Battleforged
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Chapter 405 - Treasure Hunt VII
🕑 Added 2024-03-18 04:00:01 +0000 UTCEric’s thoughts were racing, no matter how he tried to keep his mind free of all brooding, guilt, and recriminations. Still, he tried to distract himself, just focusing on the magnificent if stark view all around him.
The endless horizon of broken basalt, obsidian crystal, and whipping sands with its myriad flocks of velociraptors and the massive sauropods he saw barest glimpses of in the distant bogs. The fuel source for the raptors, he supposed, assuming they weren’t feeding off the wild arcane energies this region was radiating so intently, so fiercely, as it continued to grow in size… pressure, metaphysical mass… so close to exploding into a black-tier nightmare territory right next to Freetown that he got a cold sweat just thinking about it.
And there were the screams, of course
The desperate screams of a man in way over his head, intestines spraying, howling and thrashing and writhing as vicious maws tore into his desperately raised arms, spasming legs, and ripped out his throat.
Just a heartbeat before eight feet of crimson flame turned the ravenous, blood-smeared countenances of those vile raptors into a desperately fleeing flock when death inexorably came for them, unable to flee as talons were cleaved from forelegs, spines severed, hearts pierced, and bloody maws cleaved free of dying brains in a maelstrom of the furious screams and roars of a young elf who had dared to let himself get distracted with delicious mad dreams of conquest and power and DARING to push himself beyond what any delver or necromancer had ever dared to do before in this world, embracing that madness, laughing in the face of his own folly and at the cost of just another year forever torn free of his soul… he had actually managed to bind a titan to his will.
A titan!
And all it had cost was the desperately struggling life of Riz.
A good-natured Professional who was an awesome cook, a brilliant handyman, and everyone’s friend, if the tears being shed were anything to go by. A good man who might have one day become a good friend to Eric as well.
Only now he was dead.
Eaten alive in the most horrifically agonizing way imaginable, because Eric’s revenants had been busy taking out so many other bands of terror birds. Not quite enough around to save poor Riz.
Eric swallowed the lump in his throat, filled with sudden guilt. Even if he had refused to raise that final pack of birds, instead destroying them utterly and completely while Riz’s friends gathered and wrapped up the remains.
For just a heartbeat, he had wondered if his Blood Mastery could somehow pull some sort of miracle… until getting a good look at the remains. How little there was left.
It had been all he could do not to vomit.
All he could do to help gather his badly wounded party. And how odd it was that it was the party of veteran Bronze-tier mercs who, just hours ago, had viewed him with not so much patronizing as big brotherly warmth… and now they were the terrified children he had to soothe and reassure that yes, the Titan Wyrm they conflated with World Eaters was tame, docile, and Eric’s sworn servant in all ways.
Yet the looks his companions had given had only grown in dismay when Eric’s Underlord and mount had seemed to sink into the bare rock like it was water until it was effortless for the whole gang to make their way onto his mount’s crest. Then Eric had quickly secured the bone stretchers and supports he had made, effortlessly fusing it to the scales of his wonderfully helpful titan, assuring his friends, especially his injured friends, a perfectly smooth ride.
Even the AFV, made of such exotic alloys that it was actually salvageable even if it would require half a million credits, at least, and a skilled professional to get in anything like working order once more, was also strapped and secured to the back of his massive mount.
His fists clenched, as he desperately peered at distant targets so very far way save for his perception… almost making them out… there!
His heart pounded with furious exultation.
He had just marked the trio that kept exactly a mile back as he did a wide circle through the broken plains as countless flocks of reds raced ahead or darted away, eager to escape the massive titan wyrm that could destroy them all.
Which could only mean one thing.
“I found them,” he whispered to Bennett.
The man was gazing out into the bleak rocky flat-lands seeing nothing save the shape of his own misery, Eric was sure of it. Though he jolted at Eric’s words, turning to peer at him, his rugged face a mix of barely suppressed rage and a clenched jaw. “Where?”
Eric frowned. “Do we have access to anything like a group map interface?”
Bennett gave a cold snort. “Do you have any idea how much you have to level up the requisite skills to facilitate such a thing?”
“Not a clue. Alright, look through this.” Eric summoned his soul bound Deathblaze plasma rifle, sighted the tiny velimobile with the trio of goblins inside, and Eric felt a lurch in his stomach. The assassin was actually gazing at them through the scope of his own Mark II. “Shit.”
Yet their enemy didn’t fire, not that that would buy them any clemency in Eric’s book.
“Look through there.”
Bennett did, and immediately began cursing. “They set us up. Those fuckers set us up!”
“That they did.” Thoughts racing, Eric called back to the rest of the party. “How stable is everyone?”
“Myl and Naje are cursing their broken legs and a few missing fingers but we’re good, buddy!” Lone assured.
“The pressure suit’s keeping Svena perfectly stable,” Elly calmly replied. “The neuroblockers are working well. We should be fine until we get back.”
Eric took a deep breath, girding himself to ask the question he knew he must. “How long will Svena be okay if we we’re delayed? Maximum case, how long can we go without external care and assure with 100% probability, that she’ll be okay?”
Even as he said the words, he kept his gaze locked with Bennett’s. Forcing himself to ignore the wide-eyed blanch, the momentary look of fury, then the thoughtful frown. Because he wasn’t such a coward that he’d flinch while asking questions that would seem so callous to the wellbeing of the girl Bennett had all but proposed to, less than an hour ago.
“Captain?”
The man glared at Eric for another moment before nodding. “Tell him, Elly. I’d like to know myself.”
Elly sighed. “Days. Svena’s White-tier class came with a number of significant perks and spells she worked diligently to master. She can fully regenerate with her channeling so much of her Mana Pool into self-recovery. Regenerating her intestines will take days, at least, but a Bronze tier body means that she has far more control over metabolic functions than mortals and her internal healing will keep her quite stable while she does so.”
“It still fucking hurts like hell,” Svena’s voice was still too soft for any mortal to hear, and speaking clearly pained her, but she did it anyway. “But I can keep going for as long as I need to, now that my blood’s staying in my body where it belongs. It will take a good month to regenerate all this fucking damage on my own, even if it will earn me a new skill rank.”
She flashed a humorless smile, then closed her eyes. “I’m only sorry that I can heal so little beyond my own body. A rapier thrust to your entrails… yes. I can stabilize you. Help you to recover. Eliminating infection, helping a sick parent or child break their fever... Yes. No problem at all. In the right time and place, I would have... had been a healer. And I can heal mortals just as well as a Classer’s injuries. Very few Classers gifted with actual healing spells… rare as they are… can say the same. But against a feral boar, or a velociraptor? That kind of damage… If I could go back and choose a different path, a true Healer’s path…”
“You never would have been a part of our corp and Riz would still be gone. So there’s no point in second guessing yourself, beautiful. Now rest. That’s an order,” Bennett said with a tender voice and a heartfelt smile, before turning back around to measure Eric with his gaze.
“Now why don’t you explain why we’re even having this conversation?”
Eric glared out to where he knew the velimobile was still pacing them.
“Because those are three elite Bronze Goblins. Because they know that their best shot at clawing whatever power they can on this world is to make absolutely sure I don’t reach Freetown alive in the next three days. Not with the prize I expect to find. They want to claim the city for themselves and have everyone enslaved to them, one way or another. Believe me. In another time and place, the results of countless thousands being trapped by goblinoid contracts and usurious debt was nothing less than their souls and eternal hellfire. And I mean that abso-fucking-lutely literally. And they will do absolutely anything they have to in order to make that timeline a reality once more.”
Elly’s eyes widened with horror. Eric could feel it even without looking her way.
“Captain, we can’t let that happen!”
“I know, Elly.”
“If we head to the compound… we’re at risk. We’re all at risk!” Elly hissed. “While we’re at our weakest. That’s when they will strike. Bronze tier assassins? Our compound could already be rigged to blow up!”
Eric flashed a bleak smile. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. Believe me, I’ve seen just how fucking deadly elite teams of level 30 assassins are. If the goblins truly are pulling out all the stops and the very few Bronze-tier teams they have left are coalescing here and now… how long do you think it will be before your food is poisoned, your compound is destroyed, and you all are picked off, one by one?”
Barrett’s eyes flashed. “Those fuckers will pay if they think that—”
“Those fuckers are protected by contract law and more treaties than you can shake a stick at,” Eric said. “Believe me, they love nothing more than goading you with potshots and assassination attempts, then using your very outrage, your need to strike back, as pretext for the entire fucking counsel to declare war on you and grind you into dust. And the goblins will be laughing in your face even as they’re fitting everyone helping them for slave collars… meaning that we’re all just a bunch of suckers destroying ourselves for the goblins’ own benefit. And most won’t realize it until it’s too late and they’re so deep in contractual debt that they have absolutely no choice but to comply.”
“Because the head of their entire faction is a fucking demon lord!” Elly hissed with unbridled fury, earning scowls and jaded looks from her friends.
“Elly, we need to think about this—”
“She’s right,” Eric said, cutting off Lone’s attempts at soothing his companion. “Not that that matters, save to know that these assholes are as vicious and malevolent as you can imagine… with a few noteworthy exceptions,” he said with a sigh, forced to recall a certain Noble Rogue of a goblin, showing what their race was capable of becoming, had they not been damned and twisted with deliberate malice over countless generations. But still. Knowing what he now knew... The blood they shared. And he and his mother had destroyed so many—
It’s done. It’s over. It never happened. It had always been. DON’T think about it. Now’s not the time! He desperately told himself. “Anyway, point is, the minute we get back, those assholes will be doing all they can to take you out and even if I’m there to stop it… let’s just say their barrister’s got a 1-2 punch that I damn well better be wary of, or Freetown’s still lost.”
Barrett’s glared out into the distance. “SO. Let me make sure I got this straight. If we head back, we have to worry about goblin assassins taking us out, picking us off at our weakest, and our compound’s integrity being utterly compromised. What, because we dared even to work with you and they’re determined to make everyone pay, just out of spite?”
Eric flashed a bleak smile. “Regrettably they aren’t completely stupid. So they know who I represent, even if they’re not truly sure of my identity. So yes. I’m pretty sure they’ll kill us all, just to make an example of us and to make sure that no one will ever dare work with anyone on their shit list ever again.”
Barrett frowned. “So, you’re also working for someone else. We’re your subcontractors. And you’re contract could get us all killed.”
Eric locked gazes with the man. “Don’t get it twisted, Barrett. I’m not the one that just ambushed our crew. I’m the guy trying to pull us all through.”
“Barrett, he’s right. None of this is his fault. His only crime is trying to help save a city,” Elly concurred.
Their captain snorted. “Yeah, I get that. Sure doesn’t change the fact that this contract’s been a disaster.”
“But if we can actually pull a win… we’ll all be heroes of the most technologically sophisticated and what will soon be the richest city on the entire continent. I can all but promise you that,” Eric assured. “Hell, I wouldn’t even be surprised if a few choice top-tier Blue Palace condominiums were to somehow fall into your possession.”
“Shit, are you serious? Those pads are now worth anywhere from five to fifty million!”
Eric blinked. “Wait. Seriously? I thought a 300% markup was crazy. But that’s five times what the apartment-sized condos were originally going for… and that’s tenfold what I paid for the top floors!”
Eric winced, realizing he had been speaking aloud only after. feeling the pressure of half a dozen battle-hardened Bronze warriors focusing on him.
“Wait, fucking hell! The waiting list on the Blue Palace is insane! And the prices keep going up with the entire top two floors all brought out! You mean the asshole playing hard-to-get, just smirking and leaning back while all the movers and shakers are frothing at the mouth to get a piece of the tallest building in the entire city… is you?” Long stared at Eric with an odd mix of envy and sheer disbelief.
“Hmm… that’s actually a very good question.”
“Ernest?”
“Eric’s fine, Barrett.”
“No bullshit, do you truly have access to Blue Palace real estate?”
Eric gazed off into the distance, pointedly ignoring the stares and murmurs behind him. “How’d you guys like a hero’s bonus, Captain? We hold off on leaving this territory so our enemies and their lawyer have no chance of serving us papers or plasma or poison or explosive death, and the minute we complete our mission is the minute your corp is up an exclusive Blue Palace luxury suite.”
“Top floor.”
“Bottom.”
“Middle, you cheap bastard!”
Eric cracked a smile, holding out his hand to a surprised Barrett. “Done.”
“I don’t suppose you have access to any of those beautiful homes just outside the Blue Palace shopping district?” Svena asked in a soft, teasing voice.
Eric glanced back at eyes twinkling with good humor.
“Sorry, Svena. I never got a chance to make any such purchase.” He sighed, shaking his head. “Too much craziness happening way to fast, and here we now all are.”
He turned to the captain. “Well, what do you say? All bullshit aside, if we’re going to do it, best I turn Wormy here around. At her pace, it will be at least an hour before we get there.”
Barrett gave Eric an indecipherable look. “Wormy.”
Eric nodded, patting the scales of his titan wyrm. “Yup.”
Barrett gazed back at his crew. “So, who wants to see if we can score a bonus high-end condominium before we head home?”
Elly flashed a hard smile. “If it puts a dent in the goblins plans and fucks with their ability to overtake Freetown, I’ll back that play to my dying breath.” Her fiery gaze then softened as she gazed down at her friend. “But only if you…”
“You’re damn right we’re going to make those bastards pay!” Svena snapped, before a haunted look overtook her features. “And I don’t fancy having to fear poison or proximity explosives or a sniper in the forest while I’m recuperating at our cabin. Better if we get this done and break whatever stronghold the goblin fuckers have in Freetown now, before they can target us or our apprentices still at the cabin.”
Lone furrowed his brow. “No way in hell am I letting those little pipsqueaks get the best of me. And you’re forgetting the most important reason why we aren’t backing down.”
Myl gave him a look from his prone position. “And that would be?”
“Treasure!”
Naje’s eyes widened, he and Myl both seeming to temporarily forget their wounds. “That’s right! This is an exploration mission. A dig! With those three assholes hanging back and their ritual glyph discovered and countered for, because our employer is actually a Necromancer of all things… now’s the perfect time to hunt down whatever loot we can, with those goblin a safe distance away and our World Eater between us!”
“It’s not actually a World Eater, but it is pretty epic,” Eric agreed, patting his Titan Wyrm.
Barrett gave a satisfied nod. “I guess it’s decided, Eric. Take us wherever your treasure sense is leading you to. Your pets will keep us out of line-of-sight, and the raptors will be more than eager to befriend anyone coming in close, I’m sure.”
Eric grinned, shifting his titanic mount with a thought, now making his way right for the ruins of a bank that, in this version of reality at least, had never existed at all.
Chapter 406 - Treasure Hunt VIII
Comments
Jonathan Harder
You have the captain’s name flipped in this chapter a lot.
Antony Haynes
Yes, lawfare and the contract powers are a drag on the story, but a bigger drag is constantly having to rescue Freetown. Let's take Freetown out of play by making it truly "safe" from goblin shenanigans like lawfare and snipers.
