Anchor Knight

by Nathan Thompson

  Those, Vessa typed to me. I can see them a little more clearly now. Those are harpies.

  Harpies? I asked, disbelieving that I had heard such a familiar name.

  Yes. Your people kept extensive histories on them. What do you remember of them?

  They were winged women that usually preyed on others, I replied, still surprised to find a creature with a familiar name up here. Beyond that, stories differ about them wildly. Why are they here?

  They are a distant kin to eaterlings, Vessa explained. Almost as numerous, and just as durable under environments like this. In fact, it's believed the two groups often mate with each other. And yes, she said as she sensed my shudder, I know that's gross. Given their number and Advancement strength, there might very well be a group or two of eaterlings nearby. I'll know more when you two are able to deactivate more portals. Speaking of which, I'm already feeling much better, so thanks for that.

  You're welcome, I replied, carefully watching the starry sky. Which way is the next portal?

  "This way," Nova answered out loud, pointing to a more distant slope.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Nestor's warning squeak saved us from ambush. I had no idea how his nose and ears were working so well in this thin atmosphere. But he gave us plenty of time to notice the charging pack of eaterlings running from behind one of the slopes in the hull.

  I noticed immediately that these were of a much more Advanced variety, all having either roach or hyena heads—the latter of which I'd only seen once before now. There were at least a dozen of them, and they were all armed with actual weapons, another factor that surprised me.

  Nova drew her baton and immediately began blasting them. Two dropped immediately, but the rest were surprisingly durable, hissing or barking in pain instead of dying on the first blasts.

  But my friends and I had all battled enough to have basic coordination, and Nestor and I were linked well enough now to read each other pretty well. I summoned my spear and moved in front and to the left of Nova, so that I could lure a few monsters away from her while still staying out of her normal arc of fire. Three of the eaterlings veered to deal with me, as another two of their number finally fell to Nova's blasts.

  My first enemy was a roach-skulled degenerate with a mundane, but surprisingly well-kept, single-bladed ax. As he charged, he leaped the remaining six feet to try and catch me unawares and negate the advantage of my longer weapon. But the monster underestimated my reflexes and my curved spear caught him in the belly easily, ripping right through the carapace.

  To my surprise, he still did not die. His slavering mandibles chittered at me as he tried to work his body free of my weapon with one claw and swing his ax at me with the other.

  Apologies, Vessa, I sent to the ship-woman as I slammed the monster onto her hull head-first. It took two swings until I heard his exoskeleton crack, and then I threw his messy body at the other two eaterlings racing toward me.

  The goo-splattered corpse collided with the left roach-lizard, but the hyena-headed creature on the right dodged around it and hacked his saber against my pole arm.

  "Thief!" the creature snarled in something close to German, trying to push his way past my weapon. "This vessel is ours!"

  "That's a rather large appetite you have, then," I replied calmly, out-pushing him and knocking his weapon out of the way. I feinted a swing low, and he leaped away. As I brought my weapon high I pushed forward on the shaft, increasing the length in time to catch him in the throat. Silver light flashed through my Sourceweapon as I tore the curved spearhead out of his throat, sending a small cloud of Source energy into the air.

  Three more monsters turned to deal with me, apparently realizing that Nova wouldn't risk friendly fire by shooting at the ones near me. Another quick glance told me that my initial count was off, because at least six more of these monsters came in from behind my current foes. The powerful valkyrie behind me took another one out with a well-placed blast to the head, but the rest all swarmed me like the pack animals they were.

  I shifted my spear to catch another enemy in the mouth, and gave the command I had been preparing for.

  Nestor, go.

  Yes-yes! the little mouse squeaked as he leaped onto the shaft of my Sourceweapon. He quickly ran up it, dealt a crackling, essence-cloaked paw strike to the monster’s skull at the other end of the spear as he climbed upon his head, then began leaping from monster to monster, striking their faces with paws, teeth, or tail, with far more force than his tiny form would suggest he had.

  That was the plan. I would fight and pressure the mob on my end, while Nestor would sneak attack and distract the stragglers from the other side.

  The two almost upon me lunged forward, swinging long, heavy chopping swords. I leaped backwards for more space and swung my spear high. The curved blade decapitated one in a silver flash, but the amount of force it had taken surprised me.

  The other eaterling had closed the distance, making my spear ineffective. So I dropped it, sidestepped his own slash, and knocked him into the air with a well-placed uppercut to the jaw. I followed up as quickly as I could with several other blows, my flood-empowered fists finally knocking him away and into another eaterling before my spear could finish falling.

  I left the two to disentangle and stabbed into another charging monster's foot. I then tore the weapon free in time to make a wide, horizontal, defensive slash, making the other three eaterlings charging me jump back. Two of them began to circle me, but the last hyena-headed one held up his hand, motioning a desire to talk.

  "Parley," he growled. "Who are you?"

  "The local pest control," I calmly replied, "and no."

  Then I quickly fired a physics-enhanced spike of earth qi into the face of the rightmost eaterling. As he staggered backwards, the hyena eaterling began to shout a command, but the cry cut off with a yelp of pain as his body began crackling with electricity. The leftmost eaterling raised his chopper to attack, but then Nova slammed into him, and he began screaming and writhing on her burning blade. I charged the one I had attacked before, stabbing into his carapaced belly and tearing the weapon all the way through, recoiling in disgust as the contents emptied all over the hull of the Soulship.

  Sorry, I texted to Vessa. Again.

  It's just going to get converted into Source energy, so it's fine, Vessa wrote back. But if you ever get a mess like that on my flesh-body, we are going to have words, and so, so many of them.

  Understood, I wrote back, turning my attention back to what was left of the fight. But the two clouds of Source energy told me that Nova and Nestor had already finished the last two foes. I saw Nestor leap off the back of the supposed leader and shake his fur, making small crackles of static in the process.

  Yuck-yuck, he said to me and Nova, hate-these.

  "Likewise," the angelic warrior-woman said as she pulled her weapon from the smoking corpse. "Hard to believe that so many of them waited until the last minute to join the attack though."

  "Really?" I asked, only remembering six new assailants. But as I looked both back and beyond, I realized that we each had gained enemies. I counted five extra bodies on the spots where both Nova and Nestor had been fighting.

  Those were surprisingly organized, Vessa wrote to me. I hadn't been expecting them to attack in waves like that. It was a good way to thwart both my sensors and Nestor's initial detection.

  I'm still not sure why they bothered, I replied, wiping the sides of my spear with the furry parts of a rapidly dissolving corpse. They were more durable than usual, but they still faced total defeat. The second wave should just have turned and ran the instant they saw us mowing through the first one.

  If they had a better feel for your power, that's exactly what they would have done, Vessa wrote back to me. But instead, they could only detect power from one of your Sources, so they thought themselves to be a little stronger than you and barely weaker than Nova. They figured you were fighting so well because you were burning most of your Source e
nergy. It's fortunate that your strength is so well hidden, but it also means that you will continue to attract attention from those who wish to bully the weak.

  I suppose we'll have to take that, I said with a shrug, as the monsters' Source energy divided between the three of us, save for a small portion that trickled directly into the Soulship herself. That was a large pack, though. Do you think it came from a nest?

  I would have, if I hadn't seen how well-maintained their weapons were, Vessa replied. Eaterlings are terrible at maintenance, so this group must have received their gear from a supplier, and then come here through one of the remaining portals. Which means either someone knows where I am, or a formerly abandoned portal has been rediscovered, she wrote hesitantly.

  Then we need to find it and shut it down, I replied, and with a nod to Nova, we continued walking.

  We deactivated two more portals without incident, though both were too large for me to take into my Soulscape. I noticed that one of them was a circle of stones, instead of just a metal loop. So I shrugged and just picked up the individual stones so that I could put them inside my pack. The other one we just defaced before moving on, since it was too heavy to carry.

  We were on our way to what Nova said would be the final portal when Nestor squeaked and looked up at the night sky.

  Nova and I turned to see four winged shapes swoop toward us.

  I recognized their vaguely feminine bodies, and realized that they were the harpies Vessa had warned me about. I found their forms to be extremely unattractive, in large part to the coarse, boar-like hair that completely covered them down from the neck. Their faces were perhaps the most bearable parts of their bodies, completely human-looking except for the amount of fangs and how they were wrinkled into a snarling, hissing expression.

  "Food!" one called out, in English, flapping her bat-like wings and flexing her taloned feet.

  "Food!" another one echoed, veering closer to us.

  "Male!" the final one said with a disturbing amount of hunger to her voice, aiming directly for me.

  "I firmly decline whatever intentions you have," I growled out, wanting to kill the last monster-woman from as far away as possible. Her descent was quick, but I managed to create a heat removal spell enhanced with a frost technique, and a breath charm to propel the effect. The spell complete, I shouted and released a cone of frozen air straight at my unwanted suitor—or murderer, or likely both. The edge of the frost caught one other harpy's wing, making her dip and roll erratically, and completely coated the abnormally interested one. She let out one shriek before she began to sink from the air, tumbling out of view.

  Nova raised her baton and fired at the undamaged one currently closest to us. That monster-woman hissed as she twisted out of the way, only to take Nova's stronger, second blast directly in the face. She screamed and fell backwards, taking a final blast to the back that scorched both of her wings and made her tumble to the floor.

  The last, partially frosted harpy-woman corrected her flight just in time to gain the attention of all three of us. I shouted out a cone of fire, Nova shot another blast from her baton, and Nestor sent an arc of electric qi that I could tell was enhanced by his own version of the heat transfer spell I just cast. The monster let out a horrified shriek before she charred to a crisp and fell down from the sky.

  You used one of my mana sciences just then, I told my bonded companion. Did you learn it via our link, or did you just figure it out from watching me?

  I-smart, was all the smug little mouse said, and I decided to just grumble and let it go.

  "That was quick," Nova noted, "but I think it was also a probing attack. Also, Jas, I think your harpy got away. It looked like she survived her fall and was able to thaw out."

  "She is not 'my harpy,'" I assured my best friend, a little more heatedly than I intended. "And I was hoping to kill her outright with the cold from space. Apparently I was mistaken."

  Yeah, actually, Vessa wrote to me helpfully. You see, I'm still projecting enough atmosphere on my surface to keep most lifeforms warm. It's an unavoidable byproduct of my construction. Your attack was perfect for taking her out of the fight quickly, though.

  Thank you, I wrote back reluctantly.

  "Sorry, Jas," Nova said awkwardly. "And I get it. Really. That happened to me like two battles ago."

  "No, I'm sorry," I told her. "I'm not handling it as well as you did. I think you're right about it being a probing attack. We'll need to keep our guard up when we go to lock down the final boarding portal."

  With that, I swallowed the last of my disgust and marched toward the slope holding the final portal we were tasked to deactivate. Nestor scouted ahead again, and I warned him to be as cautious as possible.

  If there was going to be an intense fight anywhere, I figured it was going to be here.

  All-clear, Nestor said as he scampered ahead of us. But-don't-trust.

  What do you mean? I asked my little friend, before trying to figure it out on my own. Wait… you mean you see, hear, and smell no danger, but you still expect something to go wrong?

  Yes-yes, he wrote back to me, Don't-know-why.

  I grimaced, because it was both a good and bad thing for the innocent little mouse to have learned to be this cautious.

  "Let's refresh our enhancements," I whispered to Nova, before turning my attention to Grandmother Mara. Should I try to look out with my soulsense?

  That's an excellent idea, grandson, Mara told me.

  I had no idea how the power would work in a near-vacuum, but the ghostly star-dragon would be the one to know if the ability would work in this environment. So I motioned for Nova to wait while I closed my eyes and reached out with my spiritual senses.

  For the distance up the slope, I felt and saw nothing. But as I reached the top of the curve, I felt remnants of emotions, just like I had around the hungry ghosts. These, however, felt like brief footprints, instead of sensations that refused to die.

  Hunger again.

  Fear.

  Caution.

  Excitement.

  Power, along with a desire to prove oneself.

  And, greatest of all, vengeance, for a number of perceived wrongs.

  "That's…" I started to say, "odd. Nova, Vessa, I think the siege portal ahead has been recently used, and is about to be activated again. We should hurry."

  I couldn't think of a better course of action. If we were quick enough, we could either shut down the portal before they returned, or arrive to catch the reinforcements off-guard. But waiting just gave us more time for problems.

  But Nova and Vessa both agreed with my assessment, given that Nova nodded and Vessa didn't message me back, so we began racing up the slope as quickly as we could.

  "Actually," Nova said as she shook her head, "I'm just going to risk it."

  With that, she unleashed her Soulscape wings and glided toward the space just over the hill.

  How high can she fly? I wrote to Vessa as Nestor leaped onto my shoulder.

  With her bubble still active? As high as she wants, Vessa wrote back to me. Without it, no higher than two hundred feet above my hull, if she wants to stay safe.

  Vessa, I messaged back as I ran, we both know your Beacon doesn't always choose safe.

  I know, Jas, she replied, just… try and keep her safe. Okay?

  I nodded, and cleared the remaining distance up the metal hill with a powerful leap.

  As I landed, I saw Nova circling over our heads, bubble still covering her head, just as my own covered me. This ridge on Vessa's hull was a good bit wider than the rest had been, at least a hundred feet in diameter. A large cable ran by my feet, one end coiling off into the distance while the other linked with a strange metal-and-stone-archway set into the center of the plateau. Nestor scampered off my arms to look around, but when I asked him if he could detect anyone still around, he shook his tiny head.

  Smells-here-though, he said, indicating that he could still smell traces from whoever had passed through her
e before. Know-one-smell.

  Before I could ask what he meant by that, the center of the archway shimmered, and figures began to walk out of it and on to Vessa's hull.

  Oh, no, Vessa wrote to me as we saw the first two shapes.

  They were each somewhere between seven and eight feet tall, which didn't disturb me. I had faced a number of opponents that height or bigger just yesterday, and killed every one of them. It was the details I was even more familiar with that troubled me. The shape of their feet. The mix of coarse fur, scales, and roach chitin protecting their bodies. The large, rat-like tail swinging behind them. But the faces were a mix of a hyena head, with an oversized maw, complete with twitching, rat-whisker-like tendrils, pincer-like mandibles, and compound roach eyes. Their arms and upper torsos were disproportionately muscled, making their feet and hips look small by comparison.

  Jas, these are eaters, Vessa wrote to me. They're what eaterlings become when they reach the next three stages of Advancement. Be careful. They're going to be on a completely different level than the eaterlings you killed earlier.

  I nodded, but did not reply. The next figure surprised and enraged me too much to speak.

  The young man who had just walked through the portal gave a disdainful sneer toward the two eaters, and seemed especially disturbed by their fur. But then he mastered his expression, as if he was only recently accepting that he must deal with creatures like this now. Then he moved his long dark hair out of his face and began speaking.

  "Yes, this is the place," Koram said as he looked about. "A mystical Sourceship. A legendary treasure lost to the ages. Watch your step, cretins, because I will not tolerate any further damages to this vessel." His eyes shone with an intense, manic light. "I have found a second treasure. Proof that I am favored by the heavens themselves. My family will recognize this. The Charter will recognize thi—get your furry arm away from me!" the young noble shouted, as one of the eaters in front of him turned and brought his appendage within five feet of the young master. "I told you both to shave before we left! The next time you two disobey me, I will have you skinned!"