Delvers LLC- Surviving Ludus

by Blaise Corvin (ed)

  We ran down the tunnel and grabbed Otto. We explained to the other Areva that he was with us. The area around the cave was insanely hot. We ran through the shadow wall and found the bloody ork that had run past us a few dozen yards down the tunnel. He had bled out. Now he was leaned against a wall with his eyes closed cradling some kind of metallic container. I wondered if it could be a trap but my curiosity got the better of me. I bent down, jerking it away from the dead ork.

  Once it was in my hands I could tell it was a complex device of some type. I ran my hands along it and found a control console. I wasn’t sure how to work it but I triggered something because the front of it split open with a hiss. Inside rested a perfect sleeping little ork baby. The baby's eyes snapped open and latched onto mine. There was no malice in those eyes, only innocence. It was so vulnerable just lying there, some primal part of me knew I had to protect it.

  “A baby?”

  “A female?”

  “Is that high technology?”

  “We have to get out of here, just kill that baby ork.”

  The women behind me were talking so fast I wasn’t sure who said what, but I was pissed at the last line. “We aren’t killing a fucking baby!” I shouted as I pulled the child from the device and cradled her to my chest. Talvi bent down next to the canister and her face turned white.

  “We have to get out of here right now,” she said.

  “No shit,” I growled. “The fire mage in there is about to bring this whole place down with some kind of death spell.” I kissed the small baby’s head and heard her coo.

  “I’m not worried about him. Something much worse is coming,” she said solemnly. I could tell she was serious. I handed off the baby to one of the Areva women.

  “You take care of that God damned baby. If you hurt her, I hurt you,” I said with murder in my voice.

  Then we all moved down the tunnel. Two of the Areva women helped Otto move along, one carried the baby, and Talvi tried her best to keep us covered with the crossbow. We made our way to the ladder and up into the circular dwelling. Otto groaned the whole time climbing up, but his great strength let him make it to the top even in his injured state.

  “What now?” asked Talvi. That was a good fucking question.

  “I’m going to go out there and start killing, then I’m going to make a hell of a ruckus. You make your way to the front gate and head out into the woods when their attention is on me. There might be roaming patrols, so watch out. Otto knows where our wagon is, I’ll find you.”

  “Don’t stay here long, something very bad is coming,” Talvi said, repeating what she had said earlier. I nodded, willing to accept the warning at face value, and she gave me a hug that I didn’t realize I really needed.

  I pulled my shield off of my back and mounted it on my left arm. I was extremely low on magic so I was going to have to do this the old-fashioned way for a bit. I pulled my short sword, rushed out of the building and looked around quickly, wondering how best to draw the attention to me. Then I saw one of the tents that clearly had a fire inside of it. I walked over and slashed an opening into the side and stormed in like a Viking warlord.

  There was one ork sleeping and one was sitting near the fire nibbling on some kind of meat on a bone. I slashed the one eating across the face, not deep enough to kill him but it would do for now. He squealed and fell backward cradling his face. The other one struggled to get out of his blankets but I kicked him in the face. Then I chopped at one of the supports for the tent but it was too well-built for me to bring down with a light short sword so I hit it with a small energy blast, leaving me feeling extremely drained.

  The tent sagged and part of the canvas hit the cooking fire in the middle. I cut my way out of the mess as it caught fire with the two scrambling orks inside wondering what the hell was happening. I had done some serious mayhem in there in what was probably only a few seconds. The tent went up fast, highlighting my figure and the whole camp woke up. The orks I’d just assaulted were screaming, which drew more attention.

  I stood perfectly still as orks started coming out of all of the nearby dwellings. Some were still eating, others carrying weapons loosely in their hands. All eyes landed on me, the one asshole Terran with a blood-soaked sword standing near a burning tent that I was clearly responsible for. This was the distraction that my friends needed to sneak around the outskirts of the fort without being noticed.

  “Well, what are you fuckers waiting for!” I yelled and I slapped my sword to my shield. Dozens of orks rushed me. I turned around and took off running in the opposite direction of the front gate, hoping to give my friends more time. I saw a ladder that went to the top of the fort wall so I threw my shield down, sheathed my sword, and jumped for it. I could feel the orks were hot on my heels.

  I scrambled up the ladder and one of the orks grabbed one of my ankles. I kicked down with my free leg and connected with his face. A sharp plain flared in my back and then arrows started landing all around me. I dropped all pretenses that I was a normal warrior and blasted kinetic energy straight down. The force threw me straight up and blew the ladder below me to pieces, and all the orks below me fell. I landed on the top of the wall and was met by two ork wall guards with bows drawn.

  I was so tired that I almost let them kill me. Hell, with each use of my power, and my proverbial gas tank being on empty, I felt like I was killing myself. But before the wall guards loosed their arrows I jumped over the edge and I heard arrows whiz by where I had just been standing. I waited until right before I hit the ground to flare kinetic energy to slow my fall. I was too afraid of the archers to do it in the air, which would have given them an easy target. Then I ran like a whore from a Bible salesman. Arrows landed all around me. A few hit me, but at this range most of them were glancing off of my armor. If one hit my unarmored head I was going to have a bad day.

  The arrows stopped coming, I assumed because of the dark and the fire I’d started. I probably really fucked up their night vision with that one, go me! I made it into the wood line and never stopped running as I circled back around, trying to get to my friends. My back hurt the whole way and I was started to feel woozy.

  Time moved strangely for me when I felt like I was about to pass out, but I worried my friends were being harried by the orks so I couldn’t stop running. I just saw different flashes of woods as I ran; I was losing time here and there, a sure sign that I was truly exhausted. Then I saw them. Otto was limping unassisted and the women were on high alert.

  “Don’t shoot it’s me!” I yelled. One of the nervous women let off a shot anyway and a large arrow embedded itself in a tree trunk near my head. “What the fuck! It’s me, stop shooting!”

  Talvi was on it, and threw herself in front of the trigger-happy woman in case she tried again. I ran up and got underneath one of Otto’s arms and helped him along.

  “Otto, are you alive in there,” I asked, but I couldn’t hear his response inside of his giant wooden bucket helmet. “Talvi, help me find the strap to his helmet, let’s get it off of him.” She quickly complied and we popped it off. Otto’s face was red as shit, and the “T” section where the helmet opened was redder than the rest, his eyes looked heavy.

  “Oh you don’t look so bad, what are you boohooing about? I knew you Germans were crybabies but this is too much. Why don’t you stow the drama and act like a soldier?” I joked as I pulled him along.

  “The wooden helmet saved my face, but metal is a conductor. I think the rest of me doesn’t look so nice under this armor. I’m afraid to know how bad it is,” he replied.

  “Don’t worry, buddy. They got good docs back at the Areva fort.”

  Otto stopped walking and looked at me. “Buddy?” he asked. The fucker had caught me. Before I could reply a giant shock wave hit us and the whole woods lit up. A dust storm blew through the woods a second after that. I turned around to see a giant plume of fire rising into the air about where I guessed the ork fort would be. The baby started screaming in the Areva
woman’s arms.

  There was no way the fires I’d started had done that. “God damn! That fire mage had more juice than I gave him credit for!” I shouted.

  Talvi shushed me and spoke very quietly. “That wasn’t the fire mage. I think we all need to be very quiet now.” The baby screeched in the Areva woman’s arms again. I moved to take the baby but realized I didn’t want to hold her against my armor. I tried to take off my scale mail top but felt some resistance. “Hey Talvi, why can’t I take this off?” I asked.

  “You have an arrow in your back. It’s not deep,” she replied.

  “Little help?” I asked, pointing behind me.

  She put her foot on my butt and yanked with both of her hands. I felt the arrow pop free and couldn’t help but laugh through the pain. I was on a fantasy world and an alien had just pulled an arrow out of my back. I laughed some more before remembering Talvi’s warning about being quiet.

  With the arrow gone I was able to pull my armor off. I handed it to Talvi who graciously carried it for me. Then I took off my sweat-soaked uniform top so I was down to my t-shirt. I accepted the crying ork baby from the Areva woman whose name I didn’t know, and wrapped her in my uniform top, nuzzling her close to my chest.

  “It’s okay, little one,” I whispered as I rocked her, and she began to calm down. We all quietly moved away from the distant explosion. Time lost its meaning again because we were all so exhausted and we traveled in near silence. The baby fell asleep as I carried her close to my heart. We found the wagon near dawn and we all crawled underneath. It was big enough that we all had room to fit. We were pretty well hidden with how much foliage was covering the wagon, and we figured the explosion at the ork fort had scared off any remaining predators in these woods. We all quickly fell asleep. I couldn’t guess how long we were out, but I was the first to wake when the baby started crying. I noticed the sun was high up in the sky so it had been hours at a minimum.

  I got everyone else up and we dragged Otto out from beneath the wagon because he had become too stiff to move on his own. I showed the women where all of our first aid supplies were as I tried to comfort the ork baby. The Areva women were quick and efficient as they got Otto out of his armor. His skin underneath was pretty horribly burnt and now that the shock had worn off he was in a lot of pain. Working together they pulled all of the branches and leaves off of the wagon and then got Otto up inside of it, lying on a clean blanket.

  I didn’t know shit about babies but I did my best to drop small amounts of water into the child’s mouth from one of our water skins. I knew this wasn’t enough to sustain her and my titties weren’t going to make milk anytime soon, so I chewed on our hard travel tack until it became soggy in my mouth and I transferred it to the baby’s mouth bit by bit. The Areva women offered to help me a few times or to take the baby out of my arms, but for some reason I couldn’t let her go. She was too innocent, too precious. I had never held anything this beautiful before. I did let them clean up the wound on my back and sew it shut while I held the little one. Luckily it was mostly a superficial mess.

  At one point, I asked Talvi, “So what happened at the fort back there?”

  “Dolosbot,” she said, and turned away. She wasn’t going to talk about the subject anymore, the signal was clear. I decided I’d ask more at the Areva fort.

  We stayed there the whole day recuperating and finally I relented and passed the baby off. Otto was up now, sitting inside the wagon with a blanket over him. He was looking a little better. We healed much faster now that we were orb-Bonded. In a few weeks I bet he would be back to normal.

  “So, you are a dad now?” asked Otto.

  “You are too, buddy. I can’t take care of a baby alone. At minimum you have to be Uncle Otto. That is,” I said, hesitating. “If you want to.”

  “I would be honored.”

  Enemy Mine, Note

  From the Author, Cory Gaffner:

  Cory Gaffner spends most of his days working with foster kids in a few different roles. He has been, and sometimes is a full-time foster father. He is an honorably discharged combat veteran of the U.S. Army. His hobbies include throwing knives at stuff, competition shooting, and playing video games late into the night. If you want to support Cory, check out some of his books!

  Cory’s Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Cory-Gaffner/e/B077XNSLX3

  Friends and Enemies - Introduction

  Friends and Enemies

  By Bastian Knight

  With a little bit of luck, could an ordinary guy survive on Ludus? What if he meets the wrong sort of people? Then again, what if he meets real friends?

  Friends and Enemies, Chapter One

  Swallowing that orb the first chance I got was a good idea. Calvin groaned, his head throbbing as he tried to recall where he was. Going dungeon diving with that backstabbing shithead was a… less good idea.

  Hesitantly, he cracked one eye open, then quickly snapped it shut against the stinging sunlight. He forced his sluggish mind back to the last thing he remembered.

  They’d successfully looted the dungeon, after killing hordes of goblins. I refuse to use that ridiculous local name, “spindly demons”—something something. The creatures would always just be goblins to him.

  He’d led the way out as Rufus carried the bag of treasure they’d collected from the cave. Calvin had still been sulking after the “seasoned adventurer” had refused to go after the glowing bow, and so had completely missed the group of dirty men that surrounded them until it was too late.

  When he spotted them, he called out to Rufus, hoping the orb-Bonded man would have a plan for them.

  The only reply he received was a heavy blow to the head.

  What happened afterward was a murky blur, his memories disjointed, but filled with pain.

  Trying to look again, he rolled to his side, body aching, and didn’t feel the sharp pains he’d expected after the beating Rufus and his thugs had inflicted.

  His head ached less now, and he hesitantly reached up to touch the back of it. There was a decent knot there, almost buried beneath the dried blood and matted hair, but no cut.

  Guess that means the orb gave me super healing? Mouth dry, he tried swallowing, and then had to fight the urge to vomit. Actually, tastes like I did vomit. What the hell happened?

  Working up what moisture he could in his dry, foul-tasting mouth, he slowly pushed up to all fours. It took a few minutes for his eyes to focus, but once he could see clearly, he spotted the pool of vomit and blood mixed into the thick mud.

  He leaned back, kneeling on his shins and took in his surroundings.

  The sun was almost directly overhead, which meant he’d been asleep most of the night and all morning. Now that he was alone, abandoned near the dungeon, without the slightest clue how to get back to town, the wild forest around him looked deadlier now.

  Hell, I lived there for a month and never bothered to remember the name of the place.

  He reached for his belt, hoping he still had some water left, then froze. Not willing to give into panic, he fumbled around, hand running along his waist, but he didn’t feel his belt, let alone the canteen. Fear rising, he struggled to stay calm as he checked for the rest of his gear.

  When Calvin had first arrived in this brutal fantasy world, it had thrilled him to discover he still had the bow he’d bought online. The fiberglass recurve bow was perfect for him. His excitement had grown after meeting Thomas and learning the weapon was quite valuable, especially the arrows. The steel-tipped arrows had turned into twenty blessed steel-tipped arrows. On a world where iron and steel lasted less than a day, steel that didn’t immediately crumble was called blessed steel and incredibly valuable.

  As he searched around, a lump forming in his throat, Calvin cursed again at his stupidity for joining up with the “adventurer.” He’d quickly gotten the feeling Rufus Rayburn wasn’t the most loved guy in town, but he was the only orb-Bonded in the area, at least as far as Calvin knew. When Rufus had approac
hed him about looting one of the dungeons a half-day from the small town, he’d jumped at the opportunity.

  The chance to go on a real-life fantasy adventure had been too good to ignore.

  Was the adventuring company charter he showed me real? he wondered. Calvin shook his head, barely wincing at the slight discomfort and took a few calming breaths before trying to stand.

  Easily regaining his feet, he gave himself a quick check for other injuries. There were several fading bruises on his body, but nothing that seemed life-threatening.

  At least I’m still alive. Plus I’m “orb-Bonded” now too. I wish I could have read that stupid note, though.

  As his mind cleared, Calvin thought back to the small wooden box he’d found in the treasure room after he and Rufus had cleared out the goblins. If he still had the note that’d been inside, he could’ve gotten Thomas to read it for him later, assuming the man could read.

  Thomas barely spoke English, but it’d been enough for Calvin to learn a few details of the world he’d woken up in a month ago. The short farmer was a friendly enough sort, and Calvin was grateful for the man’s kindness.

  Wish I’d taken his advice to avoid Rufus Rayburn.

  Honestly, Calvin owed Thomas a huge debt. He knew he wouldn’t have lasted a week if the local man and his two wives hadn’t looked out for him. Calvin found the idea that the whole world considered multiple wives normal to be… interesting.

  The fact that women were largely responsible for keeping civilization functioning didn’t really bother him, especially after he saw how competent the few guards were in town.

  At first he hadn’t understood why they had what amounted to full-time soldiers in such a rural place, not until he’d met his first demon wolf. Witnessing a small pack of the monsters attacking a traveling merchant had been a real eye-opener.