The Hammer of War, Chapter 50

Name: Amir Azad
Title: War-Summoner
War Points: 20,000

STR – 42
DEX – 33
VIT – 153

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I had twenty thousand War Points. That was a lot, but it also wasn’t enough to buy every shiny thing the System dangled in front of me.

First thing was to figure out what I didn’t want, just to start cutting down the list. Weapons? No. Not right now. The [Tau Rail Rifle] could drop just about anything I was likely to meet, and unless something out there could shrug off a hypersonic slug to the chest, I was fine keeping it. The heavier weapons on offer looked tempting, sure, but most of them were built for people two or three times my size. I could probably fire one, but “probably” wasn’t good enough when the recoil could snap my shoulder like dry wood. And melee weapons… I wasn’t stupid. Knives and swords were cool in a kind of retro, warrior-poet way, but I wasn’t about to get close enough for something with claws and fangs to take a swipe at me if I could just pull a trigger instead.

Potions and chemical boosters? Not now. I’d seen the list, and while some of them promised a quick edge in a fight, they burned up War Points faster than I could earn them. Plus, the good stuff had nasty side effects. I was more interested in the [Adeptus Custodes Augmentation], but that thing cost thirty thousand War Points. I didn’t have that, and saving another ten thousand wasn’t exactly a weekend project. Twenty thousand was already a lot to have on hand, and sitting on it forever while I waited for the rest felt like wasting an opportunity.

Power Armor had its own problem. The cheapest set worth mentioning, [Thunder Warrior Power Armor], was ten thousand War Points. Reasonable—until I saw the fine print. To use it, I’d need something called a [Black Carapace], which was another ten thousand. Even then, the armor was so heavy that I’d need the [Thunder Warrior Augmentations] to move properly in it, another five thousand gone. That meant the whole setup would run me twenty-five thousand minimum. Not happening.

Non-powered armor, though—that was doable. [Carapace Armor] caught my eye. Eight thousand War Points, durable, covered more of me than my current setup, and didn’t require surgery or a pile of extra upgrades just to wear it without breaking my spine. It was starting to feel like the obvious choice, which meant it was going straight to the shortlist.

The second challenge was figuring out what I actually did want.

Security was at the top of the list. That was why the [Carapace Armor] kept coming back into my thoughts. Eight thousand War Points for full-body protection was hard to ignore, especially when one of my biggest weaknesses was still stupidly simple—a bullet to the head. My VIT stat made me tougher than most, but it didn’t make me bulletproof. A clean shot to the skull would still drop me, and I wasn’t eager to test that.

Of course, armor was one answer. Another was making sure I never put myself in a position where someone could even take the shot. That meant a shift in how I fought. Less charging in, more picking my fights from a distance. That was where the [Vindicare Assassin Training] came in. Seven thousand War Points, and in return I’d get the kind of skills that let you kill someone from so far away they’d never even know you were there–alongside all the other skills an assassin had that didn’t necessarily involve a sniper rifle. 

The package deal that came after was even better. The [Vindicare Assassin One-Time Package], which would cost only thirteen thousand War Points, included a Spy Mask, a Stealth Suit, an Exitus Rifle, and an Exitus Pistol—all at a huge discount. I’d seen the prices of those pieces individually, and buying them separately would bleed me dry. The rifle alone could punch through almost anything short of a tank. With that and the training to match, I wouldn’t need to wonder if my armor could stop a bullet. Nobody would be in range to fire one. Of course, I already had the [Tau Rail Rifle], but I’d never say no to another gun if I was being honest.

Still, I didn’t want to make the call alone. Too easy to get tunnel vision and miss something important.

So I went to Alexandra. Laid it all out—what I’d been considering, the gear I’d been eyeing, the things that worried me. She listened without interrupting, arms folded, expression neutral. When I finished, she didn’t take long to answer.

“Become a Vindicare, then,” she said. “I’ve never crossed paths with one, but I’ve heard the stories. Out of all the Assassin Temples, the Vindicare are supposed to be the most reliable. Precise. Efficient.”

I nodded. “Alright. Guess that’s settled.”

I opened the System menu and confirmed the purchase for [Vindicare Assassin Training]. The moment I did, my entire body jolted. It felt like someone had poured ice water into my skull and replaced every instinct I had. My mind was suddenly filled with firing angles, wind calculations, sightlines, breathing rhythms, the perfect way to hide, to conceal myself in any conceivable terrain. My muscles tightened and shifted on their own, like they’d been retrained in a blink. I knew how to steady a rifle perfectly, how to track a moving target without even thinking about it.

Before I could fully process it, I bought the [Vindicare Assassin One-Time Package]. My War Points dropped to zero, and a neat little list popped into my [Inventory]—Spy Mask, Stealth Suit, Exitus Rifle, Exitus Pistol. All ready to be pulled out whenever I wanted.

I let out a slow breath and grinned. “Nice.”

Alexandra stepped closer, lifting her right hand and pressing the back of it against my forehead. The metal joints in her fingers clicked faintly as she adjusted the angle. “Do you feel any different? You looked like you were about to drop for a second there.”

I shook my head. “Nothing serious. Just got dizzy for a moment. Hard not to when your brain’s suddenly crammed full of assassin memories and training.”

Idly, I stared at Alexandra and saw about twenty different ways I could assassinate her right then and there if she had been my target. These memories were not playing around. 

I pushed myself upright and stretched until my shoulders popped, a yawn slipping out before I could stop it. The single window in our room let in a shaft of pale moonlight, cutting across the floorboards in a narrow strip. The stars were sharp and clear for now, but the clouds hanging low on the horizon were already starting to roll in. Wouldn’t be long before the whole sky was covered.

Across from me, Alexandra sat on the edge of her bed, coat unbuttoned but still draped over her shoulders. Her cybernetic eye shifted in faint increments, scanning the shadows along the walls out of habit.

For now, we were guests—honored ones, apparently—of the Sikh Demon Hunters. The Great-Slayer Granthi himself had offered us a place to stay for as long as we needed. He claimed his hunters were tracking the vampires and devils that had been trailing me—whole groups of them, by the sound of it. I still had no idea how they’d managed to keep up with me for so long without getting close enough to strike, but luck had been on my side.

Here, luck wasn’t necessary. The Demon Hunters had promised that no enemy of mine would breach their defenses. Granthi had even gone a step further, saying they’d mislead and scatter my pursuers entirely.

It wasn’t trust I felt, not exactly, but the weight on my shoulders was lighter knowing that—for once—I wasn’t the only thing standing between myself and whatever was hunting me.

“We probably can’t stay in India,” I said, leaning back in the chair until it creaked.

“Agreed,” Alexandra replied with a short nod. 

“If what the Sikh Demon Hunters told us is even half true, this place is crawling with supernatural entities. Most of them are hostile to humans. The ones that aren’t are…” she gave a humorless shrug, “…gods.”

“The Hindu Pantheon,” I said. “Never thought I’d have to worry about actual gods coming after me, but here we are.”

Alexandra reached into her pack and unfolded a creased world map across the small desk between us. The paper was worn at the edges, the ink faded in spots from too much folding and unfolding. She tapped at the northeast corner of Asia. “Based on my digging, our best bet is South Korea. Compared to just about everywhere else, it’s got no supernatural authority. Plenty of presence—spirits, creatures, all that—but no organized structure. No pantheons. No gods. Basically an unofficial neutral ground.”

“Yeah, but neither of us speak Korean,” I pointed out.

“It’ll take time,” she said, rolling the map halfway shut. “But I still think it’s our best option. We can learn the language. That’s the easy part. The hard part will be keeping a low profile. There’s a small Indian worker population there. You could blend in with them.”

I nodded slowly. “And your face won’t stand out too much unless you go out of your way to make it. We could build a base there. Keep it quiet. Start pulling more people into our corner.”

She met my eyes and smirked faintly. “Exactly. Low noise. No gods breathing down our necks. Provided you do so carefully, you can make full use of your [Soul Siphon] there without anyone the wiser. It’s perfect.”

I tapped the edge of the map. I had to remain hidden while using [Soul Siphon]; that was its biggest drawback. I still wasn’t sure what’d happen if someone saw me, but I’d honestly rather not know. Alexandra was the exception, of course, along with all my other summons. “Alright. Korea it is.”

We stayed another three days in the Black Gurdwara. Long enough for the Great-Slayer Granthi to decide it was safe. Word from their scouts was that the devils and vampires had lost the trail completely. They were chasing ghosts now, convinced I’d gone west through Pakistan and into Iran, looking for shelter under the Zoroastrian Pantheon.

When we finally left, Alexandra and I went east instead. The road took us through China, and it didn’t take long for reality to catch up with me. For all the strength, skill, and gear I had, the human world still ran on money. Without it, even the most dangerous man in the room still couldn’t buy a train ticket.

So we fixed the problem.

We covered our faces, changed our clothes, and started picking targets. Not just anyone—only the ones who dealt in the worst of human crimes. The Triads running flesh markets, the men shipping crates of powder through the docks at night, the middlemen who kept the whole machine running. We didn’t kill them. That was a line Alexandra and I had agreed on early. Humans were off-limits unless there was no other choice. And if a fight broke out, we made sure the ones still breathing stayed that way.

It became routine. Weeks turned into months. We hit a safehouse in Guangzhou and walked out with bags of cash. We intercepted a courier in Shenzhen and took everything he was carrying. None of them could stop us. The disguises kept us faceless. Our combined abilities kept us untouchable when things got heated. Alexandra was stronger, faster, and more resilient than any human being on the planet. And I was stronger, faster, and more resilient than even her. 

By the time half a year had passed, we’d stacked more bills than we could count. Alexandra handled the conversions, turning yuan into dollars and stashing the clean bundles into my [Inventory]. No banks. No trails.

When we finally crossed into South Korea, we had enough to vanish for years if we wanted.