Adventure of Rekka Ch. 10

He remembered when his older, more rational sister had suggested he join a branch of the military to make something of his life. She was rightly worried he’d end up in some dead end job and miserable. Before he could crack a joke about being packed off to Leavenworth as soon as he stepped into the recruiter’s office he saw the expression on his dad’s face.

If it hadn’t been his father, a man who had calmly talked his crazier sister out of a shady bar filled with one percenter's during her “free spirited” days, you could almost mistake it for panic.

Bill made it very clear that day he had no interest in volunteering for absolutely anything, and his dad never again asked him what he was doing with his life.

Bill wasn’t certain if all this was because the man was ashamed of being some kind of military janitor or cook, but somehow he doubted it. He wished the phone worked now, he was pretty sure his dad would be able to give him some advice for sneaking up to well armed men in the dark and making sure they were never heard from again.

Far more likely he’d tell him to pass the phone to Larry so he could hear about this four bore monster of his. He’d probably smell the sulfur and gun oil through the speaker.

Bill was surprised at himself. It was the most he’d thought about his old home, now that he’d found his true one. He guessed Larry wasn’t the only one who didn’t feel entirely comfortable with taking men’s lives.

Just then Rekka came trotting back to him, a happy smile on her face and several blades of long grass sticking out of her hair. Plucking the grass from his wife’s hair while she leaned into him looking into his eyes, Bill knew then it wouldn’t weigh on his conscience very much at all.

-

“They are camped to the right of the road, less than half a mile ahead within a circle of trees. I could not get close enough to see what weapons they’re carrying, one of them has a stone. They’re confident, they made no attempt to hide the fire,” Tabitha reported. Bill and Larry found it interesting that they heard her say mile, there being no such measurement in this world. The word that meant pretty much the same distance was what she actually said, if they focused on her words.

Larry figured this had something to do with people almost being able to understand Bill, and found it fascinating. Bill decided he’d have to find some way to fuck with it, make it give up and just give this world his unfiltered words, he was sure this was why his jokes didn’t always get the results he’d enjoy. He’d work on that later, tonight was serious business. He had to focus so he didn’t accidentally save these men’s lives and make new friends.

It was only recently fully dark, about nine o’clock Bill guessed. Rekka had picked up their scent on the wind hours ago, the hound in hellhound was very accurate. They’d sent Tabitha to scout, Bill was sure she could just turn herself invisible at will. She probably just waited until people weren’t looking and put on the ring to make them think she was sneaky. He was still trying to figure out how more than seven feet of muscle made absolutely no noise as she walked.

“Well alright. No worries about the weapons, Tabitha. Just knowing where they are was all we needed. I want you and Rekka to circle around behind them. Me and Larry are going to take them from this side. I’m just going to walk up and get their attention, no fucking around. Just as soon as they’re focused on me, take em from behind. Larry, you’ll hang back a bit, look for a clear shot and just start blasting. Like I said, take out the guy in a dress first,” Bill calmly laid out the plan.

“Helena, you and Felix follow us a bit, but no closer than you’re able to hear me scream like a little girl. If we don’t call for you pretty fucking soon once the show starts.. just assume shit went wrong and get the fuck out of here, I mean it. Warn the others, get Scipio to gather everyone up and find Larry’s beach somewhere way the hell south of us, I just hope Marky and Teresa really want to be real heroes and just leave. If no ones on the walls.. just go, God I hope Haven wouldn’t be there next stop. Get those little girls out of there,” Bill ordered, looking at Felix, sure he was a good enough man to get Helena to abandon her friends. He only hoped it wouldn’t be necessary, and if it was Kendra’s daughters weren’t hurt because of his failure. He’d butcher these men with a smile on his face if only for them.

Felix nodded, if not happily.

Bill looked over the rest projecting a confident front before saying, “This will be quick and loud, hopefully over before these fuckers even know what hit them. I miss anything important?”

Larry spoke up, “How are we going to coordinate this? We’ll have to be sure they’re not setting off any Huntstones. We might be fighting the whole squad before they can get to us.”

“Yeah, ok. Hang a good ways back if you would, ladies. About as far as you were when we did our scouting of Asylum, remember Tabitha? Try to keep behind cover, Rekka. I’m not real concerned about surprise but let's try to keep them from seeing your eyes if we can help it. I’m pretty sure you can cross that distance in seconds when you want to. You’ll know when the party starts, I’m not going to be quiet when I say hello and Larry should be opening up a second later. That ought to focus their attention pretty good. I should be able to stay alive that long. Hell, I’ll just run onto the road and head your way if they start aiming any crossbows my way.”

“Ok, husband. Don’t worry, this’ll be easy. Just run if they gots arrows for ya, we’ll take care of the rest,” Rekka demanded, furious at the thought of him getting hurt.

“You got it babe, I’m just here because so far I’ve made a pretty good distraction,” Bill admitted. He had absolutely no trouble standing back and letting them do their thing, they were worlds better at it than him.

“Shit, let’s do this. You two go ahead and get into position, you’ll probably get bored waiting for our slow asses to get there, but just be ready for when the shit hits the fan.”

Rekka hugged Bill for a moment, Tabitha leaning down to share a rare public kiss with Larry. This would be the first time Larry had been walking into any real danger, and she was worried.

“Felix, be ready to get on that horse. You’ll need to be prepared to head in one direction or another if things go wrong. Helena. Don’t hesitate, please. Just clear out, or come running if we need you,” Bill ordered. He’d never forgive himself if something happened to her.

“A-all right, Bill. Please do be careful, all of you. Um, I do not care for.. what is going to happen, but I wish you luck all the same. Please come back to us.”

“Hah, no worries. Pretty sure these guys are going to have one hell of a bad time, we’re the things that go bump in the night,” Bill said with a cocky grin, waving as Rekka and Tabitha padded off. The slow clumsy men followed after.

Evil slipped into the darkness to bring doom to the stalwart champions of mankind. Helena followed after, worrying for their safety and only ever wanting to help.

-

Deacon Claudius sat by the fire trying not to concentrate on his fear. He had never left the Church before, not since he’d begun his training as a child. Should this mission be successful he was to be raised to the rank of priest. He felt he was anything but ready, but his superiors in the Church would hear nothing of his doubts.

He was told this would be an easy mission, with hand picked veterans escorting him. This did very little to settle his nerves. He much preferred to study in the library and discuss theology with his peers. He dearly wished he had not shown great aptitude for combat oriented miracles. He had always hoped to be a healer, but his talents were all lent to seeking out the demons and destroying them.

His superiors saw much potential in Claudius, the deacon’s great affinity for wielding the miracles bestowed to the priesthood by the Chief God would be very useful for demonstrating the power the Church commanded. Rather than have the young man test himself on an actual mission where the prodigy might be lost he was to be sent on several safe but prestigious seeming excursions. They would trot him out to the front lines every now and then to slaughter the demons, keeping their political rivals in check.

Claudius only knew that he felt sick at the thought of any form of violence, and dearly wished he were back in his spartan cell reading the great works of past clergymen. He was regretting ever joining the priesthood, he was not suited for this. If another demon attacked he was certain he would freeze and be unable to so much as pray for help, much less control the patterns to unleash a miracle.

When the paladins sighted the harpy they had demanded he strike her down with cleansing fire. He had been nearly unable, only managing when the creature dived low, threateningly low, and closing quickly. Somehow the pattern seemed to form without effort on his part, and the light streaked heavenward. The demon was quick, banking away with a graceful roll, receiving no more than burnt feathers. The harpy should not have escaped despite being so incredibly swift, Claudius could have easily corrected. He’d seen her wide eyed look of fear, and the pattern scattered like smoke in a storm. He had quickly become unpopular.

The Order paladins were disgusted, they resented babysitting the fearful deacon and were irritated that no other demons had been encountered thus far. There would be no glory to be earned here. Marcus Atillius was by all accounts one of the more promising heroes to step forward in recent memory. Quarry Town was likely a smoking ruin by now. Any demons left would be the young locked in cellars under rubble from which the men would have to dig them out, always a tedious task. The nimble juveniles could be difficult to strike with sword or bolt, and offered little sport.

Claudius felt alone and out of place among these hard violent men, holding his holy symbol he tried to pray away his anxiety. He kept losing track of the Lord’s prayer of courage, his thoughts scattering at every noise he heard outside the circle of firelight.

He choked as the symbol began to quiver and pull very slightly in one direction, a sure sign demonic energy was drawing near. He tried to call out a warning to the paladin, but his throat had been constricted by fear. Thankfully the man had a similar way to detect demonic energy, noticing his Huntstone had lit with a faint light. Immediately he twisted it off the Watchman notch, slowly increasing the Hunt range until he knew where the demon was located, pointing it in its direction. He watched it calmly for a few moments, but it was not moving closer.

“Bah, clearly avoiding us. We’ll not catch it stumbling around in the dark, damn the luck. Still, ready yourselves, perhaps it will surprise me to entertain us with its presence,” the man called, drawing his broadsword and laying it over his pauldron as he stared into the darkness. He dialed the stone back to its Watchmen notch with his thumb.

The other paladin was clearly disappointed by this news, glaring in the direction the stone had indicated. The rest of the men pulled their weapons closer, the templar with the crossbow laying it next to him while he continued to sharpen his longsword. They were unconcerned, the demons that frequented this area were usually no more dangerous than werewolves or the occasional manticore. Not to be taken lightly, but no match for them.

Claudius was nearing full panic, his symbol was not indicating towards where the man’s Huntstone had pointed. Completely the opposite direction. It was faint, the demonic energies were very weak, but they were also very close. Swallowing his terror he managed to call to the paladin.

“S-sir, behind you. Something very close! A-and approaching!” he managed to stammer out, staring into the darkness fearfully.

“What? The Watch is dim, you’re mistaken, boy,” the man sneered, turning to look anyway.

At that moment a man stepped into the firelight, wearing chainmail and carrying a longsword in his hand. He’d seemed to be about to say something when the paladin spoke to Claudius with something akin to respect.

“An incubus then. To arms! Try not to piss yourself, boy,” he said with a laugh, stalking forwards.

The intruder looked surprised, he’d clearly not expected this turn of events. Rolling his eyes at the approaching paladin he drew in a great breath of air to roar out a challenge.

“FUCK! Jigs up!”

Claudius completely surprised himself. At the paladin's words his mind fell into the proper pattern required to channel the miracle of defense. A gold tinged transparent bulwark surrounded him in a cocoon of safety. It saved his life, immediately after the man’s shout a terrible noise assaulted his ears as some unseen force struck the shield, pushing him back several inches as he screamed. Without thinking he brought up his holy symbol of the Chief God, unleashing the pattern of cleansing fire upon the man.

The Lord’s wrath was made evident, a bar of light striking the intruder in the center of his chest as it streamed forth from the symbol. Claudius’s mind filled with horror. He’d just killed a man, feeling the need to vomit as he waited for the body to disintegrate.

Nothing of the sort happened, the light winked out after a moment and left the intruder staring at him in shock. Even the stoic paladin seemed caught off guard, stopped in his tracks.

When the man simply looked down at his chest, poking a finger through the hole in his chainmail with obvious confusion Claudius’s mind began to gibber with horror. The miracle had burned through feet of granite and left a perfectly round hole inches in diameter without issue when he was tested by his teachers. The pattern had been flawless, it would not have accomplished anything at all if he had been off by so much as a line.

Another terrible noise issued out. The templar aiming his crossbow was struck, caving in his breastplate and spraying chainmail links in an arc as he was thrown back, his broken body draped over the log he had been using as a backrest only moments ago. It was though an invisible hand had crushed the man and thrown his lifeless body.

Then the young deacon’s nightmares came to life as demons flew into the firelight. The screams of pain and fear left him paralyzed, his eyes locking onto the man that had started it all.

With a furious two handed swing the intruder’s longsword cut through the paladin's broadsword as if it were not there, the blade flipping away to land point first in the dirt. The veteran did not miss a beat, dropping his shoulder and charging the man that had left himself foolishly open with such a heavy swing. With a crashing of platemail they connected.

It achieved nothing aside from the intruder rocking back slightly to regain his balance from his wild swing. He looked embarrassed as he drove the pommel of his sword into the shocked paladin’s helm, impacting it forcefully and striking a disturbingly deep dent into the metal. The larger man was slammed to the ground where he lay deathly still.

Immediately the intruder locked his eyes onto Claudius, lowering the sword towards him as he charged. His eyes were filled with a furious hatred, and Claudius knew his life was over.

-

“Well, there’s the camp. You ready for this, Larry?” Bill asked quietly, hoping he wasn’t going to be standing there looking stupid as the entire camp charged him.

“Yeah. Yeah man. I got this. I’m going to throw up for sure when this is over. Do you have to piss? I have to fucking piss,” Larry answered, gripping his gun tightly as he spoke in quick bursts.

“Yep, you sound ready. Let’s do this, follow me but post up by that tree to the right. View looks clear enough. Try not to hit the horses, I’d feel like shit. I think that’s the priest by the fire. Don’t see any crossbows yet, but I’m sure these assholes have em,” Bill said, trying to keep his voice calm for Larry.

At the same time Bill wondered why he was so steady with this stuff. Larry’s reaction was certainly the more appropriate one. All Bill felt was a kind of.. peace. The feeling had come to him every time he was about to step from relative safety into certain violence. It seemed to only get him there, though. Once things got exciting he no longer knew what he was feeling, only knowing that he’d desperately like to keep feeling anything at all for as long as possible. He did like that it seemed to lessen his anger. Maybe he was some kind of badass.

He didn’t believe that for a second. Clearly he was not mentally stable. He’d ask Helena to really check his head over, do the magical equivalent of a C.A.T. scan. Maybe he had a tumor suppressing the part of his brain that normally supplied good sense and healthy fear of death. If she could remove it, he'd likely tuck Rekka under his arm and run all the way back to her cave. Depending on how things went when they got back he might do that anyway.

Approaching the ring of firelight he cleared his thoughts of anything but the immediate danger. The crusaders were focused away from him, likely a Huntstone had alerted them to he and Larry’s far better halves. Time to get their attention. He figured he’d shout out something that’d really make an impression. It would be a good time to introduce the rebel yell to this world, that would surely do the job.

As he made to step into the light he drew in a breath to make these zealots jump out of their skins. He paused in surprise as the priest squeaked out a warning, the big knight with the broadsword responded before turning to see him. He did not look impressed. The man spared an amused look at the priest.

“An incubus then. To arms! Try not to piss yourself, boy.”

Bill rolled his eyes, he’d really been looking forward to that. Still, it was effective. All eyes were on him. Time for Rekka to come save his ass.

Drawing in a deep breath he shouted for help, “FUCK! Jigs up!”

Larry came through as he was sure he would, opening up on the priest. The projectile was so big Bill swore he saw something of it as it streaked past him. Unfortunately the little bastard was quicker, the slug ricocheting off some kind of golden forcefield.

Everything happened very quickly, then. The whites of the priest's eyes were clearly visible as he stared at him, mouth a grimace of fear. Still, he lifted something towards Bill and a damn golden laser shot out of it to strike him in his chest. His heart skipped a beat, and he felt heat bursting out of his back.

Bill was sure he was dead, looking down he saw a hole in his chainmail directly over his heart. The links were severed cleanly, the edges glowing red. Dumbly he poked a gauntlet clad finger through them, feeling for the hole burned through his chest he was sure he would find. Instead, he simply felt the cool metal touch his bare skin. He took a moment to feel upset that the man had ruined Annika’s fine shirt.

Clearly the sword was more resistant to magic than it had let on, and Bill was very thankful that Larry had not had time to attach it to his stupid gun.

Larry opened up again, ruining the day of the man who’d been about to ruin Bill’s with a crossbow bolt. Bill was impressed, it folded the man’s body around the impact, likely breaking every bone in his body as he fell backwards.

The big crusader took all his attention then, closing with smooth speed and dangerous intent. Bill figured it was time to put his magical bullshit strength to good use. Winding up with the sword like Babe Ruth on steroids he swung with everything he had at the man’s sword, intending to knock it flying. The man would surely try to block or parry, having no idea what Bill was capable of. Instead, the stupid fucking sword sliced right through it as though it wasn’t even there, his wild swing throwing him off balance.