Chasing Down Glory: The Outrider Legion: Book Two

by Christopher Pepper

  “Shanra and I witnessed soldiers and watchmen almost coming to blows on more than one occasion during our stay here,” Krif said. “They do not get along.”

  “That could be,” Edda nodded. “Nert and I saw a rather heated discussion between officers on both sides in the marketplace.”

  “May not be a bad place to head towards,” Egveny said, puffing out a breath. “It was one of the options Nerthus told us to head towards. And we may get lucky and meet her there. If anyone can survive a shitstorm like this on their own, it's her.”

  Edda hoped the Weaver was right. The deeper they rode into the city, the thicker the City Watch and their monsters became. Egveny's golems, coupled with his own magic, had done well in killing or driving off pairs or groups of three of the monsters, but more than that would be dangerous for the wagon. Egveny was exhausted, and the golems weren't invincible. One of them was already pretty dinged up from the rumble at Titus' mansion and the running skirmishes since. Nerthus had none of that, yet Edda felt that out of all of them, she had the best chance at survival.

  “I'd still like to pick up Clyde and the rest at the Steel Bells,” Edda said. “Those people would go a long way towards explaining to the Praetorian just what happened here.”

  “I know,” Egveny wheezed. “But I don't think it'd be wise. I can sense a whole lot of Power being thrown around in the city. There are a lot more of those possessed mages running around than just the ones from Titus' party. And now that he no longer needs to keep to the shadows, Gustav is flexing a lot of muscle. Clyde knows his business, Edda, and so did the people from the Craftsman's Guild. They are all armed and ready for trouble. If anything they are closer to the gates than we are, and have a better shot at getting out of here than we do.”

  Edda was about to reply when the lead golem dropped back to keep pace with Egveny at the head of the wagon.

  “Mr. Bok,” it's metallic voice grated, “shall I lead us back to the home beacon, or do you have a new destination in mind?”

  Just then, the ground beneath them seemed to tremble as a jet of orange flame shot up in the city like an erupting volcano. Edda could hear the sounds of windows shattering from nearby houses from the force of the detonation. Splintered timbers and fractured stone began to rain down upon the nearby streets and houses. Crackles of violet and blue energy occasionally shot through the orange fire that remained behind after the explosion. Whatever was happening in the city had just escalated.

  Edda and Egveny shared a quick look before the Weaver answered. “Take us around as much of the city as you can, but avoid the walls. Our destination is the source of that blue flare that we saw earlier, the military barracks of the city.”

  “Pike this city,” Nerthus whispered to herself between breaths as she darted across backyards and behind hedgerows. She fired her mecharm upwards and connected it to a chimney on the second floor of a city building. Pulling herself up with the filament rope that attached the mecharm to her body, she made it to the rooftop and knelt down on the other side of the chimney. She could hear the occasional cry for help or scream of pain from her vantage point, but she paid it little mind. With one arm clutching the concealed golden disk, the other rooted through one of her small pouches to draw out a tiny vial. She popped the cork out with her thumb and downed the contents. Immediately she felt her senses sharpen, her mind clear, and her fatigue fade. What she drank was a lot less potent than the vigilate that Tethis gave to their soldiers, but it also carried far less of the negative side effects. She only had one other stimulant potion on her, which she knew she'd have to take soon enough. Her heart should be able to handle it, she hoped.

  Temporarily renewed, she took stock of her situation. Above all else, she had to escape the city. The disk, the crystal, and all of the notes had to make it back to Tethis. She was probably safer keeping to the rooftops. In her mad dash through the swanky portion of the city and into the sprawl between it and the city, she had seen the City Watch pull people from their homes, rounding up who they could, killing who they couldn't. There was precious little activity in the second levels and above. And thankfully the houses in this neighborhood were close enough together where she wouldn't exhaust herself with huge leaps. She had a near enough guess as to her bearings, but finding the Steel Bells from rooftops would be a pain. Nerthus dearly wanted to hook back up with Edda and the others, but with all the chaos in the city, they might not even be on their way to the inn. Of Clyde, she had no worries. He would get himself and the Union people out of the city at the first sign of trouble. There were enough of them that they wouldn't go down without a fight. But still...

  Nerthus' thoughts were halted in an instant by a massive explosion just a few blocks from her current perch. The building she was on groaned from the force, and Nerthus herself was knocked backwards onto her ass. The heat was tremendous, but there was something else in the explosion, something that made her hair stand up, like lightning. What the hells just exploded?

  “Pike this city,” she swore as got back to her feet. The fire that remained after the explosion was large enough where she could still feel its heat. The area that was affected was where she had just planned on cutting across. It was as if the gods had decided her course for her. She would have to count on Edda making it out on her own, now. The outer wall was too high for her to scale without being seen, and since the City Watch manned the wall, she had to assume that Gustav held it all. Except for one spot. The Garrison Gate was probably her last hope of getting out of there.

  A massive shadow blotted out the firelight, and Edda whirled to see one of the deformed, silent creatures standing on the edge of the building. It had been badly burned by the explosion, its long, spindly arms had been scorched black, and one of its eyes had been melted shut in its narrow, deformed skull. Some cinders still burned a dull orange on its chest. Where its elbows and knees were, long bone-like protrusions extended behind it like some brutal compound fracture, yet it seemed to lose none of its mobility. The monster scanned its surroundings before its one good eye settled on Nerthus.

  The Umbra wasted no time. She hurled one of her vials of igniting agent at the creature and leaped to the next building. The vial shattered upon impact, its contents splashing across the creature's shoulder and chest, and then bursting forth in bright yellow flame as it touched the heat of the cinders. It staggered backwards, it's claws tearing at its own chest as it struggled to put out the fire.

  Nerthus didn't look back as she raced across the next roof. She ran, thanking herself for choosing to wear boots instead of dress shoes or heels like Edda did. Her course now took her skirting the edge of the fire, which had engulfed what looked like two or three more city blocks. Gods, she thought to herself, Bellkeep was just built to explode. She never broke stride as she leaped from one building to the next. Yet on her fourth rooftop, she heard a loud thump behind her as she landed. Turning, she saw the creature from before, its chest still burning with fire. Its one good eye seemed to glow with malice in the light. It reached for her, but Nerthus allowed her momentum to carry her forward and she rolled, ducking under the long reach of the monster. She rolled to her feet and spun, facing the creature. She fired a needle from her mecharm, but missed the creature by mere inches. It took a second for the mecharm to reload, and she had to leap backwards as the creature dove forwards, driving its two elbow spikes into the ground like spears where she had just stood.

  With a satisfying click, Nerthus felt her mecharm slide a new charged needle into place. She fired this one point blank into the face of the creature as it glared at her, the needle sinking into its forehead with a wet thunking sound. The monster quivered and shook as the charge spread throughout its body, and Nerthus turned and fled again. The last time she used the needles on the creatures, it only kept them down momentarily. Plenty of time for her to put some some distance between her and it.

  The next building was a squat, single story structure, but Nerthus paid that no heed. With another leap, she flew th
rough the air with grace and landed on a patch of rooftop that wasn't entirely stable, sending her crashing through the roof and into the building below. Clutching the golden disk to her chest like a mother cradling a newborn, Nerthus struggled to her feet. She had cuts and gashes from the broken wood, nails, and whatever plaster-like substance was used in the ceiling she had broken through, but she was otherwise okay. As she stood up, and as the dust and debris fell from her body, she found herself surrounded by three bewildered looking members of Bellkeep's City Watch who had their helmets off and weapons down. Nerthus saw that the three men had cornered two young women, who had the look of complete terror in their eyes. The bodies of three dead men were scattered throughout the room like so much rubbish.

  “Pike this city,” she muttered, dropping the golden disk and launching herself at the nearest Watchman. With a satisfying crunch, she dashed the man's face in with her mecharm before she spun to face the others, launching her mecharm at the head of the second. It it him in the throat, dropping him to his knees as he struggled to breathe. She recalled the mecharm and prepared to engage the third watchman, who was reaching for a dagger when one of the terrified girls smashed him over the head with one of the discarded cudgels. The watchman dropped to the ground limply, and Nerthus kicked the second man in the face as he struggled to shout through his damaged throat.

  Nerthus stooped to retrieve the disk, still wrapped in its tablecloth cover. She looked at the two girls, now both armed with cudgels. They looked frightened, and held to the weapons like sailors clutching driftwood to save their lives. They weren't going to last long, Nerthus knew. But she couldn't stop to save them. She nodded to them once and bolted through the front door of their house. They cried out to her, but she forced herself not to listen. She barely made it out of the house when she ran headlong into a group of armored men. They turned as one, halberds ready and swords drawn. Nerthus immediately dropped a hand to one of her pouches when she noticed the different armor and color pattern of the men. They wore ripped and blackened chain mail, with torn yellow tabards bearing the mark of Bellkeep on their chests. Two of them wore battered and rent half plate armor, with visored helmets and yellow insignias. These weren't City Watch, Nerthus realized. She had found the army.

  “Oh by the gods you found me!” she shrieked suddenly, forcing her voice to sound hysterical. “You've got to help us!” The soldiers stood there for a second, dumbfounded, and Nerthus realized that she must look like quite the show. Dressed in a torn party dress, with the bronze casing of her mecharm now visible up to her elbow, appearing there out of nowhere, she must have looked quite the sight. She supposed she could forgive them for staring.

  “Just who are you, miss?” One of the men in half plate, an officer she guessed, asked through his visor.

  “My sisters are in there!” she shouted, pointing at the house she just came from. “You have to get us out of here!”

  “Wriggs, Klenth, check the house, on the double” the officer said, and two soldiers ran to the house, their swords drawn.

  “Liney what are you doing?” the other officer asked.

  “We can't very well just leave them here, Betwa,” the officer, Liney responded.

  Betwa didn't respond immediately. But when the two soldiers emerged with the girls, he sighed audibly through his visor. “Alright,” he said wearily. “But you three need to keep up. This area isn't safe anymore. We need to get back to the Garrison.”

  The two shell shocked girls gawked at Nerthus, then nodded at Betwa's words and they all began to march through the city. Nerthus avoided the two girls, stamping down a small twinge of guilt for attempting to abandon them there. Yet she felt rather happy to have a dozen or so armed men surrounding them, leading her to the relative safety of the Garrison. As they walked, they passed dead bodies, mutilated as if by massive animals, burning homes and storefronts, and the general chaos that came with an other worldly invasion.

  “Pike this city,” Nerthus whispered.

  Everything had gone completely to the four hells. After the Underking had disappeared, Kinnese had barely gotten his little group organized next to the Steel Bells when a series of howls shattered the semi quiet of a city about to sleep The night sky lit up with a number of flashing lights as different organizations and groups struggled to communicate with each other in the chaos that erupted. Soon after, half a dozen of those mangled, malformed creatures emerged from alleyways and rooftops. Panic erupted almost immediately among the city folk, who scattered for their homes, or any nearby sanctuary. Caught outside, Kinnese and the others had no choice but to fight as the corrupted men and women attacked.

  Naria, tears still falling from her eyes, snarled as she let loose on the monsters with unfocused blasts of magic. Her remaining entourage banded together, with Pela standing beside them, her wicked punching knuckles back on. And while Undis looked more annoyed than anything, Kinnese saw the lich put the rest of them between himself and the rampaging creatures. The one of them who had the least to fear from the beasts feared the most. Go figure.

  Naria's blasts caught one beast full on, and it fell to the ground charred and twitching. A second, chasing a knot of people, never saw Pela until her piston-like fists pummeled its face into a bloody ruin. A third leaped at her from a low rooftop, but Kinnese's longsword arced upward and sliced off its two talon-like hands before it landed. Pela rolled to the side as it fell to the ground in a heap allowing Kinnese to finish it off.

  One of the charging creatures, with warped mandibles jutting out of his mouth, bounded after a fleeing couple. Kinnese cut him down with a quick burst of white hot Power, and the couple made it into a nearby building and slammed the door shut behind them. Yet Kinnese still felt spent after their previous race through the city. He knew he couldn't count on his reserves lasting much longer. But he focused himself, and caught a second monster in the face with another spike of Power before it could lash out a man cowering by an alleyway.

  “C'mon!” Kinnese yelled to the man, gesturing at him. “Get into the tavern!” The man nodded and sprinted towards them. Another man-beast, with cracked eye sockets and too-large eyes tackled him to the ground before Kinnese or anyone else could help. Chitin encrusted claws shredded the man as he lay thrashing underneath the abomination.

  “No!” Kinnese cried out, but the man was dead, and the abomination paid no mind to the other fleeing people as it began to devour its victim. Kinnese charged it, lopping its head off with his blade in a spray of thick red blood and stringy black ichor.

  For a moment their little corner of the city was quiet, even as screams and shouts from other streets echoed through the air. More city folk began to stagger or run through the street. Some were injured, some crying, yet all looked bewildered.

  “All of you!” Kinnese shouted, pointing behind him with his sword. “The tavern is safe!”

  The locals all regarded him, his finery and longsword covered in gore, and the odd assortment of women behind him. Yet they listened, hurrying as best they could, and constantly casting wary looks behind or above them as they began to file into the Steel Bells.

  “Here,” a tired voice said, and a hand took one of Kinnese's. He felt a small bottle pressed into his palm. He looked over and saw Naria standing next to him, her expression grim despite the stained mess of makeup her face had become. “Drink this,” she said. “It will recharge your stores, for a moment anyways.”

  Kinnese popped the cork stopper off with his thumb and downed the drink in one gulp. He felt a refreshing coldness surge through his veins, combating the growing heat around him. He smiled despite himself as his store of Power within him built up again. He looked at Naria, then at the chaos unfolding around them.

  “Thanks,” he said. “And sorry. For dragging you into this, and for your girl.”

  “We'll deal with self-pity and recriminations later,” Naria said. “What do we do now? I'm rather...out of my depth here.”

  Kinnese opened his mouth, but found his mind
at war with itself. His sense of self-preservation screamed at him to run. And yet an even louder voice, one that echoed in his head like his Master's, commanded him to find the Underking and complete his mission, at any cost. But a third voice, a quiet voice, distant yet strong, reminded him of his duty. Reminded him of the oaths he had taken long ago. The voice, he realized, was his own, mumbling aloud against the other two that raged in his mind. He forced his mind quiet, until only his voice remained.

  “We save as many people as we can, for as long as we can last,” he replied, feeling a comforting, almost nostalgic feeling wash over him.

  “Save them?” Naria asked. “How?”

  “We gather as many as we can into the tavern,” Kinnese said, pointing over his shoulder at the Steel Bells. Then we hold the line here until help arrives.”

  “Who's going to show up?” she asked, her voice incredulous. “The whole city is under siege!”

  Kinnese shrugged, his mood lifted. “The City Watch. The Bellkeep army. I don't know. Someone will. But these people won't last long enough for any help to arrive if we don't stay.”

  Naria stared at him for a moment, her eyes unreadable. “Girls!” she shouted at last, turning towards the tavern and her little group. “Prepare the wall.”

  “Pela! Undis!” Kinnese yelled, his voice dropping easily back into his old Commander's tone. “You're with me. Door to door, we grab as many people as we can and send them here before more of those things show up.”

  “And what am I to do when that happens?” Undis asked. “Disarm them with my polite manners?”

  “Throw your gods damned body at them for all I care,” Kinnese responded, the sudden iron in his voice stunning the lich. “If you can't or won't do what I say, you're no good to me. I'll leave you here to be an eternal ripping post for these hellspawn, am I understood?” The lich looked away, saying nothing. “Good,” Kinnese said, turning towards Pela. “I'm sure we don't have long before more of those things show up, so we had better move fast.”