Violent Hostilities II

Misfortune hit the group the longer they were on the road. Despite their good progress, the last of the autumn rains came pouring down upon them and turned the road and countryside into a slurry of mud just as they exited the forest. Rather than trudge through it and expose themselves to the storm, they retreated back to the trees to ride out the weather.

"Well this is just fantastic," Amber muttered as she scowled up at the sky.

"Reminds me of my first day on the surface," Edward commented, "Cold, wet, and muddy."

"Now that I think about it, how did you handle being on the surface for the first time? Surely you would have been blinded by the sunlight," Toth said.

"I got used to it."

"You got used to it," Toth repeated slowly before shrugging, "I suppose you did."

"How far away are we anyway?" Amber asked Susan, "We should have at least seen some settlements by now right?"

"Difficult to tell. Cherrystone suffered during the Requiem War and several villages had been leveled. It doesn't help that we're in what was already the frontier to begin with," Susan replied as she wrapped her cloak around herself tighter.

"Then why is this road here? I might be from Central Town but I know that where there's roads there's usually trade and guard posts."

"This may be the most direct path from Crossroad to Cherrystone, but it's still out on the frontier. A war doesn't help either," Susan reiterated, "Only reason why this road even still exists was because trade caravans run across it during the summer."

The world distorted and their clothes changed. With a few coughs and muttered words, it was clear their accents and languages had changed as well. After confirming this, no one said anything and just adjusted themselves to deal with the cold rain.

"Die Musik hat sich verändert. Irgendwas stimmt nicht. [Music has changed. Something is wrong,]" Toth warned, pulling her crossbow out.

"She's right… We're not alone," Sil said cautiously.

"You sure?" Edward asked, eyes darting around.

"C'est trop calme... Surveillez vos arrières. [It's too quiet... Watch each other's backs,]" Amber adjusted her neckerchief and pulled out her pistol slowly.

The group took cover and scanned the trees for movement. Each moment seemed to stretch onwards, every second feeling like a minute as the rain continued to pour.

"Hol dir das relikt! [Get the relic!]" an unknown voice bellowed followed by gunfire and arrows.

"Decayed!" Sil warned as grotesque creatures came running out.

"Ce sont les Déchus?! [Those are the Decayed?!]" Amber yelped as she shot at the creatures before ducking from automatic fire and arrows.

"Less talking, more fighting!" Edward shouted, firing his shotgun at the unknown ranged attackers.

Sil manifested his mace and caught one of the creatures with an uppercut swing as it lashed out at him snarling. Despite the heavy blow it only reeled back momentarily before renewing its onslaught, forcing him to dodge.

"Die slave of Light!" it shouted in a guttural tone.

"Not today mate!" he countered, bashing it in the stomach before finishing it with another blow to the head.

"What the hell are golems doing here?!" Susan shouted, summoning a bolt of lightning down where the bullets and arrows were coming from as machines wielding swords came charging towards them.

"Ce sont de sacrés mechs! [Those are damn mechs!]" Amber shouted as she fired her pistol only for it to overheat, forcing her to draw her sword and hack one of the machines down.

"Whatever the hell they are, they're a problem!" Wraith said as a machine swung a sword at him.

"We're fighting on their terms! Amber with me! Let's circle around and hit them in their blind spot!" Edward called out, swinging his shotgun at a Decayed creature and finishing it off with a point blank shot from his pistol.

"Los, wir kümmern uns um diese bastarde! [Go, we'll handle these bastards!]" Toth shouted as she hacked apart a machine before stepping away from her cover, "Oi bastarde! Ich habe bei jüngeren auszubildenden bessere handwerkliche fähigkeiten gesehen! [Oi bastards! I've seen better craftsmanship from junior apprentices!]"

Amber weaved between the attacking machines and creatures as she ran to follow Edward. As she did so, arrows and bullets whistled over her head and tore the trees apart to splinters. Unperturbed by this, she quickly caught up to Edward as they began to flank the attackers.

"As I thought, forty five caliber SMGs," Edward said as they spotted the gunmen and archers just as another bolt of magical lightning struck the firing line, "No Deadeyes and just holding the trigger down which explains their bad aim. Amateurs," he rolled his eyes and pulled his bayonet out and reloaded his shotgun.

"Je peux en obtenir peut-être cinq, mais je serai transformé en bœuf haché contre toute attente. [I can get maybe five of them but I'll be turned to ground beef against those odds,]" Amber commented, noticing the large number of attackers.

"Go wide to the right and wait until I fire three rounds, then rush 'em by surprise before you back out. I'll follow with a charge and pincer them, giving you another opening to engage."

"Eh bien, c'est complètement différent de chez nous... Comment sais-tu tout cela? [Well this is completely different from back home... How do you know all of this?]"

"Sister, school program, and some personal experience. Now go."

Amber did as instructed and waited. She adjusted her grip on her weapons and blinked the water out of her eyes. The wait felt agonizingly long and her muscles burned to be released. Taking a deep breath, she struggled to control her heart rate which pounded in her chest.

Then there was the first shotgun blast. Two gunmen were struck, one dead and the other cripled. The second blast went off a second later, hitting an archer. Then the third, only glancing another gunman. Amber sucked in a breath of air and dashed forward, rain and mud trailing behind her as she did so. Hitting the firing line, she began her deadly dance of sword swings and pistol shots. Barely staying still, she became a blur of motion.

"Just shoot her already you idiots!" an archer ordered, only to get shot himself by her pistol.

Seeing a gunman line up a submachine gun at her and her pistol beginning to overheat, Amber deduced that she had overstayed her welcome and dashed away. Bullets racked the branches and tree trunks as she did so while the world distorted back to normal.

"Definitely not Central Town," she muttered as she winced from the wooden splinters and whizzing bullets, "Any day now Edward."

Toth was momentarily distracted by the distortion, causing her to be overwhelmed by the machine she had been dueling against and slip on a muddy tree root. Falling onto her back hard, all she could do is raise her arm up and deflect the incoming sword strike with her gauntlet. Fortunately, her gambit worked and she was able to retaliate by swinging her ax into the leg of the machine.

Built like a man and yet swinging a sword like a club, she thought dismissively as she propped herself up while Sil finished it off with an arrow.

"You all right Toth?!" Sil called, literally jumping overhead and firing another arrow at a different machine that was harassing Susan.

"I'm fine! Glassteel armor!" she replied.

"What I would do to have a set for myself!" Wraith commented as he briefly took flight to dodge a claw swipe from a Decayed.

Getting up, she spotted her crossbow which she had discarded after the initial exchange. Moving over to it, she picked it up and pulled on the bolt to prime it. Opening a pouch, she pulled out a clip and slammed it in before aiming it and firing, hitting the last machine but not putting it down. Recocking the crossbow, she fired again and was disappointed that she only disabled its arm. Before she could recock her crossbow, Susan obliterated it with a lightning bolt. Looking towards the mage, she spotted Sil crippling a Decayed while Wraith raked it with his claws.

"Come on! The others need us!" Susan said, pulling out her dagger and finishing the Decayed off before running towards where the ranged attacks had been coming from.

Without needing to be told twice, Toth reloaded the crossbow and followed.

Edward was still awed by Amber's display of violence. Even as he lost his shotgun in the confusion and was forced to fight with his stun baton and revolver in a brawl, he had managed to catch sight of her numerous times for a brief moment. A gunman would aim at him only to lose their head faster than the blink of an eye. An archer would draw their bow only to receive three point blank shots from the side. A sudden gray flash and two more would fall. Edward had to admit, Amber thrived in chaos while he was far better at range.

"Got you now asshole," the archer he had been fighting with snarled as he slipped on the mud and fell over, having his button kicked to the side while his revolver fell away.

"I think not," he replied as he pulled out his knife and stabbed the archer in the leg.

As the archer screamed in pain and anger, a crossbow bolt hit them in the chest. Looking to the side, he saw that the others had come to help.

"Get up!" Sil ordered as he ran over and pulled Edward to his feet.

"Thanks for the help," Edward replied as the fighting around him quickly escalated only to suddenly die down.

"Is it over?" Amber asked before crying out, "Gah! There's the headache!"

"Amber, are you hurt?!" Sil rushed over to assist her.

"If it's just a headache then she's fine," Edward huffed as he took stock of the battlefield, "Anyone else have issues?"

"Fell on my back but I'm fine," Toth reported as she walked over to an injured gunman.

"I'll live, Susan growled as she kicked the gunman over and brandished her dagger, "But you won't unless you start talking."

"Go ahead and kill me. It doesn't matter," the gunman said defiantly, eyes blank of all emotion.

"Decayed, ancient machines, and Europan guns. I'd say whoever is backing you has quite the reach," Wraith said with a cruel smile, "But the Kingdom has an even greater reach. Maybe if you're lucky you'll get to avoid the noose if you start talking."

"It doesn't matter. None of this matters! All you've done is buy yourselves a few more minutes to exist! You should have given up the relic back at Crossroad!"

Edward was surprised by the proclamation and strength of the words. It reminded him of the pirate broadcasts of the Church of the Husk. The words themselves were madness but the tone and belief behind them? Those held strength and whether it was madness or some kind of zealotry there was unwavering confidence making the claim sound like the truth.

Definitely some kind of zealot, he thought as he examined the face of his attacker, But of what organization and for what cause?

"Go to hell," Amber groaned as she leaned against a fallen log, clutching her head.

"Where do you think we live, bitch?" the gunman questioned before biting down on something and-

"Oh hell! Talk! Talk damn you!" Susan screamed.

"It's too late," Edward said bluntly as the gunman fell over dead.

"Damn it!" Susan kicked the body before huffing.

Edward took a deep breath of his own and scanned the bloody field as the rain continued to pour down. He spotted his baton resting on the ground while his revolver sat half buried in a puddle. Walking over, he retrieved them both and shook the worst of the rain and mud off.

"Good news and bad news everyone," Toth sighed, "The good news is that the music's over so we should be safe from any more skirmishes for the time being."

"And what's the bad news?" Edward asked as he looked for his shotgun.

"The bad news is someone has allied themselves with the Decay," Sil said darkly.

"No, that's a part of the bad news," Wraith snapped, "The bad news is that we are being targeted by a group that is playing with powers beyond their comprehension and has garnered the sway of formidable forces to further their goals."

Amber shook her head and tried to think about what Wraith just commented. They had just been attacked by a group of well armed and clearly dangerous individuals who were related to the cult that had threatened her back in Crossroad. Said group was after the tablet and clearly insane in whatever their goal was.

"How many people did we just fight? Ten? Twenty?" she asked, head still spinning and making it difficult to think.

"Too many for just a small gang, too few for a proper warband. This was a kill squad," Susan said, "Judging by the numbers I see here and what we encountered back there...I'd say no more than thirty."

Amber laughed bitterly (and regretted it immediately as her head protested). Thirty with automatic weapons, mechs, and evil magical creatures losing to six? Had this been an abnormally large group of dirks she would have believed it but this made no sense. They should be dead to rights!

"Something funny?" Wraith growled.

"No," Amber groaned as her head continued its protest, "Just failing to understand how thirty armed killers fail to deal with six travelers in the middle of nowhere."

"That's… Actually a good point," Edward said thoughtfully, "They had numbers and firepower on their side. Not even incompetence can account for failing that spectacularly."

"Well we were dealing with Decayed who are not known for their intelligence," Sil shrugged.

"Those machines were based off of Dust technology," Toth stretched and popped her back, "Though they seemed to be poorly made. And that fight was more of a barroom brawl than a skirmish even with the violence involved."

"But then why did our group get overrun two months ago?" Susan asked angrily, "None of this makes sense!"

The sounds of hoofbeats interrupted them. While the others ducked behind cover, Amber groaned and simply pulled out her pistol. Blinking, she struggled to clear the sense of vertigo as her head pounded.

"Wait… Hail to lord Caesar!" Susan called out.

"Long live the Queen's Hound!" came a responding call.

"May his triumphs last forever more!" Susan lowered her wand and gestured to the others to stand down, "They're Cherrystone soldiers."

"I swear, that dog has some higher power looking out after him," Wraith huffed out a laugh.

Amber just sighed and thumped her head against the log. As the rain continued to pour down, she ignored the soldiers and her companions. All she could think of was how strange this fight had just been. It obviously revolved around the tablet, but it had been too easy to win. Why?

Well we're going to find out sooner or later, she thought as she stared up at the rain as her headache subsided, One way or another we're going to find out… Why did I grab that tablet again?