Max Dubovitsky lowered the radio with a satisfied smile.
“What do you think, Sergeant? Did I sound like Haze? Now nobody will listen to Badass, and we’ll have time to get out of this dangerous area.”
I took a deep breath, looked at Avir Tan-Hoshi standing frozen in open-mouthed fear nearby, and told the Engineer that he’d just begun a great war between the humans and the sherkhs.
Chapter 18 [Kitten]
Unexpected Meeting
WE DIDN’T MAKE IT before dark. The Chimeric Cougar was too heavy to carry by hand. Making a litter out of fir branches to drag her on took time, as did shifting the dangerous predator onto it now that she was awake. The cougar’s furious growl through her tightly tied jaws had the fury of thunder, and she constantly drooled and twisted her whole body, testing the bindings’ strength every second and doing all she could to stop the humans from moving her. Personally, I thought it was a mistake to move her at all — we should have tamed her right there on the mountain slope, even if it took a bit more time. But then the animal would be able to move on her own, and could help against the night beasts. I transmitted these thoughts to Varya, but she didn’t even bother translating them for Sergeant; she wanted to get out of that dangerous area as soon as possible, and she was all in favor of getting the Chimeric Cougar to the raft and taming her there.
With great difficulty, the big oafs still somehow managed to drag the captured creature to the edge of the snows, but then they hit an unexpected snag — Atlas the giga-komodo rolled up into an impenetrable ball as soon as dusk fell, and refused to unroll no matter what the Beast Master said. There was a short meeting about what to do. Leave Atlas here, in foreign territory, and drag the Chimeric Cougar another three miles through a dangerous forest in pitch darkness? Or spend the night here in the forest and try to tame the dangerous predator in the meantime? Each option had its pluses and minuses. We’d also lost track of the watchers observing us, so we had no idea where the Pharaoh’s people were. They could easily find our trail, or discover a stranger’s giga-komodo curled up in their territory and kill it. To make matters worse, Axe’s people were due to show up somewhere nearby, to pick up a new load of slaves, and we didn’t want to run across those thugs either. The most alarming thing of all was that the New Pharaohs had been silent on the airwaves since the Engineer said his piece through the radio. Our group members didn’t know what was happening, and that got under their skin.
In the end, the big oafs chose the second option — to stay the night, to protect Atlas and the defenseless tied-up cougar. But with a slight alteration — first they’d milk her and send a runner with the milk to the raft to feed little Hope. Or rather, send a flier — the winged Thief was given the job, since he had a far better chance of making it across the dangerous forest and reaching the raft than anyone else. Varya Tolmachyova risked her life trying to milk the bound cougar’s teats into a glass jar. It was no easy task. It was some circus trick to ‘milk’ a furious beast that could maim anyone who came near even with her legs bound. Strength and agility got us nowhere — the few pathetic drops of precious liquid we got weren’t worth the risk it took to get them.
What did help was showing the mother her black kitten, the sight of which put her into a frozen stupor. We dropped the little thing on the ground and he tottered toward his mother’s teat on shaking legs. While the kitten fed, the mother lay unmoving, allowing the humans to milk their share. Sergeant took the opportunity to use Calming Touch several times. The cougar stopped growling at the humans, but still refused to eat the meat and fish they offered.
The veyer flew off with the precious milk and the humans held another meeting. Should they light a fire? It was chilly here at the edge of the snows by night, and fire kept the forest predators at bay. And fighting the night beasts was far easier when you could see them. But the bright light would make our camp easy to see, and it would be only a matter of time until the Pharaoh’s men found us. So they decided not to light a fire, but to make shelters in the trees to protect against possible danger instead. And although Sergeant insisted at first that the ‘branch nests’ weren’t necessary, that he could easily take care of five Feelers, in the end he had to agree that there could be plenty of other dangerous beasts nearby, and some shelter could come in handy. A few suitable stout trees grew nearby, in whose thick canopy we could fashion some cots and hide away from prying eyes.
But the big oafs weren’t fast enough.
Radar Ear skill increased to level twenty-seven!
I was the first to hear the night beasts come, and I told Varya right away. The pack was coming closer, and there were clearly far more howling voices in it than the five or six that Sergeant was expecting. At least twice as many, if not three times.
“Sergeant, the night beasts are already here! A lot of them! Protect my father!” the Scout cried, grabbing the cougar kitten and disappearing into stealth.
A frightened Julie followed suit a second later, taking her Snowflake with her. Varya ran as fast as she could into the dark of the woods, in the opposite direction from the dangerous beasts, but I didn’t like how this was going at all. I needed to be close to Sergeant, to help my master in the coming battle. So I jumped from the Scout’s shoulder and ran back. It was so much easier to jump and run on four good legs!
Agility increased to 19.
Even better! Perfect timing! Increased Agility meant I could run faster. I quickly returned to the small glade where the giga-komodo was rolled up into a bony ball. I got there just as Sergeant was giving a leg up to Max Dubovitsky, helping the older man climb up into the tree branches. The Engineer hid away in the thick branches to escape the approaching pack. But Sergeant himself didn’t have time to climb up the tree — the night beasts were already close. And… clearly visible against the black forest, I saw two blood-red clouds approaching my master in huge leaps. Two Alphas at once?! How?! That should only happen when there were at least twenty people around! Or was it a wild pack that could appear regardless of towns or players nearby? If so, then our luck was worse than ever…
Whatever the case may be, I didn’t bother worrying about it too much. Time to get to work. Curse Magic! Slow and Weaken on the closest Alpha, a level 18. Paralyze!
Invalid target for this spell.
What? The beast must have had immunity to paralysis, or I’d misunderstood something about how the spell works. I switched my attention to the second Alpha, a level 14. At that moment, Sergeant saw the two Alphas and swore eloquently. He got a good grip on his axe and glanced from the approaching enemy to the Chimeric Cougar tied up a few paces away. It didn’t look like there was any way to save our hard-won mother cougar from the night beasts. The cougar herself seemed to understand that too — she fought with all her might to try and free herself so she could fight.
“What are you doing, brother?! Hurry, up the tree!” Julie screamed when my master put away his axe and crouched down next to the cougar with knife in hand, cutting the ropes binding her jaw.
I didn’t know why the little Veterinarian hadn’t run away with the Scout. She couldn’t do anything to help her brother in the fight, and she only risked her life for no reason by staying in danger. Sergeant seemed to think the same.
“Run! Save yourself!” he shouted at his sister, but instead of running, the girl appeared from stealth, crouched down next to him and started to untie the wire binding the cougar’s legs.
Idiot! Sure, it would be hard to untie knots with invisible fingers, but the stealth skill had a cooldown too. She wouldn’t be able to hide again for the next couple of minutes. For Julie, that meant death — even slowed, the deadly Alphas were getting ever closer, with a herd of twenty Feelers following close behind. There just wasn’t time to slow them all down.
And then… My ears rang with the sound of gunfire. Both Alphas fell down in mid-leap, rolling across the ground.
Your character is now level twenty-nine!
Reward: three skill points and one mutat
ion point (total available: twenty-eight).
Both Alphas were dead! And the game system showered me with experience for helping to kill them. But who had killed the dangerous monsters with such ease? In the meantime, the shots continued, now echoing from all sides, and I saw bright flashlights. Half a minute later it all stopped, and into our clearing came…
☠ Haze. Human. Male. Guild: The New Pharaohs. Level 67 Psionic.
Now I could see the insidious Psionic’s real high level, not the pathetic ‘seven’ he showed in Pan’s Landing. Haze wore a long leather cloak reaching all the way to the ground, tall army boots and night-vision goggles. For some reason he was looking right at me, and I knew the Psionic could see right through my stealth. Suddenly, my Mana Points started to leak away rapidly. A few seconds later I stood completely empty, with no mana left. Then the Psionic lost interest in me entirely and switched his attention to my master.
“You sure gave us a good chase, Beast Catcher! Put that knife down, you won’t have time to use it anyway.”
Sergeant, still not done with cutting the ropes off the cougar, obediently threw the knife aside; he knew perfectly well that he had no chance whatsoever of standing up to such a strong player. Especially since more and more players emerged onto the forest glade after Haze, and they were all armed. Among the arrivals I saw Hulk… and Badass. So that’s how they found us!”
In the meantime, Haze examined the black and purple giga-komodo bull and whistled in admiration, then approached the tied-up cougar and sat down next to it fearlessly. He even pulled back her lower lip and examined her sharp fangs. And the apex predator didn’t even think about biting or resisting!
“A wonderful specimen!” Haze delivered his verdict, patting the cougar’s head and turning to Hulk. “I think this is the same man-eater that keeps eating Axe’s people at the snowy pass. I recall there being a reward for killing this monster.”
Hulk stepped forward, silently unholstered his pistol and put it to the Chimeric Cougar’s head, but Haze stopped his bodyguard:
“Don’t be hasty. The Pharaoh might have his own plans for such a dangerous beauty. Take the beast to the Eastern Fortress. And set a guard around this giga-komodo — such a valuable bull must be kept for breeding. As for you…” the Psionic leered at the frozen Beast Catcher. “Tell me, how did you know I was imprisoned by the sherkhs?”
With deliberate slowness so as not to provoke the soldiers tensely aiming weapons at him, Sergeant reached out and unclasped his backpack. He took out the radio and the night-vision instrument.
“I found this on a sherkh by the name of Arvedo Un Ponar after he attacked me. He’s the son of the leader of Eastern Garrison. Rare items that even humans don’t often have, let alone sherkhs. And I heard from the people of the river village that the sherkhs captured a noble of the Pharaoh who was sent to them. I haven’t seen many nobles in the lands east of the mountain range, which the sherkhs consider their own. Based on all of that, I figured you were the emissary, Haze.”
The dangerous Psionic suddenly laughed, put the radio and the IR goggles into his cloak pocket and ordered his guards to lower their weapons.
“Yeah, these are mine. You’re pretty sharp for a Beast Catcher. I was the one sent into sherkh territory, that’s right. But it ain’t no easy task to keep a mega-psionic prisoner, which the invisible folk soon learned. The pile of corpses that Hulk and I left behind should discourage the sherkhs from tangling with the Pharaoh’s nobles for a long time to come. And…” Haze darkened and touched a hand to his temple as if his head had suddenly started hurting, “take off the item blocking my psionic abilities right now!”
Sergeant resignedly took the Wyrm Signet Ring off his finger and put it in Haze’s outstretched hand. Haze silently examined the valuable object. I expected the Pharaoh’s noble to take the precious ring for himself, like he had the other items, but to my surprise, he returned it to its owner.
“A rare item. That Cartographer has one. Where did you get it?”
Sergeant told him the truth, that the ring was taken from the Cartographer as payment for information on how to tame cruel arachnoscorps.
“Is that so…” Haze fell silent, then turned back to the Chimeric Cougar and Atlas, looked at the sharp-toothed rock lizard on my sister’s shoulder, examined the animals for a minute, then continued. “We’ve had conflicts in the past, Beast Catcher. And I really don’t like that you’re carrying an unearned first caste token and hiding behind my name when you talk to other humans. I would kill you for that! But it seems like we’re on the same side in the upcoming war with the sherkhs for dominion over this zone. And you might be useful to the New Pharaohs, as might this veterinarian girl. So you’re both coming with us. The Pharaoh himself may want to speak with you. If not, then I’ll find some use for you. But nobody needs that kitten. He’s dangerous. Servants, kill him!”
What?! The conversation had seemed to be going pretty well, and I was calm and relaxed, so Haze’s words came as a complete surprise. What could I do? I had no mana, so I couldn’t switch to incorporeal form and get temporary invulnerability from firearms. I couldn’t turn into a beetle and fly away either. So I started running as fast as I could!
But I only made it a few leaps before my body suddenly froze.
Magic Resistance check failed!
“Just like I thought,” Haze said from behind me, his voice dripping with self-satisfaction. “The kitty understands human speech. But it’s still too dumb to figure out that the gunners can see it in stealth.”
Magic Resistance check failed!
Something knocked me out of stealth. Haze approached, grabbed me by the scruff of the neck. He lifted up my tiny ginger body and turned me around before his eyes, examining me from all angles.
“An ordinary cat at first glance, although the Shadow Hexxer class is certainly concerning. What are you? Never mind. We’ll figure it out later. Cage him! And guard him with your lives! Now get ready to move out. We’re heading to the Eastern Fortress.”
Chapter 19 [Sergeant]
In Service of the Pharaoh
“GET UP, BEAST CATCHER!”
I was being shaken awake by some old man, gray and toothless, whose long beard would have been the envy of Merlin and Gandalf both. “You’re expected in the palace!”
At first I thought I was still asleep. Some mystical magician was inviting me to the palace… But no, the bearded old man was real, and very insistent. I had to wake up, although I’d only gotten a couple of hours rest through the night.
Savelius Krapivin. Guild: The New Pharaohs. Level 23 Astrologer.
Astrologer? An old, half-forgotten profession. I didn’t know why it wasn’t the more modern ‘Astronomer,’ but stargazing was probably fun either way. Especially in an entirely new world; the first members of the profession would make a multitude of discoveries and name constellations, stars and planets, immortalizing their work in history.
That said, the slave collar around the old man’s neck bothered me, as did his worn, dirty gown. It seemed Astrologers and people of the scientific professions weren’t much respected among the New Pharaohs. Once sure he had woken me, the Astrologer hurried to leave, limping and coughing with old age.
I yawned, rubbed my eyes and swung my legs off the bench I’d fallen asleep on, covered up with a scratchy blanket I’d been issued. I looked around, examining the small room we were left in last night. Stark decor. Just two benches and a rickety old stool supporting a spent candle in a clay mug. At least it wasn’t a prison cell — there were no bars on the windows, and the door to the corridor wasn’t locked. I checked before I went to sleep. I was glad they didn’t consider me and my sister prisoners, didn’t assign us a guard. They didn’t even take away my axe and knife, or any of my other gear.
Dawn was already breaking outside. Julie slept peacefully, covered head-to-toe with a blanket. Snowflake was curled up on her shoulder, watchfully guarding the girl’s peace. Although the Astrologer was only talking to m
e, I decided to wake up my sister. I didn’t want to leave her alone in an unfamiliar place. The reptile raised its head and hissed a warning when I approached, but didn’t attack — I was marked ‘friendly’ in her settings.
A few minutes later, Julie and I left the building, which appeared to be serving as a barracks or temporary accommodation. Players back from the night shift slept in all the rooms on both sides of the corridor. All of them had a combat character class, but their levels were still pretty low, none over thirty that I saw. At level twenty and twenty-three, Julie and I didn’t fail to measure up against these players — on the contrary, we at least matched the squad in strength, which I suspected was why we were put here.
An old sign nailed above the door read Family Housing Unit Four. For some reason, it was crossed out. Made sense; I hadn’t seen any families, just soldiers of the New Pharaoh, all of them male. The small building was surrounded by a strong and high fence, but the gates stood open and I saw no guards.
“There’s nobody guarding us, bro,” my sister said in surprise. “Should we escape? We could get to the raft and sail off to where they can’t get us.”
It sounded tempting, but I didn’t want to make any rash decisions. We’d have to maintain contact with the New Pharaohs for a while anyway, until all our group members hit level twenty-five. And we had little Hope with us, who needed looking after, and most importantly, feeding. And my cat was missing too. I needed to find out what had happened to him. So for now, it was best not to make any sudden movements, to maintain this situation in which we weren’t considered prisoners and were left free.
A light two-wheeled cart awaited us, hitched to a green medium-sized lizard stood up on its hind legs. The task of driving us in this unusual conveyance fell to a boy of around ten or eleven, a humble level 12 Coachman. He wore a slave collar too — apparently, cabbies in the New Pharaohs were also low in status. My sister and I came closer and stared at the nervous reptile. It hissed and threateningly bared its teeth.
In Service of the Pharaoh (League of Losers Book #2) Page 17
