by David Burke
“Glad to have you as part of the team,” Kyle said.
“We will need a team name if we are going to register with the adventurer’s guild,” Lash said.
“And from the look on your face, you must have an idea?” Kyle asked the former weapon maiden.
“Nah, it would have been easy in the old days. I would have suggested the Knights of Krig or something like that, but I don’t think you want to draw attention to your identity,” Lash replied.
Kierra jumped in at this point and said sticking with their original story for the sake of those who were not part of the inner circle, “Yes, it would be a bad idea for people to know that you are a war elemental.”
“I agree with Kierra,” Hilde said, “We should choose a name that allows us to keep a low profile.”
“But it still needs to have a bit of panache,” Gilthan said. Then laughing added, “What about the Storm Dragons.”
Kierra laughed back. Kyle was enjoying how confident that she seemed this morning. If it was because of last night, then he was kicking himself for not having jumped on that train sooner. “Not all of us transform into mini dragons.”
“Mini? Who are you calling mini. There isn’t anything mini about me,” Gilthan playfully replied. “Aren’t that right girls?” He asked as he turned to the three former slave girls who had been conspicuously absent as soon as Gilthan had retired last night. A round of giggles was the only answer his question received.
Kyle just rolled his eyes and Hilde said, “Not sure you will fare very well if we whip them out and start measuring now. Unless you transform and no woman wants a dragon dick.”
Kierra, Lash, and surprisingly Nyda all burst into laughter at that point. Even Skrug was mumbling under his breath, “Dragon dick bad. Everyone knows that.”
Even Gilthan chuckled. Whatever happened last night had definitely improved his mood. But then he looked at Kierra and said, “Sure we don’t all transform into dragons, but what about you? What do you transform into now? I can’t help but feel the resonance between us now so I know you must have completed the process. That is if your golden fur and two extra feet of height weren’t enough.”
“There you go fixating on size again, sorcerer. Some of us just become what we need to serve,” Kierra said.
“Yeah, yeah but we still need a team name,” Gilthan replied.
Saber coughed and said, “Look it is pretty obvious that the six of you are hiding something from us. Probably a bunch of somethings. Selma and I discussed it. We owe you our lives and are excited to see where this goes. We can wait till we’ve earned your trust, but I do know a little something about naming adventuring groups.”
Kyle turned towards the smaller man. “Okay, I’m all ears.”
Saber suddenly got a confused look on his face, but Kyle clarified, “It is just an expression where I come from. It means, I’m listening intently.”
“Oh, sure thing lad. Before I became a gladiator, I was an Adventurer’s Guild member in good standing. I never made it very far because my talents clearly lay in single combat and I thought the prizes to be won from the arena outweighed the rewards from dungeons. Fewer magic items but plenty of money and the adoration of fans as you saw after the exhibition matches. Not that you got to enjoy that part of it.”
“Anyway, even though I was just a D rank member, I should still be able to get a team admitted to the guild faster than somebody off the street. But you will have to allow me to play the role of team captain. Will that be a problem?” Saber asked.
“Not for me. Just as long as you understand the real structure. And let me be clear. I am in command. Make no mistake about it. If you stay with us, you serve under me.”
Kyle almost lost his place as Kierra softly said, “Or riding on top.”
Shaking his head and then grinning at his lycan lover he continued, “For now, Hilde is my second in command with Kierra and Gilthan being lieutenants of sorts. If none of them are present then Lash, Saber, or Selma are the next rank. Everyone would need to follow their orders. Any questions about that?”
“Yes, what about me?” Meeka asked.
Kyle realized he shouldn’t have been surprised. She was definitely used to being in control. “Your guards can of course follow your orders but if you are going to be part of our team then I expect you and them to follow the orders of those that I already named. Remember that trust is earned.”
Meeka looked as though she were going to say something else but then thought better of it, so Kyle continued. “Now, Saber, I think you said something about having a suggestion for a guild name?”
“Yes, you want something that captures the imagination and will excite people to hire you but at the same time doesn’t imply anything to give away where you all have come from.” He paused before adding, “I mean the arena and being former slaves. So… my best idea is to call the adventuring group, Sacred Destiny.”
“I like it,” Kyle said although a part of him wondered just what Saber had figured out.
From there they discussed plans for how they would approach the city, packed up, and then got on the road. Six miles wasn’t anything for some of them, but he didn’t want to leave the more vulnerable members of their group behind. Especially since that included Nyda.
So, they traveled together till they were about a mile from the city. Then Meeka, her guards, and the four former slave girls, excluding Nyda, went into town. Kyle had insisted that she stay with them, even though Saber had said that adventurers didn’t normally have servants. Something about the type of people they were just made them more self-reliant. Kyle just said that they would come up with a cover story for that too.
After making sure that Meeka and her people had made it into town, Hilde flew back under her veil of disrupted light and sound. For all intents and purposes, she was invisible until she dropped it. “They are there. The guards seem to be charging an entrance fee to anyone they don’t know. Locals don’t have to pay but merchants and the other adventuring group I saw all had to pay a fee.”
“Okay. I assume we have enough money with us?” Kyle asked.
Hilde smiled and once again Kyle was struck by her all too perfect beauty. “Not a problem, even the group of adventurers who tried to argue about the entry tax only ended up having to pay two silvers per member.”
Kyle looked around at his team. The five of them, Hilde, who would be invisible, Saber and his four trainers along with Selma and Nyda acting as her apprentice wouldn’t cost that much. So off they walked down to the gate.
He took everything in as they got closer. There were farmers with sheep outside the city. Chickens ran around as did small children. Further out there were fields of various crops. It was more what he had expected of a medieval city than Thena, but still the impact of essence and how it made for better roads and a healthier population were obvious.
Once they got close, Kyle started paying attention to the city itself. There didn’t appear to be many buildings over four stories, and most were two stories. The wall was a full thirty feet high but would have been dwarfed by the wall of Thena which was more than double that height.
Because Kyle could observe with more than just his eyes and ears, he got a sense of the size of the city. The wall enclosed all of the buildings that were close enough to be considered part of the city. There were farms that dotted the countryside and if he stretched his senses, he could reach out several miles. Inside the walls he could only estimate as he learned how to use his senses better, but it felt like maybe a hundred thousand people, again a fraction of Thena’s population.
Once they got into line with a group of merchants in front of them, everything seemed to be run in an orderly manner. Kyle was impressed with the professionalism of the guards at the gate, although he did wonder why there were twenty of them even though only two seemed to be doing all the talking.
The answer to that question became readily evident a moment later as a hole in the ground erupted, spewing d
irt and rocks in every direction. Out of it poured twenty glytharen warriors. The lizardmen were competent fighters from the brief exposure he had with them in the arena, but while they were stronger than an average human, they were not Monster Tier foes. Even if they had been, Kyle’s team would have been ready for it.
Saber barked out to his trainers, “Protect Selma and Nyda. Help the other civilians if you can.”
Hearing him, Kyle added, “Gilthan light them up, Kierra and Skrug with me, we are gonna take the fight to them.”
The glytharen had been firing crossbows at the city guards but only two had been struck. Despite the surprise nature of the attack the guards had been prepared with large shields. Now they were ready, forming a barrier to protect the gates while they were being shut. Kyle didn’t want that though because then who knew how long it would take them to get into the city.
Already the storm sorcerer had launched a pair of lightning bolts. His power continued to grow, or perhaps his mastery of it. The bolts arced from one glytharen to the next. Some were blasted from their feet with scorch marks, others spasmed as their muscles locked up and some were only momentarily dazed by the electrical attack, but none of the twenty escaped unscathed.
Even a moment of delay was too much as Kierra burst forward, leaving a golden after image as she moved so quickly. Her claws extended more than eight inches now and even the scaled hide of the enemy wasn’t enough to protect them. She moved like a whirlwind, ignoring those who had fallen before the electricity and instead went from one to the next of the standing dazed.
Kyle could feel the way that her claws were coated with War Essence. Kierra’s mastery of the power that she had gained only a few hours ago was daunting but it only made him proud to have her at his side. The first swipe removed a lizard head from the shoulders it sat upon without even slowing her down. Each of half a dozen foes fell before her either headless or eviscerated and not one of them managed to even raise a weapon against her. She was in a whole new league now.
Skrug was far less discriminate as he began swinging his club turned axe like some reaper’s scythe ending each of the foes that lay on the ground writing with burns or spasming muscles. A couple moved to thrust out with swords, but Kyle dealt with them. Proud to see his people at work, he was content to play back up this time.
The earth beneath them obeyed him and each of the wounded glytharen found themselves partially sucked into the ground. Their arms were caught keeping them from making any real counterattack and instead they were only lambs to the slaughter.
The entire thing was over in seconds from when the ground had erupted, and the heavy city gates had only just started to close. Kyle turned towards the gate and shouted, “Hold the gates. The threat has passed.”
Still the gates kept closing, but Kyle wasn’t ready to give up. From deep within himself he channeled War Essence but instead of sending it out as a weapon to strike down the guards and keep the gates open, he mentally focused on sending it through his Charisma.
If he had been asked a moment before if he could do such a thing, he would have scoffed at the idea but in the moment, need caused him to see things he had missed before. He was able to enhance any of his physical stats with War Essence so why not a social stat. Wasn’t social interaction a form of warfare? Higher and lower status people jockey for position, men and women struggle to see how their relationships will shape up, and even children rebel against parents who must then squash that rebellion.
No, social interaction was just another form of combat. Once that understanding clicked into place it was easy to boost the impact of his Charisma with War Essence. “I order you to hold the gates. There are civilians out here and the threat is gone.”
Kyle thought he might have overdone it. Maybe twenty-two War Essence had been too much judging from the impact it had on the guards. They had all dropped their weapons. Most of them were prostrating themselves on the ground and even the guard captain stood there trembling until he yelled, “Hold the gate.” Not that he had needed to as those inside had also obviously been affected by the Spirit Tier power.
The result was that they were all escorted into the city but not before Saber had his men loot the glytharen corpses. Skrug helped to carry the weapons they captured, but Saber insisted that no self-respecting adventurers would ever leave loot lying on the ground.
When the guard captain saw them heavy laden with swords, crossbows, and other loot he said, “Thank you for helping defend the city. There is a bounty of glytharen ears at the adventurer’s guild. You will have to turn in all the weapons you looted from them, but the bounty will more than make up for it. They only pay for left ears, so you don’t have to cut off both.”
Kyle shrugged, and Saber sent the former trainers turned adventurers out to cut off the ears. It was grisly work, but they needed to make money and even more they needed to maintain their appearance as adventurers. He wasn’t happy to have to give up loot but ultimately the bounty system made it easier. Now all they had to do was carry a bag full of twenty bloody ears into town. The green blood made it seem almost surreal as he realized they were truly monstering and not like cutting down other men.
They had not made it far past the gate when another contingent of guards came accompanying a trio of robed figures. The obvious leader called out, “Halt.”
Kyle was tired of delays and ready to find a place to get settled in. He had been hoping this wouldn’t take the entire day. There was still so much planning to do. Saber spoke for him though, “Yes, uh… is it captain? I’m sorry, I haven’t been this far south in years and am not sure if I’ve got your rank correct.”
The man looked them all over his eyes stopping on Kyle, Skrug and Kierra mostly. Then he looked back at Saber. “Yes, Captain Sokove of the governor’s personal forces. I have been tasked with finding out who caused the disturbance at the gate. We got word by sky messaging that a group of adventurers slew twenty glytharen in under a minute. Would that happen to be you?”
Saber glanced at Kyle who gave an almost imperceptible nod. The captain didn’t seem to catch it, but Kyle immediately felt the eyes of the three robed figures focused on him rather than Saber. “Yes, that was us, but to be fair we are not technically registered as an adventuring group in Nargossa. I am a member of the guild in good standing but have been fighting as a gladiator in Thena for the past few years. You may have heard of me; my fight name was Saber.”
There was a murmuring amongst the men behind the captain so much so that he had to turn his head and bark at them to quiet done. “Yes, we all heard of you. Arena champions are not so common that we wouldn’t have. So, what, got bored with that?”
Saber shrugged one shoulder and made a clicking sound. “That’s a young man’s game. But I’ve got the experience and the name, so I gathered up some hard chargers and thought I might try my hand at captaining an adventuring group. What with all the trouble over the past few years a man can earn his fortune.”
“There is definitely a need as you saw at the gate. Of course, a man needs to be on his feet rather than his shield if he wants to enjoy the fortune he earns,” Captain Sokove said.
“I don’t know, some of the best nights of my life had me lying flat on my back,” Saber said with a rakish grin.
That drew a chuckle from the captain, but the lead robed figure stepped forward and dropped her cowl. She was likely a woman in her forties, but essence users could sometimes be twice as old as they looked so it was hard to say. “Enough, this isn’t about killing some glytharen. If that were all you would have the appreciation of the city and the governor’s bounty to thank you. What I am here to investigate was the sudden burst of essence at the gate. It was... substantially powerful.”
Tension filled the air then, but Kyle decided to remain silent. He would allow Saber a chance to talk them out of this.
The former champion said, “I don’t know exactly what you felt. I’m a humble man earning my titles with mere skill
and strength. Mayhap you felt, Kyle here. He yelled for the gates to be shut and as he was charged with War Essence at the time, his words might have carried more weight than he meant. No harm was intended though. He was just worried about making sure the civilians got into the city.”
The magi stared at Saber as though she might peer into his soul and then looked at Kyle. He felt her essence slam up against him. Well slam might be the wrong word, but he was almost certain that she was trying to use Justice Essence to ferret out any lies. Kyle couldn’t contain a laugh as a stray memory of Krig’s hit him. Lige himself had tried this more than once and it had never swayed Krig. It was laughable that this little mortal should think to have any effect on him.
Then a sense of terror ran through him. Kyle believed he was going to stay true to himself, but that feeling scared him. It reminded him of how Hilde was certain that he was going to change. Kyle didn’t want to start looking down on people because of the station they were born to. But he couldn’t help being annoyed by the intrusion.
He bit his tongue and didn’t say anything but couldn’t help himself. He pushed back with his own essence. Suddenly the magi placed her hands up against her temples as she groaned in pain. “Argghh what was that.”
