Delvers LLC: Welcome to Ludus

by Blaise Corvin

  Henry narrowed his eyes. "Then why are you following Bezzi-ibbi now? Doesn't that mean you abandoned this Thod? Why didn't you kill yourself earlier, like weeks ago?" Henry snorted. "Better yet, why didn't you just leave?"

  Rark-han looked even more miserable when he replied, "I did not have the courage to end my own life. I still held hope that I could see the ancestors after my death, that I could die well. And when the shame was too great, when I had to face my shame, the Hero stopped me. Now I must pay a life debt to all Mo'hali for my crimes. I would much rather be dead. I am a coward, and my life is no longer my own."

  Jason shook his head. Mo'hali are crazy. Still, he was starting to realize that all Mo'hali seemed to share some baseline morality. The various Clans all probably had slight differences, though. Rark-han's code of honor seemed much more rigid than he remembered the Jaguar Clan's being.

  He was also beginning to understand that Bezzi-ibbi's transformation into a Mo'hali Hero was a bigger deal than he'd originally thought. Rark-han treated Bezzi-ibbi like he was a saint, like a respected religious leader.

  Jason just hoped Rark-han was truly on their side. The big man's bronze axes looked very effective. To be honest, their group could really use his help, though. The element of surprise was gone. If Rark-han was correct about number of bandits, the Delvers were badly outnumbered too. Their leader was orb-Bonded too.

  That last part threw Jason off a bit. He was also surprised when Rark-han said all the bandits on the road had seen Bezzi-ibbi's Hero status too. Jason couldn't believe he and Henry had made such a huge oversight. Bezzi-ibbi should have been hiding with them. Jason really needed to stop thinking of Bezzi-ibbi as just a kid.

  Unfortunately, since all the bandits rarely saw Thod, the bandit leader, Rark-han couldn't give Jason any more information about the man other than the fact he was orb-Bonded and very strong. It seemed the Bonded/Hero alert that Dolos had announced didn't happen unless someone was seeing a Holder for the first time or after a long time with no contact.

  Jason was scared, but he was trying to control it. They were moving to attack a large group of hardened criminals who were undoubtedly waiting for them. Sometimes Jason still had a hard time accepting his new reality. He was on an alien world, using magic, and dating--well, sort of dating--an alien girl who killed people with a spear. It sounded like he was tripping on acid or reviewing the plot of a cracked-out anime.

  Jason would have doubted his sanity at times, except he knew if this were truly a dream, his girlfriend would have been a cat girl. Maybe a pair of cat girl twins. The thought made Jason angry with himself. How could he simultaneously, deep down, want to meet some real life cat girls while still being so freaked out by Uluula suggesting real-world polygamy? How could he be dating such an amazing woman and still have these thoughts in the first place?

  He'd never had this problem before, but he'd also never lived in a world where cat girls were real.

  The Jaguar Clan Mo'hali women were sort of close to cat girls, but they were more fierce than cute. Yet to his shame, Jason had still had a hard time not staring at the Jaguar Clan women over the past week. He wasn't sure if he wanted to pet them or snuggle them or... Jason, you are a horny fool.

  The worst part was he knew other feline Mo'hali races existed, and he was constantly afraid that he would make a fool of himself, especially if he ever met real cat girls. He really needed to get his own house if they survived this.

  He also needed to make sure Uluula never found out about his interest in cat girls. He didn't know if she'd be angry or try to find a bunch of cat girls for him to marry. He was honestly not sure which idea was more terrifying. If it was the latter, he wasn't sure he'd have the strength of will to refuse.

  Stupid Jason, you make no sense. He felt ashamed, but he couldn't lie to himself either. His fear was real. His weird relationship with Uluula confused the hell out of him too. They hadn't even kissed yet. He'd seen his girlfriend--sort of girlfriend--completely naked, and they hadn't even cuddled.

  And he was thinking about Uluula's vigina when he was moving towards a life or death battle. What in the hell was this world doing to him? He didn't feel crazy. Was he crazy?

  Rark-han held up a hand, signaling for quiet as they slowed their pace. They were getting close.

  Jason shook his head and made a vow to himself that he would never, ever walk into a dangerous situation like this again with such a shoddy plan and so few people. This mission was a necessary evil to secure funding and powerful allies. If he and Henry survived, they'd actually have the infrastructure to start building a real power base. But whether they lived or died, Henry's mom would still be cured, so at least that was good.

  If he and Henry had walked away from the Jaguar Clan, they would have had to fight a lot of innocent people who'd just tried to help them before. They might not have gotten away. He really didn't want to make an enemy of the Jaguar Clan. Jason didn't like his current situation, but they didn't have a lot of choice. That said, he never wanted to dance to the strings of another person or organization again.

  Jason hadn't thought too much about getting stronger before, but as he moved through the dark forest towards a bloody fight with bandits, following the orders of others, he knew he had to acquire more power.

  He had to be strong enough to never experience this situation again. He needed more physical power, more knowledge, more skill... he was too weak. He tightened his grip on his sword hilt as dark memories crawled up out of his subconscious. He'd been weak when he was a kid too, weak enough that he couldn't help his mother. Now, when he was trying to help his friend, he was still weak.

  He couldn't be weak anymore.

  The bloodlust he'd unleashed while escaping from the warehouse in Mirana stirred at the back of his mind. He let it grow, feeding it with his memories of helplessness and regret, his mistakes from hesitating too much. He would not let people he cared about get hurt again due to his inaction. Never again.

  He saw the bandit on the small hill about the same time every else did. The sentry hadn't been making any noise, so even Henry hadn't known he was there until they all made eye contact. Before the man could give an alarm or anyone else could react, Jason had already teleported behind the sentry, whipping his sword in a glittering arc. As the bandit fell, Jason followed up his cut to the man's neck with a savage stab to the back, ensuring the job was complete. The entire attack was over in a couple seconds.

  He turned back to the group. They were all staring at him. Henry's expression was thoughtful. Rark-han looked terrified, his ears laid back flat on his skull. Jason continued to feed his bloodlust with old weakness and regrets. Every time he'd felt helpless in his life, every memory of failure, he used them all to keep stoking the fire.

  From the top of the hill, Jason could see the bandit camp. Rark-han had been telling the truth. The Delvers came out of the woods oriented to the side of the camp, and at a glance, it looked like most of the bandits were standing behind a large wooden palisade or crouching on crude towers. They were obviously expecting a head-on attack.

  A few bandits stood around the camp, scanning random directions. Ah, that's right. Jeth knew what magic Henry and Jason used from the battle with the demon wolves.

  Jason also saw the cages. He saw the people inside, some of them incredibly young. They were all dead. Each prisoner had arrows sticking out of them, lying motionless in their wooden enclosures.

  The fire in Jason grew. He fed it his rage, his guilt. The prisoners might have been killed because of him. If Jeth had told them he could teleport, the bandits could have killed all the prisoners so Jason couldn't free and arm any of them. It made a savage sort of sense. Freed prisoners could have helped fight the bandits.

  The bloodlust in him was too great now for dispassionate thought. He needed action. He had to protect his friends. He had to avenge these people. He needed to destroy anyone or anything that could visit such atrocities on innocent people.

  He heard the rest
of his group catching up but ignored them. Jason teleported up into the air and unleashed hell.

  Bandits, Bandits Everywhere

  Henry blinked in surprise when Jason took out the sentry in a vicious display of magic and skill. His friend's eyes were wild, his breathing erratic... He's about to snap, Henry thought.

  When Jason turned and looked at the bandit camp, he grunted like he'd been hit. Then he glanced back one last time, snarled, and teleported. The bandits over the hill began yelling and sounding an alarm. Henry shook his head as he ran. Okay, he's fucking snapped.

  Henry kept running until he got to the top of the hill and stopped when he saw the prisoners in the cages. Some of them were only children. A little, dark-haired boy lying on the bottom of one cage could have been sleeping if not for the arrow sticking out of his back. Henry felt his revulsion rising, a deep, terrible anger following it. They didn't even have a chance. Slaughtered in cages. He stood still for a few moments and breathed deeply to center himself. Losing his temper wouldn't help these people and would just dull his mind. It was a jagged pill to swallow, but he had to calm down.

  Uluula was not so reserved. She took one look at the atrocities committed by the bandits, growled so deeply her petite body shook, and charged forward to help Jason. To her credit, she took a path winding behind trees and through dips in the terrain, but her efforts to avoid arrows proved to be unnecessary. All the bandits were focused on Jason. They shot arrow after arrow, but he was high enough in the sky that hitting him would have been difficult even without him teleporting all over the place.

  Jason stayed mobile, constantly changing his vector, throwing knives, and screaming in inarticulate rage. Henry hoped his friend was still considering his own life, but it didn't look like the tall former programmer was doing much thinking at all at the moment.

  Despite Jason's skill with throwing knives and the aid of his magic, he wasn't getting many solid hits. The bandits were ducking behind cover, staying mobile and out of his line of sight. They weren't exactly hardened soldiers, but they were still wily criminals. After seeing the first of their number go down, they made themselves more difficult targets.

  Jason could throw a knife from pretty much any location and vector in his line of sight, but it was obviously still hard to hit a moving target.

  Henry shook his head and started down the hill. He had to help his friends, which meant it was time to jump headlong into the fight. If he died, at least he knew he'd be killed doing something that mattered. He boosted his strength from the earth to his new maximum, increased since he'd been training, and bounded down the hill, armor rattling.

  Henry gestured for Rark-han to follow him. The wolf Mo'hali got a nod of confirmation from Bezzi-ibbi and loped after Henry. The big man's axes flashed in the sun.

  Rark-han let loose an ear-splitting howl as he ran towards the battle, as creepy as it was loud. Henry grinned, showing all his teeth, and his eyes grew hard. He wasn't Mo'hali, but he understood the sentiment. He let his killer's heart grow cold, his blood ice in his veins, and loosed his own howl. He charged the closest group of bandits with flashing bronze and righteous anger.

  * * *

  Mareen stood on the hill watching the chaos unfold and felt the pit of her stomach drop. What I am I doing here?

  She gulped at witnessing evidence of the bandits' cruelty. Her fear grew when she realized how many bandits they were truly fighting. Meanwhile, Henry bowled into a whole group of bandits, scattering them with his superhuman strength before he and Rark-han held their position back-to-back.

  Above Henry, Jason was like a god of death, delivering glittering knives out of nowhere to occasionally strike down archers and lightly armored bandits. He flew through the air, effortlessly dodging arrows and screaming his defiance at the bandits.

  Despite the danger Jason was in, Mareen was most worried for Henry. Not only was he fighting for his life, he was also relying on a man who'd been an enemy less than an hour ago to watch his back. Mareen knew Mo'hali honor and culture was very strict, but she still felt sick to her stomach. If Rark-han betrayed them, Henry didn't have a chance.

  What Henry needed was someone to guard his back. He needed someone he could depend on. He needed someone... who wasn't Mareen.

  She knew she was useless. She was good at math, but anyone with parchment and pencils could do figures. She was decently educated, but that just took time and textbooks. Sure, she was a Life mage, but she wasn't all that powerful, and the two men she was trying to support could practically heal themselves. She knew how to use a bow, but she wasn't very skilled. Despite being stationed on top of a wagon, she hadn't been able to hit a single demon wolf when they'd attacked the caravan.

  She didn't even have the upper body strength to use a real war bow, not that it mattered since her bow aim was as bad as Henry's throwing. She wasn't strong enough for every camp chore, and Henry could do most of them effortlessly anyway. She was a pretty good cook, but surprisingly, so was Jason.

  Mareen knew that she could have gotten a job pretty much anywhere on Ludus with her magic, but compared to her friends, she felt like a failure. Nobody in the group said she was worthless, but she decided they were probably just being kind to her.

  Mareen felt like she was betraying her decision to support Henry and Jason. There was no point in a servant that wasn't actually needed. What was more, it seemed like every time the stakes were raised or the situation grew more serious, her companions got more powerful, more skilled; Mareen didn't. She felt like she was stagnating, bringing dishonor to herself and her village. Plus, now that the group knew Jeth was a murdering rapist with the bandits, her village's honor was further damaged.

  On top of everything else, she was fairly sure Henry knew about her girlish attraction now, and he wasn't even talking to her anymore. He was obviously not interested. He hadn't outright rejected her, but she knew it had to be coming. Her heart song had started to despair.

  Mareen stood on the hill next to Bezzi-ibbi and realized she didn't know what to do. If she ran down to fight, she'd probably be a liability to her teammates. She felt deeply ashamed. Her father hadn't been Bonded. In fact, he hadn't even been born to this world, and he was still one of the greatest adventurers of his time. Meanwhile, Mareen, his daughter, was a failure.

  Suddenly, Bezzi-ibbi cocked his head and ran off with no warning. His little legs moved incredibly quickly, and his tail stood straight out behind him as he sprinted. The boy was more graceful, powerful, and brave than Mareen could ever hope to be. Even the child is more useful than me!

  Mareen was alone.

  She stood watching the battle for a few more moments while she choked on her own helplessness.

  The bandit archers were either dead or dying. It seemed Jason was about to run out of throwing knives and teleported to the top of a guard tower, probably to conserve energy.

  Henry and Rark-han were joined by Uluula and were holding their own. Uluula was able to keep the bandits at bay with the length of her spear; Rark-han was skilled and fast, chopping at the bandits' weapons with his heavy axes; and Henry was like a force of nature. Some of the bandits had crude armor and a decent amount of skill, but Henry was skilled, armored, and his strength was overwhelming. If a terrified bandit took too long to dispatch, Henry simply shot them with one of his bronze projectiles.

  Mareen wasn't a soldier, but even she realized that if Henry could reload more often instead of fighting hand-to-hand, the battle might already be over. It was too bad his strange weapons weren't more accurate, or he could have just stayed on the hill with her, cutting the bandits to pieces even faster than he already was.

  Mareen carefully avoided studying the blood and death surrounding her. She knew she'd be fine as long as she didn't focus on anything that would make her nauseated. She had to be strong for her friends.

  I will not be useless in this battle. I refuse to be! Mareen clenched her jaw.

  She wanted to help, but she needed high ground to use h
er bow. Somewhere defensible... She spotted an empty, well-positioned bandit tower at the rear of the camp. With a new surge of determination, she began moving towards the tower through the woods on the perimeter of the camp.

  She was afraid. She even felt like someone was watching her. She glanced around, steeled her spine, and continued on. She refused to be anything less than the best woman she could be. At least this way, if she still fell short of her friends, she would be able to stand among them without shame.

  * * *

  Henry was beginning to feel cautiously optimistic about the battle. Maybe I'm not going to die after all!

  They'd taken down about half the bandits. The Delvers were still outnumbered, but every time a bandit popped out from behind cover to shoot an arrow or hurl a spear, Jason threw one of his few remaining knives. He didn't hit very often anymore, the bandits were too wily, but it kept them from interfering too much.

  Henry knew Jason could probably teleport for a better position or even fight directly with his sword, but his friend was probably trying to conserve magic energy like he was. The amount of magic he and Jason had already used during the fight was greater than their maximum a few weeks ago.

  Fighting people was proving to be difficult. The monsters they'd fought before were strong and fast, but they were stupid. The bandits were clever.

  Bandits pressed Henry just enough that he couldn't easily load his exoguns. They also didn't give him time to aim. They threw themselves out of the way when he fired and stayed on the move. Henry was glad the bandits couldn't know they'd destroyed his ammo pouch too. The truth was he didn't even have much ammo left, only three more balls in his tube.

  He could tell where the dropped ammo was by using his earth mapping skill, but there was no way he would have a chance to go back and pick the balls up.

  Henry had a few moderate wounds on his body. He was starting to slow down too. His endurance skill and his healing ability were probably helping, but he was losing energy. He took an arrow to the back of his arm and had to rip it out, the broad head leaving a gaping, gushing wound. He didn't have time or space to deal with it, though. He just hoped his healing ability would close the wound before he got light-headed.