Dokeshi March ~ 15!

The next two days passed uneventfully. That was… mostly uneventfully. Suki had taken it upon herself to train Grant in the ‘Way of the Noble’. To his way of thinking, all that really meant was learning all kinds of different ways to trick people into agreeing to things they never meant to agree to do.

“So, you see? The importance of watching your tongue is no different than keeping watch for attackers, or monsters.” Suki laid a consoling hand on his shoulder, which was still sore from the weight of the monster hearts in his pack. “A poor agreement can hurt you more than an assassin’s blade. Well, not more, but the suffering can last longer.”

“I still don’t even understand how you got me to agree to do your dirty laundry for the next week.” Grant gave her a hard stare, but there was no heat of anger in his eyes. “What part of our conversation even brought us to that point? I don’t want to do this anymore.”

<Oh, you poor man. If you and her actually do marry in the distant future, you’re going to be as defenseless as a newborn babe!> Sarge chortled in amusement, the past two days having provided more entertainment than he had seen in centuries. <The good news is, she is trying to help you. I think you’ve advanced more in your mental cultivation over the past forty-eight hours than you did in the entire month of February!>

“You don’t want to do this? How about no more deals, and the next time I get you to agree to something without you noticing, I’ll just punch you in the face instead?” He opened his mouth to argue, but she cut him off before he could tell her how much he didn’t like that plan. “Grant, there is something important I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve been thinking about your sword’s powers, and how it might interact with the citizens of District March.”

“I’m… listening.” Grant squinted at her as he tried to figure out if it was another trick, following her lead when she stopped in the shade of an abandoned row of townhouses that were leaning out over the street. He made a mental note to talk to her later about the plan to punch him in the face. “What’s bothering you?”

“You remember how the contract that Dokeshi March has with his people will cause all of them to die if he is defeated or killed?” Her eyes were fixed on her feet, her right hand nervously fiddling with her ponytail. “The madman has to be stopped, and I think if you can defeat him fast enough, you can steal his powers before it has time to kill everyone. That much power would take time to build up, which should give you a chance to save everyone before whatever he’s using is capable of expending the energy all at once.”

She abruptly looked up to meet his eye and mimed an expanding sphere with her hands. Without warning, she clapped her hands together, flashing her gauntlets into existence a split second before her hands touched to make the sound louder. “Once you gain control, you should be able to redirect the power surge into something else before it kills everyone. Can you do that?”

“Yeah… I think I know what you mean.” Grant placed his hand on his uchigatana. “When I absorb the power of a Lord or Lady, I get a message that pops up with information about what I can do next. Maybe I can select an option to expend the energy quickly?”

“That sounds perfect.” Suki let out a sigh of relief. “Just make sure you pick your option quickly; otherwise, the contracts might still be enforced. Oh, and Grant?”

He turned to look at her and caught the flash of light off her left gauntlet just before it crunched into his nose. “Your silence was an acceptable form of agreement. You allowed me to make another deal with you, without thinking about the consequences of agreeing.”

Damage taken: 10 blunt (51 mitigated)

Sarge’s pealing laughter didn’t help Grant feel better when the damage notification popped up in his vision; her light jab had managed to take ten points off of his health, and it felt like his nose was twisted. A second screen appeared, making him forget all about the pain he felt.

Combat initiated

Action: Defend Without Weapon

Result: Total failure, bloody nose to defender

Opponents remaining: 1

Actions: Please select one option from the following list

Attack: Lethal, Non-lethal, Spell

Defend: With Weapon, Without Weapon

Run: Attempt escape

Suki must have seen the same screen, because she froze at the same time he did. Their eyes met, one pair watering a bit, and bolted for the nearest alley. Beyond the fact that they had no interest in truly fighting each other, the appearance of the screen meant one simple thing: another Vassal of Lord March had entered the area.

“We should figure out how to get onto a roof.” Suki was already searching for a method of climbing the buildings on either side; apparently, she was tired of clambering over the debris obstructing the road. “We don’t know what kind of range their powers have, but they have to be huge if the entire District is used to living under their rule. They might be far away, or they could be a street over.”

“Is there a way to tell how long we’ve been in range of the system?” Grant still had the screen blocking his vision, and he slowly turned in a circle to see if there was any change. It was impossible to be sure, but the edges of the screen seemed to be the clearest when he was looking to the east: the same direction they needed to go to reach the center of the District, where the Dokeshi’s palace waited in the capital of Vernal. “Did you feel any change over the past few hours?”

<I thought I might have felt a tingle of another Wielder’s ability shortly after you ate your morning meal; right before I attacked you with that Crazed Murder Goat.> Grant winced at the memory Sarge brought up. The creature had darted out of nowhere and smashed his shin hard enough that it would have certainly broken his leg if it had been real. Just as abruptly, it vanished, and Sarge promised that more of them would be arriving soon. <If that was the system, you have been in range for at least a few hours.>

“Sarge thinks he felt us passing into range after we ate breakfast.” Grant hunted around, finding after a moment of rapid searching that Suki was already halfway up the wall of the abandoned temple across the street. “Hey! Wait for me!”

“No!” She called down. “You keep up!”

He ran to the building and found the precarious pile of crates and broken pallets leaning against the temple wall that she must have used as a series of springboards and footing to reach the ledge she was shuffling along. Grant, although his body was as fit and trim as a regular athlete by now, still outweighed her two to one. There was no way that he was going to be replicating her path, especially with his armor and heavy pack on his back. “I’m gonna find a better way up!”

“You have no sense of adventure.” Suki’s chuckled reply drifted down as she maneuvered herself atop the roof and out of his line of sight.

#ERROR42

Congratulations! Your new battle count moves from [3 Wins / 1 Losses] to [3 Wins / 1 Losses]. Remember, the lucky rise to the challenge!

The strange overlaid system was still malfunctioning, which hopefully meant they hadn’t fixed whatever Grant had messed up when he’d destroyed Fluffy Finger’s scepter. Either that, or people were better trained to not ignore the system and would just fight after getting punched in the face, or at least select ‘Run Away’. “March is strange. I really, really dislike how this place works. Why would it throw an error when people don’t fight after getting in a single blow?”

<To be fair to the system, I’m rather old, and even I haven’t seen that very often. When people get hit…> Sarge chuckled, and another Crazed Murder Goat jumped out at Grant. This time, the Wielder sliced its head off using his Iaijutsu skill without even thinking about it. <…they fight back or run. Good job, there. At least when your blood is up, you pay attention to your surroundings. Now, how can I make it so that you fight when you’re dead asleep…?>

Grant ignored Sarge’s ramblings about how to shape him into a more deadly weapon and used the light reflected from his blade to get Suki’s attention. He motioned around to ask if there was anyone nearby, and got a shrug of ‘no’ in return. She slowly made her way to the steeple of the temple, cautiously picking her way across the slanted roof.

Finding no way to ascend the building, Grant gave up and decided to organize their goods instead of standing idle. He dropped his pack and prepared to move their healing potions within easy reach. There was a small issue with his well-intentioned plan: as soon as he opened the bag’s flap, a burst of dust and spores shot out of the opening.

“By Lord January’s sausage!” He peeked inside and discovered that the burnt monster heart he had collected was now a dry, desiccated husk. His eyes were drawn to a small mushroom, a fungus he had collected in January that had granted him his first-ever Skill. He had forgotten about it, and now he was paying the price for his negligence. The fungus had practically absorbed the entire organ, and apparently decided that it was time to reproduce. His pack was utterly choked with its spores. “So… better clean this up before she sees what it did to our supplies.”

Since Suki hadn’t spotted anyone among the broken-down buildings, Grant sat on the steps of the ruined temple and took everything out of his pack. He shook it out, flapping the bag until nothing remained to exit the canvas. The breeze carried away the huge plume of spores, looking like nothing so much as black smoke pouring from a burning building. Grant was sure nothing bad would come of it.

He plucked the reinvigorated mushroom off the heart, packing it carefully in a rag so it wouldn’t destroy the other two hearts. They were still in surprisingly good shape, considering he hadn’t done much to preserve them beyond wrapping them in cloth. After cleaning and repacking everything, Grant made sure to place the box containing the healing potions on the top. If nothing else, it would make it easier to get to them if they needed healing.

“Grant!” Suki whisper-shouted from the roof of the temple down to him, and he looked up and caught her wide-eyed gesticulations to hide. He dove forward and tucked into a roll, springing to his feet in a smooth motion within the empty doorway of the temple. Even as he preened about his body’s ability to move, he ducked to the side and tried to blend with the shadows.

His ears perked up as a quiet crunch of footsteps broke the silence. The near-silent approach turned into open walking on the street and steadily grew louder when it became obvious that there was no one out and about in the area. Grant crouched and picked up a piece of broken glass he found on the floor, slowly easing it out of the entrance and tilting it to peer around the doorframe.

The sight nearly made him draw in a sharp gasp, and he barely managed to keep his wits about him. A group of over thirty Peacekeepers were being led by a clown that looked like it had lost a fight with a group of angry cats. If Grant had to make a guess, he would have said it was most likely the Vassal named Tatters. The clown’s painted frown was turned upside down, creating a permanent scowl no matter where his emotions might actually lay. The group was walking down the middle of the street, barely paying attention to their surroundings. While not particularly alert, they were certainly disciplined, refraining from speaking and being as quiet as a group that large could manage.

<It looks like a regular patrol, otherwise they would be searching more carefully.> Sarge’s quiet assessment was a balm that calmed Grant’s sweating palms. He definitely didn’t want to face all of those people at once. <There are a lot of them, so they at least must suspect this is the route you’ll take to get to the center of the District.>

That didn’t make Grant feel much better. He leaned back against the wall and listened nervously as the sound of their passing faded into the distance. When he stood up to leave and check on Suki, Sarge stopped him in his tracks.

<Wait! Don't go out there yet.> Grant froze, his hand falling to his uchigatana by reflex. <I don’t think that was all of them.>

Less than a minute later, Sarge was proven right. A pair of House Tuesday Peacekeepers strode into sight, and this time they were paying much closer attention to their surroundings. A frail-looking woman dressed in a dark indigo robe brought up the rear, her clasped hands swinging a dangling chain censer that leaked bright green smoke.

“A House Saturday assassin…?” Grant managed to curtail his panicked reaction enough that they didn’t seem to hear him, but he berated himself nonetheless. The noxious fumes emanating from the bronze orb dissipated quickly, making him think it was the effect of her Wielded Weapon, and not a physical chemical or poison. “We are going to need to find a different road to the capital. If Dokeshi March hired House Saturday, we are in serious trouble.”

“I agree.” Suki’s voice next to his ear almost made him jump out of his armor. She let loose a long sigh and continued in a heavy tone, “There are many roads that lead to Vernal, but I suspect all of them will be heavy with patrols. I think we might be forced to use the labyrinth.”