Rexus ~ Chapter 8!

“That man is insane.” Jessamyn disarmed yet another trap in the road, this one basically a landmine that would first shatter the armor of anyone standing on it, then explode. Her progress in tailing him had slowed significantly when she encountered the first trap. Unlike Jaxon, she couldn’t safely leap over the majority of them; she needed to carefully search for them and then either avoid or disarm them.

Jess had been following Jaxon ever since he had appeared screaming outside of a shrine. His gear was really good, and the way everyone ran from him suggested that he had power and money. Why else would they have those looks of fear on their faces? The man had made what should have already been a fatal mistake: he was alone. Somehow though, he kept making the strangest choices! Instead of attacking the Wolfmen, he had traveled with them for a day! She had been waiting for the red aura of a racial traitor to appear so she could rob slay him worry-free, but it never appeared.

All of her carefully laid traps on the paths and roads he would have been using if he had gone back to where he started? Useless! Then… then! The deadly Asp she had lured to the area? It left because the man annoyed it away! That had taken hours of carefully placing prey, and heating a small section of the road for it to digest its food on! That more than anything was causing her a headache. Now, on the most deadly stretch of road trapped by both Humans and Wolfmen, Jaxon had sped up. Jess had no idea where he was going, but it was sure to be a place with untold treasures. She had to find him, or when the rest of her team caught up they would boot her from the party.

She shivered at that thought. She was trying to get into a very exclusive guild that planned on focusing on player-versus-player combat, and on the final mission before admittance she was failing! She had already been given a ‘Graverobber’s Kris’, which was the secret weapon of her guild. It allowed her to loot two items from any player she killed, and she had originally planned to take out the Monk as soon as possible. Why had she listened to that stupid… right, the possibility of real treasure. She sighed, getting back to work on clearing a small path through the megatons of explosives this road contained.

~ Jaxon ~

“Hello, big Chief Wolf!” Jaxon smiled winningly at the extra-large Wolfman he had been brought before.  Once again, he didn’t know the Wolfman word for something, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying, “You first patient?”

“I’m not a Chief.” The Wolfman replied in passable English. “Why are you here? Why should we not slaughter you and give our pups a taste for manflesh?”

Jaxon nodded along at his words. “I see, I see. You have hungry children and need a discount. I don’t think there are any rules on discounts for non-human sapients, so I won’t tell if you don’t. As to why I am here, an old Wolflady sent me this way, and told me that you would give me directions to temple that might help me specialize.”

“What if I said I didn’t believe you?” The Wolfman’s ear twitched back and forth lazily. “What if I said that you killed one of our people and took that token off their corpse?”

“Oh, right!” Jaxon snapped his fingers loudly, causing not a few weapons to be pulled from sheaths. “I was supposed to tell you a phrase if this came up… let me think was it…? Got it, let me see if I can pronounce it in wolf-tongue properly. ‘You let him through or I will shake you like a poodle.”

The room went silent, and even the socially dense Jaxon noticed. “A-hem, yes, but she didn’t tell me what it meant, just made me memorize it perfectly.”

A strange chuffing sound came from the Wolfman, and Jaxon could have sworn that he saw a tag wag once or twice. The Wolfman was laughing? “You met O’Baba! My people, O’Baba lives!”

There was a moment of quiet, and then whispering broke out. What passed for whispers among their people anyway. “Tell me, fist-puncher, why would O’Baba vouch for you?”

“Now, first off, I am uncertain if that was her name.” Jaxon held up his gloved hand to make sure that fact was known. “I was given this token after rescuing a pack of Wolfladies and puppies… err… I don’t know what you call children here. Then the elderly Wolflady made me travel with them for a day to learn some of your throat-damaging guttural language.”

For some reason his words were laughed at, and chuffing erupted in the area. “You… you saved O’Baba? Was the human King or Queen attacking her? What did you save our races’ most powerful shaman from?”

“She was being attacked by a group of people that had bounties for kills.” Jaxon’s words brought another round of chuffing. “Even if she is as powerful as you say, since she was protecting others I think the real reason I was given this token is that no one else got killed.”

The laughing stopped, and the Wolfmen shifted slightly on their feet, wanting nothing more than to have this human stop making them uncomfortable. His words made them realize that if was possible that a few pups may have been slain if he hadn’t intervened. Not-the-Chief huffed through his snout and spread his arms wide. “If the O’Baba gave you her personal token, who am I to refuse you? Now, you wanted to trade? What can you offer?”

“Offer?” Jaxon’s eyes lit up, and he needed to wipe a line of drool off his chin. “Yes! I can adjust your bodies, allowing you to move correctly and be more powerful. While it is not a permanent effect initially, over the course of several sessions your body will become far stronger! I can use myself as an example.”

Jaxon twisted around in a dizzying whirl, bending and twisting to show his flexibility and strength. He was holding himself up with a finger when the Wolfman stopped him, speaking with out of sync mouth movements. “Please, yes, you can stop. There is nothing I would like more than this buff.”

“Then have it you shall!” Jaxon stepped forward and started driving his fingers into the various acupressure points he had been able to discover or learn about. 

The third poke sent a needle into a nerve cluster, forcing the Wolfman to choke back his cry of rage at the sudden but somewhat expected assault. His eyes went wide as the human grasped his head and twisted, sure that this was the end for him. Instead, there was a *pop*, and his head was twisted another direction. *Pop*. The expected pain never arrived. Instead, relief began to flow through him. The Human was suddenly on his back, grasping the armor on his shoulders and pressing with his feet. *Crack*!  

Jaxon hopped down to the ground and stepped back. wiping his hands off, he smiled as the Wolfman began moving again. The huge beast took a step forward and stood straight, the slouch removed for the first time ever. He was suddenly over a foot taller, and his presence washed over the others. They averted their eyes and slouched lower, obviously their leader had just become an actual chief somehow! 

“I feel… amazing. You could have killed me, yet you didn’t…” The Wolfman growled deeply and moved with higher agility than he had ever been able to manage. “You also followed our rules, ensuring to inflict some pain with each touch so that my constitution could improve. This buff…! No! It lasts how long?” 

Feat of honor performed! Your reputation with the Wolfmen has increased by 800! Current reputation is: 0 (forced neutral). Actual reputation is: -2200 (Hated).

“Should be about three days, but repeated usage increases the length.” Jaxon happily smiled as the Wolfmen around him began to murmur and shift closer. They had planned to attack him, but at their new Chieftain's words they instead began vying for a closer position. His next words barely even dissuaded them. “Now, Mr. Wolf, what would you say is a fair price for this treatment?”