Chapter 26: Chapter 22- The Storm

Gang warfare is a pretty uncommon thing, all things considered. If criminal interests collide, they are usually solved in the Vast. What is the point of battling it out in the streets of a city when you can just raid the other party’s skiff where no guards will bother you? Granted, that may not work if one or neither of them have skiffs, but in those cases the conflict never escalates to war on the streets.

In the rare case when it does, they do not last long. As it turns out, most citizens prefer their cities without a gun battle happening around the corner. Almost every case of gang warfare is ended by a citizen militia or hunter groups.

-Excerpt from ‘Patterns of Living: The Vast Dust,’ By Grivas Fulkan

 

*=====*

 

Mori sat in the dining hall, reading her new book and petting Unio. He rumbled in happiness at her attention, leaning into her affectionate petting. Soon enough, the noises of the crowd moved on to the bazaar and Mori heard nothing but silence outside of the Kharon. Just as the sun finally set, Aerolat condensed in front of her. 

She raised her head and peered into its body, “Is Mokan and his sister already here?” Aerolat swayed side to side, causing Mori to narrow her eye-flames, “Then what happened?” The ball of blood pushed itself into her hands, waiting for Mori to use [Psychic Conduit]. “Fine, give me a minute,” she said. She slowly reached out to Aerolat’s mind, being ever so careful not to drive a veritable probe into it, and felt a quick succession of images pass through their Connection. Groups of armed thugs. A woman with lizard-like eyes. An angry orc. The places of them all. All surrounding the Kharon. 

Mori pulled her Connection back, “Alright, thanks for that. Looks like we have company… Can you fight?” she asked. The small blob nodded, floating up and down, “Good. Gather the zombies I made, got it?” In lieu of responding, the blob faded into the air, leaving Mori and Unio alone, “Come to think of it, how will it tell them? Screw it, I’ll think about that later. Ready, Unio?” Unio jumped up and down, following her out the door and onto the upper deck of the skiff. 

With her enhanced senses, Mori saw the figures shrouded in darkness, all armed with pistols, clubs, daggers, and a few spears. As she scanned the nooks and crannies the thugs hid in, be it behind stalls or on stairs or behind other skiffs, she caught sight of the lizardman woman. She was looking directly at Mori. Mori returned the gaze. She pulled her revolver from her gauntlet and aimed it at the woman, flames narrowing in the darkness. The woman grinned savagely, sprinting forward.

As if waiting for the woman to make a move, the rest of the thugs instantly opened fire on the skiff, bullets pinging off of the hull. Mori fired her revolver, sending a bullet at the lizardman woman. Instead of hitting her head-on, she dodged to the side, letting the bullet punch through the chest of a thug. Mori sighed, ‘Bullets can’t do shit, can they?’ she thought. Raising her gauntlet, she spun a sigil and let loose a ball of black; the woman dodged out of the way before it was even finished, flattening some poor merchant’s stall. The spell veered off course, plowing into the deck of the Kharon and sinking into it.

Mori clicked her tongue, ‘Should’ve known my little experiment would draw it,’ she thought. She fired another spell, watching it sail over the woman’s head and seep into the sole dead thug. With a jolt, he stood up and buried a knife into the thug next to him. Mori stole her attention away from the newly undead thug and back to the lizardman woman. She carried a dagger, long and jagged, and wore long flowing robes colored black. She leapt from the top of another merchant’s stall and onto the deck of the Kharon, dashing for Mori at the end of the skiff. Just as she was about to reach Mori, a nearly skeletal, scaled hand reached from inside the cabin and nearly caught the woman. 

She leapt backwards, reptilian eyes wide, “Damn…” she muttered, “Since when was a lich living here?” The deformed, lizardman zombies she had yet to name marched out from the bowels of the ship, surrounding Mori and guarding against the woman.

“Well, why are you here?” Mori asked, flames in her eyes narrowing. The woman seemed a small bit stunned from Mori’s words, but gave a hearty laugh afterwards.

“Well, I can’t have some stupid mechanic getting one over on my right hand, can I?” she asked, “I just came here to teach her a lesson. And kill her, but that comes afterwards,” she declared with a grin. Mori stared at the woman for a moment before firing a beam of light at her. The woman, somehow, dodged the attack, despite it going at the speed of light.

Mori noticed the woman's movements, however, and tilted her head, “So, some sort of speed increase and a predictive element. How odd,” she mused, soon laughing, “Man, I sound like a villain right about now, don’t I?” The woman said nothing, glaring at Mori as she spoke. With a burst of speed, she appeared behind the lich and drove a dagger into the back of her skull. Mori sighed, “Why does every lizardman do that? The last one drove a sword down my skull and now this. Geez…” Mori tried to grab the woman, but she slipped away, leaving her dagger stuck in Mori’s skull. 

The woman, disarmed and panting, leapt from the boat and made a dash towards the carnage her single undead had caused. In spite of being outnumbered, outgunned, and surrounded, it had survived up until that point and killed a good half-dozen thugs. The woman dashed to the orc zombie, avoiding the clumsy stabs from its dagger and shots from its revolver, and beheaded it with a sword lying on the ground. She then began running back to the Kharon.

You are reading story Boneclock at novel35.com

Mori did not spend the time idly, however, as a salvo of death bolts bloomed from her gauntlet and sunk into every body nearby. A half-dozen undead stood and began battling the thugs once more, charging, shooting, and slashing. 

Just as Mori cast her spells, the woman leapt back and tried to cleave her blade into Mori’s body. Instead, she was met by two deformed lizardman undead, clashing with the blade with their spike-arms. The arms barely held, still cracking under the force of the woman’s slash. 

Mori fired another two beams at the woman as she clashed, one going wide and heating a part of the deck up while the other slammed into the woman’s leg. She screamed, falling backwards and cradling her leg. Lowering her gauntlet, Mori sighed, “Why did you do this? Why go this far? Was all this really worth it?” she asked, “I don’t know what kind of horrible things you’ve done, or even if you have done horrible things, but for attacking me, you have to die…” She let her words hang as she spun two more light beams, aiming them at her head.

The woman looked at Mori with defiance, with savagery, with anger. And with a bloodthirsty grin. A light emanated from her, red and bloody, as she exploded forward. She dodged the two beams Mori fired and rammed her blade into the side of the closest undead, cutting the boney creature in half. Doing the same with two others, Mori realized that something was wrong. She quickly spun a Connection between them as the woman cleaved undead in half one after another. 

The woman was soon upon Mori, slashing at her with a wicked grin. Just then, blood coalesced around the woman’s ankle, pulling her down and back. The woman screamed with anger and hacked at the blood, doing nothing to it. Finally, Mori felt the Connection click and a wave of rage washed over her mind. It was so intense that she almost let it affect her, almost let it infect her with bloody intent, but she held firm. Without delay, she activated [Psychic Flail].

Mori did not know what to expect with the Trait, even a bit fearful of the utter pain it could cause, but did not expect what came of it. It did not unravel her soul like death did. It did not cut the fine threads that made up her soul. The Trait simply slammed into the woman’s soul like a hammer into a thick ball of yarn wrapped around a chunk of metal. The woman screamed such a blood-curdling scream that even Mori felt her body shudder from it. She then fell over, unconscious. 

Mori stared at the woman’s unconscious form, face still contorted in pain, and sighed, “I didn’t want to have to do that…” she said aloud, “At least you don’t have to know what it feels like to die… Now then,” she said, turning to the still fighting thugs, “All of you surrender!” she shouted, “Surrender or die! Make your choice!” Most of them, hearing her, threw down their weapons and raised their hands. Only one fought on, a large orcish man who seemed able to shrug off bullets without a care in the world. Mori shot a few fire lances at him, burning him badly and knocking unconscious as well. 

Just then, Fara burst from the body of the skiff and rushed up to Mori, “What the hell happened!?” she shouted, “Did I seriously miss everything!?”

Mori stared for a moment, laughin right after, “Yeah, you did,” she giggled, “You seriously missed an entire gang battle up here… That’s a story to tell to your grandkids!”

Fara blushed a bit, “Shut up…” Before they could speak further, a large group of orcish guards, mixed warriors Mori assumed were hunters, and armed citizens emerged from below the wall, climbing up the stairs. Fara groaned, “Alright, I guess it’s time for me to take center stage.”

Mori scoffed, “You’re the negotiator now?”

“I have to do something,” she replied with a grin.

Mori rolled her flames as guards surrounded the site of their battle, “You already do stuff. You just haven’t had an opportunity to do that stuff for a while.”

“Thanks, Mori,” Fara laughed, “But for now, we’re going to have to deal with this stuff.” Fara held her head in her hand for a moment, “What has my life become…?”

“Exciting?”

“... Fair enough.”

You can find story with these keywords: Boneclock, Read Boneclock, Boneclock novel, Boneclock book, Boneclock story, Boneclock full, Boneclock Latest Chapter