Advent of Eternity - Chapter 94 (Patreon)

Knell counted four men, which was a laughably low amount for a robbery. As they grew closer, it became clear that they were no stranger to battle. If they weren’t bandits, then they were certainly adventurers of some sort.

All of them had scars on their faces, though one had so many that he somehow had more scar tissue than unblemished skin. Their clothes were rough and unwashed, and scowls were plastered across their faces.

“Friendly bunch,” Cyll observed. “They sure look like the blokes I took care of.”

“I suppose we’ll find out,” Knell said as the group crested the closest hill and started toward their camp. One of them noticed Knell watching them and leaned in to whisper something into the heavily scarred man’s ear. His scowl grew deeper and he nodded.

“You sure we should let them walk up?” Cyll asked.

“You never know. They could just be ugly,” Knell replied with a shrug. “Perhaps they’ll just walk by us.”

His tone made it clear that he didn’t believe his own words in the slightest. Cyll snorted and drew his sword, jabbing it into the ground and leaning on the hilt with a yawn.

“Ho there,” Knell said, raising a hand as they walked into earshot. “Those are some awful angry looks you’re sending our way. Have we met?”

“No,” the scarred man said as he and his companions continued toward Knell. “But we’ve got business.”

“Oh, do we?” Knell asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Stix shifting her position at the campfire. While she looked relaxed, the elf had positioned herself to block view of the loaded crossbow that she had in her lap. “Well, at least you’re upfront about it. Are you rug salesmen? I’m afraid we aren’t interested.”

“Not tryna sell anything,” the scarred man said, spitting on the ground. “You got something we want. Payment for damages one of your folk did. Why don’t you look right into my eyes?”

Knell suppressed a laugh. This was their leader? He was blunter than a rounded warhammer. Smirking, Knell obliged the scarred man’s request, raising his eyes to meet the other’s.

White energy twisted in the bandit leader’s eyes as his wide lips split in to a rictus grin. “That’s right, boy. Drop your weapons and hand over all your goods. You work for me, now.”

A faint tugging sensation pulled at the edges of Knell’s consciousness. It took all of his strength not to burst into laughter. “Wow, that really was disappointing. I wanted to see if your ability was even slightly useful, but that really is pathetic.”

Knell drew his pistol as the bandit’s eyes widened in shock, but the other man never got a chance to say something else. The hammer fell and there was a flash of blue light as a crystal bullet punched through his heart.

Gaping, the bandit staggered back. He clutched the wound in his chest, trying to stem the flow of blood as his lips worked, trying and failing to muster his last words.

“Waste of time,” Knell said irritably. “Kill them.”

Cyll drew his blade from the ground and took a loping step forward. The nearest bandit raised his sword, but Cyll’s blow smashed it aside and split him in two in the same motion. Blood sprayed across the remaining two bandits as Cyll turned his hungry grin toward them.

The remaining men spun, sprinting back toward the city. There was a click, followed by a thunk as an arrow sprouted from one of their necks, sending him tumbling to the ground. Cyll reared back, taking two large steps before flinging his sword.

It arced through the air, spinning once before coming down straight into the last bandit’s back. The weapon punched clean through him, impaling the man in the ground with a squelch. His screams were silenced by a second, well placed shot from Stix’s bow.

“Well done,” Knell said. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Now we’ve got a bunch of corpses stinking the camp up. I should have told you to wait on building the campfire.”

“It’s fine,” Stix said, striding over to the dead men and pulling her arrows from their corpses. She examined them, then wiped them off on their clothes and returned the projectiles to her quiver. “We can just relocate it. It only took a few minutes. Do you think we’re going to get any more company?”

“Arrange the bodies,” Knell instructed. “That’ll give any others a little bit of pause. Put them at the side of the road, where nobody will miss the results of trying my patience.”

And that was that. They packed up camp and set back off after arranging the bodies by the side of the road. The nameless bandit, who had spent years of his life confident that his powers would neutralize any threat he ever encountered, greeted Death in shame, his name not even known to the men who had put him down like a rabid stray.

As for Knell’s crew, the rest of their night went by without any ado, and they set back off the following morning. The rest of their trip to Golden River was equally uneventful. They drew up to it on it the midday of their third day of travel.

Golden River was, unsurprisingly, built directly beside a large river. The rushing stream wasn’t quite deep enough for full sized boats to use, but there were a fair number of smaller vessels and canoes moored along the river beside the city.

The city itself looked to be roughly the size of Melwood, but it was built like a fortress. Tall, faded yellow brick made up walls that rose three stories into the air. Battlements ran around the city, complete with two watch towers on opposite ends of the walls. On the other side of the city was a lush, dense forest. It stretched off to the west, running parallel to the river.

“Pretty place,” Cyll observed. “Are we going to destroy it?”

“Possibly,” Knell replied. “No more of that talk. We’re close. Let’s go see what they’ve got to offer us.”

They strode up to the city’s entrance, crossing a large drawbridge that led up to an iron portcullis behind a moat that ringed the parts of the city that weren’t connected to its namesake. An armored guard stood at the end, leaning on a halberd.

“Purpose of visit?” the guard asked, watching them with wary eyes. His eyes were alert, and he showed no signs of boredom or sleepiness. The guard was a professional, not one of the drafted militia that many cities employed.

“Passing through,” Knell replied, leaning heavily on his staff. “We heard that followers of Vorgen were causing some trouble, and came to offer our services.”

“Pirates? Or mercenaries?”

“Whatever we need to be,” Knell replied with a tight grin. “Does it matter?”

“No,” the guard replied with a shrug. “Group name?”

Knell pursed his lips. “Still working on it. We’re a bit new. Have to start somewhere, you know.”

The guard grunted, unamused. “Think of one.”

“Cyll’s Slaughterin Friends,” Cyll chimed.

“Noted,” the guard said as the rest of the group glared at the bearded man. “Feel free to enter. If you want to help with our pest problem, you can find information in any inn. There’s a bounty on their heads, so there’s some good money to be made if you aren’t completely incompetent.”

Knell sighed. They really need to figure out a name before Cyll’s ended up sticking on accident. “Thank you.”

They walked into the city, Maya and Stix still burning holes in the back of Cyll’s head with their glares.

Golden River had been built to withstand an assault. The houses formed jagged rows and the mains street crisscrossed, making it difficult to get a direct line of sight of anything more than a few dozen feet in front of you.

The entire city sloped upward, giving the defenders a significant advantage against anyone trying to push in. Whoever had designed it clearly knew what they were doing. Knell suspected that, despite the confusing layout of the city’s internals, the soldiers within it likely knew every angle and path.

“There’s an inn over here,” Cyll said, stopping in front of a large building along the side of the main path. Its stone walls weren’t particularly welcoming, but a warm fireplace lit the windows with a merry glow and Knell could see half a dozen people sitting around tables inside it.

“Works as good as any, I suppose,” Knell said. They headed inside, a small metal bell on the door announcing their presence.

A barmaid glanced in their direction, flinching when she made eye contact with Knell. She gathered her composure and swept up to them, plastering a professional grin over her face.

“Welcome to the Tapdancing Cat. Can I get anything started for you?”

“We’re here for information,” Knell said. “The guard outside told us that we could learn more about Vorgen’s followers in the inn. My crew and I are in the mood for a hunt.”

The barmaid gestured to the back corner of the tavern, where a wooden board dotted with papers hung on the wall beside a small counter. A bored, gray haired man sat behind it, picking at his teeth with a dagger.

“Yohan can help you there, then.”

“Perfect. Thank you,” Knell said. His staff clicked on the wooden planks as he and his crew approached Yohan.

“Heard you talkin,” the middle-aged man said, spinning his dagger between two fingers. “Came to the right place. There’s a bunch of little rats hiding in the woods. One hundred gold for each one you can prove you kill.”

“I trust you’ve got more information than that,” Knell said dryly.

“Course I do,” Yohan replied with a snort. He jabbed the dagger into the counter, which was pitted with dozens of other small holes, presumably from similar events. “They’ve got around three dozen warriors, many of which have combat Paths. They’ve also got a Scion.”

Knell plastered a grimace across his face. “That sounds like quite the force. Are they weak? If they’re still bothering you, I’d have expected that they try to take the city.”

Yohan cackled. “As if. Our defenses are too strong for that, and we got a Scion of our own. The problem is that they keep doing little nips. Instead of a full blown assault, they come in the night and pick off a guard or traveler, then retreat back to the forest. In an all out fight, we’d crush them.”

“I see,” Knell said. “And I’d imagine not too many people that have gone into the forest after them have come back.”

Yohan gave Knell a wide grin, revealing several missing teeth. “On the money. It ain’t easy to kill one of the buggers in the woods. That’s why we’re paying good money for it, and it’s why you’re here.”

“Fair enough,” Knell said. “What information do you have on their Scion?”

“She’s weaker than ours,” Yohan said with a shrug. “I’m no scholar. I don’t know more than that. A Scion is a Scion. I wouldn’t be going for her unless you really have a death wish. Oh – there’s an extra bounty if you manage to steal the artifact they’ve been using. It’s a gold bracelet with some green stones in it. No clue what it does, but our Scion is willing to pay one thousand gold for it.”

“Noted. Anything else we should know?”

Yohan shrugged. “No clue. I’m not the one hunting them. If it were easy, we wouldn’t have a bounty out.”

“Do you know what kind of powers their combat Paths had?” Stix asked. “Are there any reports from the people that fought them and got away?”

“No idea. Probably, but I don’t know ‘em,” Yohan replied. “I just know the general stuff. You’ll have to do your own digging if you want stuff like that. I don’t get paid nearly enough to give a shit. The inside of the city is nice and safe, so it ain’t my problem.”

At one point, Stix would have gotten annoyed at that. Instead, she just rolled her eyes. “That’s understandable.”

Knell gave her a slight nod. She’d grown, even over just a few short weeks. “That should be it for now then, Yohan. We appreciate your time. Who should I bring the heads to once I get them?”

“Confident, eh? You can take them to the fortress in the center of the city. Same if you manage to get your hands on that artifact.”

“Good to know. We’ll be taking our leave, then,” Knell said. “There’s more than enough time left in the day to make it back by nightfall with a nice payout.”

Yohan cackled as they left.

“Not much faith in us,” Cyll observed.

“It hardly matters,” Knell replied, heading back for the town exit. “No point wasting any more time. We might as well get this started. There’s quite a bit for us to gain here, and I’ve got just the way to maximize our profits.”