Delvers LLC: Welcome to Ludus

by Blaise Corvin

  However, despite the grim situation, despite his injuries and the bandits fighting more smartly, it still appeared he might yet survive. As he cut down another bandit with his heavy khopesh, Henry created just enough space to load a ball in an exogun and shoot another bandit. Damn. It was a bad shot. He just hit the man's arm.

  The wounded bandit fell back, but Henry needed to stop him. A living bandit was one who could still throw weapons or take advantage of opportunities. Henry gritted his teeth and loaded the exogun with another of his two remaining projectiles. He fired again from the hip and got lucky. The bandit fell back, groaning and clutching his chest.

  Henry decided he'd learned his lesson. If he ever walked into another battle, he would be sure to have a better ammo retention system. He probably needed to upgrade his exoguns too. They were working well enough, but he really needed a self-contained weapon.

  Between Jason's rage-fed attacks and Henry destroying an entire small group of bandits by himself, they'd helped even the odds a lot in the first few minutes of the skirmish.

  Now the battle was definitely turning in their favor. There were only a handful of bandits remaining, and those who were still alive wouldn't fight Henry's group head-on. They mostly threw weapons and rocks at them from behind cover, only occasionally running in from behind a tent or shed if they thought the group was distracted. Henry was able to easily block the projectiles with his bronze-covered shield.

  Suddenly, Henry caught movement out the corner of his eye. He turned his head quickly enough to see a large wooden barrel crash into Jason, knocking his friend from the top of the tower he'd been on. Jason landed in a boneless heap on the ground.

  Henry turned towards where the barrel had come from. He saw an average-sized man with dark hair and a dusky complexion walking towards them from a cave at the rear of the camp. "You know," said the man, "you've done me a great favor. In the time it took me to completely wake up and put on my armor, you managed to kill off most of my men. I have a cave full of goods to sell, and now I don't have to split it so many ways. I just became a much richer man."

  The swarthy man carried an enormous bronze sword. Henry was shocked. That thing must weigh a ton. The man also wore what looked like bronze lamellar armor. The way the armor moved and hung, each plate looked obscenely thick. A normal person probably couldn't have even picked it up, much less worn it. The man's bronze barbute helmet also looked unusually thick.

  The man shouted, "The rest of you lot from my camp, get out of here. If you stay longer, you'll probably die, and I don't want to build an entirely new crew from the ground up!" The handful of remaining bandits ran away without a backwards glance, more afraid of the man walking towards them than of Henry and his friends.

  Henry began to get a really bad feeling. When the man got closer, he understood why. A chime sounded in his head and text scrolled over his left eye:

  Thod Te Ver Nacker, Ludan, Berban

  Dolos Orb, Modular Build, Generation One

  Second Rank

  Thod continued to approach them, his body language relaxed, absently twirling his huge sword. "These new alerts from Dolos are really convenient. Is your friend only a first-rank Bonded too? I'm impressed that you were able to take out so many of my men. I hope you know this isn't personal, but I need to kill you now. The bounty announcement from Dolos was the best thing that ever happened to me."

  Henry blinked and tightened his grip on his sword. He was already tired and covered in blood, and a lot of it was his. Meanwhile, Jason wasn't moving; Uluula was panting, leaning on her spear; and Rark-han looked terrified. Henry had no idea where Mareen or Bezzi-ibbi was at.

  He sighed. You've gotta be fucking kidding me.

  Collapse

  Mareen was nearing the empty tower and almost out of the forest when someone tackled her to the ground. It took her a second to understand what was happening. The sounds of the nearby battle were so loud and constant that she hadn't heard anyone behind her until it was too late.

  Mareen's first thought was to go for her dagger or her boot knife. She had to escape to help her friends. Her determination to be more useful to the group was still burning in her chest; the gravity of the situation didn't sink in right away. She tried to grab a weapon, but her body was completely restrained.

  Then she heard a voice, an awful, familiar voice, and everything went to hell. "Hello, Mareen. It's nice to see you again," whispered Jeth. Jeth was on top of her. Jeth was on top of her. She was helpless and JETH WAS ON TOP OF HER!

  No, no, no! Mareen screamed in her mind. She knew she was panicking, but she couldn't help it. Her mind went blank. Her determination from moments before shrunk down to be replaced by fear. Old, dirty, shameful fear settled in, crawling over her reason, covering and staining her other emotions like a layer of grease.

  Mareen tried to calm herself, but her breathing kept speeding up so fast it was hard to get any air. Jeth held one of her wrists from behind and tangled his other hand in her hair. "I'm so glad you came back to me, Mareen! My Mareen..." Jeth removed his hand from her hair and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. Mareen shivered uncontrollably. Jeth suddenly slapped her face and the back of her head several times before painfully biting her ear.

  "Still a tease! Still mocking me! But that's okay. We have lots of time now, don't we, Mareen? Lots of time with nobody around. Nobody at all." Jeth giggled and roughly forced his hand down the neck of Mareen's dress to pinch her back.

  "Oh! I have something to show you!" Jeth's voice turned singsong as he reach back behind him. Then he shoved a small, plain wooden box in her face. "Do you know what this is?"

  Jeth slowly opened the box, and despite her terror, Mareen gasped. Nestled on a bed of straw was a round, bright metal sphere. She'd never seen a Dolos orb in person before, but she immediately recognized one when she saw it.

  Jeth closed the box up and held it under her nose. "Yes, yes, I know you know what this is! Aren't you happy for me? I finally have everything I ever wanted! You and I will get reacquainted, then I will swallow this orb before I go to sleep. The directions in the box were specific.

  "When I wake up tomorrow, I'll be able to take anything I want." Jeth giggled for a moment before hissing and smashing the box into Mareen's nose once, twice, three times.

  Mareen's eyes watered, and despite herself she grunted in pain. Jeth squirmed on top of her, grabbing her hair again and slamming her head into the ground. "You know you need to be punished, Mareen. My Mareen! Why else would you come back to me?"

  Mareen's heart was beating so fast it felt like her ribcage would burst. She was trapped. Trapped, trapped, trapped! Completely helpless. What should she do? She couldn't even scream. Her voice felt like it was captive in her throat the same way her body was being pressed into the loamy soil and rotting leaves. She felt like a prisoner inside her own body.

  Even if she managed to scream, nobody would hear her over the noise of the battle. If a miracle happened and someone did hear her, it'd most likely be another bandit. Mareen was on her own.

  All on her own.

  Suddenly, Mareen gasped. She felt a deep, terrible pain in her lower back. A pinch and then a numb, cold sensation that let her know she'd been seriously injured. The only other time she'd felt anything like it before was when she was young and a stick had gone through her lip after falling off a wagon.

  This sensation was several times worse.

  She hurt so bad the only noise she could make was a low whine. Jeth tsked at her, "Don't be such a baby. I didn't even stab you that hard. I just wanted to test my new knife." Jeth waved a blade in front of her face. Mareen absently noted that the dagger was steel, but much more pressing to her at the moment was the fact it was covered in blood--her blood.

  She was definitely wounded in the lower back, and now that Jeth was lying on that area of her body again, the pain was beginning to spread. Deep, throbbing pain echoed throughout her entire body. She felt her blood begin to make the back of her dr
ess warm and damp.

  Jeth stabbed her again, this time in the arm above the wrist he was holding. He conversationally drawled, "You know, I've gotten good at this sort of thing. I know exactly how to treat you, Mareen. My Mareen. Imagine how good things could have been if you hadn't been such a stupid, little cunt!"

  Jeth hit her in the temple with the pommel of the dagger, and Mareen's vision went black for a second. The blow seemed to rattle her brain, but instead of making her more confused, she felt a spark of something new, a spark of anger. Mareen felt like she'd woken from a daze. Her thoughts focused, and she knew with certainty that nobody was going to help her. If she didn't do something, she was going to wind up dead, probably horribly dead after being tortured and raped.

  No.

  The single word echoed through her mind with force, with conviction.

  No.

  She was not going to be a victim. She'd worked her whole life to be a good person, to find her rotting heart song.

  No.

  She rejected her situation. Her soul thrummed with the power of her resolve. She was done being weak. She knew she was smart. It was time to use her brain for something other than second-guessing herself.

  She had made a decision to support Henry and Jason. She was going to keep her doomed word. She was going to help save the world, and she would not betray herself nor her beliefs by letting a man--no, a creature--like Jeth have his way.

  Jeth cut her scalp and the top of her ear with his dagger. Mareen whimpered again, but this time she intentionally made the noise as dramatic as possible. Jeth had always been creepy and weird, but he was obviously completely unhinged now. She was going to use it against him.

  "Do you see what you make me do?" Jeth whispered. "Why are you making me do this to you, Mareen? We could have been happy together. But no, you had to follow that Terran trash Jason around and destroy everything we had!"

  Jeth slashed her leg below where he was straddling her. The cut burned like fire. Mareen used it. She channeled the pain and moaned, writhing her body. Trying to move provocatively hurt like hell, but she had to satisfy Jeth's delusion. She had never been so scared in her life, but she channeled that too.

  "Do you see? Do you see now?" Jeth's voice was panting and manic.

  Mareen had no idea what Jeth was talking about, but she played along, "Yes. Yes, I'll be good." The words tasted rancid in her mouth.

  "You will?" Jeth sounded pleased and dreamily surprised.

  Mareen moaned, "Yes, you were the man for me."

  "I protected you, you know. Always protected you."

  "Yes, I see that now. Always watching me."

  Jeth slowly bounced his knife tip against the back of her neck. "It's too late now, though. You know that, right? I need to hurt you. You need it. You need to pay."

  "Yes, I know." Mareen tried not to cringe and said the most difficult words of her life, "Please kiss me while you hurt me. I want to know what we'd have if I wasn't stupid. I'm still a virgin." She tried to make her voice small and pleading. Mareen felt Jeth grow excited behind her and suppressed a shudder.

  He jerked her head around. "No tricks! Where are your weapons?"

  "I have the bow on the ground, a dagger on my belt, and a boot knife in my right boot."

  Jeth verified that her weapons were located where she said and tossed them away. He restrained her less firmly while he searched, taking the opportunity to grope her body.

  Instead of trying to get away, Mareen held still. She pretended she was far away from what was happening, just watching everything happen. She made sure to whimper, the sound only half-feigned. She was bleeding, weak, and Jeth could still easily kill her if she tried to free herself. Patience.

  She could feel him smiling behind her. "Yes, yes, you were telling the truth. That's a good little whore. An obedient twat." Jeth trailed the tip of his dagger over the back of her neck again. "A kiss, huh?"

  Before Mareen knew what was happening, Jeth rolled her over and roughly shoved his lips against hers. He forced his tongue into her mouth and held her hair in one hand while he stabbed her in the thigh with his dagger.

  Mareen blinked away tears and tried to focus her mind in spite of the kiss, her first kiss. No. Please, Creator, no. She desperately wished Henry was there to save her, but she was on her own. It was time to save herself. As she pursed her lips and forced Jeth's tongue out of her mouth, she felt him start to jerk back. She looked him right in the eyes, putting all the scorn and anger into her expression that she could. She hoped he would recognize the look and take it with him back to hell. At the last moment before she acted, she saw realization in his eyes as the crucial fact he'd forgotten in his delusions and violence came back to him.

  She was a mage.

  Mareen spit, using her only known Water-school attack. Her magic acidic spittle normally didn't have enough force to punch through hard objects, but she'd put all of her power into the strike, holding almost nothing back. Plus, she'd hit Jeth at point-blank range... in his open mouth.

  The caustic missile erupted out the back of Jeth's head, and when he jerked back in shock, Mareen ripped the dagger from his hand and stabbed. And stabbed. And stabbed.

  She didn't know how many times she stabbed him, screaming, but her throat was raw by the time she fell back and threw up.

  So much blood.

  Mareen lay on the ground in the forest, curled in a ball, sobbing and cradling the steel dagger to her stomach. She was covered in dirt, blood, and piss. She didn't know if the filth was hers or Jeth's, and she didn't really care. She was too busy desperately channeling what little magic she had left to stop some bleeding. If she couldn't slow her blood loss, she might still end up dying, and if she was going to die, she would be damned if she did so next to Jeth's cooling body.

  She prayed, Why, God, why? Why did I ever have to meet Jeth?

  * * *

  Jason woke up in a daze. He couldn't remember how he'd ended up on the ground, just a hazy memory of something big coming at him. He saw the cracked barrel nearby on the ground and was able to figure out what had happened.

  "Ouch!" Jason hissed in pain. He was sure at least one rib, his nose, and his left arm were broken. He still felt a little confused and had a hard time focusing. He blinked and moved his jaw around. I might have a concussion.

  He had deep bruises all over his body, and since he'd fallen from about ten feet up, he was amazed he hadn't broken a hip or a leg. In fact, he probably still should have been unconscious on the ground. His healing ability or endurance was probably responsible for the fact he was even awake.

  Jason shook his head and oriented himself by the sounds of fighting. He ambled around a small shed blocking his view and got his first look at his friends fighting for their lives. First he heard a chime in his head and saw Thod's information scroll over his left eye. Second-rank Bonded? Jason shook his head and tried to focus his eyes better. He got them working better right before Thod cut off Rark-han's arm at the elbow with his massive sword.

  What the hell? Jason had barely even seen the attack it was so fast.

  Rark-han hollered and sprung away, droplets of blood trailing behind him. The shocking scene caused Jason's body to immediately dump adrenaline into his system. He felt more alert and awake, but he knew there'd be a price to pay later. His whole body was beat up, and he was running low on magic, but at least he could think again. He'd deal with all the consequences in the future. If he had a future.

  Henry was barely holding his own. Thod was obviously stronger. As Jason watched, he realized his friend was probably only still alive due to skill. Thod was incredibly strong; his sword probably weighed forty or fifty pounds, and he swung it around like it was a letter opener. Still, Henry definitely had a significant edge in technique. He was beat up, though. His gear was all dented, his sword bent, and he was favoring his shield arm.

  Uluula was small and light on her feet. So far she'd avoided taking any damage.

  Thod grinned and rea
red back with a big, overhead swing. Henry tried to hop back, but he tripped on a rock and fell on his butt. Jason sped up his perception of time on reflex and watched Thod's huge sword descend in slow motion.

  Jason teleported in front of Henry, extended a hand and created a null-time shield. Thod's sword stopped cold, and the man grunted, stepping back. He spoke in a friendly tone of voice, "Another first-rank Bonded, eh? I thought so. I'm kind of amazed you are all still alive. You're very skilled. I may have to try something else here."

  Without warning, Thod cut himself and swung his arm. Each scattered drop of blood accelerated to incredible speed, fanning out in an arc of destruction. Jason maintained his null-time shield, but each impact hit hard. His shield trembled, and he had to grit his teeth to keep it up.

  Thod widened his eyes. "Wow, you really are skilled. My magic is kind of weak, but I put a lot of my reserves into that attack."

  Jason gritted his teeth and asked, "Henry, why haven't you shot him?"

  "I did. Every ball I had left. It didn't even phase him. I don't think any of them even got through his armor."

  "What about your big ones?"

  "Those take a lot of power. I can try one, but I need a little time and he's not giving me much breathing room."

  "Okay, get one ready."

  "I'll help." Uluula leveled her spear.

  Jason kept his eyes on Thod but said out the side of his mouth, "Okay, but concentrate more on tripping him or messing up his balance. I don't think you can get through his armor with your spear, right?"

  "No, but I can aim for the eyes."

  Jason nodded and said, "Okay, you do that." He was worried for Uluula, but he was worried for everyone at this point, so all the anxiety kind of bled together.

  Thod just stood there at the ready, watching them with a mocking smile. "You know, this is all pointless. Maybe I should prove to you just how meaningless all of this truly is."