Ragnar woke in his luxury bed. He was used to sleeping wherever he could lay his head, happy for the wayfarer stations for adventurers or a bunk in a fortress town set aside or adventurers. The beds onboard the Serenity looked uncomfortable, the shining crystal surface didn’t entice one to lie on it. As he shifted his massive weight the tiny facets of crystal that made up the surface shifted and crinkled conforming to his body. It was honestly the most comfortable he had been in his life, brought up on the Great Plains he had never learnt how to swim so the idea of lying suspended in water was an unpleasant thought, this was the closest He would get to having his whole body supported in one go.
He had taken Kyra’s insistence and decorated his room, the crystal bed needed no covers, any sweat or dirt would be cleaned off by the crystal, flipping over and over until it was carried overboard. He did have a massive throw however, more for a reminder of home rather than comfort, the private room had customisable climate control that meant he could sleep naked starfished on the bed if he wanted to but he liked the heavy covers.
Still lying in the bed he looked around the room. He had put a few pieces of art up, scenes of battle that had taken his fancy. Tapestries and furs were also dotted around the room and floor. What he was actually looking at was the other items. His shield was hooked next to the door. A massive thing, almost as tall as the top of his chest. It was a kite shield that Theodore had made for him in Stonewall to test he was worthy to move on to make weapons with the masters. It was pointed on the front to allow hits to deflect off rather than hit a flat shield, the decoration on it was stunning. There was a giant man standing, he was engraved in a Greek style, not that Ragnar had heard of Greece, with a toga and sandals, muscles stood out all over as he strained to hold storm clouds above with one hand whilst the other hand was held out to catch a lightning bolt that was going to strike the tiny people beneath him. He loved the shield, never having used one before but he was enamoured by the symbolism. He had spoken to Kyra before about his feelings on the true nature of heroes, a shield that protected the innocent was a far better tool than an axe to vanquish foes. Next to the shield was his huge double headed axe. It had been passed down in the church of hero from new recruit to new recruit, a fantastic weapon for its rank and had many many stories which Ragnar delighted in telling.
Ragnar, almost reluctantly, got out of bed. He stretch languidly rubbing his face and scratching his beard. He thumped across the room to the en suite and looked at himself in the mirror. His thick dark hair was cut short and neat on top, his eyes were deep and dark but he had the constant crinkles at the corners like he was always smiling. He had inherited his fathers nose, big and bulbous but it brought him joy looking in the mirror to see a part of the man he missed so much. Underneath the nose was a huge bushy moustache, disheveled after a night of sleep and a wild tangle of beard that reached his chest that needed taming.
As he started combing his moustache and beard he thought back to a recent fight they had on their journey. He was never a fan of fighting fire monsters, their nature meant his usual favoured tactic of putting things down with his axe presented a problem of getting close without getting burnt. They were a flock of fire starlings, individually hard to hit but fairly harmless, only able to make diving attacks that left raking hot scratches if they hit. Together though they were a menace, they would flock together and fly towards a target in a tight concentric cone which superheated and blasted out fire. Ragnar had found himself the subject of this attack, standing his ground as they came towards him. He had ducked behind his shield and let the fire splash either side of it. Whilst he had the focus of the birds
Kyra had peppered their side with multiple earth boulders which she detonated before they hit, shredding the flock. He hadn’t been quick enough to duck behind the shield and he ruefully had to sit still on the top deck whilst Kyra trimmed his burnt beard and the end of one moustache. To add insult to injury he had to have the other unburnt end trimmed as well to match.
When he was groomed he came out of the bathroom and went to a wardrobe. Kyra had admonished him for continuing to live out of his dimensional bag and insisted he made this place his home. He opened the crystal doors and pulled out a thick pair of trousers and shirt. Putting them on he turned to the end of the bed where he had an armour stand. His armour was fairly basic, a chest plate of leather with thick metal plates engraved with symbols of the church of hero. A long pair of chaps fell to cover the front and sides of his legs with a skirt of chain mail at the rear, chunky boots with metal plates sat underneath. He decided not to don his armour this morning just yet.
Moving over to his shield he unhooked it from the wall and took it to the centre of the room. He propped it against the end of the bed and took a knee in front of it to pray. Prayer wasn’t a necessary part of his religion but he found it focussed his mind for the day and kept his mind on making sure he did his god’s good work.
“Mine god. Hear me, help me keep the faith. There are good works to be done and I will be the instrument. Keep watch over my father and give him strength to watch over my family. I will continue to adventure with these Mitchells who do your work whether they know it or not. They are good people who do what they do because it is the right thing to do and nothing more. Although they do not pay you homage I ask you look over them and give them your favour.”
He donned his armour then picked up the shield, they were in a high density magic area and he didn’t want to be caught without, his Titan armour was a very effective power but against a silver rank monster he might be killed before he was protected enough by the retributive armour.
He came out of his room and the door clicked shut behind him. He felt privileged that the room was keyed to his aura, the Mitchells could get in but only with all four of them. He poked his head into the workshop an found the parts of one of Lucy’s projects on the bench. He had no powers to use magical items and therefore had little interest in the making of the instruments. He had the forge essence and could make metal structures and some weapon work, he’d been helping Teddy refine his technique slightly but the man had a passion that drove his work for making things that Ragnar had never had.
Turning to the front of the ship he walked up the corridor, past the two couples rooms and up the staircase. He came out on the middle deck surrounded by the sofas up against the glass. The staircase came out of the middle table that horseshoed around it and he saw every chair was vacant. He turned around and took a moment to look out of the transparent crystal window in the direction they were travelling, they were in a temperate environment now, evergreen trees and thick lush grass. There weren’t roads so much but someone had cleared the ground of large vegetation and the big wheels of the Serenity were making easy progress. He marvelled that he had never been on a vehicle like this, in his youth he’d been on an airship but that was on a commercial scale not a private vehicle and not nearly so luxurious.
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Going through the kitchen he stopped and opened the ‘fridge’ which was a clear sheet of crystal with magic behind it to keep items cool and the the same condition they went in. Pulling out some fruit he turned and carried on to the rear, passing the large dining table. Kyra had been influential in the decorating and it was very tasteful, showing a flavour of everywhere they had been. His eyes went to the dagger mounted on the wall, he had approved of the story of the gold rankers contrition and it was a good keepsake.
Sliding open the back doors he took a deep breath to sample the air, it was fresh and moist, the dew evaporating off the grass in the full sunshine. There were twin curved staircases leading to the top deck and he wondered at the versatility of the crystal material, the stairs looked smooth but gripped like sandpaper, the bars of the handrail looked polished but had a grip like soft leather.
Up top the wind blew through his beard for a moment before he was under the magical effect that covered the top deck making it comfortable for passengers. The entire vessel ran on an enormous amount of magic, something Teddy had explained why this vehicle was rare by incorporating a system of ‘gearing’ inside and the wheels which reduced the amount of ambient magic required. Behind the drivers station was a large table and benches that took up the back deck, the drivers compartment itself had a few extra seats in there for people to relax and spend time with the driver, thats where Ragnar found Teddy and Lucy. Ragnar had brothers back home, or wherever they were now and they had wives. He couldn’t imagine getting on so well with them as much as the Mitchells did, Teddy and Lucy were constantly working on different projects, holding for or five designs in their minds and doing their parts to make the items, occasionally having to work together at the same time. He could see around the gun that Lucky was napping on one of the benches surrounding the inside of the bow while Kyra, James and Koda were going through what looked like a kata together.
On the front deck was the large tarpaulin. It covered the huge quad barrelled gun that they were to deliver. Immensely powerful, designed to destroy gold rank monsters, plural. He could barely fathom seeing waves of gold rank monsters thinking back to squashing the bother badgers. At bronze rank, and a good one at that, he could take on almost any bronze rank monsters and multiple of most, he could take a crowd of iron and a swarm of lesser. He needed to work as a group to take on a silver rank monster, having not found one that he was specifically suited to go up against. Fighting a gold rank anything, just one of them, was incomprehensible. He looked forward to visiting the city that required such a weapon. The frequent magical storms which blocked access to the city were full of gold rank monsters which pummelled the city all the while the storms did.
He walked up to the drivers compartment and joined in with the conversation.
“Look at it, it says silver. We need to not draw attention.” Teddy said, pointing at the crystal ball in the dashboard which was indeed swirling silver.
“Yes, but its density vs saturation. We’re definitely in a silver rank density area but look at the saturation, its barely registering.” Slapping his hand out the way and pointing at it herself following how slow the swirls were.
Ragnar looked around, all over the scenery there were the tell-tale signs of monster activity, a slashed tree trunk, crushed undergrowth but the harder he looked the more he noticed it was all older. The vegetation was scarred not broken and the leaves were rebounding. He looked up and saw the swirling vortex storm was far above them, the bright sunlight still beating down at an angle from behind them but it wouldn’t reach soon when they got directly underneath at the foot of the mountain.
“Mayhap I can suggest a reason?” He interrupted. “I am not as well versed in magical theory, mine own experience of walking the world might help here.”
“Please go on.” Lucy said, fiercely intelligent but always willing to learn and humble that she didn’t know everything.
“If the hunting is silver rank down here but the game is sparse then mayhap that.” He pointed up. “Is why. If the beasts above are as formidable as the tales tell then they have either gone forth to join or fled.”
The other two both thought about this for a while.
“I can see that.” Teddy said. “James!” He shouted, interrupting the kata.
The big man lumbered back to the others, leaving Kyra and Koda balanced on one leg, arms outstretched, one leg straight out back, waiting for him to rejoin.
“What?”
“Can you have a quick look around, time to earn your money as a scout, see if theres a long term habit of waves of silver rank monsters in the area, Ragnar thinks there may be a natural absence at the moment because of the storm on the mountain.”
“Sure, I’ll be back in a flash.” James said, then went to the back and slid down the bannister to the middle deck then went down the stairs to the drop deck. He jumped in a buggy they had made up incase they needed them in a hurry he drove off the back to go have a look around.
Lucy turned to Ragnar. “So you’ve seen this before then?”
“Not quite, but similar. The more powerful you get as a hunter you must remember, there is always a greater hunter than you. The unintelligent lower rank monsters don’t parse this fact but the silvers and certainly the gold have the canny to know. The more powerful they are the more intelligent, this is known. It becomes harder to fight them not just for their combat strength but their mind.”
“We saw that, just the jump from iron to bronze they were using more stealth, using the environment more.” Teddy agreed.
James rejoined them, coming at them from the side and jumping the buggy off a hillock onto the back drop-deck.
“Yeh I’d say Ragnar’s right, successive waves of migration. All seems to be quiet at the moment, probably safe enough for Lechuza to scout ahead but keep her low, no where near that storm. Treetop height ideally.” He pecked his wife on the top of her head, punched Ragnar lightly on the shoulder and went to join Kyra and Koda who were starting to shake, having held the position the whole time he had been away.
Ragnar was smiling at having worked it out, he had travelled extensively on his own, trusting his god to put him where he needed to be. That was how he had ended up on Baboa’s vessel. His god has prompted him if was time to wander and what path. Ragnar had thought his destiny was with Baboa and something to do there but now realised it was with the Mitchells.
The three at the front had settled in to meditate now, sitting in a row facing the direction of travel. Ragnar stayed with Teddy and Lucy, they were conversing about various projects and they wanted his opinion on various elements of the design. He had either seen most of the iterations of what they were trying or could point out why they wouldn’t work.
They drove on carefully, Teddy had sped up a little and they had reached the foot of the mountain. He was following directions from the map Vincent had given them so long ago and he was aiming for a valley that contained the pass up the mountain.
They were driving up a hill and they could see the sides of the valley on either side over the crest. As they went over the top and started downhill Teddy slammed on the brakes. Something they hadn’t expected, couldn’t have dreamed of, could barely fathom.
In front of them was an army.