Delvers LLC- Surviving Ludus

by Blaise Corvin (ed)

  Nicole nodded sleepily, and closed her eyes again. She’d been right about their leader’s paranoia. After surviving on Ludus for a few years, she had to admit she felt somewhat grateful for it, though.

  ***

  When Nicole woke again, the room was still dark and she had a hand over her mouth. Her eyes focused in the dark and she saw that she was being shaken by Pasha.

  At another bed, Bentru was shaking Diore awake the same way. Their leader was conscious and alert a lot faster than Nicole, sitting up straight. As Bentru whispered to Diore, Pasha did the same in Nicole’s ears.

  “Something’s wrong. I heard something outside a while ago, then a few screams. There’s been yelling in the distance, some up close. It sounds like people are being chased, or killed, but there is no alarm yet. All of this happened in the last few minutes. I already woke Bentru and told her the same thing, so she should be telling Diore.”

  Outside the bar, somewhere in the distance, Nicole could hear a sudden scream be cut off just as quickly as it sounded. Nicole’s hackles rose—she knew she’d just heard someone die. Now that she was listening for them, she could hear other tell-tale sounds of violence. Someone or something was trying to be stealthy, but not being very successful. She wondered what would happen when whoever or whatever was killing people stopped trying to be sneaky.

  The rest of the group must have also heard it, because Pasha cursed and Bentru shook her head.

  “I knew it!” Diore whispered, her voice fierce and carrying. “I rotting knew it! As Dolos above witnessed, I called it!”

  After a slight pause, Bentru sighed and began dressing and buckling on her armor. “Yes, you did,” she said quietly, voice resigned, maybe even sad.

  In the dim light of the room’s single candle, Diore’s face fell. Nicole understood the woman’s quick reversal of emotion. Their orb-Bonded leader had been right, but they all knew the screams they were hearing, and some of the growls outside meant that something terrible was happening. This was likely a prelude to something worse. Nicole had experienced something similar once, a monster raid on a small settlement.

  At that moment, something crashed into the bar at the front of the building, shattering a window. The group stilled, all of them silently listening, but Nicole couldn’t hear anything moving in the building itself. Of course that could change any moment.

  This room was defensible, but was hardly a bunker, and the entire bar could just be burned down.

  Nicole nodded and tossed her own blankets aside, letting go of the air pistol under her pillow that she’d subconsciously grabbed as soon as she woke up. Bentru was right. The village sounded like it was under attack, and their team obviously had to leave this room, but she was damn sure not going outside in her pajamas.

  Every member of the group began to quietly dress and prepare for combat while Pasha watched the door with her swords drawn, spine tense as a bowstring.

  Nicole’s hands moved as quickly and surely as Diore’s and Bentru’s as she geared up. The fear she felt at that moment didn’t control her; she used it, converting it into energy to move even faster. Ludus taught some harsh lessons, but it had taught them well.

  Missing in Action, Chapter Three

  As she walked, trying to be stealthy, Nicole still made more noise than the others again and winced as they all paused to glare at her.

  “Nicky, are you going to hit every squeaky board in the entire rotting building?” Pasha hissed.

  “Sorry,” Nicole mimed. Staying quiet while moving through the pub’s rear, cramped hallway, all while armored and armed to the teeth, was something she’d never done before and was proving difficult.

  The hallway they were moving down actually came out the side of the pub’s building, not far from the attached stables, where their zebras had been boarded for the night. All the loot from their last dungeon job had been stashed in their room, and they’d left it all there before heading out.

  A door at the other end of the hall led to the pub itself, but the owner locked it at night, for obvious reasons. Forcing through a locked door was not a great way to stay stealthy, and Diore hadn’t wanted to risk immediately running into whatever had broken the window.

  Once the group was out of the building, Nicole immediately smelled blood. After all these years, it seemed like she was always searching for it. The other three Chosen had caught it too, and Pasha caught Diore’s eyes, jerking her head in a question toward the stable. After Diore nodded, all four of them moved toward the smell of fresh death.

  All the zebras were dead, and the wounds were not clean. All of Dolos’ Chosen paused to stare for a moment, although Bentru and Diore recovered quickly, moving forward quietly to check for any other clues. Nicole was not an expert, but she could immediately note a few things that made the scene strange.

  The wounds had probably not been made by people, or at least, they hadn’t been made by bladed weapons. Each zebra’s throat had been torn out. One of them had wounds all over its body, and another was missing part of its spine, like it’d been bitten and chewed on.

  Normally, a monster getting close to zebras would make them raise hell, but all of the group’s animals had died this close to the building without waking anyone. Furrows in the ground, and a dented wall showed where they’d kicked and struggled while they’d died, but none of them had been able to scream. They must have been killed quickly and extremely violently, and attacked while they’d been sleeping.

  “Any tracks?” whispered Nicole, edging closer. She nervously twisted the spear in her hands. The sense of danger in the air kept growing, and the night was ominously quiet.

  Bentru made a shushing gesture and went back to studying the ground. Pasha grabbed Nicole’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Keep watch with me while they do what they do, Nicky.”

  That made sense. Nicole nodded and went to stand at the other end of the stable from Pasha, searching for anything out of the ordinary. After the window to the pub breaking, and some of the noises the group had heard before moving out, she’d expected more...movement. As she slowly scanned the area around her, she finally saw something of note between two buildings on the main road.

  A distant farm outside of Action was burning. After squinting, she thought she could see other glows on the horizon in that direction. Maybe it was an attack, but what kind?

  Once the others were done inspecting the zebras, Nicole pointed out what she’d seen. Diore stood still for a while, staring that direction, her plain face slack, eyes distant in thought. The spell was broken when the sound of another window being broken floated through the night. Nobody spoke, just swiveled their heads to listen.

  Diore’s eyes cleared and she met everyone’s eyes, signaling a tight, alert group formation with her at the lead, then gesturing in the direction the sound had come from. Nicole nodded at the same time as Pasha and Bentru. With a start, she realized that she’d drawn a pistol with her empty hand, the other still holding her spear. She hadn’t consciously made a decision to draw the weapon.

  The night felt heavy, like the darkness had a solemn weight. Nicole’s hair felt like it was trying to stand up. She’d never experienced anything quite like this before. Usually monster attacks were loud, vicious, and obvious. Evil people could be vicious too, but they couldn’t kill a stable full of zebras without alerting an experienced adventuring party in the building next door.

  What the hell is going on? wondered Nicole. She noticed more signs of violence or destruction as she walked with her friends down the main street through the tiny town. As far as she could tell, all the animals out in the open had been silently killed, even birds, and the street was eerily quiet. The door to a nearby business was open, the frame warped and splintered. Nicole thought she could smell death inside.

  The sound of a window breaking had come a bit farther down Action’s main street, lined with local businesses. Diore motioned for the Chosen to spread out and move more cautiously. The very faint sound of crunching came
from inside the building, a clothing shop, and the four adventurers formed a semi-circle a healthy distance from the broken window. Nicole strained her eyes to see something, anything. She almost asked Diore if they should throw a flare, but held her tongue. There was no way their leader wasn’t considering all of their options at this point.

  Her nerves were tight enough to break as a voice suddenly shouted, “Oi, what are you doing, outsiders!?” The noise had come from one side.

  Nicole’s mouth dropped in disbelief as a small group of Action volunteer Guard came out of a nearby alley and moved forward slowly, spear lowered. Two more guards walked behind her, looking much less sure of themselves. One was young, little more than a girl, and the other was a middle-aged man with a beer belly. The man also had a spear, and the girl carried a bow with a full quiver of arrows.

  Diore fiercely made a shushing gesture at the guard and frantically pointed at the broken window. For her troubles, the lead guard actually raised her voice, nearly shouting, “Outsiders can’t do whatever they please in Action! If you are drunk and breaking windows, you can sleep it off in a shed tonight under guard! Hardworking people own these shops! You think you’re fancy, with your fancy clothes, able to do whatever you want?”

  Nicole noticed the young woman with the bow stealthily nock an arrow. “Fuck this,” muttered Nicole, and very deliberately pointed her air pistol at the guard. Any kind of stealth had been thrown away at this point, and she was damned if she would just let some random hillbilly guards start shooting at them over assumptions.

  Apparently, Pasha had figured the same thing, because she leveled her giant lightning rifle and growled, “You rotting stupid cows, people are dying and you’re pointing weapons at us!? You’re under attack! Get your heads out of your asses, and stop threatening me or so help me I am going to blow you apart!”

  Nicole couldn’t believe how quickly the situation was going downhill, and her dismay deepened as the guards didn’t back down. She could only conclude they didn’t understand how dangerous the weapon being pointed at them was. They might not recognize it, maybe assuming it was a bulky air rifle.

  The fools. Back on Earth, this would be like a neighborhood watch armed with batons trying to challenge a group of soldiers.

  “Are you adventurers or brigands? Lower your weapons!” yelled the leading guard. “Ginny, run off now and sound the alarm!”

  “But—” began the girl with the bow.

  “Quickly now! We are outnumbered and they are wearing masks! If this goes badly we will need help.”

  “But if they’re orb-Bonded…”

  “Think, girl! They don’t have any orb-Bonded. Would orb-Bonded adventurers be out breaking windows at night like gangers?”

  The girl opened her mouth again, but abruptly shut it, turned, and ran off.

  At this point, Nicole couldn’t even be angry at the guards anymore, they were just doing their jobs and their mishandling of the situation was probably just a product of ignorance. After all, they were volunteers in a sleepy little town at the edge of civilized land, likely not ever needing to handle any serious threats. The most they probably had to deal with every year were a rabid animal, or the occasional drunk passer-by, or maybe a single, weakened, lost monster. These guards were not prepared for what they’d wandered into, what fate had thrown at them.

  Meanwhile, Nicole could smell blood more strongly now. The air around them had grown heavier and her back crawled with the unmistakable feeling of being watched.

  At first, the obliviousness of the guards was hard for her to wrap her mind around. Could they really not notice how heavily armed the Dolos’ Chosen were, or the group’s obvious fear, or the little signs that something was wrong in the town? Had she ever been this clueless? Yes, she admitted. She’d been far worse when she’d first arrived on Ludus.

  Diore tried again. “Please, join with us,” she pleaded. “We are in great danger! Our zebras are all dead, killed by something! We’ve heard people being attacked, probably dead and just came to this spot because we heard the window break! Please, trust me!”

  “People dead, what’s this? Murder? Oi!” As she raised her weapon and narrowed her eyes, Nicole realized the woman was probably still half-asleep. Another volunteer must have woken her up after hearing strange noises. This woman was probably not usually this surly or slow. Unfortunately, this was a terrible time for her to not be at her best. “Oi, we have backup coming soon. It’s late, and we are waking people up, I’d wager. You should just come peacefully with us to answer some questions. Lower your weapons!”

  Bentru didn’t stop her wary head swivel, trying to watch the shop, the street, and the guards at once. She flicked her eyes at Diore and softly said, “Tell her she can just come with us to see the zebras.”

  Diore nodded. “Please madam, I assure you that we are in great danger, and just standing here is making it worse! If you just go back with us to where our zebras were stabled, next to the pub, you will see what we are talking about. There is blood everywhere. We’ve been hearing noises all over town. The window of the pub is broken, too. Again, there is trouble, serious trouble!”

  The sleepy guard was unaffected by the heartfelt words. “We are on the edge of civilized lands. There hasn’t been a large monster attack here in years.” The guard turned to her male comrade and scoffed, “Must have been some good booze, yeah?”

  “By the Great God Dolos!” hissed Diore, her patience finally broken. “Get your head out of your groggy ass and rotting listen to me! Can’t you feel it in the air? Something is happening!”

  “Oh, a Dolos worshipper,” the guard sneered. “Well, I suppose that explains some things. We haven’t—”

  “I am orb-Bonded, you fool!” growled Diore. “I am a few seconds away from just ignoring you. We are serving our own interests too by helping your town, but if you hold us up, I have no choice but to prioritize my friends.”

  The guard spat. “Claiming to be orb-Bonded, too? Well I—”

  If Nicole hadn’t been so keyed up, high on adrenaline, she would have been more annoyed by the entire exchange, and probably would have thought it was hilarious when Diore tore her mask off. The instant the mask came out, the guard immediately stopped babbling self-important bullshit.

  Nicole knew what the guards were seeing right now after a ring or ding had sounded in their heads.

  Diore Landan, Ludan, Tolstan

  Dolos orb, Modular Build, First Generation

  Third Rank

  Dolos, the god of this world, had introduced this system a short time ago. It’s why so many adventuring teams wore masks now. The Chosen did so to hide Diore’s status from people who might want to try killing her for a chance to be rewarded with their own orb.

  The guard swallowed. In a town this size, a leader of a volunteer guard force might matter.

  This guard might be hot shit in Action, but unless she was ridiculously skilled or packing a store full of enchanted gear, or both, Diore was on another level. Nicole decided to give the woman the benefit of the doubt. Maybe in the day, if she’d been awake and able to see them better, she would have recognized the quality of the team’s gear, or read the experience in their bearing. Discounting the fears of skilled adventurers was not a smart thing to do.

  The guard’s mouth worked, the street silent again, and Diore angrily replaced her mask.

  As the guard opened her mouth, Nicole hoped she was going to apologize. She’d never find out. Something surged out of the ruined shop, like a ripple of moonlight and swarmed over the guard woman. The guard’s screams were muffled at first, then clear, full-throated. The other guard goggled, his mouth open. He barely got his weapon up to even attempt to defend himself before the shadow, whatever it was, had taken his arm off at the elbow. It also tore out his throat. The man's ruined neck wept blood as he tried to scream, but his mouth just opened and closed like a fish before he collapsed.

  As almost everyone who was not actively dying stood with their mouths
open in shock, Diore acted. The orb-Bonded woman sprang forward with superhuman strength, drawing her huge sword from her back with the ease of endless practice. Nicole still couldn’t see anything over the savaged guards. There was maybe a cloud, like a heat distortion in the air, but not being able to actually see their enemy didn’t stop Diore. With a grunt of effort and a whistle of air, she swung through the invisible attacker with a devastating slash.

  Her attack connected, but didn’t entirely cleave through the mystery creature. Instead, her blow hit with a sick thunk, and the invisible assailant flew a dozen feet to slam into the wall of a shop. The impact splintered and denting the wooden siding. Then the creature’s invisibility faded as it stood up, shakily getting to its feet. Nicole got her first look at whatever it was.

  “A true-demon!” gasped Bentru.

  The creature was unlike anything Nicole had ever seen. A spindly waist connected a barrel chest and muscular, reverse-hinged legs. The horrifying thing could stand taller than an average person, but crouched like it was now, it reminded her of a spider. Its bare feet looked like a bird’s mixed with a human’s. Four arms ended with long, clawed fingers with a thick, stumpy thumb that sported a long, curved, glinting claw. Three antennae, like an insect would have, rose from its head. Its head had no visible eyes, but it had large, veiny ears, and a huge mouth full of blocky teeth with sharp, insect-like mouth parts on either side that flexed.

  Pebbly skin with ugly folds covered the true-demon’s body, and it looked like it was covered in some sort of slime. The creature was naked except for a crude metal breastplate, probably thick tin, and it was very obviously female. Diore’s strike had hit the thing’s breastplate, and had done horrible damage despite being stopped halfway through the armor.

  Even as she stared at the creature in horror, Nicole acted. She carefully lined up her aim with an air pistol and the weapon coughed as she fired. The first pellet struck the wound Diore had made on the thing and it reeled, making a sound like crumpled paper dragged across concrete. Her second pellet hit it in one shoulder and didn’t seem to penetrate as deeply as it would on a person.