Friends & Enemies

Part Seven of the Valkyrie Six



Alendria and the rest of the Six were in the basement of Rivacheg's main tavern, where gossip and mercenaries were equally welcome, according to the locals.

"I can't say I've ever seen your kind around here," the barkeep was asking one of the mercs.

"I'm a shopkeeper in exile. And I sure don't know what I was drugged with to end up here. Those robed mercenaries over there, not really sure who they are."

"Isaac!" Isseria yelled, running towards the man talking to the barkeep.

"Isseria? How did you get here?" Isaac asked.

"I was going to ask you that. Who are those other ladies you're with?"

Isseria shook her head, "I'll tell you later. This place is pretty rough so I've joined up with a group and we've immediately been attacked, or well, declared war on. I need to put an army together, and well, you're my second. The robed ones over there are priests. They can both heal and attack from afar. How much do you want a week? I'll pay you 12 ducats a week and we can renegotiate once you've got your feet under you. This place takes away your magics and slowly doles them out over time."

"How many ducats is a beer in this place?"

"3 farthlings for the light stuff. 2 ducats for something more stout."

"12 ducats a week, plus a 30% cut of your profits?" Isaac rejoindered.

"Just for that you're taking point," Isseria said, tacitly agreeing. "Let's go talk to the priests."

"What's your rate?" Isaac asked them, walking over.

"For our group, 160 ducats now, 20 ducats a week."

There were 8 of the priests standing in the corner.

"What spells do you have access to?" Isseria asked.

"Shadow Word: Pain and Smite. Lesser Healing," the group's leader said.

"Sold," Isseria said, "follow us, we're going to be the first scout party to get some eyeballs on enemy movements in the area.


-o-

Isaac hadn't been out in the field yet when he agreed to the price. This was a lot different than fighting magical gangs on the streets of Chicago.

He only had access to trap plants. He could lay down some subterranean eaters, and then when the orcs ran by, the eaters would emerge and eat. He didn't have his walking plants available.

They were looking for forces of the local nations that had declared war, but they stumbled upon a small orcish force. The problem was that it was only Isaac, Isseria and eight priests against two dozen orcs.

He had a knife, that was all he had left after the trap plants worked or didn't.

At least the orcs didn't have the wargs that Isseria had mentioned. They were on foot.

They were hiding in the tall grass as the orcs moved unevenly towards their position.

Isseria was a hundred yards away with the other 4 priests. Confusion and surprise was the best they could hope for.

An orc stepped his feet into the trapped area, and then another orc, and a third.

The gigantic mouth of the venusian eater closed over the orc and chewed.

Two more of the orcs were swallowed up and struggled, and the others backed away from the danger.

The orcs threw rocks, and sounded out where the eaters were by the response. The other three eaters didn't get any prey as the orcs skirted around, but he had swallowed up three of the enemy's numbers.

He heard the boom of Isseria's guns and whispered, "wait 2 seconds and then shadow word and smite.

The orcs ran towards Isseria's group, and Isaac's priests fired their spells at them seconds later.

Uncertain, about eight of the orcs ran his way.

Isaac held out his dagger, like it was a longer sword, and watched the orcs rush towards him. Smites smashed against them, and two orcs tumbled into the dirt.

Isaac spun out of the way of the first orc's axe and slashed at its side.

The second orc slammed into him, and pain and blood and healing spells covered him.


-o-

Isseria saw Isaac go down, and screamed at the Orcs. "You SOBs!"

Popping the kinetic rounds out of the gun, she took flame rounds, loaded the pistols back up, and fired both pistols into the gut of the next orc. She ran towards them, firing and moving, intimidating the enemy position as her priests followed instructions and concentrated fire on one orc at a time. She took an axe blow, two blows, three blows, but shot each one before he could get a bigger gouge in.

Running and moving, she smashed the blunt pistol into an orcs face, kicking him, yelling at him, and routing the rest of the orcs, who ran scattering in many different directions.

"All priests, get to Isaac and heal him up."

She didn't think about the alternative, but ran off after the orcs, killing two more of them, but two escaped.

-o-

"What the heck happened?" Isaac said, blinking as he sat up.

"This place is rough, splitting up was a bad idea. But we killed or ran off all the orcs. Two of them fled and escaped."

"How many did you kill?" Isaac asked, blearily.

"I lost count. I used up 80 rounds of kinetic, and 80 fire."

"Holy shit, Isseria! Did you use that much in all your time in Chicago?"

"Rough place, rough time. Let's head back and let another of the Six go out next. We both need a drink. Thank you priests, for all the healing."

Leaving the battle zone, Isaac noticed text flashing in front of him.

"It finally happened," Isseria said, as they showed up in the world zone.

"What? This weird flashy text in front of my eyes? Am I going sane?" Isaac laughed.

"Level up. So you leveled up at the same time? What new stuff did you get?"

Isaac checked what was in front of his eyes, and mentally dismissed it.

"I got a botany crafting hobby. My acid shot, and I can summon my walking Piranha plant. What about you?" Isaac asked.

"Poison bullets. And an acrobatic shooting maneuver. And I can show off my katas."

They returned to Rivacheg, and went immediately to the tavern basement. The tiny member of the Six was there.

"Alendria is a good musician, singer and also can heal a whole group of people with her music. Alendria, this is my friend Isaac," Isseria said.

"And I can shoot you if you make short jokes," Alendria said, laughing.

"She's a pretty good shot with that bow. In my world, a bow doesn't shoot nearly as far as a gun, but here, Alendria's out ranging me by a good 50 yards," Isseria said.

"Weird,  well, anyway, did you put together a group to go scouting next?"

"I found some townspeople who wanted to come along and help," Alendria said.

-o-

He was just a townsman, swept up into something bigger by an inspiring leader in Anduin, and moved by the music and tales of the tiny being who called herself a gnome. There were very old tales of gnomes, not friendly mind, but tales. But Alendria was a different sort.

The gnome was playing a stirring rendition of a battle song on a brand new set of war drums. This was more than just music, this was life, this was freedom.

He had a half finished longsword from his smithy, not yet finely shaped or sharpened, it seemed a waste to use, but he had nothing else to bring into the field when Alendria asked for help.

He heard that the previous group of scouts had encountered Orcs. But this was a big group of Vaegir footmen who had fled the field and abandoned their king to become free brigands.

There were perhaps three dozen of the betrayers arrayed against their makeshift army of sixty townsmen and women.

Sixty highly-motivated, stirred up, and on-fire soldiers fighting for the honor of Rivacheg, their home, and the Kingdom of the Alliance of Worlds.

The battle yell of untrained but motivated soldiers rose up, and the yell of the yellow bellies on the other side responded.

His sword clanked against an enemy's sword. A townswomen smashed her walking stick in a tomahawk motion upon the man's head and he slowly gathered his sword again and struck right in the Vaegir man's gut while he was parrying the walking stick.

The Vaeger man tumbled backwards as the townswoman fell back, in a pool of blood.

Elm didn't have time to help her as another Vaegir traitor tried to run him through with a spear. He barely got out of the way and the man overshot. He slashed at the traitor, hitting into flesh, the traitor's weapon was long and unsuitable for up close fighting, so he dropped it and pulled out a sword, in that moment, Elm took a change and shoved his sword through the enemy's neck.

Brutality after brutality. Elm found himself an inch from ruin and only the drums kept him going, kept him doing whatever to put this enemy force down.

As the song faded away, and a lilting, calm tune began to play on some other kind of instrument, Elm sat down and realized how hurt he was. His right eye was bloodied and he couldn't see out of it. His left ear was cut and hanging off. His left leg was bleeding badly.

"I'm so sorry!" Alendria shouted. "I didn't realize how strong our foes were. I am still used to fighting with the Six. I'm healing you up as quick as I can. I'm sorry! Stay alive!"

 "My head is filling with new knowledge. Knowledge about killing. I didn't want to know all of this!"

Elm knew about cleavers and a ball and chain and other grisly weapons. He knew about killing without remorse and honoring the song of battle by abandoning everything else but the joy of battle. To surely die someday, covered in blood.

"This world is different," Alendria said mournfully. "I don't like it so much."


-o-

When the six leveled up for the second time, Melara gained the ability to meditate, and sense any force users nearby as well as gain a sense of calm she had been lacking for so long.

She didn't expect to put the force sense to any use, but she was shocked when she sensed five force sensitives in town.

She was up in the upper level of the tavern, where the nobles supposedly came and went. But since it was an alliance of worlds town now, she had only seen Anduin and Aliaga up here before.

The five towns people,. two women and three men, were sitting around the largest table there with her.

"You all have some sensitivity to the force, even if you don't notice it. The force is an energy field that surrounds all living things. The force is our friend, our comfort and our power to those who can use it. You may have avoided something painful or deadly with the force, and brushed it off as just chance, but the force is real."