“Good thinking,” Olav commented. “We’ll grab our gear first and then chop those Dax bastards into pieces.” The mohawked man’s bearded mouth merged into a grin, and his eyes sparkled with mirth.
“We should talk with them first, sir. Jumping into a fight might not be the best idea.”
“It’s always the best idea, Lyons,” he said. “But we’ll let Uram offer an explanation before I gut him. Now, quit yapping and teleport us to my quarters. I miss my axes!”
I grabbed the berserker’s shoulder while I thought about all the Ecomese who would be enslaved once Sir Uram informed his base about the portals. Their pain filled me, and I felt even my atoms tremble. I remembered Elle’s warning against using my abilities since the Bloodrat had messed with them, but I figured this situation was too important for caution.
I pictured Olav’s lodgings inside the Ark, and then I jumped. My stomach lurched, and we were suddenly standing inside the docks. The ships around anchored here were hazy, as though we were looking at them through a dirty lens. I raised my hand and saw that it was transparent.
Everything felt like it wasn’t quite real, and Elle’s warning about my mutation echoed in my mind.
“This doesn’t look like the right level, Lyons,” Olav said as he attempted to steady himself on a guardrail. His hand slipped through the railing as though it were made of mist, and he fell onto his face. The berserker started drifting through the solid matter of the floor, and his eyes widened in fear.
Then my body shivered like it did before a teleport, and my hands gripped his shoulder before we teleported again. Then we jumped a second time. Again and again, we moved instantaneously, each time to a different place on the Ark. I intended none of them, but we eventually arrived inside Olav’s quarters.
After the berserker emptied his stomach onto the floor, he snarled and marched toward me like he planned on strangling me again.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Bit of payback for--” Olav’s face formed into a grin as he caught sight of his axes. He rushed over to his bed and grabbed the weapons like they were beloved pets. “My beauties,” he whispered as he stroked their blades. “Time for you to drink.”
“I need to grab my equipment, sir,” I said while I watched the berserker continue to caress his axes.
“Not yet,” Olav said as he removed a metal briefcase from beneath his bed. He pressed the lock with his index finger, and the case shifted into a full suit of power armor.
The berserker stepped inside the standing suit of armor, and it snapped around him like a clamshell. The midnight blue heavy armor plates encased his limbs, and the runes glowed brilliantly before dulling. I had seen the knight move with finesse on the battlefield, and I imagined the runes inscribed onto the equipment would have to be powerful beyond measure to counteract the sheer weight.
“You’re gonna wait here while I grab the jetpacks from Captain Cross’ room,” Olav said as he cracked his neck and stretched his arms.
“Didn’t the captain say--”
“Stay here, Lyons. You can get your stuff when I return. Don’t touch anything.” Olav grabbed two axes, left the room, and closed the door behind him.
When he got back, I would grab my equipment and then we’d hunt down the Star Spear and his initiates. I didn’t know whether we would find them before they delivered a message to their superiors, but we were running out of time.
If everyone hadn’t gone with the captain on the Stalwart, I could have used my prot-belt to contact them. For now, it was only Olav and me on the Ark. There were probably only a few dozen enforcers remaining after the Watchtower attack.
Then I remembered the runes in need of repairing, and I figured Casey and the other enchanters might still be on the Den Ark. I opened my prot-belt menu and selected the comms function. I moved my finger to initiate a call to Casey Roman and paused at the last moment. There was a slight chance Sir Uram could intercept the comms, which would remove any hope of surprising him.
I closed the menu with a sigh and glanced to my right at the weapons Olav had left behind. There were a small arsenal of axes in various shapes and sizes, and runes sparkled along the handles and blades. Although the berserker had ordered me not to touch anything, I couldn’t keep my eyes off his gear, and I decided to study a bearded axe after he’d been gone at least a minute. The runes along the weapon’s neck were perfectly crafted, and the Dust rippled like flaming embers.
Before I could stop myself, I scanned the weapon with my prot-belt.
Weapon type: Tyr’s Fury
Additional damage: 200% (fire)
Power class: Legendary
Weapon effect: [unknown]
Runes inscribed: Wrath of the War God
Rune class: Legendary
Rune effects: [unknown]
Note: Item is unregistered and must be returned to an RTF Point clerk.
I stared at the statistics in awe. Not only was this weapon unregistered, but it was also Legendary class, which meant there was no other item in the entire universe bearing the same runes or weapon effect. The Wrath of the War God rune was limited to this axe, and the Dust required to not only inscribe the rune but maintain its quality would be astronomical.
The only Legendary class items I’d seen before were the suits of armor in Duke Barnes’ throne room, but even those were probably more museum artifacts than weapons of war. Only grand knights possessed palm runes capable of wielding the Legendary items, and only the most skilled and richest among them owned a single one.
I hadn’t seen enough Legendary items to know whether the berserker’s other equipment was as rare, but I wouldn’t have been surprised. But what the hell was Olav doing with them? How had he acquired such expensive items?
The questions were merely more to add to the list of mysteries surrounding the Stalwart’s crew.
I returned the axe to its position on the mattress a second before Olav stormed into the room.
“Take this,” he said as he shoved a jetpack into my chest. “It’s Squire class. I can’t guarantee its reliability, but at least you’ll be able to activate it.”
I remembered Moses mentioning a previous incident, and the captain had forbidden their use.
“What happened last time with the jetpacks, sir?” I asked as I slung it over my left shoulder and then slid my right arm through the strap. It would be difficult to wear with weapons on the rear magnetons, but I would just have to limit the amount I carried.
“What is it with you squires and your blasted questions? Go and get your equipment, then come back here.”
“Yes, sir,” I said before leaving the room. The corridors were even quieter than I remembered them, and I was surprised there wasn’t an alarm ringing. Surely someone would have seen the Dax running through the Ark by now, so there should have been alarms. Unless Sir Uram was capable of stealth when he wished, and I didn’t doubt his abilities to remain unseen.
When I slipped into the squire quarters, the first thing I noticed was a package wrapped in butcher paper lying on my bed. I grabbed it, tore away the paper, and stared at a shining shortsword. The single-edged blade widened and curved at the tip, and the crossguard was adorned with a pair of ornamental Grendel heads. I lifted the torn packaging, and a note fluttered out of it.
Nicholas,
Here is the project I told you about. I prepared the weapon, and Casey inscribed the rune. I believe it will prove useful now that you have the Dax shield.
Elle
I knew we were running out of time to catch the Dax, but I quickly scanned the new sword, and a holo appeared from my prot-belt in bright blue text.
Weapon type: Falchion of the Shroud
Additional damage: 15% (void)
Power class: Squire
Weapon effect: None
Runes inscribed: Shroud
Rune class: Squire
Rune effects: Envelops wielder in invisibility for 3 seconds.
Now I knew why Elle had suggested the slay
er role to me as a potential career choice. She probably intended to make this weapon for me for some time, and now that I owned the knives, I could get some decent practice in the slayer fighting style. It wasn’t second nature to me, and I had come to appreciate fighting on the frontlines with more brute force than finesse. The only time I wasn’t in the thick of the battle was while summoning void creatures to do my bidding. But disappearing in front of an enemy only to strike it in the back could be interesting.
I pressed my prot-belt to close the statistics, gathered my other items from the foot of my bed, and took off the jetpack. I pulled Hermes Pants over my legs, and they tightened automatically with a dozen clicks. I took my Squire’s Boots Casey had inscribed with a Speed rune and slipped them over my feet. My new chest piece, the Voidwalker’s Breastplate, cinched around my hips and chest before connecting with my prot-belt and pants. I then equipped my rerebraces and spaulders. As I wriggled my fingers into the Dax gauntlets, I fastened the Helm of the Reaver to my cranium and enabled the full helmet. The HUD displayed the Dax language first and then shifted into Caledonian.
Now that my armor was complete, I donned my father’s surcoat. The item wasn’t enchanted at all, but I wanted to take a piece of Dad with me into battle.
I figured I would need all the firepower I could carry, so I strapped the new shortsword to my left hip, fixed my longsword to my rear magnetons, and secured the three paralyzing knives to my right thigh. The Lightning Sprites had been sorely missed during the Grendel fights inside the Watchtower, so I felt a sense of calm as I added the lightning mace to my current setup.
The Eidolon’s Bardiche was a Summoner class poleaxe I could use to summon Bane Bears and increase the damage dealt by any other summons, like my sprites. Because I only possessed a Squire class palm rune, I couldn’t activate the poleaxe’s effects without the Overlord’s Heart, an amulet which allowed me to use an item two levels above my class for ten seconds. That ability could only be used once before the rune required repairing, but I could see it coming in handy in a fight against Sir Uram and his initiates. Unfortunately, I had left the amulet on the Stalwart, so I left the bardiche on my bed.
The Scaled Plasma Rifle rested at the bottom of my bed, but I didn’t have any extra gas canisters or batteries for the plasma rifle, so I decided against taking it with me. I slipped the jetpack over my shoulders, and it took a little wiggling to get comfortable because of all the weapons on my back.
Finally ready to leave, I made my way back to Olav. Before I could enter his quarters, someone grabbed my shoulder. My hand shot to the sword at my hip as I whirled around to see Olav grinning.
“Take us to the docks, Lyons,” he said.
I started to picture the area when I realized I’d only been inside one of the Ark’s many docking stations. “There are dozens of eye-docks, sir,” I said in disappointment, remembering all the eyes on the front of the behemoth. “Sir Uram could be leaving through any one of them.”
“Lucky for us, I used the time while you were messing around with your equipment to do some digging. I found a helpful Ecomese attendant. She showed me to a surveillance room, and I knew exactly which docking station the Dax are inside.”
“I can’t teleport somewhere unless I’ve been there before or I have a good picture of the layout,” I said. “Can you take me back to the surveillance room?”
“Damnit, Lyons! Why didn’t you tell me this before? Let’s go.” Olav marched down the passageway, and we entered a narrow doorway to a room filled with monitors.
A sheer-robed Ecomese female sat in front of the screens, and she glanced up at us. “Yes?”
“Show the dock with the Dax again,” Olav barked.
The woman’s eyes sprung open in surprise, and I guessed she wasn’t familiar with a berserker’s charm.
“Why do you have so many weapons?” Olav asked me while the attendant jabbed a few keys on her computer system.
“Uhh . . . because I like them?” I didn’t think it was a problem carrying more than a primary and secondary weapon since different situations called for different methods of dealing death.
“That’s a good reason!” Olav smiled before scowling, as though scolding himself for being kind to me.
“This is the location,” the woman said as she thrust her finger at a monitor.
I stared at the screen for a few seconds before nodding. “I can take us there.”
Olav palmed the axe hanging from the left side his prot-belt and grinned. I grabbed his shoulder and called to mind the terrible deeds the Dax would perform if they returned to Ecoma in force. My insides clenched while my vision whirled, and we jumped to another location on the Ark. The area was some kind of parlor with plush seats and mahogany drapes, and the few Ecomese inside dropped their glasses as we appeared in front of them. It wasn’t the destination I had intended, so I knew my ability was still having problems.
“This isn’t the docks, Lyons,” Olav spat, and then his eyes widened as his body morphed and swirled like a whirlpool.
We were ripped from the parlor and teleported onto the hard surface of the docks, and the air exploded from my lungs. The slimy organic bulkheads surrounded us, and they ebbed and flowed like they were breathing. I groaned as I stood, and Olav’s hands wrapped around my shoulders as he hauled me behind a blood-colored Ecomese skiff.
The berserker held his index finger over his lips, and I nodded in understanding. Then he gestured to the right side of the vessel we were hiding behind, and I tilted my head to look past the skiff.
I expected to see Sir Uram and his two initiates preparing a Dax ship for departure. Instead, I looked up at the behemoth’s eye. It functioned like an entry-hatch, and after the pupil peeled open, two ships passed through the airlock tunnel, activated their landing gear, and dropped onto the platform.
The jet black vessels were approximately thirty meters in length with plasma cannons on either side of the cockpits. The cargo ramps hissed as they descended, and thirteen initiates clad in black armor exited the ships. They were followed by three figures in power armor and shaved scalps tattooed with glowing blue runes, and I guessed they were Star Spears.
Sir Uram and his initiates were nowhere to be seen. The presence of these two foreign ships made me think word had reached their base, or at least to the embassy orbiting this planet. The other Dax had escaped from the prison-residence only an hour ago, so there was no way these two ships could have traveled here so fast, even from the embassy. The only explanation was that Sir Uram sent a message there as soon as he showed up at the power plant and discovered the portal.
Betrayal stung my insides as I considered whether the only reason the Dax soldiers had fought alongside the knights and me had been to get information. Sir Uram probably only talked with me inside the prison-residence to learn Captain Cross and the other crew members were no longer on the Ark. Befriending me had been a cheap trick, and I cursed myself for trusting the wrong person yet again.
But what was he planning? Obviously not to flee since these two new ships threw an enormous wrench in my prediction that the Star Spear and his two initiates would be leaving the Den Ark.
“I don’t see Sir Uram, sir,” I whispered to the berserker, but the man didn’t answer, so I continued. “Maybe we should find him before engaging these Dax. They might be . . . Olav?” I glanced from left to right, but the berserker wasn’t hiding behind the skiff anymore. “Olav?” I hissed.
My stomach dropped as I peered out from the skiff, and I saw the knight marching toward the Dax.
“Hey! Assholes! What are you doing here? Where’s your buddy, Sir Uram?”
I stared at the berserker for half a second, unable to believe he’d just revealed his position to fourteen potentially hostile soldiers. The Dax looked at Olav and then turned to each other in surprise before drawing their weapons.
“Good!” the berserker yelled. “I expected you wouldn’t want to chat, which is why I brought these!” He brandished his axes, an
d they ignited in swirling flames.
My shock didn’t last long as I debated which weapon to wield against the enemies. I figured some extra support was needed, so I lifted my lightning hammer from over my shoulder and activated the Minor Lightning Sprite rune.
After I slammed the hammer onto the ground, lightning forked the air and struck the position, and a portal to a void world opened. A blue-skinned creature stepped out from the arcane window and unfolded its wings. I returned my mace to my magnetons and took my new falchion in hand. With a touch of a button on my left gauntlet, an energy targe shield with a one-meter diameter materialized.
Ready for battle, I ran after Olav. Dax initiates surrounded the berserker while he engaged the three Star Spears. The foreign warriors were at least a foot taller than Olav, but their glowing spears couldn’t score a hit. The berserker grinned and cackled as he danced around them, and I figured he was enjoying putting on a show for the initiates.
It was too bad I would have to interrupt their entertainment.
The initiates were too concerned with the fight between Olav and the Star Spears, so they had their backs to me. They mustn’t have heard my hammer hitting the ground, and they didn’t seem like they knew Olav wasn’t alone.
I dashed from skiff to skiff, always keeping a vessel between me and the initiates’ view while the sprite flew above me. The last few meters were without cover, but none of the enemies turned as I burst toward them after an activation of my speed sequence. The Lightning Sprite was controlled through my emotions, so it dove into the backs of the Dax initiates. The Dax attempted to cut it down with their swords, but it dashed through the air like a blue pinball from one soldier to the next.
The distraction was all I needed, and I slammed my energy shield into the back of an initiate, throwing him off-balance. A diagonal slash tore open his armor along with the flesh beneath it, and he bellowed as he fell into death’s embrace. The other initiates spun to face me, and I blocked a sword attack with a raise of my shield. Sparks burst as the blade struck the solid energy field, and I leaned beneath the man’s weapon to plunge my blade into his abdomen.
Space Knight Book 2 Page 26
