Riftside 2 - Chapter 62

“I’m impressed at your self control,” Eryn said to Knut as I opened the door to the adventuring guild. “I checked my stats as soon as I woke!” she continued. 

“Want to share surprise,” Knut said. “View with family. You all part of me and journey to breakthrough. So only fitting.”

I grinned and waved at Madeleine who was still at her desk despite the late hour. 

“Madeleine! Could we borrow the soul tablet for a moment? Knut just had his second breakthrough, and he’s offering us all a peek at the results!”

Madeleine looked up from a stack of paper. Her eyes widened when they landed on Knut, and she swallowed hard. I caught a muttered phrase that sounded suspiciously like, ‘Doctor Ridley would murder me…’ before she cleared her throat. 

“Of course, Ash. One moment. I will be right over.” 

She knocked on Harold’s office door and disappeared within. I heard Harold, Vos, and Corwen’s voices from inside. 

“Heya!” Jordan, her head as shaven as always, said from the relaxation area where she sat writing. “Congratulations on the breakthrough, Knut! Mind me taking a peak as well?”

Knut nodded at her, and she stood with a grin.

“Thanks! How was it?” she asked, joining us. 

“Rough,” Knut said, and she chuckled at his simple and short replies. 

A few seconds later, Madeleine emerged, the dark soul tablet in her hands and she handed it to Knut. 

“May I… have a look as well?”

“You may,” Knut said, though his palm hovered for a moment above the surface before he touched it. 

The surface flickered and his stats appeared.

NAME: Knut Coinshield Steelwall

CLASS: Sentinel of the North

LEVEL: 20 (0/21)

STRENGTH: 42 (+14)

AGILITY: 24 (+8)

VITALITY: 53 (+18)

MIND: 20 (+6)

TOTAL STATS: 139 (+46)

MANA: 90/90 (+33)

A collective gasp went around our little group, and Jordan’s hand flew to her mouth.

“By the First Forge…” I said. “Knut, you’re… as strong as me!” I laughed.

“It’s a nearly fifty percent increase,” Madeleine said, and I trusted her numbers.

“By the sun’s backside,” Nabeeh said. “Not a spot of shade on that sheet.”

“It worked,” Roq said in his Eryn voice. 

Knut stared at the tablet and said, “Good.”

“Good?” Roq said. “It’s spectacular! See, Ash? That’s what proper pampering during a breakthrough gets you! Following my guidance and invention has led our group to another stunning victory!”

“You did good. Both of you.”

“Of course,” Arclight said, though I sensed a subtle humbleness in her voice.

Then Knut straightened. 

“Come,” he said and turned, walking out of the guild. 

We followed.

“Are you alright, Knut?” Nabeeh asked.

He didn’t stop until we were a little way down the street, away from the Guild and with no people nearby. 

He stood with his back to us for a moment, his broad shoulders visibly tight. I could see the effort he was making to keep his emotions in check.

When he finally turned, his voice was thick. 

“You… you give me another gift.” He gestured vaguely, encompassing all of us. “Two years. Two years I have been in tens, struggling. Now I got Class Gem and breakthrough, but….” He shook his head, a small, overwhelmed gesture. “So powerful. Crazy strong.”

He took a deep breath. 

“I will repay you. I will be wall. Stand between you and danger. The one monsters break fangs on, so you can slay. I walk in front, take punch and kick, because you are my back.” His gaze met mine, then Eryn’s, then Nabeeh’s. “You make fights worth fighting. Not just gold, though we make plenty, I believe. But you fight for cause.” 

He took a slow breath, steadying himself.

“Let’s go finish auction. Get money and pay mortgage. Stop slippery silver serpents slithering. Maybe,” a grim smile touched his lips, “Maybe kick arse on way out .”

I stared at him for a long moment, and he pulled away a step as if I was boring a hole into him. Truthfully, I was, but not a bad one.

“You should speak more often, brother. It’s always good to hear what you have to say,” I I said, offering my hand. “Congratulations. You’ve earned it more than any of us. Without you, there would be no--” I stopped and pointed to each of us and made a circling gesture, “Us.” 

He clasped it, and his grip, always strong, was now like a vise. Where I’d had the edge in raw strength now it was an equal match. 

We were getting stronger. 

All of us. 

And I just got a new target. Becoming stronger than him again.

We both grinned, a shared understanding passing between us, and then burst into laughter. The tension broke, replaced by a buoyant excitement.

“To the Timberline!” I said, and set off.

As we walked, Knut described his new abilities.

“Iron Voice,” he said. “Taunt. Makes enemies attack me. Five seconds. Costs twenty mana. Good if need draw monster from sisters.”

“We’re little sisters now?” Nabeeh asked jokingly.

“Always was. Now listen. Stonefoot,” he continued. “Active. Set stance. Cannot be moved by attacks, small or big. Ten seconds. Fifteen mana. Can attack and move, but at half speed so not fast with ability on..”

“A taunt,” I mused aloud. “I look forward to seeing that in action. And an anti-knockback as well? That’s good. Especially when funneling monsters.”

“Action! Yes! Let the big oaf draw them in, and then I get to smash them!” Roq bellowed.

We reached the Timberline, slipping in through the back door again, but while the warmth and smell of food and beer was familiar, something felt… off. I heard the crowd, and it sounded thick, but somehow muted. As if they were tense or angry. Had Ma overdone it? Did we ask too much for the gear? Surely not. We’d calculated fair prices for everything.

Pa burst through the door from the main room, his face a mask of fury. He froze when he saw us standing there.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my good mood immediately evaporating.

“Domitius thugs!” he spat, his voice tight with rage. “Just came in, tried to shut down the auction! A slim bastard with two short swords, basic ugly things. He knocked Enar out cold and demanded everyone left the Timberline in the name of the guard. Hit him so hard his neck cracked.” 

Pa’s hands clenched. 

“By the bells,” Eryn said. “How is he?”

“Alex saved his life,” Pa said.

“Are they still here?” I asked, moving for the door, but Pa reached out an arm and stopped me, shaking his head.

“No. When a dozen Dawnwatch adventurers stood up and told them they weren’t welcome, they left. But they threatened Ma to stop the auction.”

“Threatened Ma?” I said, suddenly feeling a bloodlust build inside me that I hadn’t ever since Roq forced me to fight the Platemaw.

“Told her to prepare the smithy for them, and they’ll have me working for them before the end of the week if we know what’s good for us. For our family. Or else.” Pa’s voice dropped, raw with anger. “Said if not… they’d kill you and Ma, Ash. And Torsten’s family. Unless I start forging for them. I’m sorry, Knut. We never planned for this to happen.”

“Not sorry like they will be when we find them,” Knut growled, his voice  low and promising violence. “Nobody threatens family and walks away.”

The bloodlust turned into cold fury and settled in my gut. 

“When did they leave?”

“Kill them! Kill them all!” Roq cried excitedly. “Threaten Ma? Threaten our family? Unacceptable! Let me taste their fear, Ash! Let me shatter their bones! But do it slowly! Limb by limb!”

“They just left,” Pa said. “But we’re close on the gold. Just eighteen short, and there are still materials to sell. Stay here and we’ll get the gold, then find Isadora and pay down the debt, tonight.”

“No waiting! We go now!” Roq said.

“How many were they?” I asked. “Was Serona with them?”

Pa shook his head. 

“No. Just four adventurers in Domitius colours. That’s why they backed down when they saw just how strongly against them the room was. They weren’t used to such resistance.”

Four adventurers. I looked at Knut and a silent understanding passed between us.

I placed Roq on the floor and swiped out the Crackenmail and started pulling it on. Knut did the same, pulling out his Titanfang platemail and starting to gear up.

“Did they hurt anyone else?” Eryn asked.

Pa shook his head again. 

“Only Enar. Poor guy will be feeling this for a long while, but at least he’s breathing and alive. We’ll have to treat him well for standing up to them, Ash. Never forget your friends, especially those loyal to you.”

After pulling on my Trollspine Briarplate pants, I handed Pa my coin pouch. “Here’s what we’ve gathered. Do as you said, Pa. Get the rest, find Isadora, and pay out that document. Once you’ve got the gold, find Harold. Promise him whatever you need to, but get his help.” 

I pulled my gloves on. 

“What? Where will you go?” Pa asked, his voice filled with worry. “Why are you dressing for war? Son! Don’t you dare do anything stupid!”

“If there’s only four of them—” I began.

Knut finished my thought, his voice grim. 

“Enemy split. Opportunity for removing heads. Right now.”

For a moment I thought Pa would object, but then he nodded slowly. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t do--no, do it, but be careful, son. Both of you. No one should walk after threatening a room full of people.”

“Are we really going to go chasing adventurers to kill them?” Eryn asked, her brow furrowed. “What if that’s what they want? To make us angry and lure us into an ambush? Make a mistake?”

“Then they will have underestimated us,” I said. “But you’re right, Eryn. It could be a trap.” I looked between her and Nabeeh. “You get Edwin and his party and tell them that we’re about to fight. Just in case. Knut, Nabeeh, let’s go.”

“But…” Eryn started

Nabeeh placed a hand on Eryn’s arm. 

“Ash is right,” she said, her voice turning cold. “In Azbara, I knew what that bastard, my so-called fiancé, was planning. When I acted it was too late to save myself. I should have murdered him in his sleep.” Her eyes flashed as she said the words. “We can’t let them control  or threaten us over and over again. They are far from home, and few.”

“Serona’s got a plan,” I said, my voice hard. “And if we just keep acting, she’ll get her way. Now go. Keep Arclight out and we’ll stay in contact that way.”

Eryn nodded. 

“Be lethal, Ash. No half-measures.”

“Always,” I said, and we both knew just how lethal I would be. Tonight we didn’t take prisoners.

Knut, Nabeeh, and I slipped out of the Timberline.

“Roq,” I said. “Can you tell where they went?”

“Throw me up!” Roq demanded. “I need a sightline!”

“Watch out,” I said to Knut and Nabeeh, and lobbed my hammer straight up. Or, mostly straight up. There was a slight drift to the side. 

Towards the Timberline.

“Wheeee!” Roq shrieked with delight.

I cursed under my breath.

“Whoops!” Nabeeh chuckled beside me.

“Hitting Timberline?” Knut asked.

“I see them!” Roq said just before he started falling down.

“Crap, crap, crap!” I muttered, watching Roq’s descent.

He clipped the edge of the Timberline’s roof and splinters flew as he knocked the end of a thick wooden beam.

“Monster balls,” I groaned. “Johan will have my hide for that.”

“That was fun!” Roq declared. “But we should go. They’re behind our house, in the training yard. One of them is kneeling by the back door, looks like he’s trying to pick the lock!”

Fire filled my belly. 

“They’re at our house,” I told Knut and Nabeeh, breaking into a run. “Trying to break in.”

“Oh, no they don’t!” Nabeeh exclaimed, as she for once ran without complaint. Or without stumbling. “My best dresses are in there!”

“And trophies. And bed. Touch my bed, and I kill them all,” Knut said with a growl. “When fight, I hold aggression. Ash, you kill. Fast.”

“No mercy,” I replied.

We dashed into our training yard to find our front door slightly ajar. 

Knut barged in first, and I followed. 

The dining room was empty, except for a dagger stabbed in the center of our dining room table, right in the middle of the intricate carving of the Branchway Rift. 

“They don’t leave Dawnwatch on own feet,” Knut said. “In North, you don’t mark man’s home. We settle in blood. Time to return dagger, point first.”

Our front door stood open.

“My crown!” Roq suddenly shrieked. “Quarris’s crown! It’s gone!”

Whether they had come searching for us or knew we were out, they hadn’t just broken in, they had done so much more than just stolen from us. They had just started a war we would end all too quickly. 

“Come,” I said, running out the front door and into the main street. A few townsfolk ambled along, but my eyes locked onto the group of four adventurers walking down towards the first ring road.

“Oi! You!” I yelled. “Stop, you pieces of shit!”

Everyone on the street turned, including the four adventurers, who stopped, turned, and spread out. 

The slim fighter with the two short swords, stood in the middle. On his sides stood the archer and tank that we’d seen earlier outside, together with one of the warriors who arrived with Serona.

I strode for the dual-wielder.

“Kill him, Ash! Now!” Roq screamed. “Then the others! Ironburst! No, Hammer to the Face! No! Just smash him! Nobody threatens Ma and gets away with it!”

The dual-wielder glared at me. 

“My name is Veyron, and you killed my—”

My rage boiled over and my left fist shot out, cracking him in the face before he could say another word. Bone cracked and blood sprayed from his nose as he stumbled back.

“Shut the fuck up,” I snarled at Veyron. 

Despite my anger, I couldn’t make myself strike him down, not like this and out in the open.  It would brand me a murderer. “You think you can threaten my family and just walk away? You will never leave Dawnwatch alive. None of you.”

The archer to his right reached for his quiver, but Knut was there, his hand clamping onto the archer’s shoulder, making him wince and freeze. The other two warriors drew their swords, but no one made a move.

Nabeeh raised her staff and it started glowing. 

“The first one of you to so much as twitch gets their insides lit on fire.”

A few nearby townsfolk gasped, their eyes wide at the sudden, public violence between adventurers.

“Nooo!” Roq wailed internally. “Don’t just hit him, Ash! Use me! Let me taste his blood! Think of the experience!”

Veyron sneered, wiping blood from his nose. 

“My brother came to this town and vanished. I know you killed him. He was an archer. One who never missed.”

A cold certainty settled in my gut. The archer assassin. The one Eryn and I had dealt with. This was his brother. I scoffed, an almost unconscious gesture. Veyron’s eyes narrowed, and he snarled.

“I knew it. You killed him!”

“People disappear Riftside all the time,” I said, my voice cold. “And tonight, you’re leaving too. For good.”

“He came with Serona,” Veyron said, his voice rising, drawing the crowd further around us. “To help collect on a loan from some fraudulent smith. And then he just… vanished. The sixth person to disappear after coming to Dawnwatch. Isn’t that strange?”

“The frontier is a dangerous place,” I said, raising my voice as well and spinning Roq, wanting nothing so much as to smash his face in. “Especially to people who set fires to homes or try to assassinate them.”

“I know you killed him,” Veyron repeated, his voice a low snarl. “And I’m going to make you pay.”

“No, you’re not. We’re paying down the mortgage, tonight,” I said. “And once we do, by the three bells, we’re going to kick you and the rest of you Domitius scum out of our town. Or at least some of your party. As for you, well, will join your brother.”

“We are coming,” Arclight said. 

“Quick, Ash!” Roq urged. “Kill him before we lose our chance! Don’t let him talk his way out of this!”

The archer, pinned by Knut’s grip, tried to squirm free. 

“Come on, man. Let’s just head back to Serona. She’ll take care of these traitors.”

“Traitor?” Knut rumbled, tightening his grip until the man screamed. “We fight to protect the world. You? You’re scum. Prey on weak. We are not weak. We eat cowards like you for breakfast.”

Just then, Jordan emerged from the Adventuring Guild, a bit further down the main road, and she swiped a spear from her spatial storage as she saw us armed. 

“What in the blighted steel is going on out here?”

We all ignored her.

The tank beside Veyron spit on the ground by my feet. 

“You bumbling fools have no understanding how important the Houses are and what they do for Tharungia. Without them and their support, things would fall apart and places like Dawnwatch wouldn’t exist.”

“And you’re useless here,” I shot back, pushing Roq at Veyron’s face. “And after tonight, you’ll be powerless.”

“Everyone just calm down!” Jordan said, stepping forward, her spear held at the ready but not aggressively. “Look at the crowd you’re drawing.”

I didn’t care about the crowd. My focus was entirely on Veyron and his cronies.

“They threatened my family, Jordan,” I said.

“And you’ll see what happens to those who don’t listen,” the tank sneered. “You think House Domitius rose and stayed in power this long by letting a few lowborn blacksmiths and their gets walk all over them?”

“I don’t care how they got into power,” I said, my breathing speeding up. “All I care about is destroying them after tonight.” Veyron drew his twin shortswords, the steel catching the fading light.

“What are you doing?” the tank hissed. “Serona—”

“Isn’t here,” Veyron cut him off, his eyes locked on me. “And I’m not risking my brother’s revenge. Not when the bastard who killed him is standing right here.”

“Are you looking to die that easily? Later you might at least have a chance,” I said, my hand tightening on Roq.

“Whoa! Calm down, Ash!” Jordan interjected, stepping between us. “Nobody’s talking about dying. Let’s all just cool down and—”

Veyron smiled, a cold, predatory curl of his lips, and cut Jordan off.

“I challenge you to a duel for striking me.” His eyes narrowed. “That’s how you settle things here on the frontier, isn’t it? Duels to the death.”

I was taken aback. 

“A duel?”

“You have to accept the duel!” Roq shrieked in my mind. “Oh, this is perfect! Also, why has nobody told me we could challenge people to duels? This opens up so many delightful possibilities!”

“A duel,” Veyron repeated, his smile widening. “Right now. To the death.”

I laughed, a harsh, incredulous sound. 

“You want to duel me?”

Jordan scoffed. 

“Don’t matter if you’re employed by nobles, adventurer,” she said. “Guild law’s clear. Duels are a last resort, after mediation and arbitration. And no way you get Harold to sign off on this!”

“Yes, he’s challenged Ash to a duel,” Roq said, clearly to Eryn.

“You start settling every spat with steel, and you’ll be blacklisted so fast your head will spin,” Jordan continued.

“What if he’s too high level?” Arclight said, relaying for Eryn.

“This is a perfect opportunity to take out one of their people. Legally. Over”

“I’m invoking the frontier clause,” Veyron said. “There’s enough witnesses, we’re in a public space, and this is settling a blood dispute.”

“What?” Jordan said.

“He killed my brother,” Veyron said.

“He threatened to kill my family,” I said, before adding, “This worthless sack of monster balls, I mean. No idea who his brother was.”

“You’re an honorless little peasant,” Veyron spat. “And I will cut you down!”

“More honour in Ash’s left leg than whole your house,” Knut growled.

“What level are you?” Jordan asked.

“Twenty-four,” Veyron said.

“I’m sixteen,” I said.

“Not a legal fight, then,” Jordan said, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't matter that witnesses will vouch for the outcome. Frontier clause won't help you fight someone a full breakthrough lower."

“We’re coming,” Arclight said. “My wielder asked Edwin about duelling. He’s said he’ll help you kick them out tonight, but that if you get into a duel, he’ll be blocked by Guild law from helping. I am unsure why he attempts to stop you, as this does seem to be the correct way of dealing with the challenger who has come onto our territory, snarling loudly and wagging their tails. Rip the throat from this one and the others may fall in place or scatter.”

“Wrong, bitch,” Veyron said. “With handicap, it’ll be valid, if you dare agree.” He sneered at me.

“What are you offering?” Jordan asked.

“I’ll fight with swords and britches only,” he answered. “No armor.”

“Is this correct, Jordan?” Nabeeh asked.

Jordan nodded while glaring at Veyron. 

“Technically, yes. With a significant enough handicap agreed by both parties, it would be covered by the guild rules.” She looked at me. “You don’t have to agree, though.”

Cold fury filled me. His brother had tried to kill both Eryn and me, and after that, would have probably gone to kill the rest. Now this bastard was here trying to finish his job. 

“You’re even more of a fool than your brother, wherever he’s wandered off to.”

“Accept my challenge, coward!” he yelled, pointing a sword at me. “Think, this is your only chance to balance the scales before Serona makes you all her little bitches.”

“I accept,” I said.