from where it was seamlessly integrated in the crystal. He pulled out a long trunk. It was reminiscent to Lucy of the trunk that held the quidditch balls in Harry Potter. Four foot long and two foot in width and depth. The banding around it was reinforced magically with bronze rank strength to protect the insides. He took a key from a tiny rift in the air and unlocked it from the middle keyhole. Amelia had been pushed to stand next to Teddy and she looked surprised as she saw the contents. Inside was a set of armour and weapons. Teddy pulled out the armour and she saw it was a rippling scale armour, the individual scales shimmered as he moved it like a snake’s skin. It was a brilliant white with black embellishments, quite smart and more show off than practical. It had hard panels on the shoulders and chest plate, the hips and knees but was all one piece. It came with a cape that attached on the shoulders with little rings to clip onto. Underneath the armour were weapons, a sword in its scabbard was lifted and laid on the table. Next was a metal pole almost as long as the sword with a small spear head that had a crosspiece of spear heads underneath it at right angles. A crossbow was at the very bottom with three pouches of bolts on a belt.
“This looks incredible.” She said in awe, not sure what was happening.
“The last mayor died defending this town, an honourable interpretation of responsibility of leadership but its only as good an idea if it helps. If you are going to fight monsters then we need you to stay alive. The townspeople said he walked bravely towards the monster in his finest suit. I would leave here much happier knowing that this is your finest suit.”
“This is for me?”
“Yes now listen up. This is self repairing armour. It adapts the fit to the wearer so it should fit you fine.” He didn’t mention that if she was no longer the mayor it would then still fit the next one. “It has adaptive camouflage properties so when in combat it will suit the environment you are fighting in, whilst not in combat it is a good symbol of status for official functions I feel. You’re young Amelia and you now have a position of responsibility, when you come off this ship you are going to look the part and the people are going to see you differently, these are hopefully the tools to back that up.”
She was running the fine material of the cape through her fingers whilst he spoke and was pensive so he carried on.
“This sword is nothing fancy, it has some minor speed enhancement and will bite enemies more than a regular bronze rank sword. But you are not a swordswoman… yet. So a utility sword will suit you best.” He picked up the steel rod and shook it, it extended to almost seven foot long and the spear heads all grew to a forearms length. The crosspiece at the end was almost a metre wide. “This is what they call a boar hunting spear from where we are from. The intention is to keep the animal, or in this case, the monster away from you whilst still doing damage.” He put it down on the table and it shrunk to the size it was before. Lastly he pulled out the crossbow. “This is a crossbow, like a small ballistae if you’ve seen one before on a fortress town. It would take three or four normal rank villagers to crank this but you should be able to pull it back by hand with regular bronze rank strength. There’s a selection of regular, poison and explosive bolts to use accordingly based on the strength of your target.”
He stepped back to let her look at each item in turn by herself.
[Good work bro, looks good.]
[You had this lying around?] Kyra asked.
[Yes! I was telling you about this night before last.] Teddy replied.
[Well you go on about your little hobby a bit too much sometimes. So you made it before we knew about this place?]
[Yeh, I was just playing around, but this makes sense, we can’t leave them unable to defend themselves.]
Kyra walked up and gave her husband a little squeeze.
Amelia put down the armour, a small tear in her eye which she scrubbed away before turning to Teddy.
“I am very grateful for you showing me this but I’m afraid we will have to decline. We cannot afford to purchase anything so fine before we have rebuilt and regrown our crops.” She said in a dignified manner.
Teddy kept a smile of his face at her pride. “We haven’t spoken about price yet, the negotiations for how much feeding your town right at this moment still need to be had.”
She paled slightly as she looked at the smaller stream of people still taking food from the trestle tables at the back of the ship.
“What would you ask for the food?” She asked.
“Hmm, let us discuss.”
He grouped the others heads in for a huddle, arms comically around each others shoulders. They made a low buzz of nonsensical noise as they actually chatted on the interface before breaking to go back to the nervous woman.
“The cost for the food is for one locally produced recipe book.” Teddy said seriously.
“A recipe book?!” Amelia asked incredulously.
“The cost for the weapons and armour will be a piece of art for each.” Teddy continued.
“For each weapon and the armour?”
“For each set.” Teddy said, pulling two more of the trunks from the cupboard, these were iron rank equivalents of the first. “Call them the sheriff and a deputy, no sense doing all the fighting yourself.”
Amelia looked stunned. “You want a recipe book with local food and artwork? For everything you’ve done for us?!”
“Locally produced art if you could please.” Kyra interjected. “Scenery, local attractions, that sort of thing.”
After her incredulity calmed down Teddy went over care and maintenance of the items in detail. James and Ragnar went downstairs to fire up the grills again to cook dinner for the town. Teddy introduced a book to Amelia which would teach her the basics of combat. What looked like a hologram of a serious looking Runic man appeared above the book who could interact and give basic lessons.
A while later the rest of the team came downstairs to help serve the masses that had arrived seeing the grills start up again. They were shortly followed by the Mayor dressed in her new armour, she came down the first staircase and stopped at the middle deck resting her hands on the rear railing. Everyone stopped to stare at the exquisite armour. The cape flowing regally in the air moving around the back of the ship.
“Jones, Smiles, come join me if you will.” She said loudly and confidently. She was a different woman, gone was the young weedy girl. Replaced in the finest armour the town had ever seen, with her hair pinned up by Kyra in rows of braids with gifted jewellery to hold it in place.
She had taken the two men onto the top deck for a conversation. When they came down they were wearing matched sets of armour, the same style as her own but plain steel grey with black details on the panels. They rushed away on the tasks she had set them. She then came down herself and mixed with the townspeople, a mix of socialising and low level organising while people all ate in the same place.
The next morning a caravan of goods came into the village lead by a silver rank representative of the local adventure society.
“I hear I am too late?” The lithe leonid asked the team.
“We took care of it. No problem.” Teddy replied shaking his hand.
“A Corpsetaker Giant is no mean feat. Well done. But the society wont be happy with you trying to claim the contract for it, it was a two star silver contract which is why it took a while to find someone.”
“We’re not interested in claiming the contract if it’s going to be a problem, we just wanted to do the right thing.”
“Well, good on you, but be prepared for an uncomfortable conversation the next time you go in.”
With the town replenished and a new painting in the living space on the middle deck and one in each of the couples bedrooms the team were happy to move on. They said farewell to the town and had an official send off from what Amelia could put together in the rubble. Awarding them honourable status in the town of Stonefield in perpetuity.
Teddy spun the Serenity out to face the open terrain and kicked it into gear to find their next adventure to kill time on their way to Honshuraskil.