by Atlas Kane
Coming to an end of his short speech, the demon actually lifted up his small paws, scaled lizard paws today, gesturing for some kind of reaction.
Satemi fell to cursing, and Gemma just looked confused. “Minda, will you explain to Gemma what she’s missed out on?”
The beastkin cut the entire tale of Vormer’s usurpation of power and oppression of the citizens of Antinium into a single, epic sentence. “Vormer is the golden-scaled asshole who chased after you with his men, stole the only form of shelter in this world, then killed or attempted to control everyone around him in part by inviting evil and very deadly creatures into Antinium through the same portal you first came through.”
Gemma nodded, accepting the statement in stride. Turning to Pablo, she confirmed. “And he is building an army of these beasts?”
“I am afraid so.”
“Then we must strike first,” she responded, cold and calculating.
Satemi laughed, a hard and bitter sound. “I think you’re growing on me, Gemma. I agree. I know we’ve made fortifications, but we can always fall back if things go foul.”
“There’s no way we’ll survive?” Minda said, her fists clenched with nerves.
Cade shook his head. “No, there isn’t. But I agree we must do something. We need allies. I would ask the lockmen but they are not very strong, and I don’t even know if they can stay away from water so long. It would be a few days’ march, and that is when we get back to their lake.”
“The spiders?” Gemma asked the group in general.
Ketzal answered this time. “Maybe, but doubtful. They have only just found their homes again. And I do not know if we have the time to call upon their aid. I might have an idea though.”
Everyone turned to the demoness, the once nearly broken woman who’d grown so much in such a short time. She swallowed her reserves and lifted her chin. “I never told you all that the Kotani Ma said to me. He is a leader of a strong clan of great apes. And he has no love for Vormer. He told me that he despises the great dome that shields the city, and that the lion of Tanrial has killed members of the Kotani tribe. That was part of why he let us go. I told him we defeated the lion.”
An edgy hope began to rise in Cade’s chest. He cleared his throat. “And you think—”
“Yes, Cade. I know it presents another risk all on its own, but I think we can convince them to raid the city with us. Although, we might need to fall back on bribery. Almost every phrase the ape used contained some form of fruit metaphor. They are like any other creature in Antinium. The Kotani eat, and they have their own particular tastes as well. Combine that with their leader’s desire for revenge…” Ketzal broke off, letting the rest of her plan speak for itself.
“That is crazy, Ketzal. But I am for it. I say we try at least,” Satemi said, folding her arms and adopting full-on tactical think face.
Minda offered up another potential problem, one that was staring Cade in the eyes as well. “What of the barrier? How can the apes get in?”
“Shield Bend,” Pablo said, looking to Cade.
He held up his hand, the ring glinting faintly in the morning sun. “You know more than I do, Pablo. We don’t have a shield to try it on. Will I be able to open the shield as well as reshape it?”
“Yes, although it might take a bit of practice. That ring belonged to a Shield Warden, a rare class that hasn’t been popular in a very long time. You should be able to open up a hole big enough to allow even Bellows through.”
Cade felt his face pull back into a savage grin. He laughed, feeling the thrill of a batty plan and a desperate situation coming together. “Well let’s do it, guys. Today, we prepare to go to war. Tomorrow, we ride.”
Satemi focused her attention on improving their saddle first. Sholl was strong enough to ride with them now, and the lizard man refused to be left out of the fray. He went with her to sort out the modification and addition of saddles, leaving Cade with the other three women.
“Gemma, I know you might prefer to hunt, but I think you should go with Minda. You two need to harvest as many healing and beneficial herbs as possible. When that’s done, go and gather enough fruit to make a clan of psychotic gorillas get silly.”
When they departed, Ketzal faced him, a sultry smile on her face. “You know, Cade. When you act all Chimera Lord, it makes me want to waste a day or two in the furs with you.”
He felt his head spin for a moment, considering the prospect. What better way to plan a battle? Just have sex till your knees don’t work anymore. That will win the day. Smiling, he nodded. “I couldn’t agree more. But as you know, there’s a ton to do. Is there any way you can help me?”
“What do you need? I have nothing else to do other than make sure Bellows is well fed tonight.”
“I was hoping you could gather some moths.”
Cade walked to his Alchemical Engineering hut. He wanted to make a few more bombs for their raid, but knew that his newest recipe might come in handy as well. Grinding out the raw ingredients first absorbed much of his time, and he felt rather than heard Ketzal enter the shop behind him. Sitting beside him, she found an empty bowl and deposited dozens of dead, white moths.
“Wow, that is pretty gnarly. Good work though,” he said.
“Yeah. It felt kinda sad killing them all, but Minda told me they’d only eat her plants anyway. What are they for?”
He picked up the bowl of moths and then found a pestle nearby. Plucking off the moth wings two at a time, Cade explained. “A new potion called Draught of Might. If we all get some added Strength, I am sure it will help our assault. I was even considering just giving a bunch to Bellows. It might be incredible just to watch.”
Ketzal was trying not to grimace, but couldn’t quite stop looking at the pile of worm-shaped moth bodies that Cade was tossing to the side of the hut. “Okay, just let me know what to do, and I guess I’ll help out.”
So the two ground and mixed all the ingredients, combining them together in a viscous goo that looked more like the snot that came out of your nose after a long day of doing yard work than any Strength-enhancing potion. There was enough for six normal doses of the stuff as well as one mega dose for Bellows. Not wanting to waste any on experimentation, Cade put the boar’s portion in a spare waterskin, and the rest he corked in the same enchanted nut shells he used for the acid bombs.
Storing it all into his Inventory for later distribution, Cade thought once more of the unused acid weapons. How exactly do you throw around acid and not have it be a danger to everyone? The question bugged him so much he eventually voiced it to Ketzal.
“We should use them on the Silver Guards. If we do, they might just end up dying. But what about on the Shrine of Aten? It is carved of pure bone. The acid should eat away at it easily enough.”
“Shrine of Aten? What are you talking about, and why haven’t you mentioned it before?”
Ketzal chewed her lip a moment before explaining. “I did say that he made people swear fealty. In order to do so, that person has to bow before The Burning God under the shrine. Then Vormer can control them as he wishes. Some he keeps as mindless drones, the Silver Guard and a few other servants. Others, like me and those women you saw dancing, he allows to have their own minds. That is, until he feels further obedience is required.”
Cade pushed away his urge to snap at the woman. She should have told them all sooner, but what they would have done with the information, most likely very little. Instead, he asked her where the shrine was located.
“In a room deep below the city. It is directly below the portal, actually. It is in the room with the Town Interface and where Vormer keeps his Mana Shards.”
“Fuzzy clams! That is damn convenient. The others are going to be so excited to hear this.”
“Hear what?” Satemi asked, poking her head into the hut.
Cade only grinned at her. Then they all headed outside for lunch and a rehashing of their burgeoning plan.
After their noon meal, Satemi asked if she
could borrow everyone for one final project. They all agreed, knowing the woman wouldn’t waste a minute of their precious time. She led them up to the stream, and the entire village spent an hour harvesting hundreds of pounds of clay.
It was exhausting work, but Satemi explained her brilliant idea as they did so, and each of their imaginations churned with excitement, spurring the work on.
Having gathered sufficient materials, the group dunked themselves in the pool and moved on to the next phase of their crafting endeavor. Satemi guided much of the work, and the process was slow, but when they were done, all were excited to see how the final product might turn out.
Their primary crafter spent significantly more time forming a sort of basin and funnel also made of clay set on top of a raft of bound branches. It had a very primitive design, but as Cade examined it, he felt it just might function.
Ready at last, Gemma was asked to stand near the basin, inside which was placed one of the Silver Guard’s breastplate. She placed both of her hands on the metal, and looking up to Satemi for approval, began heating the steel. Her eyes burned brighter, and the lines on her body lit up a flickering orange. The others looked on and watched as the metal turned bright yellow, softened, then suddenly lost its shape and splashed into the basin. Liquid metal poured through the funnel and down into the mold below.
Gemma grinned, looking every bit as proud as she should feel. None of them had known the melting point of the Silver Guard’s armor, and even she didn’t know exactly how much heat she could produce. But the first real test of Satemi’s idea had proven effective.
The group had prepared several of the molds in a row, the next a much smaller one. Cade and Sholl dragged the basin and funnel over a few feet, and lined it up with the next mold. Taking a single, heavy bracer, Gemma melted the piece of armor, and it drained away.
They continued the process, filling the various molds Satemi had cleverly designed, and all hoping the results would be remarkable enough to justify destroying the precious armor. The risk though, seemed worthwhile. Only Cade and Sholl could fight effectively in the heavy plate, and even then, Cade felt more comfortable being able to move quicker and avoid being hit rather than rely on the steel for protection.
One full suit was kept for Sholl, though he did ask Gemma to mark the breastplate by burning the center of it with her hand. Cade’s and Gemma’s scarred chests had become something of a sigil for Camp Casmeer, and Sholl wanted to stand out as one of them.
Satemi also saved the chainmail shirts, the intricate links of which were too valuable to melt into slag. Half a dozen sets of the greaves and bracers were held back as well, and a few pairs of gauntlets. These last were chosen to assist in working with hot or volatile materials less so than with fighting. The rest though, all went into the molds, one at a time.
The bank was steaming as hundreds of pounds of metal cooled at once. The process would take many hours on its own, so Cade and the others flaked off the upper portion of each mold, exposing the bright metal to the cool air. They didn’t splash it down with water for fear of making the steel brittle, but gave it time.
The first of their creations that Satemi retrieved from the ground was the head of a newly formed hammer. It was small enough to fit into Cade’s palm, and after she cleaned the clay off of its sides, she slid the tapered branch through the hole in its center. After wedging it down as tight as she could, she held up her shiny new tool and grinned.
Her first priority had been tools.
They made five hammers, all slightly larger than the last. The biggest of the bunch was a proper sledge, and Cade knew that though his battle axe had a hammer affixed to its opposite edge, this new tool would function a hundred times better.
A few ladles were made as well as a proper cook pot. The pot was one of the most challenging molds they made as they didn’t want to have the metal simply puddle up in the clay. Minda formed a hollow, pot-shaped depression in the ground, and Satemi had taken some time to carve the end of a stump to fit inside the mold perfectly. That way, when the metal was poured in, it would be able to harden in the hollow, bowl shape of a pot.
The rest of their items were simple though: a few flat blades for cooking or preparing meat; a set of small, matching bucklers for Satemi, each the size of a frisbee to attach to the back of her wrists; an entire row of thick, rectangular plates; and a few more innovative designs Satemi was excited to try out. In all, they’d spent nearly half the day forming various molds and less than half an hour melting and filling them. Gemma beamed with pride when she was done, knowing how invaluable her contribution to the village had been.
When everything cooled, Ketzal called Bellows, having him stand as still as any massive boar could while they fitted him with a crude but functional set of plate armor.
Satemi wound tough leather through the four holes set in each corner of the metal plates. And binding them together, covered first his chest, and then the boar’s flanks as well. Considering his great size, the plates looked more like scale mail, but Bellows wore it proudly. Best of all, though the web of interlocking armor would be enough to flatten any one of them, it was relatively light. He clanked around in a circle, proud as a pony, and didn’t seem to be affected by the weight at all.
Though they were tired, Ketzal guided Cade and Minda as they wrestled with the improved saddle to get it to work on top of the new armor. It took dozens of small adjustments, but as the light was fading, they at last were successful.
Removing it all took nearly as long, so Cade prepared dinner with the two women by the light of their fire, his head dizzy with fatigue and his stomach growling like a jaguar.
Satemi had borrowed Sholl, who had chosen an Improvised Craftsman Occupation, to do some final work in her shop. The two were clambering around inside until Minda at last pounded on the door, angry the two hadn’t joined them all for dinner yet.
At last, the workshop door swung open and Satemi stepped out, arms full of shiny, new toys.
“I’ll eat, I promise. But first, Minda, would you like to try on your new and improved armor?”
22
(A)pples and (Ba)Naynays
“How do I look? Be honest. I feel a bit ridiculous,” Ketzal said, turning around as she presented herself to the others, decked out in her full battle regalia.
Minda assured her she looked fierce, and Satemi got creative with it. “You look like you could kill three men foolish enough to flirt with you. Oh, and your horns go well with the shield.”
The demoness huffed out a cloud of frustration. “Really? Thank you, I just need to get used to it is all. The shield feels… well, not exactly bulky, but silly.”
Taking pity on the woman, Cade felt it was a good time to boast. “Not only are you sexy enough to cause a traffic accident, but I wouldn’t fight you for a pile of gold and a keg of dark beer. Well, I might fight you for the beer, but you look damn serious, Ketzal.”
She perked up a bit, trying to accept the compliments. Though Cade hadn’t picked up a new shield, he felt much the same. None of them had the luxury of a matching set of armor, unless you counted Sholl, and he loathed his former master’s garb more than all of them and for good reason.
“Listen up, everyone. I know this is awkward, but if you need to, look at your new items’ stats. We are stronger now than we were yesterday. It doesn’t matter how we look or feel. Just know it is true and worth the price,” Cade said, hoping his words would not only bolster their flagging confidence but muster some enthusiasm as well.
The villagers of Camp Casmeer weren’t all disappointed, however.
Satemi couldn’t stop looking down at the flat discs of steel fastened to the back of her wrists. They were hardly large enough to call bucklers, but knowing her, she would be using them to block arrows and deflect blades in no time. The warrior was the most skilled among them for sure, and still the highest level. If anyone could ensure their victory over Vormer, it was her.
She’d performed a small miracle
with Sholl in their crafting endeavors last night. They’d used their new hammers and Cade’s axe to cut the chain mail shirts down to size. Each of them wore a sleeveless version under leather vests. The double reinforced armor was much lighter than the heavy plate the Silver Guard wore, and though it provided less protection, was a drastic improvement over what they were used to.
Cade inspected his chainmail shirt, curious to see what kind of benefits it provided.
Modified Chainmail Vest
Quality: Fine
Description: Provides moderate reduction in slashing and piercing damage.
The moderate reduction in damage was good on its own, but added to the already-bolstered leather vest, and he would be one tough balloon to pop. The great spears the Silver Guard carried could do the trick though, so he didn’t feel anything close to invulnerable.
Satemi, Minda, and Cade also wore a set of greaves, which protected their lower legs nicely, but still used the leather skirt-like armor for their thighs. It was an odd assortment, and it didn’t look exactly flattering, but function was their goal. The greaves felt strange to wear, especially as he was still running barefoot in this world. Still, he couldn’t deny that the armor provided some much needed protection.
Silver Guard Greaves
Quality: Exquisite
Description: Provides greater reduction in slashing, piercing, and blunt damage.
The added protection from blunt damage was the most remarkable aspect of the greaves, other than their sleek design perhaps. Knowing Vormer, he was most likely the one who’d insisted on the silver filigree and the black varnish inlay. But Cade was willing to put up with a little extravagance if it meant “greater” reduction in damage. Another part of him, tucked deep inside and not at all okay with admitting it openly, thought they made him look pretty damn cool.