Chapter 87 – The rough House

[Crowen Kingdom]

[Capital City of Ravens Call]

Ondfauxt hadn’t been lying when he said there was a portal nearby. Maybe five or so miles outside of Gurthok’s Rest was a well-hidden, well-guarded network of caves. Deep inside was the portal. Jack and Hannah followed Ondfauxt through and emerged in a large, spacious room.

The floors of the room were a large slate gray stone, and the room had little in the way of decoration outside of the walls being lined with portals. Some glowed with an ethereal blue swirl, others red, others had nothing inside them at all, just showing the wall behind.

“This is our staging room.” Ondfauxt said. “Our portal extends to all possible reaches of the continent, nowhere is out of bounds for us.”

“We’re on a continent? Are there other places outside of here?”

“Don’t be foolish. Now follow me.” He said matter of fact, turning and walking towards the doorway.

The staging room seemed to be located deep underground. They walked up probably five sets of stairs, each floor landing with its own guard outpost. When they finally reached the top Jack realized they had emerged from another barracks. Crowen soldiers all actively training in the courtyard of the large stone building.

Ondfauxt didn’t tarry, moving past the training soldiers and towards the front gate. Hannah and Jack quickly followed after. Their own contingent of guards had since broken off into the barracks as they left the stairwell. Leaving just Jack, Hannah, and Ondfauxt as they both followed the man out of the barracks and onto the road.

Large two-story houses lined the road, some wooden, others stone. Several even peaked up to three stories. Each with their own elaborate decorations, colorful rose bushes and shrubbery lining the fronts.

“Where is everyone?” Hannah asked. Jack had noticed it too. Aside from the soldiers back at the barracks, everything seemed quiet and dead.

“This is the nobility quarters. You’ll find little in the way of bustling activity. Especially during times of war. As for the rest of the city, anyone who can serve on the front lines is doing so. Despite the rumors, we don’t just magically create more soldiers. They have to come from somewhere. Most of them from this very city.”

“And you’re taking us where exactly?”

“Just outside the city. Originally, this group had an outpost here in the city, right over there among the nobility. They’ve since been asked to move. Proving far too wild for the senses of our more refined nobility.” Ondfauxt said, his nose involuntarily rising with each word.

“What’s this guy’s name again?”

“Where I’m taking you,” Ondfauxt continued, completely ignoring Jack’s questions, “Is a small grove outside the city where we could build a small barracks more accommodating to the unique needs of the mercenary group.”

Jack glanced at Hannah, ignoring Ondfauxt as he rambled on.

“So, it’s obviously someone we know.”

“Obviously.” Hannah nodded. “The question is, does this someone have a score to settle with us or is it someone from the life who wants to work with us again?”

“Who would have a score to settle with us?”

“You’re kidding right?” Hannah said, stopping dead in her tracks and fixing Jack with a flat look.

“What? I thought we had great relationships with our colleagues.” Jack said, moving past her.

“Jack, you burned pretty much every single bridge. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure there isn’t a single person out there who doesn’t want our heads on a platter.”

“The question is… Who wants to kill us the most?” Jack grinned.

Hannah grimaced in response.

“Keegan maybe?” she said after a moment’s thought.

“Keegan? Why the hell would he want to kill us?”

“You’re kidding right? You traded away the diamonds that we were supposed to split three ways to buy into a pyramid scheme."

“I was so close to the pink Mary-Kay Cadillac too… You don’t think he’s really pissed about that, do you?”

Hannah rolled her eyes in response.

“My next guess is Patar.” Hannah continued.

“Ah. The launch codes incident.” Jack mused with a rueful smile.

“The launch codes incident.” Hannah agreed matter of fact.

“Hmm. What about Mother Martha? She seemed to make a pretty consistent effort to kill us.”

“To kill you. Me and Sammy got along fine with her.”

“What? Me and old Marth had a love-hate relationship. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” Jack protested.

“It was mostly hate. Hate for you.”

“I can assure you it’s none of those people.” Ondfauxt added from upfront. They had walked through a sort of small exit near the back of the city wall, likely meant for nobility access only, and were now following Ondfauxt towards a thick grove outside the city walls.

Both Jack and Hannah went silent, each deep in thought as they followed the advisor. There was one name either of them refused to say out loud.

He’s dead. There’s no way he survived. Jack reminded himself for what felt like the hundredth time. Rodeo had been in his fifties or so when Jack first met him at the age of thirteen. That would have put him somewhere in his seventies at the time of integration, and that’s if he was even still alive. People in the business didn’t often make it to retirement age, you usually have too many enemies by that point. Jack being one of them.

He’d gone looking for Rodeo a few times, but the trail always came up cold. Jack had eventually put thoughts of killing the man out of his mind, but he still felt uneasy when he thought about Rodeo making it inside the Tower. That would complicate things. He wasn’t sure what things exactly, but there existed no universe in which Rodeo would leave him alone if he was alive somewhere in the Tower. Jack knew that much.

They followed a well-worn path into the forest, roughly the size of two cars, side by side. The path was beaten and had large grooves running up and down it. Jack heard a scream from somewhere ahead and quickly realized what was creating the grooves in the ground.

He watched as a parade of a dozen men and women walked up to them. Each carrying their own enormous tree log on their shoulders. Others were dragging theirs behind them, letting out frustrated screams as their trees dug deep rents into the ground. They looked like they had been stuck walking with the tree trunks for a week straight. They were all covered in dirt, sweat, and blood. They each wore a mask of determination or dead vacant stares as they took slow, painful steps with their tree trunk.

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“I must warn you. This area is about to get… rough.” Ondfauxt grimaced.

Jack tapped his fingers along the handles of his daggers as they pushed deeper into the forest. It gradually began to open up into more of a run down shanty town. A smattering of poorly built wooden houses and tents began to take the place of trees. The pained screams only grew louder as they walked deeper into the den.

Jack and Hannah walked past a small clearing that had a group of people laying belly down, a man standing over them with a club. He walked by each person laying and the ground and swung down hard, breaking each of their legs. No one protested, only letting loose a scream or a moan into the dirt beneath them.

“Healer is at the other end. Now crawl!” The man with the club barked.

Jack and Hannah watched as the people with broken legs began to drag themselves across the ground with their arms, wailing in pain as they crawled toward the healer.

“I can assure you; these people are here voluntarily.” Ondfauxt added. Jack glanced at Hannah, whose face was contorted into a scowl. They continued on down the path. Much like the first few groups, the deeper they went, the more eccentric the training seemed to be.

“AGAIN!” a woman shouted at a man surrounded by a circle of people. They all pushed in and beat the ever-living shit out of the guy while he tried and failed to defend himself. When he was on the ground, broken and barely moving, she cast a spell on him, healing him back to full.

“Again.” She snapped. The process repeated itself as the man got to his feet to fend off more beatings.

There was another group, each walking up to a table and laying their arm across. A man swung down with a butcher’s knife, cleaving their arm off.

“If you can make it back to the med bay and get a potion - you pass.” The man with the butcher’s knife said, his tone almost bored. The man with the cut off arm nodded. The man bit down hard, his face contorted in pain. Blood was pouring out of his arm as he stumbled and ran up the dirt path. Another person stepped up to the table and laid their arm across the table in the same fashion, determination on their face.

“What the fuck is this place?” Hannah asked, but Jack wasn’t really paying attention. He was more focused on the training that was going on. It felt oddly familiar to him.

The training became less barbaric and more what you might expect the closer they pushed to the epicenter of the outpost.

“Don’t stop.” One of the instructors barked at a pair of combatants. “If you stop. If you lose momentum. You die. Make them fear your ferocity. Become unrelenting with your violence. Become-“

“The monster…” Jack said softly to himself, in unison with the screaming instructor. He grit his teeth. He’d heard these words a thousand times before. Jack looked to Hannah who was staring back at him. He gave her a slow nod.

Her face went through about a dozen of emotions, ranging from concerned, annoyed, scared, landing on enraged.

They continued on, be it a little slower as they absorbed the world around them. There were obstacle courses clearly designed for superhumans. People fighting duels in awkward situations, hanging from ropes, fighting across pole tops, or arenas barely large enough for two people to fit in. Rodeo called those the box duels. Stick two people in a tiny box. Only one person gets to make it out alive.

By the looks of it, someone had designed all the training for super humans to test and push themselves to the utmost limit. Jack could tell that much as his eyes fell across all the people trying, and mostly failing, what he assumed was a training regimen designed by Rodeo. It all had a brutality to it. Failing any of the tasks would likely result in your own death. Jack had walked that tightrope many times before under Rodeo.

Wonder what his success rate is, Jack found himself morbidly wondering as he passed another group of people battling it out against each other. He watched as a man rolled a potion into the center of the arena and yelled “Go!” Half a dozen people charged in, fighting tooth and nail, turning into animals as they fought for the prize in the middle.

As they continued down the path closer to a large walled in building, much like the barracks, the path became lined with spears, each one a head impaled on top of it.

“Nice decorations…” Jack mused as he inspected the impaled heads alongside the road.

“His trophies. A not-so-subtle reminder to anyone who doubts the work he’s done for the kingdom.”

“Just so we’re clear, by he you mean Rodeo?” Jack said, more accusation than question.

Ondfauxt didn’t respond. Stopping at the gate entry.

“This is as far as we are allowed to go. Members of the Rough House only beyond this point. I would advise you to wait for someone to come out and greet you.” Ondfauxt said.

Jack and Hannah just pushed past him.

“Wait, they really will kill you if you aren’t part of their ranks!” he warned. “I’ve seen it myself!”

“We’re founding members.” Hannah said over her shoulder.

The dirt path quickly turned into sand as they pushed inside the open courtyard. Jack rolled his eyes. Rodeo had designed it like some Roman Gladiator training camp.

“Well, well, well. Looks like we’ve got some brave souls. And I thought today was going to be boring.”

Jack glanced over at a man sitting at a cantina, two hooked blades slung across his back. He was long and lanky, with a snakelike face and greasy brown hair that hung past his shoulders.

His head disappeared not a half second later, Hannah’s arrow ripping through it. Jack glanced back at Hannah, whose bracers had flared to life, her arm leveled at the man.

“That was dangerous!” the man hissed. Jack looked down to see the man’s head pop out from under his legs. Hannah had missed… or more like the man whipped his head back and stretched his neck all the way down until he was peering at them from below.

“Of course, Rodeo always finds the creepiest motherfuckers to train.” Jack grimaced.

Before anyone could get a word out edgewise, the world went dark, covered in a shadow. Jack looked up to see an enormous ball slamming towards them.

They both jumped back, earth and sound erupted at the impact and the world shook. As the dust and sand settled, it revealed a man, completely bald, eight feet tall, and maybe seven hundred pounds. He had a pair of brass knuckles on his enormous fists, with spikes that were longer than Jack’s forearm poking out from them.

“Bubba, we got some new toys to play with.” The snake-like man mused, taking long, unnatural steps towards Jack and Hannah. He stretched his body out with every step until he was a giant wobbling mess of snakelike limbs. From that mess, a hooked blade whipped out. Jack’s dagger flashed out to meet it, sending the attack flying backwards.

“Ho-oh! They’ve actually got some skill!” He called out from his mess of rubber limbs.

“I’d be careful, boys.” Came a deep, gravelly voice from somewhere above. “You’ll find yourself wanting if you face off against those two.”

Jack felt his blood run cold. His eyes traced the courtyard, wandering upwards to the source of the voice. Leaning over the railing of a balcony that oversaw the courtyard was Rodeo. Or someone who looked a lot like Rodeo.

Last Jack had seen him, he was a graying old man with deep wrinkles and fading eyesight.

He no longer wore his black hair long and in a braid, instead cutting it short and slicking it back. He wore a simple black shirt, muscles bulging from underneath. His skin was dark and tanned like he had been sitting outside in the sun every day for the past year. His dead grey eyes were full of life as they bore down on Jack.

Jack looked at Rodeo. Really looked at him. The man radiated power; he could tell that much; mana was practically seeping from his body. His race was also upgraded, his physique still human, just better, the same as Jacks. He was also young. Much younger than Jack had ever seen him.

“Hey there Jackie boy.” Rodeo said with a lazy, wolf-like smile.

Jack felt his hands reach out to his daggers and wrap around the handles. He didn’t have any mana drops, but he was fast. He would have to be smart about it. Jack had never actually fought Rodeo in his prime and he wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. He knew Rodeo was a genius at combat, but had never seen him at his peak. All he had was horror stories he’d heard from other old timers about Rodeo back in his heyday. If he could catch him off guard in one quick move, it could all be over just like that. No more Rodeo.

He tried to take a step forward. But his body froze. He stared up at Rodeo, whose smile was growing bigger by the second.

“I won’t let you hurt him.” Jack heard a familiar voice say. He furrowed his brows, still focused on Rodeo, trying to get his body to move.

“I said I’m not going to let you hurt him, asshole.” Came the voice again.

Jack bit down hard in frustration as he peeled his eyes off of Rodeo. He looked to his left and furrowed his brows in confusion. The voice had been familiar to him because it was his voice.

He looked down at his thirteen-year-old self, his face arrogant and full of protest as he stared back at Jack in open defiance.

“I can’t believe you're being such a bag of dicks right now. We can’t kill Rodeo. I won’t let you do it. Now let’s go say hi.” Little Jack said, running past him and into the building.

Jack’s jaw practically hit the ground as he watched his thirteen-year-old self run into the building.

“I thought I solved this shit…” He groaned.

“What the fuck are you talking about? I’m waiting for you to do something here.” Hannah growled under her breath. She had pulled out her bows and had one leveled at each person in the courtyard. Bubba the giant was practically drooling as he stared us down. The snake’s face had gone from amused to angry when Rodeo suggested we could kill them.

Jack just stared at the doorway that Little Jack ran through. He let out a long sigh and let go of his daggers.

“Might as well find out what he wants…” Jack said, following his latest flavor of insanity into the house.