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Bk 3 Ch. 11 Meeting the Neighbors
🕑 Added 2024-09-30 20:29:28 +0000 UTC11.
Slipping off of the overpass and into the town was easy enough. Everyone was busy fighting, slashing, stabbing, burning, and killing in an orgy of destruction that called to Santi. He forced his will to crush down the urges, focusing on their objectives as Hana led them to the camp most likely to follow them.
The cautious middle aged group was deep in the center of the destroyed downtown. They had taken over a cored out building only a few blocks from where the Pillar of Civilization sat. The fighting around the pillar was a mess of a melee, with dozens fighting, ducking in and out of buildings, around burnt out cars, and piled up rubble. None could get to the pillar, dying as all the factions turned on any who closed in on it.
The woman with the burning fists was duking it out with some low grad Acolyte monster. She was holding her ground, but not being able to overwhelm it as they fought through the ruins of a fast food restaurant. Santi got one last look at her as she hit the heavily armored monster in a burst of power, staggering it but not sending it to the ground.
“She’s solid. Would be a good addition to Rayleigh’s crew,” Santi remarked to Chloe. Chloe just grunted, eyes sweeping all around her as she kept her axe ready to intercede with anything that came at them.
Hana kept moving at a brisk walk, her own knife clutched and at the ready. She didn’t turn and listen to them, simply pausing at the edge of a building to peak around it. She darted around the corner and Santi followed after as they kept moving toward where the group was located. As Santi turned the corner, a shape leapt free of the second story window, landing between him and Hana. Santi lashed out without hesitation and cut the lizardman in half without pausing.
He stepped past the dead creature even as its body settled, head swiveling and alert. Hana glanced back, startled by the sudden violence. Santi just pointed towards his own eyes and then up. She nodded slowly and began to check the upper levels of things as she walked.
They moved slowly, never exceeding a slow walk as they moved around buildings and fights without interfering. Nothing here was strong enough to honestly challenge them, but getting dragged into the quagmire would only slow them down further. It was something that he had to remind himself frequently as he wanted to solve the quagmire mess by simply killing everything in the town. At least, a small part of him did.
An incessantly annoying growing small part of him. Santi was forced to push it down, the niggling thoughts that wormed its way through his mind.
“It’s just up ahead. There’s someone on the roof watching,” Hana said as she peeked around the corner at where the new group was located. Santi leaned over and saw where she was pointing at.
A single person sat by the ledge watching the streets and another lounged hidden across the street. Hana had missed the person, Santi only seeing them when he glimpsed them in the reflection of a window.
He crossed the street after [Identifying] the sentry and realizing she was just a peak Initiate. He gave her a little wave as he walked, even as she bolted upright and promptly disappeared. A hole or quick escape route on the roof that allowed her to quickly get to the others.
Santi wagged a finger at the second sentinel who was rising up and drawing an arrow back to fire in her bow. She froze, looking surprised as Santi walked straight through the kill zone and into the building. Chloe and Hana followed behind, both of them looking at who Santi had waved his fingers at.
“How’d you know they were there?” Hana asked.
“Reflection in the glass over there,” Santi tipped his head subtlety towards where the glass was. He didn’t want the archer to see what had given her away. Not till they were officially aligned with him.
“Smart,” Hana whispered. Chloe just shrugged a shoulder as they marched through the broken front wall of the store.
A pair of burly older men rose up to block their passage, their faces twisted in fear as they used a skill to identify them. Both backed up a few steps and Santi passed by them with just an easy nod.
The linoleum floors were dirty and scratched, light streaming though behind Santi as he looked at the group of people huddled around the main table. They all looked at the three of them and slowly straightened up.
“Can I help you?” a slightly older man asked. His shoulder length hair was iron gray and fine as silk. He wore a patched flannel shirt with rolled up sleeves exposing corded forearms covered in military tattoos. His dark eyes were unflinching iron pits of determination. Even with Santi’s higher levels and power, he didn’t seem phased.
Warrior lvl. 25
To get the class of a warrior right off the bat spoke much of his disposition and skill set. The tattoos, build, and the way he carried himself all but screamed that he was a former active military member. These types of men and women had often managed to have early success, plying their skills to great effect. It was later down the line when things veered away from the team work and early days of the integration that they struggled. The personal growth needed to pass the next level of cap points was something that you could not do without a significant amount of resources. It required a greed that many of them couldn’t or wouldn’t express.
“My name is Santiago Silva and I have come to claim that Pillar of Civilization.”
“Pleasure’s yours I guess. I’m Frank.”
“Pleasure is mine Frank, I would like to help out with your situation outside but I would like to know what’s actually happening before I start cutting.”
“Town went to shit. Some fucking nutters decided this was the time to start a death cult since nothing matters. Extreme nihilism but they’re incompetent for the most part. The real worry is the kids. They’re drunk on power and don’t want to hear anything about slowing down and taking it slow. Maya got into it with one or two of them and it’s been bad blood since.”
“The kids, can they be reined in or is to the death for them?” Santi asked.
“We want them back in the fold. They’re good people, but, this power they have. It’s made them hard headed. Constantly going on and on about grinding levels and finding treasures and powers. None of them have managed to get past twenty-five like you though.”
“Something I can help with if you’re willing to sign up with my people.”
“You have people?” A woman asked suddenly, fear and hope intermingled in her voice.
“Yes. We have people. A full on town about fifty miles from here. Got a couple thousand people, farmers, armorers, clean water, the works.”
“Can we go there?”
“Yes. We are working on spreading out a bit, trying to establish smaller villages and towns to reduce the strain on our infrastructure. I just want you to know that before I bring you folks along.”
“We’d have to settle a town. Again?” the same woman asked, eyes sinking downwards in defeat.
“Yes. But you’d have support. I have teams of fighters who roam the area, scouts who hunt monsters, the whole kit and caboodle.”
“And all we need to do for that is help you with claiming the Pillar?” Frank cut in.
“No. You can get all that by just promising to follow our rules. And not getting in my way when I start working on claiming the Pillar.”
“Dillan, go and get your sister and everyone else. Pull back everyone from the pillar,” Frank ordered quickly, One of the large men who had confronted them when they walked in turned around and went out the hole.
“This should take a few minutes. You are sure you don’t need any manpower from us in clearing the area?”
“I’ll be fine. Just clear out the people you want to stay alive.”
“Santi, you’re slipping,” Chloe leaned in and whispered in his ear urgently. The whispered words were hardly more than the sigh of exhalation but loud enough that they rang through his growing haze of bloodlust.
“I’ll try to keep the kids alive and relatively unharmed,” Santi amended after a second. People relaxed subtly around him. They hadn’t been about to stop him, but they weren’t exactly thrilled with his earlier words.
“Shit, you’re all kids yourself,” the woman from earlier said.
“Don’t worry about us, we can handle ourselves. Just get ready to move once I claim the Pillar.”
The three of them separated from Frank and his people and walked out of the store. The negotiations had been short and sweet just like Santi liked them. It was easy when you came from a position of strength and offered the other party everything they wanted.
“Santi, are you sure this is how you want to play it? Your curse is affecting you,” Chloe leaned, the warmth of her body present against his back.
“It is. I can’t deny it. We still need that pillar and everyone is in my way to getting it.”
“Let me and Hana deal with it then. We’re strong enough to do it. We can’t be losing you to some type of fucking madness right now.”
“I agree with whatever Chloe is whispering into your ear,” Hana said without turning to look at them.
“Alright, you two go and clear the way then. Give Dilan a minute to get his people out of the way and then you two can get to work. I won’t step in unless you need help.”
“We won’t,” Chloe said without hesitation.
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