FOURTEEN
POOR SKELETAL MONSTROSITY
LEVEL GUARDIAN
100 CREDITS
“That’s it?” The words hung about in the full room as eyes tracked to him. Roan had landed the killing blow and the boss had only yielded a hundred credits for the effort it had taken to cut it down. Nearly twenty people hacking and chopping it down for a hundred credits? Roan wanted to scream in rage at the injustice of it, the spendthrift nature of the tower.
“We all got something.” Darren’s voice was flat, hard, hints of anger in it as Roan looked over and stared at the injured and dead.
“Bad timing.” Roan chided himself as he threw his new warhammer over his shoulder and walked over to the coffin the level guardian had been sleeping in. He hoped to find something to gather, but it was as empty as all the others had been.
“Everyone re-group. Taoya, are you okay?” Darren asked as he finally got his coughing fit under control.
“Darren! We need to take Harris into the safe-room. We’re going to need more healing supplies!” Moira said as she worked on wrapping a tourniquet around Harris’ leg. Darren quickly had four others go and help Moira, dragging Harris away and into the portal.
Roan sat off to the side and checked his pockets, making sure his two potions were intact. While the little bottles seemed to have been fragile, they had managed to survive the fight without incident.
“I wonder if we all got the same amount for that Level Guardian? Or was it by contribution? Taoya would have a much larger stake, I would have gotten nothing if I hadn’t dropped the finishing blow.” Roan was lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice the two approaching figures until they were standing in front of him.
“Give us Shelly’s hammer,” the lead boy said. Roan blinked and looked at them. Both were dressed in casual clothes, not the matching uniforms, so that made them independents like he was. And Shelly had been.
“You her family? Boyfriends?” Roan asked casually. He kept the hammer slung over his shoulder. The lead boy flushed, his pale cheeks filling with red as he shuffled from foot to foot. He didn’t have a weapon in his hand, which Roan thought was stupid. If you were going to rob someone, you should have a weapon ready.
“Listen, you have plenty of help and powerful teammates. We need the weapon. Shelly would have wanted it that way,” he said.
“Yeah, no. Fuck off or I’ll use the hammer on you,” Roan said. He kept his voice flat, making sure there was no emotion as he squared himself off and made sure his balance was good. Neither of the boys looked anything special, but a hidden bloodline would see his skull spattered across the crypt.
“Listen,” the lead boy started again, his dirty blonde hair fell in his eyes and he wiped it away even as he stuck a finger at Roan.
“Craig, chill,” the other boy said, reaching to pull his friend back; but his other hand was behind his back. Roan grabbed Craig’s finger and snapped it.
It was a loud sound in the quiet crypt. They’d all spent the last day hearing bones break as they fought their way through the skeletal horde and it was an unmistakable sound. Craig’s scream of shock and pain a moment later ensured every eye was on Roan as he shoved the boy backward to clear space.
The dagger swiped out a second later, plunging for Roan’s side. It met the haft of the hammer as he brought it down, blocking the rusted edge as his attacker’s eyes widened in shock.
“Bush-league shit. Back alley thugs, not trained at all, or at least poorly.” Roan analyzed them for what they were even as he whipped the hammer around and brought it on his attacker’s foot. Bone and flesh mingled together in a paste, held together by the tough leather. This one’s scream was much louder and shriller than Craig’s had been.
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Roan kicked him, his heel impacting the boy’s gut as he started to bend over. The two wannabe thugs fell in a tangled rolling mess of sobbing and cries of pain, the attacking dagger sliding away and across the room.
Roan looked toward the others and judged them quickly. The sect members had been thinned when Darren had ordered Haris away. They were fairly outnumbered by the independents and Taoya, their best fighter, was obviously exhausted. Darren did the math as well and started to tighten up their formation.
“If you want to be a thief, be a good one at least. For the rest of you,” Roan looked at the small line of independents. Of the eight independents who had entered, one was dead, and two were out of the fight. Darren had come with the larger party, but five of them had dragged Harris back into the safe-room and Taoya was out of the fight. It was just Darren and two others who looked ready to fight.
“You come for my shit I’ll kill you. Simple as that. If what I have is worth your life, then come and line up or as a group. I don’t give a shit.” Roan lifted the hammer and gripped it with both hands as the five healthy independents started to look nervous.
“Did Nash get to them? Or are they just that greedy?” If Nash had gotten to them, then Moira and her crew were likely not having a good time on the other side. If they were just greedy, then they were going to run straight to Nash to sign up with the man when this was over.
“Simple math. Kill them now, keep them from turning on you later.” Roan’s inner voice spoke with confidence. If he had the strength to do it, then he should do it. It was a mantra that those who survived in the shadow of the Unconquered Tower knew. The same exact formula that had caused Craig and the other one to try to take his hammer.
Roan was just better than they were.
“They are the only warning you get. I need you to make up your minds. You stay here and keep running with us and take your cut and keep our protection. Or you take your chances,” Roan finished his little speech as he waited.
“FUCK YOU!” Craig broke the tension of the moment as he came flying up from the ground. His broken hand was clutched to his chest while his free hand held another of the long daggers. It was a long dagger, but it had nothing on the reach of a full sized warhammer.
Steel split flesh as easily as it had cracked bone. Craig hit the ground, neck askew and brain leaking out of his fractured skull. An alert popped up, but Roan didn’t pay it any attention.
Five pale faces stared back at him as the independents finished their own calculations. Weapons were lowered and they backed down. They turned their head from the screaming man who still clutched his foot as they settled around the edges of the cul-de-sac. Darren and the little knot of what was left of his fighters had blocked the exit to the safe room in the meantime.
“Darren. What are the rules for thieves in your association?” Roan asked. The thief stopped his screaming for a moment and looked up in horror. His ally was dead and the other potential help he thought he’d have had just backed down and retreated. Finality was starting to set in, his eyes growing wide as he began to beg.
“Expulsion and immediate demand of repayment of debt,” Darren say without hesitation. The man’s narrow face held no emotion in it as he looked at the would-be thief.
“Does he owe any money?”
“Two-hundred credits and the cost of the elixirs. Fifty a piece, though if he submits his we’ll call that square.” The thief fumbled in his pockets and pulled out the two potions, rolling them gently on the floor as he slid backward.
“Just…just let me back into the safe room. Alright, I’ll pay you back as soon as I can. I don’t have enough for the full two-hundred,” he said in gasping bursts. His face was coated with sweat as pain took its toll.
“How tough are you, Darren? Are you willing to do what it takes to make sure this doesn’t happen again?” Roan stayed perched with the hammer in his hands, ready to act.
“Strip him of anything of value. Let him keep his underclothes, but I want all his weapons and gear. We will return anything over the two-hundred credits,” Darren ordered. Roan didn’t move, he couldn’t if he ever wanted to be something other than Darren’s lackey. The stalemate lasted only a few seconds before his remaining helpers ran around him and began to strip him down.
Roan relaxed a bit as they did it, drooping into a crouch to run his hands over Craig’s still body. THe man had surprisingly quite a bit on him. Multiple daggers tucked into his belt, as well as two of the amulets that Roan had found. His two elixirs were what Roan was after and he pocketed them without even offering them to the association. His kill, his rewards.
Done going over the body he left Craig on the floor and looked around. The raid energy was gone. Everyone was sitting around sullenly staring at either Shelly’s limp body, Craig’s, or the howling thief who was left wearing his boxers and one boot. The boot that was all that held his mangled foot together.
TOWER CLIMBER
FLOOR 1.01
CRAIG DANIELS
CREDIT TRANSFER: 138 CREDITS
BONUS: 20 CREDITS
“Oh, that’s not good.” Roan couldn’t help but look over at all the remaining climbers and see dollar signs over their heads. Not something he would do, but he wondered if others would act on it once the information got out.