Anything ~ 25!

- Luke -

He wasn’t sure why Taylor was so excited about the snail shell, but he decided not to rain on her parade. Luke ran alongside his team leader, his mind on other things. Now that he had a location, he could formulate a plan of attack to get Cookie back into his hands. “The birds aren’t a problem… the ant should be a whole lot easier to kill… but the ‘Corns will be ready for me this time. They won’t give her back without a fight… I know I wouldn’t, and they think she’s god, so…”

The Murderhobo was so distracted that he almost didn’t notice the group of Ascenders that were blocking their path back into town. Taylor’s sharp hiss brought him back to the present, and he gave the group of troublemakers a once-over. “Let’s see. Armor, well-muscled, clearly well-fed. Not the locals. Heaven’s Earth again? Now what do they want?”

“Team ‘The Four’, you are charged with treason against the Hollow Kingdom.” Edward the Knight bellowed into their faces. “You are to be inspected for any items known to be owned by other members of the Kingdom’s Ascenders. You will submit to questioning, and-”

“I swear we haven’t instigated an attack against any official Kingdom forces.” Taylor’s Sigil appeared on her head, and chimed as it registered her words as truth. “Anyone attacking us, ambushing us, certainly wouldn’t be someone working for the Kingdom. Isn’t that correct, Sir Edward?”

Luke grimaced at the cloying feel to what she was saying. Even listening to someone speaking politically made him imagine an oily substance oozing across his skin. There was a long moment where the Knight thought through his options, and his eyes lit up as he stumbled upon an original thought for once. “While that may be true, we are still going to need you to submit to questioning and a full search. You, hobo-man, hand over your weapons and gear.”

The Murderhobo stared down at the Knight. The armored man walked toward him, and as he got closer, Luke realized Edward’s head only came up to his chin; and he was the tallest of the Knights. A smile spread across the Murderhobo’s face as he pulled out a random waterskin and uncorked it before spraying a thin stream onto the ground in front of him. He put the skin away as the liquid mana decompressed into a thick fog, and opened his arms.

“Go ahead.” Luke’s eyes twitched as he stared down the Knight. Pure mana billowed up in front of him, lending his utterly hairless head a sinister glow. “Take it from me.”

Edward looked at his fellow Knights, who shook their heads as sweat dripped past their helmets, and narrowed his eyes. He tried to reach out, but his own Sigil screeched and forced him away from the wall of power. “Mage, hand over-”

“You don’t have the authority, let’s not play pretend.” Taylor motioned for Luke to follow her, and swept past the stymied group. As they walked, she muttered so that hopefully only Luke could hear her, “Make sure Zed is safe. He’s the only one they could reasonably control.”

“Good luck finding him.” Luke snorted in response. “We let him loose among the locals. He has the authority to hide from the King. Are you forgetting that he’s a Bard?”

That pulled Taylor up short, and a troubled look appeared on her face. “That might complicate things.”

“Who cares?” Luke looked at the Knights that were slowly beginning to follow them like lost puppies. “There’s only so far I’ll let them press us before I take it as an attack. The bar is low, Taylor.”

“You seem…” Taylor hesitated as she thought of how to put her next words delicately, “…Different. In a good way. Did something change?”

“I’m acting exactly the same as I always do, Taylor.” Luke marched forward, on the lookout for threats. “Any changes are just how you are perceiving me.”

“Oh! Then you must have gained charisma!” Taylor looked at his face for confirmation, but was only met with a stoney stare. “Fine, keep your secrets.”

A tall man ran at them suddenly, and it was only at the last instant that Luke managed not to beat his face in. Andre’s normally smiling face was set in a rictus of pain, and he motioned for the others to follow him. Without exchanging a syllable, the three of them started walking out into the sand of the desert. Sir Edward paused at the edge of town and yelled after them, “You can’t leave! I’m here to question you!”

“Get back to your post, fool. You don’t have that kind of authority.” Andre snarled at the Knight, who flinched back and away. Luke looked at his friend with interest; when the Druid had shouted, lines of fresh blood could be seen seeping down between his teeth.

“Neat.” Luke muttered as he tried to get closer to his friend. To his surprise, the man that had always towered over him was now only a few inches taller than he was. “Was it eating the mana? Or something else?”

“I’m a Royal Knight!” Sir Edward howled after them.

“Either take us in by force, or go find someone who cares!” Andre bellowed back at the man, his vines unwinding from his body and lashing out. “I’ll warn you right now, if you interfere in our work it will. Not. End. Well for you!”

The Druid turned to his team and looked searchingly for Zed. Seeing that the others were calm, he realized that Zed must be up to something. “Listen, you two. I need you to help me. I found a way to start my work, but… I need things. Blood, bodies, power. This will not be an easy or cheap affair. Can I count on you?”

“I call bodies and power.” Luke volunteered as soon as the Druid stopped speaking. “Blood is seriously hard to collect for me.”

A faint smile touched the corners of Andre’s lips. Taylor leaned toward him and whispered something; and the Druid appeared to be refreshed. The sweat and grime on him slowly vanished, and he seemed far more comfortable in just a few moments. “I appreciate that, thank you. I found an awesome plant that allows me to hold off on sleep for days at my level of Body, but the side effects are starting to catch up to me. I need to get the first few layers down so that the land can steep while I sleep.”

“You weren’t gone long, were you?” Luke glanced at the thick bags the Druid was carrying around. “What could you possibly have accomplished in under two weeks?”

“Anything, Luke.” Andre leaned in and locked bloodshot eyes on the Murderhobo, speaking with a low, serious tone. “With enough direction, power, and imagination, I can do anything.”

“Except sleep and brush your teeth. Luckily Taylor was here for the second one.” Luke rebutted the overly serious Druid. He lifted a hand and shoved the Druid away from him. “You look like a monster, so I need you to stay a little further away from me so I don’t accidentally tear your spine out.”

“How does someone accidentally tear…” Taylor stopped herself, took a deep breath, and smiled at Andre. “Where are we going right now, and how can we actually help? Before that, I have some disturbing news. It appears that there is a large number of Scars in the area, and they’re spewing out monsters and messing with the weather.”

“Good to know.” Andre nodded, continuing the motion for far too long; nearly falling asleep thanks to the rocking motion. Luke slapped him lightly, sending the Druid to the ground and kicking up a cloud of sand. He hopped up and gave a thumbs-up, not trusting his ability to nod in thanks. “The Scars are actually good news for this, I need lots and lots of bodies. Monsters, animals, really whatever you’ve got. Another thing that would work is just an epic amount of fecal matter. I can use an entire corpse to cover a way bigger area than manure would cover though.”

“Um.” Taylor started raising her hand to calm the nearly vibrating Druid. He waved her off and kept speaking.

“No, listen, this is cool.” Andre lifted a seed and gestured with it. “I can use the microbiomes present in blood and bodies to start a grove by adding in flora that convert the… we’ll say ‘meat’ for lack of a better term, into vegetation. My power added to the natural lure of the plants will cause insect life to be drawn to the area, worms and such. That’ll save me time aerating, and my watermelons will form sprinklers!”

Luke punched the Druid in the face, and the man collapsed into a heap. He glanced warily at Taylor, but she merely looked away. “Oh, what fine landscape we have here. It is always amazing what nature can create.”

The Murderhobo cracked a grin at her completely unnatural tone, and lifted the Druid onto his shoulder. “He needed to not be awake anymore. He was starting to sound like Zed. Manic and stuff.”

“No idea what you’re talking about. As far as I’m concerned, he fell into a much-needed sleep.” Taylor’s eyes were locked on a point in the distance, and she waved at it. “I’m almost positive that he was bringing us to the spot you landed out there. About three kilometers from town, yes? I’m betting he’s planning to use the residual mana to ease his burden in growing the grove there.”

“Neat. You said there were more Scars in the area?” Luke’s voice was as stoic as usual, but Taylor could have sworn there was an undertone of eagerness. “He needs bodies, so If you wanna keep watch, I’ll go around and look for the special materials he wanted?”

“Yeah, yeah, go kill things.” Taylor sighed as the Murderhobo dropped Zed like a sack of potatoes. She caught him, of course, but by that point Luke was already running into the distance. The last thing he heard her mutter was, “Maybe him running around will throw off anyone pursuing us, at least?”