Broker-Side Story - Drums of War 2

CLANG!

Sword met hammer and the two weapons skittered off one another, sparks snapping out and dancing off the floor. Lillian stepped forward and swept her weapon low, pulling it down first and then to the right in a rapid change of direction that would have been impossible for an ordinary human. Cass hopped over the swipe, the initial exchanges force throwing her hammer up and above her head. Her eyes flashed as she brought it back down with terrible force.

Lillian grunted and threw her armored arm up, bracing her rear foot and letting out a snarl of effort as Cass’ attack collided with her body.

“HOOURRRAAH!” she bellowed, taking a step forward as Cass’ eyes went wide. She pushed, her muscles bulging under the strain, Cass was thrown backwards. Her friend sommersaulting backwards before landing back on the ground with a noisy bang. Her feet dug into the reinforced floor beneath them, leaving spiderweb cracks around the point of impact. Lillian readied her weapon and took another step forward, building her momentum, “MORE!”

Cass grinned at her and nodded, horns growing from the side of her head as she let out her own roar of challenge, barreling forward like an oncoming train.

Off to the side, Snow and Alex sipped at their drinks. Alex was leaning back with a towel over his shoulders, he shook his head as he put his drink down and shot a look towards Snow who was sitting comfortably, gesturing at the air and looking at something he couldn’t see. “You think we’re ready for this?” he asked.

Snow glanced his way and shrugged, static filling the air as she took another sip of her drink through a straw, “Doesn’t really matter, y’know? We’re going soon regardless,” she said without moving her mouth before turning back to whatever she was doing.

Alex shook his head, “What’re you doing, anyway?”

“Pre-writing illusions,” she said with a hiss of static, “Guildmaster Bluestar gave me the idea. I’ve got about a hundred queue’d up rather than leaning on my usual ice fields.”

He barked out a laugh, “Shit. You’re prepped, aren’t you?”

She put down her drink and frowned at the floor, “I don’t think any of us are prepared to fight in a warzone, even after Tokyo.”

He winced and nodded only for a pair of shadows to fall over them, “That may be so,” Lillian said, “But what we’re getting ready to do is stop someone really bad from doing something even worse. We knew what we signed up for when we went to that camp.”

The pair looked up at Lillian, her sword slung over her shoulder and the faint glow of gold fading from her eyes. Next to her, Cass nodded, “We’ll get through this, all of us, and we won’t be alone either,” Cass said with a grin, “We’ve got each other and some of the worlds finest coming with us. Liberty won’t know what hit her.”

The four of them looked at one another and broke into proud smiles. As they did, the door opened to the training hall and the guildmaster walked inside. Her brown hair fluttering around her stern face. Alex and Snow hopped to their feet while Lillian and Cass stiffened slightly. Bluestar looked them over and nodded, “You are too damn young to be doing this,” she said with a sigh, “But here we are.” She glanced over her shoulder and the bland-faced John walked in behind her holding a heavy looking suitcase with one hand.

“The four of you have been designated as team Furor for the operation, Crusader will be team captain,” John said mildly, “You will be operating separately from the other two teams from our Guild. Otis will be captain of team Luster. The Archway to the staging ground is scheduled within the next hour. I suggest you suit up.”

The four of them looked at one another and nodded. Lillian stepped forward, “...and the other team?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

A pair of figures stepped through the door behind Bluestar. The first was a familiar black haired man with a disheveled appearance, Bandit was already in his leathers and adjusting the quiver on his shoulder. Next to him was a white robed man wearing a plague-doctor’s mask, his eyes glowing a vibrant green from behind the lenses. He tugged on his gloves and gave the younger members of the guild a grave nod as the two of them formed up with Bluestar and John.

Lillian’s eyes went wide as she witnessed the remaining members of team Firestorm prepare for a battlefield once again.

–

Sonya walked along a creek she’d decided to add on a whim, the pleasant sound of the running water giving the quiet place a meditative quality. Loki walked next to her, hands on their hips. They were in their male form again and glancing around thoughtfully before turning to look at her, “It isn’t so easy as having a breakthrough to get over the rough stuff,” he said, “But it’s a damn good place to start.”

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She nodded, “It’s never going to stop hurting,” she said, “But the more dangerous ideas and feelings are gone now. I’m more in control of myself than I think I’ve ever been.”

They smirked, “That’s damn good to hear, brat.”

She shot him a look, “Brat?”

“You’re what? Ten thousand, twenty thousand years younger than me? I think brat is a perfectly reasonable thing to say!”

She snickered, then they both burst into laughter for a while. When they finally stopped she gave Loki a serious look, “Are you really okay? With all of this? What you really are and what’s happened to the world?”

Loki tilted their head for a moment before shaking it and smiling, “I think you still haven’t grasped the mindset of people like us,” they said, “I’m just happy to be able to help however I can. Our role was to support the world even if some people decided to scorn it. That said, I’ve always been against how overbearing the arbiters were but to be honest I couldn’t think of a better solution. Maybe you can,” Loki said with a sage smile.

They let out a noisy sigh, “What I can do is advise you from my perspective. My ability doesn’t extend to the actions of others, though. So I can’t just give you a path to follow to get what you want.”

“I wouldn’t ask for it, Pandora says I need to do this myself to ‘stake my claim’, whatever that means,” Sonya said.

“Damn right,” Loki clapped her on the shoulder, “You deserve to be the first of a new generation. Make me proud and bring back lots of stories. I’ll be waiting here for you to pick my brain when you need to mess with someone, yeah?”

She beamed at him, “Thanks, Loki.”

–

He opened his eyes in the dark.

The rumble of the sea called to him and he responded, his voice stretching across the depths. He had been waiting, patient, quiet, lurking in the deepest reaches until the call went out. Now it was time to move and his children were ready. They hatchery was empty, and the volunteers who had chosen to become something more than human had joined him in the unforgiving pressure and shadows of this place.

Dozens of humanoids bearing silver-gray scaled skin swam into view, circling around him. Dozens turned to hundreds, each of them armed with weapons of war treated for the aquatic conditions. He raised his head and let out a sonorous call, a large figure emerged from the gloom, a kraken of tentacles and death, its body changed into something nightmarish with those same silver scales. It swam past him, ascending slowly towards the surface.

He gestured and the water churned as more and more of his children swam past. Massive sharks and whales joined the pack. A swarm of aquatic destruction, the army of a king.

On the surface, near the coast of South Carolina. Not far from one of the many Liberty Cult compounds across the world, a fishing boat was pulling away from its latest haul and making for home. The crew milled about, handling their usual duties as one of them happened to peek over the side of the ship. He’d heard something, a strange droning sound from beneath the water. He called for the others as a bubble rose up to the surface and popped.

Then another and another.

It was not long before they began to shout, some heading for the bridge to signal back to the mainland but a strange static cut it off, their devices shutting down as their minds became distracted within an ever growing fog.

Horrors and illusions, maddening whispers and laughter, confusion and wild thoughts. A chaos of the mind that scratched at their thoughts as they fled from visions of terror. They threw themselves into the water, anything, even death would be better than what they saw. They did not know that what lurked in the water was far worse than what their minds could summon up to scare them.

Beyond their vessel, the sea began to boil.