A domed shield hummed to life around us right before the explosion ignited. An explosion so bright it seared my eyes. I buried my head in my arm, but it was too late. Between the pain and dancing stars, I saw my head was spinning. I wanted to throw up. Luckily instincts kicked in and I drew blood from my bracer to numb myself and heal whatever retina damage I’d incurred.
Three more concussive booms followed, but none of them touched us. Yakeshi’s shield was absolute.
Only when silence fell did I risk looking.
In every direction for half a square mile, buildings had been vaporized. A whole section of the city around us had been flattened. The thoroughness of the destruction surprised me. It was like being in the aftermath of a nuclear bomb. All that remained was some small burning wreckage that was barely waist high.
With the buildings gone, I could see that we were on the outskirts of the city and that it led into a desolate desert of rolling hills. The sand was dark gray and had a more foreboding atmosphere than the grungy aesthetic of the city.
I looked at the others.
Yakeshi was staring off into the distance like he was looking for someone, but was otherwise unfazed. Beeze was on his hands and knees, vomiting a milky green substance that I didn’t look too closely at. While Damian was still strapped to the table groaning, and muttered something about throwing the hood back over him.
I pulled out my knife and cut him free. In his addled state, he nearly rolled off the table. I had to hold him down and force a health potion down his throat until he stopped struggling.
“Stay here,” Yakeshi said.
There was a slight shimmer around him, and then he vanished.
“Great, we’ll just wait in the aftermath of a giant explosion,” I muttered. “Beeze, does this city have police?”
The alien was still in a bad state. He spat something to the side. “Police?” he asked, confused. Perhaps it was a translation issue, but I had to know if it was wise to stay or not.
“The authorities, law enforcement, security, the bobbies, the bulls, and so on.”
“No, nothing like that,” he replied. “The factory owners would’ve had private security back in the day, but this area’s been abandoned. Right now, they’re probably all worried about whether they’re going to be bombed next.”
Small blue lights flying low over the desert caught my eye. I stared at them until I realized that they were actually butterflies.
“They’re drawn to the fires,” explained Beeze.
“They’re beautiful,” I said.
“They’re pests,” he grumbled.
Beeze vomited again, and I went back to watching the butterflies. Sure enough, they would fly close to the burning wreckage and hover in front of it. Basking in the warmth.
Some weren’t content with that and flew towards Damian and myself. One landed on my arm and I felt a sharp pain there. The butterfly had bitten me hard enough to draw blood. Damian yelped from being bitten also and summoned his crossbow.
He fired a bolt at a nearby butterfly and it bounced off the insect harmlessly. Damian and I both looked at each other, and then it dawned on us. We were using F-grade weapons on a D-grade planet. Even the creatures Beeze only considers pests might be beyond us.
More were starting to swarm me. Flying close to bite and then flying briefly away when I shook them off. I brought out my knife and blood sword, swinging at them blindly. They didn’t care. They ignored my attacks and kept the biting. My blades struggled to even push them aside, let alone cut them.
More and more of the creatures poured in from the desert and the situation was going from annoying to dangerous very quickly.
Damian, equally in trouble, dropped something on the ground. There was a flash, and the butterflies fell to the ground, alive but temporarily stunned. Damian retreated closer to Beeze, likely hoping his D-grade body would serve as protection.
Damian must have brought out one of his best abilities to counter them. There wasn’t time for me to set up Crimson Domain, but I had something else that I could try.
I dismissed my blood sword and used Blade Weaver on the knife until it glowed red and hummed with energy. I struck upward with the small blade and cut the butterfly in half. Finally, I had something that worked.
Just as I had become more dangerous to them, the butterflies became more attracted to me. There were too many to simply stab at. After checking that Damian and Beeze were still on the ground, I held the blade out and spun in a circle with Air Slash. A red arc of power shot out around and sliced through dozens of the creatures.
I felt triumphant. That even without my domain ability, I was still getting stronger. The triumph didn’t last however, and my face fell as I saw more of the creatures coming over the hills. My stomach dropped, and the fear returned. There seemed to be an endless supply of these things.
A soft thud to my left drew my eye. Yakeshi had returned. He held out his hand. A white pulse of light blasted out. It did not harm the butterflies, but they surged away back over hills like they’d been stung and did not return.
The god then handed Beeze a pill, which seemed to stop his nausea. He seemed relieved that Damian and I were okay and didn’t seem to notice that I’d used Blood Reaver abilities.
I turned to Yakeshi. It was time that I got some answers.
“What happened?” I asked him.
“The bomb was a message,” he replied, frowning. “Someone was trying to get my attention.”
“Are you sure they weren’t just trying to kill us?”
“No, the bomb was them being dramatic. They knew it would not harm me or those that I was with. No, the message was kidnapping your friend. Somebody who's been watching us both and arranged for all of this to happen.”
His head suddenly snapped to the left. “We must go. The Industrial Consortium have finally agreed to send a scouting party to this location.”
It wasn’t so much an order as a statement of fact. One minute we were surrounded by all of this rubble, and then the next we were in an alleyway on the other side of the city. I don’t know how he carried all of us, but the three of us blinked and suddenly fell to the floor.
A backdoor opened up at the commotion and an alien that looked like Beeze peered out at us. Loud, thumping music could be heard bleeding out from the building. He looked at the three of us still on the floor, all feeling a little dazed, then he saw Yakeshi. The alien bowed his head and closed the door.
“Are we safe here?” I asked.
“No,” Yakeshi replied. “But the music and the buildings will help mask our presence for the moment so that we can continue our conversation. Beeze you should leave now.”
“What, just like that?”
“You’ve done your part. The threat you called me here for has been eliminated and the further away from us you get, the safer you’ll be.”
He wrestled with himself for a moment before nodding. He walked away, and once he was out of earshot, Yakeshi turned to Damian.
“Who brought you to this place?”
Damian grimaced. “I’m not allowed to say. It’s part of my agreement for being here.”
“You think one of the gods sponsoring in the tower set this up?” I asked.
Yakeshi shrugged. “Perhaps. But using a friend of a student like this and the Blood Reaver… it’s too personal. Too specific at targeting me in a way that I don’t see what they’d gain from it.”
He went back to staring at Damian, who shifted and looked away. The god’s gaze could be intense when he wanted it to be. Eventually, his eyes rose. “Ah, there it is.” He pointed to the sole of Damian’s left boot.
I looked but didn’t see.
“It’s a drop of blood,” Yakeshi said.
Damian and I glanced at each other. There was an awful lot of blood on the floor back at the warehouse. Damian stepping in some didn’t seem significant.
“It’s not from the warehouse,” Yakeshi said. He pressed his finger to it. “It’s…” his face hardened in disgust. “You need to leave,” he told Damian. “He’s tracking you right now. He’s either in league with your master or he doesn’t have a clue. Either way, now that we’re together, you’re expendable. I suggest you finish whatever task brought you here quickly.”
Damian nodded and turned to me. He was about to tell me something when he was teleported away in the blink of an eye.
“Don’t be alarmed. He’s back in the tower.” Yakeshi looked up at the sky. “There aren’t many who can watch me without being observed in turn and there’s only one arrogant enough to think he could control that psychopath.”
There was no response from the sky.
“I have more to do here. You should go.”
“What about what happened here? Who are you talking about? If he can get to Damian, then couldn’t he get to me?”
“Not if you made a formal pledge. That way, I could communicate with you telepathically instead of having to meet in person.” He saw the look on my face and said, “I wouldn’t be reading your mind. It’s more like having a separate radio frequency that only the two of us have access to. You’d have full control over every thought you sent to me.”
“But it would no longer being able to receive advice from Samara and she’d see it as a betrayal too,” I pointed out.
“That she would. But do you trust her to keep helping you without a pledge? Eventually, you’ll have to choose.”
“I know. I’ll think about it.”
He nodded. “And think about the other things as well. Find a real sword. Oh, and if you meet your friend back in the tower, it’s best to keep what happened here to yourselves. There are far too many eyes in the tower. The less you know about what happened here, the better.”
I nodded and blinked and suddenly found myself back on the ship.
That was a lot. The Blood Reaver that had gone made with blood lust. Somebody is hunting Yakeshi, and Damian is somehow involved. I hadn’t anyone mention him since I got to this floor. Is he affiliated with one of the known crews? I’d have to ask the others.
Strangely, when I got up, Hugo was gone. It was eerily quiet on board, but that could be because the others were still resting. I sent a party chat message to him but he didn’t respond. Huh, he’s probably off somewhere distracting one of the crew.
I stepped out to breathe some sea air and find the rest of my crew.
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