Chapter 62: The Hunters
Perspective: Kay
"Can you feel it?" my Book asked me.
I scanned the overlapping lines of magic for a few seconds, and then spotted it. Her magical perception.
"Poor thing," I mused. "All involuntary. Well, entropy is as entropy does."
"Take this seriously."
"I wouldn't be about to do this if I wasn't."
I had only a small entourage with me - at least by my standards. At the time I would normally have Astro, Warnado, Tyron and at least ten guards (not including Rose). I did the same thing under Herobrine. I would love to tell you it was some strategic show of unity or strength or personability, but fundamentally I just liked having people with me. It made me feel important.
But that day, I had resisted this impulse. Only Rose and two of my guards. And my Book, if you count them. They certainly did.
"These beings attacked Fire unprovoked, you must be diplomatic if you want this to be anything other than a bloodbath."
I placed a hand on the door into the Portal Room.
"Don't worry, I'm not Claw. I have restraint. They'll have to really work at it to get hurt"
My jaw tensed instinctively and thrust my features into a demure look of neutrality. I reshuffled my scarf and entered.
We approached the portal and passed by a group of new arrivals. Warriors, green-eyed endermen, and a couple of red dragons. However, two stood out: a starry dragon, and a beautiful woman with dark hair and a confident smile.
"Glowstar and Rathina, if I'm not mistaken?" I said with a half-bow. "Welcome to the Shelter. Tyron speaks highly of you."
I didn't wait for a response. I simply strode up to the scientist manning the machine and handed him the dimensional coordinates, ripped straight from Fire's notes.
"Yeah, that's us," said Rathina a little incredulously. "And you are?"
"I am the King in Ash. Now, if you'll excuse me..."
The portal burst into life, blasting my hair and scarf back. I cast a glance back at Rose and the guards. Rose's hair, and the guards' scarves (imitations of my own) fluttered in the dimensional winds. I couldn't help but smile, before turning my elated eyes back to Rathina.
"...I must expand our ranks further still."
Several footsteps later, we stood at the foot of a snowy hill, a disused Nether portal behind us. A blizzard raged, but thanks to the Book my senses pierced through the snow, if only barely.
I scanned the horizon and saw a pack of blood-stained creatures - all white fur and fangs - padding away from the mangled, indecipherable carcass of their prey in a cacophony of howls and roars. The only thing I could tell about their victim was that it had been huge, at least one house tall and two houses long. Here and there the shreds of a rubbery, dark-blue skin could still be witnessed.
Somewhere else, I saw a line of spikes defending an apparently populous village. The architecture was rudimentary but monolithic, fashioned from the bones and skins of the leviathans which roamed these snowy plains. And I could see the far-off forms of its inhabitants darting around like ants.
But was it the right village?
"Rose, what are our coordinates?"
My bodyguard wore a heavy coat made from the fur of whatever wildlife our hunters managed to bag with more-or-less matching pants and hat. It certainly lacked the elegance of Rose's usual outfit, but it was necessary in this weather. She seemed largely unimpressed, even after beholding the local wildlife with her own supernaturally sharp senses.
Rose shouted over the blizzard: "Roughly ten-thousand-three-hundred in the primary direction and fifty-thousand in the secondary. It's close but apparently there should be a forest somewhere around here."
With a little help from my Book, I got my bearings. Turning my head slightly North-West, I caught a glimpse of the forest. Then, following the lines of energy, I saw his entry and exit point. Somewhere in the middle lay the place where blood fell on the snow. Where Fire had ceded to Claw. Where Claw had sown the seeds of his demise.
"Excellent," I smiled. "Be ready, I'm about to open a portal for the village."
Obviously, warping four people over that sort of distance was no longer much of a bother for me. I just needed to get my pitch together in my mind.
"Separate the leader from the group," I devised. "A bit of prop-work, perhaps… Wait…"
"Sorry, Rose, just a moment."
I warped away before she could respond. I emerged in the forest, right where I reckoned the fight would have gone down. I looked around. No sign of the diamonds Fire said he'd left as blood money. And the bodies, obviously, had been recovered. I cursed, that would have been a boon. Though it was useful to know they valued diamonds like we did.
I arrived back distracted, remembering I hadn't heard Raphoe's report on Steve. I'd gotten the sense that Steve… that a lot of people were a little unnerved by my coronation. I understood, I really did, but new eras never fail to terrify. That's at least half the reason eras last so long! And, of course, Shadow very much wanted things back as they were under Fire. So, My Book and I agreed that, in order to ensure no one attempted to stop the beginning of this golden age, we would give them reason to be afraid.
So, I had ordered Steve to carry out a superfluous task and then sent Raphoe and a squad of soldiers to unnecessarily check up on him, to insinuate to him that, yes, I had noticed his discontent, and that acting on it was a dreadful idea. Underhanded, yes, but I reckoned a fairer, more perfect world was worth one builder feeling a little insecure.
I opened the rift and our party stepped through.
We stood in a clearing near the middle of the village, and predictably found ourselves almost immediately in the midst of a tornado of spears, crossbows and other assorted weapons.
I eyed the hunters up. They were low-tech, with only a handful of diamond weapons between them, and their armour rarely exceeding leather. That said, their physiques were self-evident, and the look in their eyes suggested warriors worth cowering in the face of. In acknowledgement, I raised my hands in mock surrender.
"Remember: delicate."
"Oh dear," I began. "Well, this was a dreadful miscalculation. You have us totally surrounded. No need for a fight, you have us right where we want to be. Now, do you have a chieftain, a high priest, some decision-maker I could talk to?"
I curled my lip and looked around discerningly.
"No one? No leader?"
Finally, a pair of warriors stepped forwards, a woman and a man. Both built like bears, both covered in scars. The woman wore furs reinforced with large bones, giving the appearance of a second rib cage. The man instead wore one of the few complete suits of iron armor in the village, safe for his head, which was covered by a wolf skin.
The woman spoke: "We are the chieftains of this village, who are you and what makes you think you can just barge into our home?"
"I am Kay Mandy, the King in Ash who shall soon rule Nexus - the crossroads of creation. I have come because I want you to share in our glory. May we speak apart for a moment? It's better if we can work out a deal in private before declaring it before the people."
The man spoke this time: "What you have to say to us, you can say before them."
"A noble sentiment," I smile. "But ultimately the wrong answer. I'll be with you in a moment."
I raised my fist. The two fell into rifts and out of sight. The spears began to fly.
"Be cautious, we want a show of strength, not a blood feud."
"Naturally, Book," I muttered aloud.
A series of rifts opened in a ring around myself, Rose and the two soldiers, into which the spears flew directly. This continued for around twenty seconds, when the spears stopped flying, the rifts closed, and the warriors saw us standing quite unharmed. This was a warlike people, but they weren't stupid. Swords and axes were drawn, but not used.
"If you want your spears," I smirked. "They've landed somewhere about five hundred meters outside your prickly border. I'm going to go and talk to your leaders. While I'm gone, you are to be completely accommodating to my colleagues, and prepare for them a list of your present armaments and numbers. Anyone who attempts to harm them shall find themselves rather full of razor-sharp metal. Rose, a demonstration if you will."
Rose flicked her wrist and half a dozen knives embedded themselves in a line in the snow. I grinned at her and teleported away with a lax salute. Rose looked at me with half-closed eyes, a sigh probably followed shortly after. She could grumble at my methods all she wanted as long as my body remained guarded.
I emerged in the woods. The chieftains whirled around and assumed low, defensive stances, each carrying a knife made from bone. They eyed me but did not seem wedded to the idea of attacking, at least not yet.
"Now, where were we?" I asked with a clap of the hands and a winning smile.
"What. Do. You. Want?" The woman said with gritted teeth.
I flattened the smile.
"You lost a hunting party out here some time back, didn't you?"
I scrutinised the landscape with my enhanced senses, getting a loose impression of where blood was shed.
The man nodded. "Our oldest daughter led that party, she brought down behemoths regularly. We know no creature that could slaughter an entire hunting party, especially hers, and get away afterwards. Not just that, there was a satchel filled with diamonds among the corpses. Still ask myself if the creature left it as some kind of joke."
"My condolences. Different guy left the diamonds, though. The one who killed them is called Claw, and recently he has taken to serving my enemies. Killed a good few of my friends - including my predecessor, a man named Fire - and seems interested in killing more.
"Now, I've noticed that your resource situation seems pretty poor - I'm going to guess it's about as barren below the surface as it is up here - and it just so happens we have many more resources than we know what to do with. In particular, we have recently acquired a steady supply of silver. Ask me why that should interest you. Go on."
The woman barked: "Just tell us. You seem to want to help us, so get to it."
"Claw's a Mencur-Besh - a weird, hybrid creature, something between a human and an Endling. Incredibly strong, scaled, impervious to lightning, voidfire, and they've got three hearts to boot. But they're deathly allergic to silver. Stick one with a silver crossbow bolt - doesn't matter where - and it's paralysed.
"That's what I'm offering you short-term: the opportunity to avenge your daughter and hunt an exceedingly rare bit of prey."
"And in the long term?" asked the man.
"Well, if you do well and help us kill Claw, that's basically the war won, meaning I rule Nexus. I intend to make it a home for the forlorn and the downtrodden, and you lot seem to fit the bill. Suppose I bring you into the fold as justicars, turn you from hunters of beasts into hunters of the wicked? How would that sound?"
They were silent.
"Did I mention we have access to technology allowing travel between worlds, meaning you can not only return here to hunt whensoever you wish, but hunt wherever and whatever you want in all of creation?"
The woman said: "What you did earlier leaves me thinking we don't have much of a choice. But who are we to turn down an opportunity for vengeance and even greater hunts?"
The man nodded. "My wife's right, by our honour we accept."
"Fantastic," I beamed.
I opened a rift back to the village. I noticed the blizzard had calmed a little, and while the snow still fell thickly, it fell gently.
"Step on through and break the news, I'll follow presently."
They did so, and I savoured the scene, barely noticing the deadening of sensation in my face.
"A little showy, but successful," concluded the Book, with some reluctance.
I didn't care at all though. I was looking up at the falling snowflakes. I felt bloody immortal.
"When we burn the Tower, the ashes will fall just like this. They will do it because we command them to do so. We will be King in Ash, of Ash, over Ash. It's going to be all ours, Book. Just you wait."
"Yes…"
I stepped back through the portal, unable to contain my joy.
