Bloody Crucible- Lone Wolf

by E C Chii

  Antoanio smiled as he nodded and then promptly shooed her away, watching her head over to the armorer.

  Sir Charle walked out from the back. “You really are incorrigible. Wolf paid for that spear weeks ago. Now you go and charge her more for it.” He said with a laugh.

  Antoanio smiled like a cat that got the cream, “My mother always told me to get every copper I could. Also, I did tell her a little fabrication of the truth. I was experimenting, but this wasn’t the experiment. This was the final product and quite possibly one of my masterpieces if Aohr wills it.”

  “Aohr? I am not too familiar with that deity. Refresh my memory isn’t that the god of blacksmiths?”

  “The one and the same, now that the quest is done I can speak of it. Aohr passed a quest to me to learn how to make six different types of weapons from Wolf’s world. That is why I wasn’t at the trial the other day. I just finished.” Antoanio said puffing his chest out only now letting Sir Charle see the black iron medallion hanging around his neck.

  “What other weapons did you learn to make?” Sir Charle asked interested.

  “Oh, let me show you.” Antoanio said excitedly as they walked into the back

  Chapter 30 – Quoth the Raven

  Several kilometers away in the same cave Wolf emerged from the remaining eggs rocked and thumped. One darkened from its teal color to an emerald green color while the other took on an extremely dark scarlet color. The green egg shrank and became darker before cracking with a lithe and feminine pale green hand bursting through. The scarlet egg began to swell and stretch almost to the point of bursting when a large muscular leg burst through the shell nearly causing it to explode. In the back of the cave completely invisible to any mortal eyes that existed. A burly man known as the god Týr, stood with arms crossed and a smile of satisfaction across his face.

  Like a father watching his wife give birth for the first time. The joy and satisfaction he held could simply not be expressed. These two when combined with the tenacity of the first would allow him, his sister, and his best friend to change the world for the better and set many mistakes they had made over the eons right. Looking over the cave the man looked at the changes that Wolf had made before he went to the Kokuri village with mild impression.

  He would have never thought to use magic to create reflective surfaces thus allowing sunlight to enter the dark cavern. What impressed him most was the sheer amount of light that managed to make it here. He thought to himself, ‘perhaps we needed these new ideas much sooner than they had come.’

  The large hulking red-brown skinned beast was the first to break free and slumped onto the ground panting and gasping. The figure was male with no hair, large gemlike scarlet tusks protruding from its lower jaw nearly reaching its cheekbones. Shuddering from the cold cave and being covered in thick mucus he fell unconscious on the bed of leaves and detritus that littered the floor attempting to gather as much as he could for insulation.

  Týr looked from the hulking man’s figure to the now limp arm of the feminine figure still trapped in the egg. Frowning at the idea that one would fail to hatch made many of his plans go awry. So, lost in his own thoughts he missed the slight twitching of the fingers and light hum emanating from the egg until it pulsed several times and blades of wind burst from the inside tearing the shell apart like tissue paper.

  The sudden action made his battle instincts kick in and he deftly drew his skeggöx battle-axe from his belt loop and hurstwic shield from his back. He stood frozen waiting for the next thing to happen before he responded with the fury of an angered god, both figuratively and literal in every sense. The body of the obviously female figure was gently placed on the ground not far from the hulking one. When he didn’t see anything that could or would threaten him he placed his weapon and shield back in their holsters and continued to watch. When he was satisfied with their certain survival in the immediate term he vanished without even leaving any form or trace.

  Hours passed before either of the figures began to stir. By this time the light leaking into the cave began to warm it to the point where it was comfortable without shivering. As more light poured in additional reflective surfaces came alight further brightening the areas previously hidden areas. Words and letters were carved throughout the walls in a language not native to this world. The first to rise was the female with pale greenish skin tone. Her sable black hair reached her shoulders and black eyes fluttered as she took in the surroundings.

  Rising shakily to her feet and paying no mind to her nudity, patches of scales emanated from dozens of scars marring her flesh. Taking in her surroundings she basked in the reflected sunlight and began to feel better at such a fast rate it surprised her. Looking over to the hulking figure she picked up a rather long and straight stick that she felt could be used as a quarterstaff. One hand rested a little more than a hand’s breadth away from the butt of the stick while the other was closer to the middle. With the tip pointing at the slumbering humanoid as it snored noisily.

  Gently poking it with the tip to rouse the beast, she heard it say, “Stop man! I am trying to sleep. I just got off watch, wake Raven if you need something!” he said as he rolled pointing his back toward the woman and went back to sleep.

  The pale green woman took a step back filled with confusion and uncertainty. A melodious voice came from her as she asked in a voice that broached no nonsense or weakness, “Who are you and where are we?” Dropping the stick, she eased over to the other side of the beast of a man to get a closer look at its face. Alarm bells rang in her head telling her this man was quite possibly one of the most dangerous people she had met in both lives.

  The woman creeped around to once again face the man. Mild agitation overtook her as she used a rock to throw at him with no results. Agitation continued to mount as she threw several more rocks to no result. Getting sick of being ignored, she took another stick and bashed him in the shin, snapping the stick in half. The figure jumped up into a combat stance reminiscent of a Krav Maga practitioner. While the woman leapt back, losing her grasp on the stick. Once she was a comfortable distance away, she started to move in a capoeira’s ginga rocking movements. The two warily eyeballed each other waiting for the other to make the first move.

  “Capoeira? Really? That is more dance than fighting style little girl, might as well be tip toeing through the tulips. Me thinks you have been watching too many movies.” The hulking figure asked with a deep rumbling voice.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be tip toeing my foot up your ass in a minute?” the woman’s songlike voice and speech belied the cold ruthlessness of her words and tone.

  “You talk good for a little girl, it’s a shame that I will need to mess up that pretty little face of yours.” The man replied with a blood thirsty smile as he made the first move by taking a few measured steps to test the water.

  His steps were countered by the woman’s ginga easily and efficiently moving her a meter to the left to his right side. This dance continued for several minutes with exploratory moves being exchanged, as the two nude figures moved around in a game of deadly chess. To the casual onlooker it would have looked like something from a comedy movie or a bad X-rated film.

  The first to land a blow was the woman when she saw the man overstep and leave his left knee exposed for a crushing kick. As quick as lightning she twisted and spun on one hand using her weight to build momentum, speed and power. When she felt she had enough power she let loosed a series of speedy and unexpected barrage of kicks. Masking her true target among others was the whole reason she had taken capoeira in her previous life. While the hulking man was strong he was not nearly as agile as she was. He had managed to block a few of the spinning kicks but failed to block the three most important ones. The first, fifth and seventh kicks were the most critical kicks that had needed to be blocked.

  The first kick had thrown him off balance allowing her to pressure him into exposing his right side even further. The fifth and seventh had landed in such a short timeframe
that the monstrous man had completely lost his balance. Trying to balance on his left knee he didn’t see the final kick take his leg out from under him. One moment the hulking beast of a man was looking at her as she evaded him at every attempt to attack her, the next he was staring at the cavern ceiling. When he landed she had figuratively and literally stunned him? She too was stunned but not by any attack but by a translucent window that appeared in front of her.

  Raven Hill has inflicted Peirce Pwnson with a ‘Stunned’ debuff, for 3 seconds.

  Shocked at a notification screen both of their minds reeled at the possibilities of what this meant. The man was the first to break from his own thoughts as Raven could imagine this “Peirce’s” mind worked through things like hers was.

  Still laying on the cavern floor, he said “Yeah, you fight like Raven did, but your definitely not Raven. Raven is a dude, and your no dude. Who are you?”

  “I am Raven.” She exclaimed

  “Okay, let’s do this…” Peirce said as he was getting up shaking off the last remnants of the stun.

  “If you ARE the Raven I am thinking about. What is his full name?” he said to her with narrowed eyes ready to continue the fight.

  “Captain Robert Reginald Hill. Call sign is Raven.” Raven said as she took a deep breath. “My last mission was near Chengu…Chenju…Kenju…” Raven said with her brow crunching up in mild annoyance since she was struggling to pronounce the Chinese city’s name. Giving up on being able to pronounce it properly she closed her mouth and began to look at this Peirce man.

  “Fair enough, I suppose that means you really are Raven. Nice rack by the way.” Peirce said eyeballing her figure.

  Raven frowned, and said “Your turn to prove you are the Peirce I know. What was the ops name and how many people did you kill on the bridge?”

  Peirce started laughing hysterically at the memory, “Trick question. I didn’t kill anyone on the bridge it was an explosion that did the job. The ops name was Operation Donkey Punch. I can’t believe they actually chose my operation.”

  “Wait what?” Raven asked shocked

  Several more minutes of watching Peirce laughing uncontrollably until he managed to calm down.

  “I came up with that plan about four years ago and submitted it through the 2025 Operations plan round table. It was initially just a joke, but later Colonel Goodwin approached me saying it was a good plan and wanted me to flush out more details so when the next time the Chinese get squirrely we could give it to them like a rogue.” Pierce giggled again from his own joke

  “Yeah, yeah, rogues do it from behind. Why didn’t you tell me anything about it, your team leader?” Raven reprimanded

  “Well, that’s simple. It was never meant to be used. I didn’t know that the SO-96s existed let alone were capable of. When I created the Op we never had a delivery system. I guess the old man just knew something I didn’t and saw potential. You got to admit though it was funny as hell.” Pierce said still giggling.

  “Okay I guess that proves we are who we say we are. Though there are still a boat load of questions that we need answered. First being why are we both standing here with our junk flapping in the wind.” Raven said scowling as she looked around.

  It was only now, with the threat of danger having passed that she noticed several flashing icons like their neuro-interfaces they had used just the other day. Deciding that such things could wait until after they had managed to secure necessities for them to survive long enough to examine them in relative safety. When she looked back to Pierce, she saw that he was coming to the same conclusion. Both picked up large and sturdy sticks to use as makeshift weapons until they could be certain that the area was safe enough. Though a passing thought occurred to Raven as they slowly and steadily walked through the meandering cave exit.

  Moving down the corridor they passed several of the reflective surfaces that provided warmth, and light throughout the whole place. The how and why someone would create this stick in her mind, but it mattered little as they both made their way through the corridor. Suddenly Raven felt Peirce’s large rough hand grab her shoulder. Looking back with her eyebrow raised. Long ago she had learned to trust Pierce’s intuition when it came to danger.

  Peirce pointed at a small area just underneath the closest stone mirror. There was a small depression was a triangle with an ideograph just inside it. Upon closer examination did they discover a small barely visible strand of corded sinew painted black with some substance. Carefully they examined the symbol.

  Several moments passed when Raven spoke, “The only person I know who uses the Japanese kanji ‘Wolf’ in a triangle is Wolf himself. If Wolf was setting traps here that means this was his emergency shelter or bugout site. It also means that we missed his usual marking indicating a trapped corridor.” That meant they needed to be extra cautious since Wolf had no qualms about using all things in his traps, and if he felt worried enough to set traps in his bugout site there was certain danger nearby. Though Raven left that little detail out as it needn’t be said.

  “Fuck!” Pierce exclaimed a as a bit of color drained from his face. Of the 799th GSG, Wolf was the designated trap setter as he excelled in it more than anything. Peirce was the primary ambusher, and Raven was adept at all but couldn’t come close to any of his subordinates in their specialty.

  Several hours passed as they slowly and steadily bypassed numerous traps and eventually lost count of how many they had either disarmed, bypassed, or intentionally set off. Soon the light from the mirrors was beginning to wain and any hopes of continuing was starting to fade along with it. Over the last few minutes they had not encountered any new traps but when it came to Wolf that meant little. The next bend in the cavern wall they spotted a large engraving in the stone, depicting a triangle with a smiley face inside. Both Raven and Peirce knew that this meant that they had finally passed the end of the trapped corridor.

  Both breathed a sigh of relief as they entered in the living area that looked well kempt and full of dried fruits, vegetables, meat, furs, leather and a large pile of what looked like weapons and armor. Seeing all the food made their stomachs moan loudly, first to make a move was Pierce who decided to start making a stew for them to eat. As she saw Pierce head off to make something to eat, she couldn’t help but make the passing comment.

  “While you’re doing that make me a sammich too.” She said while smirking and watching Pierce give her the one finger salute.

  Going through the cave she found two sturdy cots, enough furs and miscellaneous fabrics that had obvious signs of blood all laid out looking to have been waiting to for a good washing. A thin layer of dust covered everything but was otherwise clean and tidy. On a makeshift desk she spotted a stack of thick leather with various figurines carved and whittled acting as paperweights. As she carefully looked at the first piece of leather, she could see it was a journal. Setting the paper down she continued to look for something that she could use as clothing at least until she could use the leathers present to make something herself.

  Finding an extremely crude leather dress and halter-top she thought to herself, well I am a woman now, might as well embrace it. That thought immediately made many memories wash up from the past, both souring and lightening her mood. ‘Something she had always wanted had finally come true, but what was the cost?’ She wondered as she was not naïve enough to believe this was some sort of fairy godmother thing and that a piper must be paid somewhere. Her own ideas and perceptions aside she quickly put the clothing on and began to look for something Pierce could wear.

  Finding nothing that he could wear properly she grabbed one of the larger furs and brought it to him. When she had returned to where the small fire was she was already smelling the tantalizing aroma of stew.

  “What did you find so…” Pierce trailed as he saw her walking up in the dress and halter-top.

  “What?” Raven asked incredulously.

  “Dam you fine girl!” Pierce said unwittingly

  “Oh
, put your tongue back in your mouth woman.” Raven said putting a bit of a swing in her hips with each step. Had it not been for the large scar and scales that came from it that crossed her stomach she would have completely pristine and unmarred skin that would put any Hollywood starlet to shame. Even with the scar the darker green scales seemed to accent her pale greenish skin only making her look better.

  Tossing the large fur to Peirce he wrapped it around his waist like a Samoan lava-lava and proceeded to ladle a portion of the stew into a wooden bowl for Raven. They ate in silence and went through the process of looking at the flashing icons demanding their attention. Like the game she had played when she was a he, a character screen came into view. At first it surprised her, and she almost dropped her bowl of stew but quickly recovered quick enough to save her meal.

  “Pierce can you show me what your character screen looks like?” Raven considered wanting to know capabilities, so they could come up with a long-term plan.