Raze! Chapter 5!

~ FivE~

“We’re back, Joe!” Alexis ran over to Joe as he was leaving breakfast. Joe’s bad mood over being interrupted halfway through his daily characteristic score training vanished like fog in a sunny day.

“Alexis!” Joe opened his arms and his teammate gave him a big hug. “It’s so good to see you, how was your trip?”

“Pretty good!” Alexis smiled even as her eyes went flat. “We were able to improve our skills a lot, gain some good experience, and even prevent a few war crimes from occurring.”

“War crimes…?” Joe almost didn’t want to know. “As in?”

“The Wolfmen are sentient, or close enough to it that slaughtering innocents is a really bad thing.” She quietly informed him, even as she pulled him along to see the others in the party. “Thanks to Bard keeping people calm, and Poppy stabbing a few of the most vicious people in the face, we stopped… a lot of things.”

“That’s good. I’m proud of you guys.” Joe told the three as the other two came into view. “When you went off to finish off that race, I was really worried that you would do some things you might eventually regret.”

“Ah, no’ wi’ ma pretty lass keepin’ us in line!” Bard called over, causing Alexis to simultaneously roll her eyes and blush. “It’s good ta see ya, Joe.”

“Even better to be seen!” Joe smirked at the trio. “Hi, Poppy!”

“Ah, our fearless leader!” Poppy swept off his oversized, feathered hat and sketched a bow. “How it warms my heart to be in your presence once more!”

“Right.” Joe snorted and slapped the man on the shoulder. “All we need now is Jaxon, and we’ll be back to full strength!”

“I’d like to contend that we are at full strength whenever I am here.” Poppy sniffed at the air haughtily. “I’d also-”

Joe splashed the duelist in the face with a cleanse spell, and then decided to make the most of it when he realized that the three of them actually stunk pretty badly. Water spun out from Joe and washed over the three, cleaning them and their clothes at the same time. “There we go, you guys should be losing that debuff right about… now. Much better!”

Poppy spat to the side, “Hey, thanks, but a bit of warning, yeah? That water is cold.”

“Any plans for the day?” Joe looked around at the others and got shrugs in response. Actually, weren’t you all supposed to be gone for a few more days?”

“Ah. Yeah, but when no one could log out, food started vanishing way faster than we had plotted for. Not only that,” Alexis took a swig of water from her canteen, “morale was pretty low at that point. We figured ‘good enough’ and got moving back here.”

“Oh, well, good.” Joe smiled around, but his happy look slowly faded. “I, unfortunately, seem to have been nerfed during our time apart.”

“Wha’ d’ya mean?” Bard asked with a furrowed brow. “Ya doin alright?”

“Yeah, but I lost my direct connection to my deity.” Joe sighed softly. “Gonna need to do a lot of work to restore him, and I really need to test out my current combat ability.”

“We caught a quest about cleaning out some caverns nearby that might connect to a deeper level of those mines we collapsed.” Poppy offered quickly. “It looked fun, what with the total lack of information available and a dark, cramped space.”

“Sounds just about perfect, you all okay to get going?” Joe looked around, and everyone nodded eagerly. He really hoped that they were eager to fight and get back together, not to see how weak he was. They started walking toward the gates, and Joe was just about to ask a question when he saw someone familiar.

“Jaxon! There you are!” joe called happily. He had been the most concerned about Jaxon; the man had a tendency to break people accidentally, or start fights accidentally, or get warrants for his arrest acci… Joe had been worried. “Everyone just got back a short while ago, I was hoping that we could get up to date on our adventures. What do you think?”

“Excuse me, get out of the way.” A pompous man Joe recognized from the late-night meeting a few days ago seemed to be nearly hyperventilating over Joe interrupting him, and his fists clenched and pale as he continued shouting at Jaxon. “We told you what would happen if you came back, and you are-”

Joe stepped closer to Jaxon, still chatting happily to bait the youth into doing something stupid. The young leader seemed absolutely shocked that Joe had done so, and decided to play right into Joe’s hands. “Are you not in the Guild? I said, get out of the way!”

“Right, that’s enough. I’m Joe, who are you?” Joe turned to the other man and subtly pulled in shadows at strategic locations on his body. This combined with leaking his mana had the interesting effect of creating a seemingly powerful aura of magic that stifled those around him; and adding a point or three of mana to slightly solidify the shadows created an actual physical pressure that made it hard to breathe.

“I…I’m-”

“I don’t actually care, leave us alone.” Joe turned back to Jaxon, suddenly all smiles again. “Jaxon, what happened to you? What are you wearing?”

“Oh, it’s been an interesting few days!” Jaxon cheerfully stated, giving Joe an unwanted hug that left a thin film of blood and sweat behind. The bald man gave a weak smile, trying not to gag as he cast cleanse on Jaxon and himself. A disk of water traveled up and down their bodies, followed by the woman with Jaxon as an afterthought. “Ah, I’ve missed your tricks. Oh! Before I go too far, I need to feed my hands a treat. Been too busy the last few days to really do so.”

“Feed yer… hands?” Bard smiled uncomfortably. “Ah feel like ya have an interesting story fer me ta tell.”

“One… moment.” Jaxon ignored the others, including the pompous man’s group who was still standing awkwardly near them. A box appeared in Jaxon’s hands, from which he pulled a brick of… meat? With a strange distortion, Jaxon’s hands shifted into lizard-like heads and began tearing into the meat.

The people in the area all shouted, flinched, or took a step backward; with two notable exceptions. The woman with Jaxon, as she appeared used to this, and Joe, who took a step closer with wonder filling his eyes. As the hands finished their snack, Jaxon held them aloft so they could roar their joy into the sky.

“Are those…?”

“T-Rex Head Hands.” Jaxon cheerfully stated, pulling the now-placid creatures closer to his body. “They are a skill called Living Weapons.”

“T-Rex Head Hands.” Joe’s eyes were burning with excitement, and as the other group took the chance to escape the situation, Joe wanted nothing more than to grab the miniature beasts and study them. “Long name. If they always come out together, could we call them something else?”

Jaxon smiled happily. Now here was a man who appreciated the finer things in life. “Sure, Joe. What did you have in mind?”

“How about ‘Rexus’?”

“Interesting. Rexus.” Jaxon rolled the word around in his mouth for a moment. “Rex, as in King, which is where T-Rex comes from in the first place. Rexus as a whole though… that means ‘a mature, self-possessed and responsible nature’. Absolutely perfect, Joe. That describes me perfectly.”

“Glad to hear it man!” Joe studied the head-hands intently until they shifted back into regular hands. “Oh, that might have been the coolest thing I’ve seen the entire time I’ve been here! I want some!”

“We can talk about it later. We’re in a cornfield.” Jaxon stated with a cautious smile. When there was no reaction, he snorted and looked around. “Ears everywhere? Come on, that expression can’t be that outdated.”

“Oh, yes it can, Jaxon.” The woman standing next to Jaxon chimed in with a sigh. “Hi, everyone. I’m Jess, since I highly doubt Jaxon was going to introduce me. He forgot I was traveling with him a few times over the last week.”

“I’ve missed you, Jaxon.” Poppy snickered, reaching out a hand to the lady. “Very nice to meet you, Jess. I’m Poppy, the leader of this team.”

Alexis slapped his hand out of the air as Jess reached out. “He most certainly is not. Joe here is team leader, I’m Alexis, the second-in command.”

“Hi there! I feel like I’ve heard enough about you that we will be able to skip all the awkwardness!” Jess exclaimed happily. Her smile cracked when Jaxon spoke up.

“From who? I don’t think I’ve talked about them to you at all.” The low-charisma Chiropractor waited impatiently for a response. “Was it those PvP assassins you used to hang out with? They don’t seem like the sort of people to give happy information very often.”

“Jaxon… I was trying to make a joke where I said, ‘not really, Jaxon is insane and can’t hold a real conversation’, but you are just the worst!” Jess turned and tried to stab Jaxon with an extra-shiny dagger that had appeared in her hand.

The man dodged easily and smiled, “Thank you, Jess! I was wondering how you planned to keep me battle ready while we were in a safe area, but I should have known you had something planned!”

Joe watched them go back-and-forth a few more times, but then he stepped in. “Alright, well, we’re going to go attack a subterranean quest area right now, you interested in coming along?”

“I’d love to, but I am currently starving and dehydrated. Near death actually.” Jaxon replied matter-of-factly. I could really go for an-”

Joe had already set up an IV using cleanse, and the lines on Jaxon’s face started to ease. Guessing that Jess was likely in a similar situation, Joe set up a spell on her as well. She dodged it and slashed the water out of the air, then looked at Joe with dangerous eyes. “Oh, shoot, I’m sorry. It’s a buff that gets you hydrated. I’m a healer, sometimes I forget that not everyone knows who I am.”

“Got it.” Jess slowly spoke the words, then watched Jaxon for a moment as more and more water flowed into him. When his face didn’t change away from cheerful, and he didn’t attack the healer, she nodded at Joe. “Alright, that could really be helpful if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Water wrapped up her arm in an instant and began flowing into her veins. She relaxed as the subtle debuffs began vanishing. “Let’s get you guys some food, and then would you like to join us, Jaxon?”

“But of course!” Jaxon smiled and started walking toward the dining area. “Also, Jess here would like to join us as a strategist. Crawling through dark places seems to be what she is interested in.”

Jess had an aggrieved expression on her face, and she ran her hands through her hair before blowing out a breath, “Yeah. That wasn’t the introduction that I had been hoping for, but it’ll have to do… I’m Jess. I’m an aspiring strategist and team logistics manager. I’m here hoping for a job and a guild invite.”

“You spent the last week with Jaxon?” Alexis narrowed her eyes at the woman. “How many times did you try to kill him?”

Jess looked stricken. “I… being honest, about six?”

“Not even once a day?” Alexis clapped and smiled. “She has really good self-control, Joe! I say we take her!”

Joe looked at Jess in a new light, a few cogs in his brain settling into place. “Alright, Jess. We don’t have a position on the squad per se, but I think that we could find a great use for your talents. I don’t know what class you have, but if you want a different one, one more specialized for what you really want to do… have you heard of the Pathfinders Hall?”

Jess looked up at the black, egg-shaped building that Joe was gesturing at. “What is that used for?”

Joe just smiled at her.