Guild Evolution: The guild will earn 1% of the Experience gained by members. Current Guild XP/Next Level: 0/10,000
Guild Party: As Guild Master, you can bring any members into an Adventuring Party, regardless of their level, and use any Party abilities on them.
Hawke read the notifications while he sipped from a glass of brandy. It was fairly potent stuff, even for someone with his superhuman Constitution. The Defenders’ founding ceremony was taking place at his villa. Korgam’s band of Dwarves was there, as well as all the Guild members and their families and friends. It was a big crowd, the largest party Hawke had hosted here or on Earth. He had hired a few cooks, recommended by Dorrham, to cater the event and spent a good bit of coin making sure there was plenty to drink, too. They could indulge as much as they wanted, since both Hawke and Gosto had healing spells that would remove the effects of a hangover. Despite that, he noticed that Tava wasn’t hitting the booze hard that night.
The entertainment was being currently provided by Crommen the Battle-Bard and Desmond the wannabe bard, definitely with a small ‘b.’ The Warrior wasn’t terrible or even bad, not really, and his style of music was a closer fit to what the locals liked than anything from Hawke’s preferences, but it wasn’t anywhere near his first choice. He couldn’t complain, though.
Tava and Gosto didn’t care for the Warrior’s musical talents, either; when the Dwarf bowed to Desmond and let him take over, the siblings grimaced and moved to the opposite side of the courtyard from the singing Warrior. Hawke finished congratulating Marko and went off to join them.
“He is the worst,” the young Druid said as he drank a cup of watered wine. His sister was watching him like a hawk, intent on him not making a fool of himself.
“Come on, he’s not that bad,” Hawke said. “And he’s really gotten better. And not just about the music.”
Gosto shrugged. Desmond had made a terrible first impression when meeting Kintos’ family, and the Druid had never warmed up to the Eternal.
“He no longer spews out dung with every word, I’ll give him that,” he admitted, and, to Hawke’s relief, refrained himself from spitting on the ground; that was the local gesture of dislike, and Desmond might see it and realize it was about him. “But he is still arrogant when he thinks nobody of worth is listening, and the way he shows off his mistress is almost insulting.”
“Not his mistress,” Tava said. “He is courting her and is speaking of proposing. And I’ll not hear an unkind word from you about Alba, or you will answer to me!” she added angrily when Gosto sneered.
Hawke just finished his drink and headed for the nearest punch bowl table rather than get in the middle of the squabble. The locals liked to mix wine and fruit juices that made a decent yellow-orange sangria, and he’d made sure there was enough for everybody. The brandy he’d started with had hit him hard, and he just wanted to take the edge off while he tried to work out the cultural differences involved.
In theory, you weren’t supposed to sleep with someone you were courting until a betrothal had been arranged. Hawke had learned that early on, when he’d found himself interested in Tava. The rules got broken all the time, but women who did so were treated with contempt, far more so than the men. Double standards were a thing in the Realms as much as on Earth. And Desmond and Alba were sleeping around and hadn’t really made it a secret, other than Alba insisting on sleeping in her own quarters rather than the villa Desmond had bought, one that was almost as big as Hawke’s and had set the Warrior back most of his cash.
That wouldn’t be much of a problem, but Alba was known to cavort with men not engaged to her, which made the new relationship kind of iffy by local standards. So far, nobody had been stupid enough to blurt something about her reputation where Desmond could overhear it, or there would have been trouble. The kind of trouble that led to death and maiming. Hawke glanced at Alba, who was dancing in tune with Desmond’s song and moving in a, well, suggestive way. That dance style was common among the lower classes in Orom, while the well-to-do frowned on such things. Desmond’s singing faltered as he noticed the snide looks a few of the guests were giving his girlfriend, but Alba, picking up on the cues, stopped dancing and went to him, standing by her man. Smart.
“Am I being paranoid, or did we just miss a nasty scene?” Nadia asked as she casually poured herself a glass of punch.
“As Saturnyx would say, we are rarely paranoid enough. There may be trouble in paradise, I think.”
And I thought it was a good idea to set them up.
You have a point, he told the sword, shaking his head when he realized he’d punned without a license.
Alba could certainly settle any scores on her own, and nobody would find the bodies. He’d heard a couple of abusive patrons had already gotten a few pointed lessons from her. Nobody had died, but word had gotten around. It would take an extremely stupid and suicidal person to cross her, let alone the towering Warrior who wore the previous Guard Captain’s armor and weapons.
Hawke and Nadia rejoined the Kintes siblings. Tava was still talking to her brother in a stern tone.
“Alba is a brave Adventurer, and soon we will be going into danger with her by our side. Will you offer insult to her?”
“No, of course not. And I am sorry, Tava. I will not bring this up again, even in jest.”
“Good,” she said before dropping her voice to a whisper. “Now be good and compose yourself. They’re coming to us.”
Desmond and Alba walked up; the Warrior had put his guitar away while Cronmen led his fellow Sterns on some sort of dance that looked like a cross between an Irish jig and someone having a seizure.
“Nice shindig,” Desmond said. He seemed okay, other than him holding on to Alba maybe a little too tightly.
“Least I could do, before I drag all of you into a Lair.”
“Any idea what we’ll be up against?”
“I chickened out before learning more about it,” Hawke admitted. “It’s a high level Lair. That was enough to get my third-level butt right out of there.”
“Smart guy,” Desmond said. “Well, I think I’ve drunk enough of your booze. What do you say we go on a little walk?” he asked Alba.
“We could both use some fresh air, hero,” she replied. “And perhaps something warm afterwards.”
Desmond’s face lit up; there was a clear spring in his step as they left.
Too much information!
“She told me,” Tava whispered in his ear. “And I of course shared it with my future sister wife. Alba is growing quite fond of him.”
“Good,” he said, finishing his drink. “We could use a few more happy endings around here.”
Saturnyx whispered.
From the way Tava and Nadia were grinning, they all had been dealt into that last bit of conversation. It made for a nice end to the evening.
The next morning, they set off towards the Lair.
* * *
“Dire Bear tracks,” Tava said as she rose from her crouch. “Fresh.”
The group had left early that morning and had entered the Highlands Forest shortly afterwards. The plan was to find a campsite near the Lair before nightfall and then go in the next day. But if Tava had found a Dire Bear, a detour might be in order.
“How big is it?” he asked her. The rest of the group spread out a bit, keeping an eye out in every direction, the sky included. Harpies couldn’t threaten Orom’s territory any longer, but the Highland Forest was outside its borders. Anything could be waiting for them there.
“Bigger than Old Urso,” she said, showing them a full paw print left on a patch of mud. It was about as wide as her shoulders, and she wasn’t a tiny woman. “The Arbiters must have decided the forest
needed a new king.”
“Well, you wanted a pet, babe. Want to go get it?”
She grinned. “A Dire Bear would be a fearsome companion. It may be too powerful for me to Entrance it, however. Someone would have to fend him off while I forge a Bond with it.”
“All right, people!” Hawke called out. “We are going to get Tava a pet. If she can’t freeze it in place, I’ll keep it busy.”
“You can use your Monster Trainer abilities to freeze it, can’t you?” Nadia asked.
“If I do that, Tava won’t be able to tame it. The bear would be linked to me. She called dibs on it.”
“Fair enough.”
“If Tava can’t freeze it, Gosto and I will try to immobilize it. If it breaks free, I will keep it busy. The rest of you, hang back. Alba, stay in stealth; if it makes it past me, backstab and run. Nadia and Desmond, don’t kill it unless it’s out of control. Any other questions or suggestions?”
There were none. Tava followed the monster bear’s trail easily enough; it was leaving tracks like a biological bulldozer. Small and even medium-sized trees had been knocked aside or simply trampled underfoot like so many bushes. Apparently Young Urso liked to travel in a straight line and if something or somebody got in its way, too bad for them. Hawke kept his auras and other buffs going, just in case they ran into anything else, but the entire forest appeared to be spooked by the Dire Bear; the only other critter they found was a deer that hadn’t gotten out of the beast’s way fast enough and been killed and partially eaten.
“Well, that was nice and disgusting,” Desmond said as they passed by the deer’s remains.
A few minutes later, the trail took them down a dry gully flanked by two steep banks; it was barely wide enough to accommodate the bear’s width; Hawke could see where it had forced its way past a narrow section, tearing chunks of soil through brute force. Weird that a bear would move through a place where it could get stuck.
Tava was thinking the same thing. She stopped when the group was halfway through the gully. “I think we should go back and around.”
There was a deafening roar from the left side of the gully.
Dire Bear
Level 8 Beast
Health 360 Mana 80 Endurance 320
A moment later, the Dire Bear came crashing down on them, aiming for the rear of the group, at the spot where the gully was broadest but still kept them trapped.
Aiming straight for Gosto and Nadia.
Thirteen
Hawke didn’t have time to yell orders or to try Dark Tendrils on the Dire Bear. All he could do was cast Twilight Step and appear in front of the massive creature.
The bear was charging downhill; it couldn’t slow down even if it wanted to, but it changed direction towards the new threat. Hawke leaped over the oncoming monster, did a somersault that would have let him win gold in half a dozen Olympic events, and landed on its furry back. Just as the Dire Bear realized its target was no longer in front of its paws, Hawke stabbed both blades into its back for a satisfying but non-lethal ninety-eight points of total damage.
“Plan’s still on!” he shouted. “Snare! Tame! Yadda, yadda, y..!”
He barely had time to say the second ‘yadda’ when the bear reared up and slammed Hawke into the nearest tree, snapping it in half, which would have broken Hawke’s back if he hadn’t been buffed up. Luckily, he had Bulwark of Light on; the Light spell’s 210 Health absorbed the massive impact, but the whiplash from being used to knock down a tree almost caused him to lose his grip on the Saturnyx Twins. Almost, but not quite; Hawke hung on as the bear began to spin in a circle, twisting its neck and shoulders as far as it could go to take a chomp out of Hawke’s leg.
He held on for dear life. “Whoa, horsey!”
The rest of the group backed away. Gosto cast Nature’s Grip on the bear, but the massive beast tore through the restraining roots as if they weren’t there. Tava drew her bow and took aim.
“No shooting!” he shouted at her. “Tame. The. Goddam. Bear!”
She grimaced but lowered her bow and began concentrating. Hawke tightened his grip on the swords and worked on staying on. No normal human could have managed, but his strength was pretty close to an actual bear’s. His biggest problem was the weight difference. He might be strong as hell, but the Dire Bear was ten times heavier. The constant shaking was bad.
And when angry critter reared up and deliberately fell on its back, it was a lot worse.
Being crushed by a ton of muscle and bone was good for fifty-five damage even with his armor and other defenses; a regular person would have ended up as a thin red smear on the forest floor. When the bear rolled off him, he finally pulled the swords off it and rolled away as the beast whirled around.
“Come on, Teddy!” he shouted at it. “Come and get me!”
It came at him fast, the ground shaking with every pouncing step. Once again, his reflexes paid off, and he sidestepped the creature, who was unable to stop until it crashed into another tree. He even managed to smack its butt with one his swords as it went past, driving it into a frenzy.
“Anytime now, babe!”
Tava didn’t reply, too busy sending a steady stream of Mana at the bear. Hawke realized he could see the magical energy reaching out and flowing into the monster’s own Mana pool. He even got a good look at the process; Tava was mixing the bear’s Mana with her own, causing the critter to become a part of her. Pretty cool.
So cool, in fact, that he stopped paying attention to the Dire Bear for a crucial moment and one of its massive paws connected with his shoulder and sent him flying over thirty feet before he demolished another innocent tree with his head. Things went dark for a bit.
When his vision cleared, he coughed out a mouthful of blood, splashing it all over the inside of his helmet, and looked around for the Dire Bear. There is was, walking toward him. The good thing about pissing off the beast was that it wasn’t paying attention to anyone else. The bad thing was, the bear was getting very close, and every time he blinked, he saw double the number of monsters. On top of the double vision, Hawke had lost half his Health and couldn’t concentrate on casting spells for some reason. A notification told him the reason why:
You are suffering from a Concussion!
Spellcasting Impossible.
Well, that sucks, Hawke thought as the double-bear kept getting closer. Where was everyone else?
The Dire Bear froze in its tracks. A few seconds later, Hawke’s vision cleared and he could think and focus again. He used his Mana senses and saw a glowing energy cord linking the beast to Tava. It took him a moment to get back to his feet, but by then Gosto had healed him back to full. It was good, not being on his own during a fight.
“Are you okay?” Nadia said, rushing to his side with a healing potion in her hand.
“I’m good, thank you. Gosto fixed me up.”
“We were going to go after it, but Tava said to wait.”
“Good. I could have killed the bear at any time, well, at least until he threw me through that tree. The whole idea was to keep it alive until Tava could take him.”
“And thanks to you, I have!”
Tava walked towards him, the giant bear by her side. If she could find a saddle that fit it, she could ride that thing into battle.
“How long do you have to maintain the bond before it becomes permanent?” he asked her.
“Twelve hours. I will not get much sleep tonight.”
Hawke walked over the Dire Bear. Its back was a good seven feet off the ground, and it was wider than a wagon. Going dungeon-crawling with that thing was going to be a pain in the ass. “Have you thought of a name yet? Anything but Urso, please!”
“I would never call this noble beast by such a hateful name.” Tava leaned against the wall of fur and petted its engine-block size head. “I will name him after my favorite childhood toy. I dub you Rabbit.”
The name at the top of the stats block over the Dire B
ear’s head changed to Rabbit (Dire Bear). The monster didn’t seem to mind. Desmond and Alba were laughing their asses off. Nadia just walked over and started petting Rabbit as well.
Gosto, on the other hand, looked horrified. “You can’t stick that name on a Dire Beast! It’s… it’s disrespectful!”
“She tamed it, bud,” Hawke told him. “She tamed it and named it. The world will have to get used to a bear named Rabbit.”
* * *
Later that night, as the full moon competed with the swirling galaxy to illuminate the sky, Hawke took the Seed of the Fae from his inventory. He lifted the golden egg over his head, letting the moonlight flow into it, and then watched it carefully as the solid shell became briefly transparent. There were clearly two critters inside. He saw them sort of wrestle for a bit and caught glimpses of a pair of long fussy tails and a set of bat-like wings.
“It is twins for sure,” he told Tava, who was still on Dire Bear watch. She was reclining against Rabbit’s massive form and absently petting its – no, his, he was part of the team now – thick fur.
“Then soon I will have two companions,” she said. “I hope they will become friends.”
“I’m sure it will be one big happy family.”
Hawke looked at the bedroll where Desmond and Alba slept, happy as two bugs in a rug. The Warrior had kept people entertained during dinner with a couple of Ren Faire songs, including one called ‘The March of Cambreadth,’ a bloodthirsty little ditty that Tava, Gosto and Alba had loved after their lyrics were translated, and which Hawke had actually enjoyed. One verse or chorus, ‘How many of them can we make die?’ had stuck in his head. Desmond had said it was meant to be accompanied by drums and bagpipes, but Hawke thought he had done the song justice.
“A big happy family,” he repeated.
He had made sure not to rub in Desmond’s face the fact that he and Nadia were seeing each other. It probably didn’t matter, but he wanted to let sleeping dogs lie. The Warrior was a key part of their Party, and they had spent several days training together and learning everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.
Lord of the Dead: A LitRPG Saga (The Eternal Journey Book 2) Page 8
