Jay slammed a bone thief down onto the ground before mercilessly beating the skeletal demon into crunchy paste. It wasn’t until the unfortunate fiend had been reduced to an unrecognizable mix of crushed bones and black ichor spread out over a wide radius on the side of the hill that she stopped her relentless assault.
“I don’t think you’ll be able to turn in a bounty for that one,” Sabina commented from a few yards away with a wide-eyed expression.
Jay heaved a heavy breath before putting her club onto her shoulder. She looked down at the mess she’d created, then back at Sabina.
“Worth it,” she said with the finality of the truly satisfied.
For the past several days, Jadis had undergone rigorous dawn-to-dusk training under the tender tutelage of Noll. The old wolf wasn’t a bad teacher, as it happened. He gave detailed instructions on what Jadis should do and how to do it, speaking with a verboseness when talking about combat that he otherwise eschewed when other topics came up. He wasn’t cruel, either. After Jadis’ initial apology for her behavior, he never brought the issue up again, nor did he seek to dole out reprisals. He just focused on teaching Jadis what she needed to know.
Unfortunately, that happened to be quite a lot in his estimation. Even worse, Noll was an exacting personality. He wouldn’t move on from one stance until Jadis had it completely right. He would tweak the position of her fingers as she gripped the handle of her weapon and the exact tilt of her wrist to an excruciating exactitude. Fortunately, since the three of Jadis were all just her, she didn’t have to wait for three different students to reach the same level of proficiency. If it had been otherwise, Jadis was fairly certain she would have lost her mind.
So, while Jadis wasn’t precisely annoyed with Noll and his teachings, she did have a lot of pent-up energy and frustration she needed to let out before she started breaking things that were actually important.
Hence her trip out into the Broken Hills.
While Jadis was focused on training, the rest of her company had not been idle. Aila, Eir, Kerr, and Thea had elected to take Sabina out into the hills on shortrange hunts for any demons that were still lurking in the area near the city. Not much experience was gained, since there weren’t many dangers left around Far Felsen what with the uptick in mercenary and soldier activity. Plus, experience split five ways wasn’t as good as experience split two ways. But Sabina didn’t know about Jadis’ unique multi-body skill, so to her it didn’t seem as big a change. Besides, some experience was better than no experience.
But after four days of dealing with Noll’s practically OCD levels of precision, Jadis had told the old wolf she had to get out into the fields because she’d made a promise to Sabina. Noll hadn’t objected, much to Jadis’ surprise.
“If you’re going to waste coin like that, you should waste it on food or drink.”
He did still follow her, though.
“It’s my ‘coin’ I can waste it however I want.”
Noll only grunted at that reply, which Jadis had learned was his default response to just about any conversation that didn’t have to do with battle.
Choosing to ignore him, Jadis gathered Sabina up and headed further to the east. There weren’t many demons close to the city, but there were still plenty of them further out. With her speed, Jadis was able to range further than her companions and thus had far more targets to take down. Most of the demons she came across were solo or in small groups, never more than a half dozen. Jadis guessed that had something to do with how many mercenary patrols were canvassing the hills, but she couldn’t be sure.
One thing she was sure of were the effects of the few days of training she’d received so far.
Noll had almost exclusively focused on teaching her how to stand, how to hold her weapons, and how to hold her own weight in various positions. She’d barely even swung her weapons at all during those days of training, and yet, as she crushed the minor demons she encountered as she forged her way eastward, she could definitely feel a difference in how she was handling herself. Her feet were more solid on the ground and she felt more balanced during and after every attack she made. She was able to swing her weapons more rapidly as she recovered from her initial attacks faster. There was no arguing with results. Noll’s training had made her a better fighter.
A growling sigh from behind her caused Dys’ head to drop in resignation.
“What is it?” she heaved a sigh of her own as she pulled her axe from the body of another dead wretch.
“You’re swinging too big.”
“Swinging too big?” Dys repeated as she turned to face the older mercenary. “What does that even mean, swinging too big?”
Noll crossed the distance between them with long strides before roughly taking the axe from Dys’ hands.
“Look. This is you,” he said before swinging the axe in a chopping motion.
He cut the air from right to left in a downward arc, smooth and swift and strong. Jadis didn’t see the problem.
“This is how you should be,” Noll said, then repeated the same motion.
Except, looking at the man from three different perspectives, Jadis saw the difference. The first time, Noll had swung so far that his right shoulder had fully turned forward, exposing his hunched back to the space in front of him. The second time, even though he still looked just as sure and powerful, he stopped before his arms took him that far.
“You see?” he asked before shoving the axe back into Dys’ hands. “You’re overextending. Stop showing the enemy your back. It’s not doing you any good to swing that big and it could get you killed.”
“Alright,” Dys nodded before taking a practice swing of her own.
Noll grimaced but nodded once.
“Better.”
The next few hours of travel continued on in much the same fashion. Jadis would spot demonic activity and run in to kill it while carrying Sabina along so she could soak in the experience points. Noll would follow behind, occasionally giving her abrupt corrections on how she should move or swing the weapon whichever one of her bodies was holding. He didn’t talk much otherwise, and generally stayed far enough back that Jadis didn’t think he was leeching any of the experience. That didn’t mean the trip was silent, though. Sabina kept up a running monologue, talking about ideas she had for armor and weapons or even random tools that had nothing to do with combat at all.
It was while Jadis was planting the idea of an automatic washing machine in the smith’s head that they stumbled across a semicircle of stone buildings overlooking a deep cut in the coastal cliff. It took her a moment, since she’d never seen it from a top-down perspective before, but eventually she put the pieces together.
“That’s Alawar, isn’t it?”
“Hm?” Sabina said, trailing off as she looked where Syd was pointing. “Oh, yes! I think it is. Have we really gone forty miles already? It’s such a long way and it’s only been a few hours!”
Jadis was struck with a sudden impulse to run away from the cursed location. After all, it was the scene of her biggest defeat, the one time she’d been forced to flee from demons with no other recourse. A lot of people had died in that abandoned village. People she barely knew, for sure, but still people she’d been laughing and joking with not minutes before they’d been literally blown to pieces by foul demonic magics.
She ruthlessly squashed that cowardly instinct. Retreat had been a necessity at that time but Jadis wasn’t about to let fear rule her actions. Running away wouldn’t do her or anyone else any good anyway.
“That where you pups got lost in the tunnels?”
All three of Jadis were startled at Noll’s sudden intrusion into her dour thoughts. She hadn’t heard him approach at all. Sabina squeaked as Syd nearly dropped her and clutched onto her neck even tighter.
“Uh, yeah,” Jay answered the merc. “That’s the place.”
“Fucking Twisted Wretch Matriarch drove us under,” Dys explained, feeling an urge to justify her choices. “Couldn’t get out because of a bunch of grundwyrms guarding the exit and we couldn’t get close to the matriarch because of all those fumes and shit. Didn’t have a lot of choices.”
“I’d love to have a second crack at that bitch,” Syd growled, tightening her grip on the lance Sabina had straightened for her.
Noll only hummed a little to that declaration, otherwise refraining from comment. Jadis couldn’t help but think he had a deeper opinion on the matter than he was letting on, one that didn’t view her too favorably, but she might have just been projecting.
“You don’t think it’s still there, do you?” Sabina asked worriedly, craning her neck to get a better look at the village.
“Not likely,” Noll answered before pointing a clawed finger at the cobblestone road leading into the edge of the village.
A wagon stood there with aurochs hitched to its front. Several armored figures were milling about it. Nearby, she could see a pole with a flag bearing the blue eagle on a white field that indicated they were Imperial soldiers.
“There’s a tunnel entrance in there,” Jay mused. “Makes sense Vraekae would have sent some guards to watch over it.”
“First name basis with the Magistrate, huh?” Noll chuckled.
“With as often as she sticks her blue nose in our business? Yes.”
“Let’s go say hello and check things out,” Dys suggested. “Might as well while we’re here.”
“Okay that’s fine but if a demon matriarch shows up I’d really rather not disappear into the tunnels for a couple of weeks because that sounds awful not because it’d be with you but because that sounds scary and dangerous and I’m not a fighter like you though I trust you to keep me safe but that’s still a frightening prospect and shit I’ll shut up now.”
Jadis contained her laughter at Sabina’s nervous rambling. She had no intention of being forced under ground again. While she didn’t know about her odds against the Twisted Wretch Matriarch when she didn’t have her companions with her, she was absolutely certain a trio of grundwyrms wouldn’t pose much of an obstacle to her anymore. Not with her recent increase in strength. Maybe that was a bit of overestimation of her abilities, she had to admit to herself upon a moment’s reflection, but not much of one. The big stone demons just weren’t the threat to her that they once were.
Jadis made her way down the hill with Sabina and Noll in tow. It only took a couple of minutes to get down to the village’s edge and once she was there, she could see that there were a lot more soldiers stationed at the previously abandoned village than she’d thought. Dozens of men were present, many of them working on repairing the outer walls of the village. They’d also partially transformed one of the buildings near the entrance into a tower, several of the men busily working on adding timbers to the construction in order to finish the elevated position.
“Who goes?” a man wearing the white surcoat of the military demanded as Jadis approached.
He and another guard stood at the fore of the village gates, clearly acting as sentries. The wagon led by aurochs was just inside the gates, along with a squad of horses and several soldiers, some of whom were unloading the wagon while others among them watched Jadis’ approach.
“Who goes?” the soldier next to him echoed while turning to the first with an incredulous look. “They’re sodding giants you daft fool, who do you think they are?”
“Could be a trick,” the first man answered defensively. “Maybe even a demonic one. In any case, I said ‘Who Goes’ and I haven’t heard who it is yet!”
“Jay, Dys, Syd, and Sabina of Fortune’s Favored,” Jay called out after stopping a comfortable distance away from the two soldiers acting as guards. “And Noll. He’s with us, I guess, but he’s an independent.”
“Noll? Noll the Savage? The first man stared at the therion with his mouth gaping. “I saw you at the Golden Leaf Tournament five years ago! You trounced Gallus in the finals! Can I get your autograph?”
The second guard loudly cleared his throat and the first seemed to regain his senses.
“Right, ahem, well,” he took a stiff posture. “I’ll need to check you lot to make sure you’re not possessed.”
“Bad news for you if I am,” Noll said while bearing all of his sharp white teeth. “You’d miss out on your autograph.”
With an audible gulp, the man pulled a small round stone with a hole through the middle of it from a pouch at his side. Familiar with the process, Jadis made no objection as the man activated the enchanted item with a word and the runes carved into the stone flared to life.
“Three Nephilim, all CLR forty-nine,” the guard mumbled. “Elf-human hybrid, level seventeen… crafter class? Alright then…”
He turned the stone on Noll and let out an amazed exhalation.
“CLR one hundred and fifty-seven! That’s what, twenty levels higher than you were at the tourney? Fucking amazing! Uh, amazing job, sir. Keep up the good work.” The soldier finished lamely as he reigned his energetic response back in.
“Okay then,” Jay broke into the conversation before the fanboy could start gushing again. “Now that you know we’re not demons, mind if we go in and check the place out? Our last trip to Alawar didn’t end so great but we kind of want to take another look around if that’s alright.”
“And if you need help with any demons, we’re happy to assist,” Syd added in an attempt to butter the two guards up. “No charge.”
“Appreciate the offer,” the second man said with a courteous nod at Syd. “But we’ve got everything under control here.”
“Also, no admittance,” the first guard said stiffly to Jay. “By general Egilhard’s orders. Now about that autograph—”
“Who the fuck is general Egilhard?” Dys asked, one fist going to her hip. “Isn’t Weigrun run by Magistrate Vraekae?”
Before Jadis could quite register the cringing expressions on the two soldiers’ faces, a human man with a salt and pepper beard walked out from a group of soldiers that had been variously working and observing the interaction between her and the guards. A glimmer of recognition went through Jadis’ memory as she felt certain she’d seen the man somewhere before, though she couldn’t quite place where or when.
“I’m general Egilhard,” the man said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his grey eyes. “And The Magistrate isn’t the only person of authority charged with the protection of Weigrun from demonic forces.”
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