by Eric Ugland
Rebuild the Guild X - Hamilton Hayes
Initiate Hamilton prior to initiating Godfrey.
Reward for success: Hamilton will join the guild
Penalty for failure (or refusal): potentially the death of the guild
Yes/No
"Hamilton," I said, "I think I'm going to like you."
Hamilton puttered around his little room, packing his things. He didn't have much, just a few odds and ends, a bit of clothing, four books. And then he was ready to go.
"You leave the rope in place?" he asked.
“The one from the hayloft?”
“No, the one you used to climb the wall."
"I just went through the gates."
"The gates? They're closed."
"Um, they're open now," I said.
"What?"
"I walked in through open gates. I was ready to climb the wall, but I didn’t have to.”
He looked confused, then blew out his candle, and opened the window. He leaned out and looked around.
"People in the yard," he said. "Something’s happening.”
I headed over to the door, thinking I’d hop outside and take a peek myself, but I heard footsteps on the wooden walkway outside. I held up a hand to Hamilton, and pointed to the door. Then I looked through the keyhole.
There was a man with a sword out. He walked by, and another man came along. And another and another. I lost count, but after a moment, there were two men standing out front of the door, one with a big warhammer, and the other with a sword.
I crawled back over to Hamilton, who was leaning against the wall so he could look out the window from an angle, theoretically remaining unseen. I stood up so I was on the other side of the window, and got a look myself. Lots of people wearing armor and holding weapons. I couldn’t make out any emblem or color. I got Hamilton's attention, and pointed at the door. Then I held up two fingers, and mimed pulling a sword.
He nodded, and slowly set his bag down on the floor. He padded across the floor, and reached behind the bed, pulling out a short sword. Not even a sword, more like a really big knife. He slid the sheath off, and let it fall on the bed.
I pulled him, gently, over to the side of the wall with the door where we'd be covered when the door opened. Given the lack of any sound from outside, I had a thought to what might be planned.
The two of us stood there, waiting. Weapons out.
Chapter Fifty-Six
A bell pealed out in the night. Once. Twice. The third ring was muffled by the crashing sound of a hammer slamming into the door, and the door slamming inward. The man with the sword leapt through the open door, stabbing down through the bed in one smooth motion.
There were grunts and screams of pain echoing out through the night, as well as inside the stables.
"Missing," Swordsman said.
"One missing!" Hammerman called out from the hallway.
Others voices called out successes. Death had been dealt.
Hamilton tensed up next to me, and I could feel him ready a strike.
I put my arm over his, holding his wrist down.
He glared at me, but I shook my head. It wasn't the time.
The swordsman stepped back out through the door into the hallway, and started talking to his compadre out there. They weren’t trying to be quiet anymore. We could hear all the soldiers walking by, their boots feeling like they were thundering against the floors.
As the footsteps drifted into the distance, I looked over at Hamilton.
Veins were standing out on his neck and face.
"Hold it," I whispered. "This is not the time."
"If not now, when?" he asked.
"I don't know, how about when we aren't outnumbered a thousand to one? That might work a little better."
He grunted at me, then sidled over to the window. He peeked out.
"They're heading towards the keep," he said.
"How many are there?" I asked.
"More than I can count."
"The way I see it," I said, "we have a few options, none of which are particularly pleasant. From what I understand, you probably prefer option one, which is we just muscle up and fight our way out of here. Kill everyone we can and let the gods fight over the dead."
"Wouldn't mind it."
"Frankly, I think we'll wind up among the dead, but that might be okay for you. Option two, we sneak out of here. That's more my preference, although I have the feeling as a BeastMaster, you're not exactly the sneaky type."
"Maybe I chose BeastMaster to disguise how sneaky I really am."
"Maybe we can sass each other later, once we're out of this mess."
"Maybe."
"Somewhat a subset of option two, let's call it two-b, I have this bag of stasis, and I think maybe you can go in it, and I can sneak you out that way."
"You sure I won't suffocate?"
"Reasonably."
“So that’s a no?"
"I have no real information about it, but my current working theory is that no, you will not suffocate.”
"And we'd be trying it out on me?"
"Yes."
"You got a two-a?”
"We sneak together. I go first, you go second, we try not to be seen so we don't have to resort to option one."
"And we have to get Snüt."
"Snoot?"
"Snüt. Creature I've been training."
"Something small?"
"Smallish."
"You know, it's the ish that worries me."
I was about to step out into the hallway when I heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps on the wooden floorboards. I motioned at Hamilton, and we slipped back against the wall with the door in it.
A swordsman came in, and pointed at the empty bed.
"No one was here," he said.
That's when I heard a second voice.
"He wasn't cleared to leave, and there's no record of him leaving. He must still be here."
"Yes, sir," the swordsman said.
"Check the building. He might be holed up with one of the animals."
"What do we do with the animals?"
"See which ones are tamed, and take them. The others, kill them."
"Of course."
Both Swordsman and other dude turned and left the room. This time, I followed close behind, wanting to get a better look at our opponents.
I pulled my KrakenTooth dagger out of its sheath, and held it ready.
I probably should have looked before I figuratively leapt because as I stepped into the hallway, Swordsman wasn't yet walking. He was standing at the edge of the walkway looking over into the stables. He must have caught a bit of movement in the corner of his vision, or, you know, I wasn't as quiet as I thought, whatever the case, he turned around and saw me. His eyes went wide, and he was about to say something, but I put my hand over his mouth and jammed my dagger into his stomach.
He made an 'oomph' sort of a noise, and I felt the hot rush of his blood around my hand.
"What did you say?" came the voice of the second man.
I turned to see a posh-looking man wearing very nice clothes staring at me.
There was a moment of confusion between the two of us, I think, as we tried to figure out both what was going on, and also what we were supposed to do in this situation. He had no obvious weapon, and as soon as he realized this, he turned and bolted down the hall. There was no way I could catch him. Unless...
Technically, the KrakenTooth dagger was submerged. Sure it was in blood and not water, but where were the boundaries of the magic?
I activated the special feature of the KrakenTooth dagger, willing it to drag me thirty feet through the water.
GG! You’ve killed a Human (lvl 21 Guard).
You’ve earned 1200 XP! What a mighty hero you are.
What happened next has one of the top spots in the list Horrible and Disgusting Things Which Clyde Hatchett has Lived Through. Because it did work. In a way. I was pulled thirty feet, shooting forward. But I wa
s pulled through what the KrakenTooth considered the liquid medium. In this case, the swordsman. My entire body went through the Swordsman's body in a truly grotesque explosion of blood, guts, and a lot of other internal elements suddenly made external.
It was a shocked me who wound up with my KrakenTooth knife sticking through the back of the running man. His lungs rattled a little, blood spouted out of his mouth, and his body hung on my arm, somewhere between life and death.
"Who.... are... you...?" he wheezed.
"Wouldn't do you any good to know," I whispered back.
I angled my arm down, and let him slide off. He exhaled his last breath, and fell into a crumpled mess on the floor.
GG! You’ve killed a Human (lvl 25 Noble).
You’ve earned 1250 XP! What a mighty hero you are.
I spat other people's blood from my mouth, and I wiped my face with my sleeve. Which did absolutely nothing, because my sleeve was completely covered with blood. And chunks. I barely managed to hold my bile back, and immediately began tearing my clothes off. It was simply too much.
"Are you getting naked?" Hamilton asked. "What in the hells are you doing?"
Then, he must have gotten a better look at the surrounding scene, because he gagged, and asked: "What in the hells did you do?"
"It wasn't my fault," I said. "I didn't think that would happen."
"What was supposed to happen?"
"Just an enchantment on the weapon that lets me move quickly."
"And what? Like, through people?"
"That was an unexpected side effect of the enchantment."
"I should say so."
"Which one of these guys might have clothes that fit me?" I asked.
He sized me up, then pointed to the door I was nearest.
"Thompkins. He's about— was about your size."
I poked my head into the room, saw the figure dead in the bed. Any remorse I felt for the gruesome murder I'd committed vanished. Into the room, and I pulled out the chest from beneath the bed. I knocked off the cheap lock with the pommel of my dagger, and then flipped the lid open. At the top was a pouch of coins, which I took. Not like Thompkins needed it now. And I was taking in another mouth to feed. Then a journal, which I left. Below the journal were civilian clothes. Basic and scratchy wool garments, with a somewhat nice green cloak to top it all off.
At the bottom of the chest were what I guess were the Glaton equivalent to girly mags. Girly drawings. Not bad, but Thompkins definitely had some kinks.
I splashed a little water from the pitcher on the dresser onto my face, did a little cleaning, at least as much as I could, and I got dressed. Thompkins was a little shorter, but a little stocker than me. So his clothes weren't perfect — I looked like I was ready for a flood — but it was better than being naked for a frantic flight through the city.
Back in the hallway, there was no sign of Hamilton. I figured he'd gone off to grab Snüt. I wanted to know who we were up against, so I looted the corpses. First the remains of the swordsman, which I mostly left alone because it was a bit difficult to find any element of his outfit large enough to hold anything. But the nobleman had more things, naturally.
There was a chain around his neck with a small talisman on the end. He had no weapons on his person, save a small knife hidden in each of his bracers. One of the blades had a green sheen to it, so I left that on the body, not wanting to deal with poison. If it was poison. Might not have been. There was also a pouch of coins, which I took, and a pouch that contained a few random items. A tiny journal about the size of a matchbook, a ring of keys, and a small metal shield or badge that looked like it had been worn regularly. It was something I recognized, but couldn't place.
While I was kneeling over the corpse and thinking about the badge, where I'd seen it, I heard the sharp clang of metal on metal. And again. Over and over. Then some shouts.
I stood up and looked over the railing, and spotted Hamilton. With some new friends.
By friends, however, I mean more of the killers. There were five men with swords out. In the light below, I could make out their uniforms a bit better, but it wasn't something I'd seen before. Yellow tunics under dark armor. They had on helmets that covered nearly all of their face. It was a good way to be anonymous, I supposed. It made me wish I had some armor.
Hamilton had his big knife thing out, and was backing up towards the stable. He didn’t have much room to go, and bumped against a stall door.
The horse inside whinnied.
"Nowhere left to run, Thingman," one of the men in yellow said.
As befits a first impulse, my initial plan was crap. But because I didn't have a second idea right away, I went with plan one.
Quickly, I tapped into my mana, and I cast raise dead on the corpse of the nobleman. I poured some extra mana into it, hoping it would speed the process up.
There were a few feints below. No one seemed willing to engage Hamilton one-on-one, so I think they were trying to find an opening to all attack at once.
My undead minion rose to a standing position, and his dead eyes looked at me. Gross. Dealing with the undead is undoubtedly gross.
"Kill the men in yellow," I said, pointing down below, hoping that the zombie I just made could still see in color.
The zombie didn't pause. He grabbed the railing and vaulted over.
"No time like the present," I said, and I, too, grabbed the railing and vaulted over.
Having gone first, the zombie hit first, and without much in the way of poise. He just sort of slammed on one of the men. I, at least, led with the dagger, spearing through my target's helmet and compressing him to the floor.
I rolled up to my feet, and struck out with the dagger, stabbing out to the right.
The soldier there got his sword up in time to deflect the KrakenTooth, but I grabbed his tunic with my hand and slammed my forehead into his nose.
Remember when I said they had full coverage helmets? Well I didn't.
It hurt like hell, and the guy just laughed.
I stomped on his insole, and he stopped laughing.
A scream sounded behind me. The zombie was getting his munch on.
I parried a sword thrust with the krakentooth, the steel scraping along the tooth with a skin-crawling sound. Then I cast flamedart right in the guy's face.
Now the full coverage helmet went in my favor, because the guy's face went up in flames, which promptly set his hair alight, and he couldn't get his helmet off. He stumbled away as his head burned, and I jumped back as another blade came at me. It sliced right through poor Thompkins cloak and shirt, but it didn't break the skin.
My new opponent had his tongue sticking out as he smiled at me. He was enjoying the fight.
I heard clanging behind me, which meant Hamilton was holding his own. And the subtle groans of the zombie mixed in with the shrill shrieks of the burner. For the moment, I only needed to worry about the man in front of me.
He feinted another thrust, but I wasn't bothering with swordplay if I didn't need to. I just reached my hand out, poured mana through my arm, and vicious wrenched the man's humerus. He clearly had no experience dealing with magic, because there was only the slightest pause before his bone ripped out of his flesh and smacked into my hand. He gave me a horrified look, his mouth open revealing a lot of rotting teeth.
I swung the bone around in a beautiful arc, blood slinging off in a perfect spray until It smashed into the tongue-man's mouth. His head snapped around, and his brown teeth flew from his ruined mouth like a demon's dice game. I flipped the bone in my hand, and turned around to see who was left.
Hamilton was breathing hard, and bleeding in a few places. The zombie was down, but not out, still crawling on the ground.
The boys in yellow were all dead or dying, and I flipped through the notifications quickly to make sure. Nothing of note, the only Choice any of them had was Guard.
I severed my tie to the zombie, and the former nobleman returned to being a corpse. I threw the bone
on the ground as Hamilton stabbed a barely breathing man through the back.
"You hurt?" I asked, already running my self-healing spell to get myself back up to tip top shape.
Hamilton nodded. ”Nothing that won't heal."
"You get Snüt?"
"Down there," he said. "But you got a plan to get us out of here?"
"I will by the time you get Snüt."
He nodded, spat out some blood, and ran down the stables, holding his side tight.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
I walked towards the large doors that led out of the stable, and I peeked through. There was still activity happening in the keep, the sounds of battle echoed out across the stone grounds of the fortress. But the gates were wide open, leading right into the city. Two men, or women, stood silhouetted in between us and freedom. A rather paltry guard.
"Elfboy," I heard from behind me. "I require assistance."
I looked over my shoulder, and saw Hamilton next to an open stable.
"Are there horses left here?" I asked.
He nodded. "Why?"
I walked back his way, and saw a lot of blood coming out.
"How bad are you hurt?" I asked.
"I'll make it," he said, obviously lying.
My first attempt at healing someone with magic had gone incredibly poorly, so I needed a new trick. I looked down at the five corpses, and went through them quickly. Sure enough, two healing potions. They weren't big ones, but better than a poke in the eye. I brought them over to Hamilton.
"Thanks, elfboy," he said. "Get Snüt out."
And then, while he administered them to himself, I peeked inside at Snüt. I don't really know what I expected, but it was not Snüt. There were some really big eyes in the middle of a feline head. Huge ears. Massive paws. And wings. It was about the size of a baby bear. More or less. Just with every indication it was going to wind up being much bigger. Much bigger.
"Uh, is it going to bite me?" I asked.
"Probably not."
“Aces.”
I walked into the stable, my hands spread out, speaking nonsense words softly.
