POV - 2

"Joe's a fucking idiot," Nik thought to himself as he sat around the kitchen table. 

The man had done well for himself and the group he'd adopted. Nik wryly included himself as an adoptee though it hurt his pride a bit. He'd rolled the dice on the odd group of people fleeing the town, and it had paid off as far as Nik was concerned. 

That had been his second day in Plain City. He'd left his small community after everyone had barricaded themselves in the church. The red hound had just killed a second person, and everyone could read the writing on the wall. Losing access to the rift hurt, but no one wanted to let the damned monster pick them off one by one. They had enough food to last a month if they were careful. Nik had volunteered to go because he was the fastest, thanks to his class.

The guards hadn't let him inside, and no one of any authority could be bothered to deal with him. Nik had found a house nearby and hid out on the roof near a large tree. The precaution wasn't necessary that time, but you didn't take precautions for when everything went right. He'd learned that overseas long ago, and it had stuck with him ever since. 

Nik had watched the guards go out with a VIP in the middle. He didn't know for sure, but he guessed that VIP ran the show here in town. They went into the rift and came back out a few hours later, looking beat to all hell. One of the guards was lying on a makeshift stretcher as two more carried him back to safety. Mr. VIP barely had a hair out of place. 

He watched them go back through the wall and resisted the urge to run to them and plead his case. He wasn't quite that desperate yet, but it was close. Nik had gone to the wall one more time to try and make something happen when the chaos that was Joe and company swept around him. 

Nik shook his head slightly and cleared the reverie from his mind. The conversation had heated up as much as possible, with everyone being quiet. It boiled down to this; Joe had rolled the dice and come up with a win against the other hound twice now. He'd made it to the rift and back without the thing tracking him down to the house and the non-combatants. He'd finally started using his head and realized that eventually, the monster would find them. 

Joe was learning, and Nik was thankful for that. The man had made some awful decisions in the lead-up to the red hound, and even though it had all worked out, the reaper had almost claimed his due four times over that night. Nik had seen Joe's false confidence fall away that night and worried that Joe would disappear once his wounds healed. Joe wouldn't be the first soldier to break over a bad command stint. The hollow eyes behind a fake smile couldn't fool an old soldier. 

"We could always go back to my town," Nik said quietly. Everyone stopped and turned to him, waiting to see if there was any more coming. The advantage of talking less was people usually listened more when he spoke. "There's more people and more supplies there. With a supply of berries, we could wait this whole thing out."

Nik thought that was the best idea around. It got him home and ended with the most people he cared about being alive. As soon as he'd said it, he knew that Joe wouldn't bite. Joe looked around at the parents, and his face tightened, understanding and indecision flitting briefly across his visage in the dim moonlight. But Joe held firm like Nik knew he would. When that man had a direction, he stuck to it. 

And that is why he was an idiot. Joe's direction always put the risks and burdens of responsibility squarely on his own shoulders. Most of those townsfolk wouldn't have shed a single tear if Joe was torn limb from limb by any of these monsters. They barely deserved his help and damn sure didn't deserve his life. 

Jennifer and Travis had talked, reluctantly at first, about their incarceration in town. It wasn't terrible as far as imprisonment went, but that wasn't what kept them awake at night. It was the fact that people they'd known their whole lives had locked them up without hesitation. No one had openly come to their defense, and most people refused to acknowledge that they existed after the first day. 

Nik had encouraged them to talk when they felt ready. Family and friends willing to listen when he returned from the war had let him regain some shreds of his humanity. The least he could do would be to provide the same for anyone else who needed it. 

But Joe was willing to hang himself up like a martyr for those same people who abandoned their own, and Nik couldn't understand it. Joe had the makings of a leader someday. A real one that would remember the people his decisions affected and still make the tough decisions. 

Nik shook his head again, tuning back out of the argument that was already a lost cause. It was a moot point, anyway. That idiot would get himself killed before he ever came close to the man he could become. Nik wasn't a coward. He would watch Joe's back while he was here. Nik just didn't expect to be here much longer. 

*********

"Joe's a fucking idiot," Diana thought to himself as she listened to him talk over at the kitchen table. 

She sat at the table and resisted the urge to yell in his stupid face. It would be an unnecessary risk, and Diana was sure it would only make him more likely to do it anyway. Joe focused almost entirely on what he felt was his duty, ignoring the most obvious facts. Like the fact that no one outside of this house deserved his help. 

Those people had abandoned her, and Diana could almost forgive that. She'd been a relative newcomer, and the big wigs in Dublin were applying a lot of pressure to go to bat for someone they didn't really know. But Travis, Jennifer, and the kids had been here most of their lives. Those bastards threw them out just as quickly for less reason. 

 But still, Joe was willing to go to bat for them again and again. He was even going to ask them for help. On paper, it was a wise decision. Joe was trying to minimize the risk and keep his people safe. It's a shame that Frank was a scorpion and would ultimately be true to his nature. This would end badly. 

Diana felt a confusing well of emotion at the thought of being one of Joe's people. She had to resist the urge to bolt from the room. It wasn't some stupid crush. Men always wanted to own things, and most of them didn't care if those things wanted to be owned. Diana sure as hell did not. 

That's why she left Dublin when the council member's son wouldn't be denied. That's why her parents were still under "protective custody" back in Dublin, as far as she knew. That's why there had been orders from Dublin to bring her back. 

So far, Joe had been different, and that's where the emotions became confusing. There was still a well of fear there. In their first meeting, when he'd chased her down, ignored a punch to the head, and drug her into the hay mow, she had felt genuine fear. Then the hounds showed up, and she realized that humans weren't the only monsters roaming the earth anymore. 

Despite that fear, Diana had come to trust Joe more than she had believed possible. She'd willingly walked into that fight with the red hound, sure that he would do whatever it took to bring them all out alive. He had, though it had been more luck than skill at the end. Still, she kept her distance.

Still, Diana didn't let down her guard. Joe didn't take direction well and mostly did whatever he thought best. What if someday he thought it best to "keep her safe?" It had happened before. 

She'd been ready to bolt when he yelled at her in the rift. Diana hadn't admitted that she hoped Joe would be different, but she felt that hope die as he finally showed his true colors. It was the same thing all over again. She'd braced for the over-the-top apology, the excuses of stress, the quiet demanding that she understand what he was going through. 

None of that happened, and now her emotional state was confused at best. Then Joe had wandered back in bloody, as usual, she supposed, and concocted the stupidest plan she'd ever heard. Everyone was trying to talk him out of it, hell, even Nik said something, but that idiot wasn't budging. 

"We don't owe them anything. Nik's right. We should go where people don't hate us."

Joe nodded at her, conceding the point but ultimately not giving up his position. He might be one of the most infuriating people she'd ever met. Ultimately the talk wound down, with Joe coming up with some needlessly complicated thing involving flags and everyone else going along with it. At least it kept everyone else safe. 

Diana took the first watch and tried to go to sleep when she was relieved after midnight. A cool breeze carrying dew and the scent of green life flowed through the window. She had her own bed upstairs, and there was no reason she couldn't sleep after the long day of trying to force the magic out of her hand. She was close, but it was exhausting work. Instead, she focused again, using her will to try and push mana out of her body and into the world, trying to become useful. 

Sleep claimed her after mana exhaustion set in. Her dreams were a semi-standard mess of menacing figures and family disappearing into the distance—just business as usual. The sun hit her eyes as it peaked over the horizon, and Diana gratefully woke. It said something about her dreams that this monster-filled hobo life was preferable. 

There weren't any good choices in Diana's life right now. That was the unfortunate reality of her situation. Once she'd accepted that, it made her next decision easier. Joe was a fucking idiot, but for now, she would keep that idiot alive. To do that, Diana needed to become the badass mage she was always meant to be. 

*********

"That man is a goddamn genius," Frank thought to himself as he finished the last bit of bourbon in the bottle. It was like Joe was teaching a masterclass on disrupting Frank and the council's control over the town. Frank spat when he thought of the name. He'd only learned it when they'd come across his grisly trophy. 

Frank barely resisted the urge to throw the glass he was holding against the far wall in a fit of rage. He wanted to destroy something, but crystal glasses weren't popping out of the woodwork any longer. 

"Where the hell did this guy come from?"

Before communication had cut off completely, Frank had requested any information from the council in Dublin. He didn't know if they'd never sent it or if the messengers had gotten eaten by one of those monster dogs. Joe might have killed the couriers himself for all Frank knew. Once he had the thought, he was sure it was correct. It was exactly what he would have done. 

First, the man had subverted his guards on the rift. Frank had shown up with overwhelming force, ready to squash the murmurs of discontent that had spread through town at the stranger taking on four guards and walking away. Frank had been delighted when he'd spotted the girl the Councilor's son in Dublin had been looking for. That was a valuable favor in the bag, easy peasy. 

Then the whole thing had gone tits up. Joe had resisted Frank's words; worse, somehow, that trollop he was hanging around had pointed out that Frank was using a skill. Later he'd used that same skill to call her a liar, but the damage had been done. The seeds of doubt had been sown in his guard. 

Finally, the man had ignored being impaled by a spear through the goddamn shoulder before the monster interrupted the fight. Frank had bolted back to town with his guards close behind. Well, almost all of his guards. The guard Joe had knocked out was the offering that let the rest of them escape. That was fine, though. The dangerous stranger had killed a guard. He was coming for the rest of them next. It was no time for dissent. 

Frank had thought his problems were over despite the disaster of a fight and a monster on his doorstep. Either the rift or that demon dog would handle his pest problem, and the added fear would keep everyone else in line. He'd imprisoned the traitor's families as a matter of principle. The message needed to be clear. You followed orders, or everyone paid the price. It wasn't like he couldn't use more labor and rift fodder. Eventually, they'd need to see at what age children could access the system. 

His next thought made Frank growl into the emptiness of the room. No, Joe had come out of the damned rift with the traitors in tow, stronger than before. They'd waited until he was out of town and shown everyone what a joke the security he'd been leveraging was. Hell, he hadn't even killed anyone as he waltzed through and took the traitor's families, casting doubt on the murderous madman persona that Frank had carefully crafted. 

"Why couldn't he have at least killed a couple of guards? Fuckin' cowards, all of them."

Finally, the man had committed the ultimate insult. He'd succeeded where Frank had failed. The hound was dead, and Joe had told everyone exactly how it had happened. The message couldn't have been clearer. He was coming for Frank's head next. 

A new hound showing up and wreaking havoc had bought Frank some time, but it wouldn't last forever. He needed to fix this problem now or crawl back to Dublin and beg for a spot. The idea curdled in his gut, and while he wouldn't die before it came to that, it wasn't far from it. 

"This is my town, and I'll be damned if some little pissant is taking it from me."

Joe had to have backing from someone, but where? He'd been a good soldier as far as the council knew, so he didn't think it was them. Unless the news of the berries had leaked, Frank didn't think so, but he couldn't be entirely sure. Was it someone from Marysville? That seemed unlikely. Those pricks were having as much trouble holding onto people as he was. 

It was Grove City. The truth struck through the booze like a bolt of lightning. It had to be one of the self-styled warlords' lieutenants. How else would the man already know how to fight like that when the system was less than a month old? 

Frank had the angle he would use now, at least. Everyone north of town feared the stories they heard coming out of Grove City. He could spin this into more control, but he'd need to be careful. His mana supply wasn't infinite, and he couldn't use his skills in a group address since that bitch had pointed it out. It would only take one person resisting to bring those rumors he'd squashed back into the light. 

Joe might be a genius, but Frank had lived here his whole life. This was his town, and he'd be damned before anyone took it away. Even geniuses had soft spots, and when Frank found Joe's, he would gut him like a fucking perch. If he did it right, no one would think about opposing him again. That thought brought a cold smile to Frank's face as he opened a new bottle and drank alone in the darkness.