Chapter 13: Chapter 13 A grave threat

Nathan didn’t sleep well. Davrar was full of wonder, and ruins had filled him with a sense of adventure. On earth, history was known. If you found a ruin, you could find out who had built it, and why. The horizons were charted, and the only mysteries were people and science. On Davrar, ruins outnumbered cities by a hundred to one. Every one promised adventure and more likely than not, death.

With that in mind, Nathan couldn’t help but wait for the jumpscare. Now was the time, right? He paced around the camp, seeing a pair of the Vanguard on a desultory watch. They beckoned him over, but he shook his head and went back to his blanket. Eventually, he slept.

The next morning, Nathan woke bleary-eyed to quick movement and the clash of metal. His eyes snapped open, and he jumped to his feet, frantically looking around to find the fight.

It wasn’t a fight, it was a fully-armored spar between Artha and Eldred. It didn’t look like a friendly fight, but everybody was standing around and watching as Eldred defended himself from Artha’s furiously twisting staff. He spun and wove, catching blows with the haft of his two-handed mace. After a breath he went on the offensive himself, swinging the mace deceptively quickly. Artha backstepped and deflected with his staff. One of the swings connected with the ground and rock shattered, sending shards zinging around the clearing. Artha snapped forward to take advantage of the grounded mace, but Eldred slid under Artha’s strike and shoulder-checked him. Amazingly, the enormous centaur went down, toppling with a tremendous clatter. Eldred raised his mace over Artha, and the crowd tensed. Nathan started forward, but then Eldred relaxed as Artha spoke.

“I yield. You have the better of me.” He was tense, looking up at the human clad in heavy plate.

Eldred just spread his arms wide, holding his enormous mace negligently in one hand. He beamed around at the crowd, savoring his victory. Vhala and Emerald emerged from the crowd and helped Artha up, Vhala shooting Eldred a dirty look as they did so. Nathan walked over to find out what had happened as they helped Artha up and moved to the side, leaving Eldred to a round of back-slapping congratulations from the Vanguard.

Nathan came up to them, as Artha was gingerly flexing his legs. “So what was that about?”

Vhala turned to him with a grimace. “A bit of adventurer politics. He was pushing, and Emerald insulted him to distract him. He issued a bout-challenge in response, and Artha answered.”

Emerald spoke next, quietly. “T-thanks A-Artha. Y-you d-didn’t have to do that.” They were helping Artha remove his heavy armor, storing it carefully in the bag of holding Nathan had seen them remove it from earlier.

Artha snorted, still breathing heavily. “You fight to kill. That bout would have only ended with heavy wounds, especially as he doesn’t hold you in the same respect he does me. This gave him more status, and it should end here.”

Nathan was flabbergasted. “That sounds really dumb. That fight was over pecking order? Or do I not understand what status means?”

Vhala shook her head. “No, you’ve got the right of it. Status, honor, bravado. To some adventurers,” she nodded towards Eldred “it is their lifeblood. And he was pushing for information on you. Beware. With this loss, we cannot challenge him anymore on this trip.” She frowned. Then called out, loudly. “Eldred! Congratulations on your victory. Should we depart? These people need to get to Gemore!”

The bald man was wiping his brow with a rag, and looked up at Vhala’s call. “Yes! We should go. Come, one and all! To Gemore, and freedom!” He raised his mace high, the picture of a heroic fighter.

Nathan spoke under his breath to the Giantraiders. “I’m really not a fan of that guy.” They all nodded in response, then departed to finish packing the camp.

Nathan made himself scarce for a bit, checking in with Sora and Dwoh, and ending up carrying a couple of extra bags for the weaker refugees. He tried to talk to them for a bit, but only got scattered responses. They seemed wary of him, and the adventurers in general. Nathan understood why, but it was disheartening that these people’s protectors weren’t held in higher esteem.

Soon after Nathan was rebuffed by the refugees, Artha approached. Nathan opened his mouth to welcome him, but the elk-centaur held up a hand to forestall him. “I must apologize for my request earlier. I am glad you chose to fight with us, but I should not have posed a demand phrased as a question to which there could be no refusal.” He inclined his head, resolute and grave. The picture of a muscular silver fox.

When Nathan focused on the man, he couldn’t help but be mesmerized. But the elk bits really were offputting. This crush on Artha was weird, and only complicated by the man admitting to manipulating Nathan into lethal combat. Part of it was that Nathan wasn’t even sure he blamed Artha. Every time he looked around at the ex-slaves, he felt proud for his role in that.

Meanwhile, Artha was continuing. “I think my debt to you is a larger than an Insight freely given in the moment before a fight. I will continue to teach you the use of anger in combat, but I would also guide you in the ways of Davrar and Gemore. If you will accept it, at least?” He arched an eyebrow.

Nathan swallowed. “Yeah, that sounds good. I don’t know what to ask, but I’ll take you up on that later. Thanks. Do you have anything else to tell me now, about anger or anything else?”

Artha nodded deeply again. “If you decide to follow this path, you should know how it will influence your style. Using rage while fighting is powerful, granting you strength, speed and a certain ability to ignore wounds and some magic. A full berserker will rampage above their level and will not stop before death. And many rage classes contain valuable class skills to surpass defenses or overcome restrictions. But, there are drawbacks. The Rage and many of the class abilities that stem from it consume your class resource quickly, and when you run out, you will be quite vulnerable. It is harder to think strategy while enraged, and baiting somebody with a class on the path of rage is a common strategy among those with experience.

“These weaknesses can be corrected, with preparation. A skill or Talent for calmness or strategic thinking, which can be used in combat, will aid with the distraction of rage. The rapid draining of your class resource is a harder problem. You can learn to manage it well, or shape your training to encourage class skills which expand your pool. Another solution is to pick Talents that will replenish your class resource. These are… difficult, and situational. You would not be able to use the one I know of, so I will not teach it to you.” He paused. “These words are between us, now. Do you want to walk this path?”

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Nathan considered. It felt like the decision had already been made - he’d decided to fight, and this style suited him. During the fight, the anger felt natural. Right. He’d managed his anger all of his life, learning restraint and calm. Cutting loose had felt… freeing. The surge of adrenaline during the fight was more than every extreme sport Nathan had ever done. No whitewater kayaking or backcountry ski bowl or skydiving could compare to a life-or-death fight. If that’s what the path of rage was, then that’s what Nathan wanted.

He spoke as much, formally to match Artha’s speech. “Yes, I will learn of Rage. How will you teach me?”

Artha smiled. “It can be hard to learn, for the only true practice is mortal combat. But the first requirement is to always be able to summon your fury against those you fight. Once you gain a rage class skill you will be less restricted, but you must keep the anger stoked, for every true fight in which you use it will improve your class. There are no true exercises I can give you, for the nature of these classes is a decision to remove restraint.”

He was about to continue when a clanking stomp heralded Eldred’s approach, head shining under the sun. He swaggered up, armor brilliant. Up close, Nathan could notice that the plate was heavily decorated, engraved with delicate lines of red, silver and gold metals. There were also tiny gems inset around the joints, though Nathan had no idea why.

Probably magical shenanigans. Looks expensive as hell.

He addressed Artha. “I think Vhala was lookin’ for ya.” He turned to Nathan, clearly dismissing Artha. “Hullo! I hope you’re holding up under the travel well.” Artha snorted, then opened his mouth. Eldred raised a hand “Comon, who smacked who around in that little spar earlier, eh? Go on.” He gestured away, towards the main group of refugees. Artha grimaced, then turned and left.

Eldred turned back to Nathan and stepped closer to him, working his shoulders a bit. Nathan thought that Eldred was trying to loom over him, but it didn’t work very well. Eldred was probably about six feet tall, muscled and bulky with the armor. But Nathan wasn’t an inch under six-five, and definitely broader in the shoulders than the bald man, if not as heavily muscled. He looked down at Eldred from a foot away and refused to back up.

The armored man looked up at him and furrowed his eyebrows. “So, what’s the tale with you, eh? You’re not a villager, and you haven’t been a slave. Some of my boys asked the villagers, and they said you fought with the Giantraiders, but didn’t have a wick of gear on ya. It’s a bit of a puzzle, and I like to solve puzzles. What’s your name, and where you from, boy?”

Nathan answered easily. “I’m Nathan. I’m from a land far away, you’ve probably never heard of it. I got waylaid by Giantsrest, escaped and the Giantraiders found me.”

Eldred’s eyes sharpened. “This land, it got a name?”

“It’s a republic called the United States of America.” Nathan answered. For all he knew, Eldred had a skill to detect lies.

Eldred frowned. “United States… sounds big. Must be far away if I haven’t heard of it. Got a big army?”

“The biggest in our… region. It’s pretty safe there.”

“Are you a member of that army, Nathan?”

Nathan shook his head.

One of Eldred’s hands rose to stroke his chin. “So what’s your profession, and what’re you doin’ all the way out here?”

This was an interrogation, and any pauses would be taken as indications of lies or misdirection. So Nathan responded immediately. Earnestly. “I do fine work with my hands, very delicate. And the trip wasn’t really my idea. I’ve got no idea what direction leads home.”

“How’d you help in the fight, then?”

“One of my Talents lets me interact with magic. I messed with the magic of the Giantsrest mages, helped the Raiders put them down. Same way I escaped from Giantsrest in the first place.”

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