Chapter 86: Cheep!? 85

Cheep!?

Chapter 85

Niko was eating a hearty breakfast with the rest of the group when news of an Extermination Party that was being formed from the nearest three cities arrived. It surprised him how relatively normal and par for the course this seemed to be for the people around him. Everyone seemed quite calm about the potential threat of creatures that could be a city-level danger, or worse. Though, perhaps this was something of a calm before a storm.

“What do you guys plan to do today?” Ronald asked the others, breaking Niko from his thoughts, “After we pick up our gear at Stella’s place, we’re pretty much free.”

“I want to see Niko’s new pattern,” Mithel said, “You said it’s something voice or sound related?”

Skye nodded at that, “Yeah, something like it. It felt really strong when he made it, but I can’t be sure. I haven’t seen that kind of thing that often.”

“I do wish you’d have let all of us know that you were doing that,” Ronald admitted, “We all want to see stuff like that. Not to mention, solidarity and sharing in the big moments…” He started, before trailing off and shaking his head, “Nothing for it now, but next time, maybe we can all be there?”

Chagrined, Skye and Niko both exchanged regretful looks, “Yeah, our bad…”

“I guess it’s kind of a special occasion. I just didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, though.” Niko vocalized, which Skye translated. The others accepted the apology, though privately Niko didn’t really see the need to share with everyone else. Though, he supposed he did get to watch them tier up. Still, it was his body and his decision, just like if he didn’t want to see anyone on his birthday. Yet, at the same time, it was also true that he was in something of a social contract with these people and society in general, so there was some give and take necessary on that front.

Still, they weren’t too put out by the fact that Niko had created a new pattern, and instead were enthusiastic that he’d finalized his rise into the second tier. Though, admittedly, it mattered a lot less for him than for others, considering he now had four essence patterns to work with. He could hold off on making any more patterns until tier four and be entirely fine. Not that he would, but it was a possibility.

“Anyways, I’m thinking of taking a look at some bombs,” Dachna broke the relative silence of the meal once more, “Mithel can make some decent ones, but the really good stuff takes a full laboratory.”

“Which we definitely won’t have for a while,” Mithel complained quietly, “Since the Guild doesn’t want anyone fabricating explosives without an Engineer’s Certification.”

“Ah, bureaucratic red tape,” Niko nodded knowingly, which Skye translated with an arched eyebrow.

Mithel nodded along, seemingly thinking nothing of the choice of words, “Yeah, pretty much.”

When Dachna carried on speaking, Niko almost pecked Mithel in the forehead, ‘No, don’t get impatient, how many references did she drop before you realized she was a reincarnator?’ He modulated his annoyance, but it was hard not to get frustrated. There would always be more chances, though.

“So, bombs, right?” Dachna tapped the table with his fork, his essence flaring slightly. Suddenly the fork in his hands was the most attractive thing in the room to Niko’s eyes, “Normally, you throw a bomb, everyone goes away from it, right?”
Ronald let out a short bark of a laugh, “Now that is a dirty play.”

Dachna grinned widely, still holding the fork in front of him, “I thought about it last night, how to make this really unfair, and Mithey was talking about grenades and all their types, so I got to thinking… What if someone had to look at a flash-grenade?” 

“Or any grenade, really,” Mithel chuckled, even as her eyes followed the fork, “Staring at an explosive and not ducking for cover?”

Niko swallowed hard at the concept, finding it incredibly difficult to focus on the conversation and drag his attention away from the fork. ‘Seriously, am I part magpie?’ Niko tried to pull his gaze away using frustration, but it was almost as if his eyes were working on a closed circuit from the rest of his brain. 

Finally, he clamped his eyes shut, and did his best to push the thought of the fork out of his mind. Alarmingly, he realized he had a suspiciously and perfectly natural impulse to check back to make sure the fork was still there. Niko ground that thought out of his mind with a shake of his head, glad that he was at last developing some limited awareness of when he was being influenced. The problem was that the more insidious mental influences, like that of Dachna’s new trick, it seemed, didn’t so much feel ‘wrong’ as they did ‘interesting’. If he had to guess, it was working on different parts of the brain, just amplifying what was already there.

He wasn’t willingly putting himself in danger by focusing on the pretty, shiny, cool looking object, he was just satisfying his own curiosity. Niko could just keep examining something and see how– He interrupted the chain of thought, ‘Aaaand hard stop. Yikes. That’s really formidable to deal with.’ 

That was the other issue, he realized, that whenever the effect was active, cyclical logic would keep on cycling, and suddenly it wouldn’t matter that something didn’t make sense to focus on, because that was the only thought dominating his conscious processing. 

Skye placed a hand against his flank, and Niko opened his eyes, letting out a breath of relief when they didn’t feel the need to seek out the fork. He did so, anyways, only to verify that Dachna had stopped the use of his ability. The man had begun eating with it, and it now seemed as mundane as any other object in the room. 

“That’s definitely something that we can work with, then,” Ronald nodded, “I don’t think we’re ever going to be totally immune to it, though.”

Dachna shrugged, “Maybe, maybe not? You don’t need to be, though, just immune enough to not get too wrapped up in it, right?”

Niko nodded at that, just imagining what it would be like for anyone inexperienced to have to deal with something that distracting in the middle of a fight. A moment of inattention could cost you dearly, and in that regard, Dachna basically had the means to provide endless moments of inattention.

“Wyldwalkers! I’m looking for the Wyldwalkers, any–there you are!” A man in full guard ensemble burst through the doors of the guild, shouting at the top of his lungs. Niko immediately recognized the guard as the first one he’d ever met in Greenleaf, at the gates what felt like forever ago. The man did not appear to be the picture of calm and collected that he’d been before, instead appearing quite stressed as he approached their table rapidly.

“What’s going on?” Ronald was already standing, a deep frown on his face.

The man went to open his mouth when he stopped, took a deep breath, and collected himself fractionally. Niko could almost see the way the man had to rearrange his own thoughts, “There’s an Aelphis team at the gates right now having a standoff with a pair of wild beasts that, according to their beast companions, claim to know you and the Phorus.” He said, condensing the report as much as he could, “I’m officially requesting your presence at the gates, since there are… extenuating circumstances.”

Before Ronald could open his mouth, Niko groaned aloud, drawing eyes to him, “Is it a pair of Sabrecats?” 

Skye translated, and the guard blinked in surprise, “Uhh, one of them is? The other is a really big Hind-Bear. Both tier two.”

That took Niko by surprise, but he imagined that the bear must have been the other entity that he’d felt before when he’d brought Tiku back to Sasha. Perhaps the cub wasn’t present at all this time. 

‘Orson would be so disappointed,’ Niko thought with a brief smirk of amusement, before Ronald stood up from his meal.

“We’ll be there in less than fifteen minutes,” Ronald said, “We need to pick up our gear first from a merchant, it’s required.”

The guard briefly looked like he wanted to argue, but Skye held up a hand for the man, “We literally have less than half of our gear. Niko and I will go with you now, and they’ll meet up with us. We’ll see what’s going on.”

“I would greatly appreciate that, Ma’am,” the man said with clear relief in his voice.

Skye turned her attention to the others, “I have my gauntlets, but Mithel, can you bring the rest of our gear to us? We’re going fast.” 

“Will do.” She said, meal forgotten at the table as the others rose.

Ronald cut in, “Just be careful, and don’t take a fight if you don’t need to. Dachna and I will get everything as quickly as possible.”

Niko and Skye nodded, before following after the antsy guardsman. Skye said directly to him, “How fast can you go?”

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“Probably not as fast as you,” The man answered, “Just go, I’ll catch up with both of you–ah, wait, take this.” The man quickly obtained a token roughly the size of his palm from a pouch at his side, “You’re temporarily commissioned by the guard. You are legally required to return this to a guard on site, or to me when I get there, but this will get you through the barricade.”

Niko quirked an eyebrow at the extra security, but Skye only nodded and said, “Understood.”

And then, Niko both saw and felt her body thrum with essence. In the clear, crisp morning air, Niko took in a deep lungful of air himself before igniting his own essence pattern in his legs. He devoted just enough energy to change what would have been the heavy galloping sound of talons against stone into something more moderate, enough for people to hear and get out of the way, but not enough to cause alarm.

“Ready?” Niko asked Skye, who only grinned widely at him in response. Just before he could start moving, she bolted ahead, muscles burning with essence in his eyes. Niko snorted, and let out a loud shriek that turned every head on the road towards him. Taking inspiration from Dachna’s own tricks, he targeted the sensation of wariness that others might naturally feel at the sound. When he started forward after Skye, the gradually busy street cleared in front of him, which only widened when he picked up the pace. He blurred down the road, pushing more and more essence into his legs as he went, rapidly bypassing the guard. Even with the muffling, Niko felt and heard the sound of his own legs hitting stone like hammer blows.

He let out another shriek, this one more targeted, before speeding up further. Skye was darting in and out of the crowd, whereas he was parting it. Within a handful of seconds, he was side-by-side with her.

“That’s useful! More! Let's go faster!” Skye shouted, and Niko shared in the bead of exhilaration in her voice.

“Roger that!” Niko took in a sharp, deep breath, before letting out an equally sharp, but high-noted retort. Essence rose the sound wave like a spear through water, and people hundreds of meters ahead of them moved like someone had just screamed in their ears.

“Guardsman business, move!” Skye shouted alongside Niko’s own pronouncement, and quickly the looks of annoyance turned into something more like curiosity. The pair moved quickly, but Niko knew he could put down even more speed if he wanted to.

“Faster?” Niko sent across the mental bridge, hopeful for the response. 

Skye’s body-wide pattern flared to life in his vision at the question, and Niko crowed in delight as they both picked up speed. Here on the relative flat ground, down the straight paths of the city’s roads, Niko could truly press his limits. Since becoming tier two, he hadn’t really gotten the chance to test that, but now? 

Now he felt like a drag-racer burning down a straightaway. It was probably a good thing he’d never really felt the wind blasting in his face like this, or the exhilaration of nearly clipping buildings and stalls as he ran in his old life, because just judging by this, Niko imagined he would have had a bit of an obsession with it.

Finally, with the gate in sight, the pair slowed down, Niko felt his heart hammering in his chest from getting a good run, while Skye seemed like she might have overdone things.

“Niko…” she breathed hard, “How are you not even winded!?” 

“Just built different?” Niko joked at her, but simultaneously was serious. He figured he could keep going for a much longer distance before he’d be tapped out.

Skye shook her head, feeling the humorous tone in her mind, “Oh, shush.”

The two slowed down more as they closed in, noting the crowd around the gate. Skye huffed, essence revolving within her pattern as her condition visibly improved. She took in several deep breaths, and Niko privately admitted that being able to force her own recovery so quickly was indeed very useful.

“Want to get us through?” Skye asked, and Niko searched the crowd, thoughtfully. 

If they were stressed, he wouldn’t risk it, but as it was, Niko didn’t think it’d be an issue to open the crowd up a little bit. Niko took a breath, and instead of one sharp retort, let out a high pitch, but low volume warble. The pattern in his throat and lungs lit up, infusing the sound and air with essence, enough to draw the awareness of the nearest edges of the crowd, and slightly deeper within.

That seemed to be enough, as people turned first with confusion, and then with shock at seeing the Phorus. By now, most people who didn’t live under a rock were aware of his presence in the city, and Niko was guessing that might be enough on its own to get through. Skye took the cue he gave her, and showed the token, “Make way, we’re here on Guards’ business.”

A few grumblers in the crowd moved slower than Niko would have liked, but most immediately made space. Niko did have to let out a low, threatening growl at one man who very clearly wasn’t moving enough just out of sheer obstinacy. Niko let a sharper note of essence through his voice at that, spiking into his ears like a slap in the face. Those nearest chuckled at the man’s expense when he stepped much further back, some with scathing comments at being an idiot.

If there was one thing that Niko appreciated about being a Phorus in public, it was that he pretty much had a pass to not put up with anyone else’s nonsense. 

They reached a ring of guards at the gate, and Niko realized then that the idea of a “barricade” did not do what they’d created here any justice. The wooden gate was now thickly plated with iron, and only a small door was open along the base, seemingly built into the two much larger doors to allow only a smaller number of people through at a time. Guards in heavy steel armor only glanced at the token before waving them through, one of whom said something low and in passing to Skye. 

She nodded seriously at the man, and when they moved towards the smaller door, Niko tilted his head in curiosity to her.

“He said not to step off the path outside, it might look clear, but everything is trapped with sygaldry. He placed specific emphasis on not trying to go over the wall if we need to get back here and the gate isn’t an option.” Skye then looked up at the wall with curiosity.

Niko followed her gaze, briefly letting his eye pattern fully activate. The top of the wall lit up like hundreds of torches in his vision, and Niko clearly saw the sigils arrayed along the stone work, both on their side of the wall, and traces of it on the other. It was too dense with essence to actually see through, though, and Niko took to heart the warning of not trying to go over the wall.

Several waist high barriers with tubes sitting behind them lined the way up to the wall, and Niko hummed at the likeness they carried with mortars. In all actuality, he supposed that might well be what they were. 

They walked through the currently open gates and saw what much of the crowd could see from a distance. A contingent of guards, headed by Guard Captain Magra, were currently standing at attention behind a familiar adventuring team. Niko recognized them as the Aelphis Team One, which he didn’t know any of the humanoids from, but he did know their beast companions. Penelope was currently sitting calmly in front of a large Sabrecat, actually overwhelming the blue-furred cat in size. Beside Penelope, a one meter long salamander that Niko thought looked very similar to an axolotl rested casually, Tonton, he remembered after a moment. 

Unlike them, Sasha and the Hind-Bear looked dramatically more stressed out. Niko could see what looked like several fresh scars, and some obviously fresh wounds, on the Hind-Bear. Sasha, too, had a few cuts that Niko thought looked as though they had come from punctures or jagged blades.

Considering the Hornets had both of those, Niko didn’t need to be too creative to realize that they’d made contact with a certain local insectoid menace before coming here. Niko groaned internally at that, and couldn’t help but wonder if the pilgrimage had somehow screwed them over for having known him. 

“I’m told you wanted to see me?” Niko asked as they approached. 

The Blue Sabrecat dipped her head low, mirrored an instant later–almost comically–by the Hind-Bear beside and slightly behind her, “I’ve come to ask for this city's aid for my people, and for your aid in advocating for that purpose. I know you owe me nothing, but I have no better idea of who I can turn to who might at least have some kind of presence in this city. Still, I can only apologize for our carelessness, as we encountered a scouting party of Hornets on the way here, and had no choice but to engage in combat with them. We were then forced to escape, but we couldn’t return back through the tribelands, so we had to come here.”

Without even pausing for breath, the cat continued, still not looking up from her head-bowed position, “I realize that this directly implicates Greenleaf in the matter of the Hornets, as they will certainly be able to track us here, and I cannot even begin to ask for forgiveness for this matter. I will offer anything possible to balance the scales, and I deeply regret the way this has transpired. It is my own failings that place you all in danger, and I will atone for that however you see fit. I ask only that you help me save my people, however possible.”

Penelope and Tonton both lost the casual air they had, which was replaced immediately with surprise and dread as they turned to Niko.

Niko, equal parts gobsmacked and enraged, began half-hysterically shrieking, “I’m… sorry? What? Why in the cluck–” 

Skye grimaced as Niko’s mind-bridge filled with static, interrupting her in the middle of speaking with Gram Magra and the Aelphis team members, “Sorry, uh, I think Niko just found out why they’re here.”

Two of the members of Aelphis grimaced as they received a loose translation from their own beast companions, who were currently busy trying to look inconspicuous as whip-cracks of sound and essence filled the air, “Wow, that Phorus has… quite a vocabulary…”

Meanwhile, the gathered assortment of people only looked on as a colorful Phorus squawked and cawed at a Sabretooth and Hind-Bear, both of whom seemed to be shrinking in on themselves with every passing moment. Niko continued his tirade, seemingly exhausting himself before taking a steadying breath.

“Skye, here’s what’s going on.” Niko turned from the pair, before relaying everything relatively calmly to her, as the same happened with the Aelphis team members and their own companions.

“Oh…” Skye finished flatly, before letting out a long breath, “The Guildmaster is going to just love this.”

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