TWENTY-NINE
“We are considerably underarmed for this,” Marie said as the Puca rocked gently as they entered the planet’s atmosphere. Kon ignored the whining as he finished checking his own loadout. While the squires had combat training they had precious little experience outside of Mathis. None of the sheltered mages had seen fighting and Ignacio didn’t know how to fight at all. If they were going to run a rift it would be up to Kon and Alice to ensure they didn’t bring anyone back in bodybags.
“You’ll be fine. You’re lucky I’m letting you use that,” Alice said, eyes still closed as she pretended to nap. The last week had seen her working all eight of their Chapterhouse candidates hard, with only the last day allowing them to rest and recover naturally before they set off. Mathis and the other squires had taken to it naturally enough, but not much change had occurred yet. On the other hand the mages were starting to look like they had packed on a bit of muscle.
“Yes, we’ve heard. Kon did it with a rock,” Marie muttered while everyone else chuckled.
“I think they think we’re pulling their leg,” Kon told Alice who cracked open an eye, a glint of malice there as she looked them over.
“Really? We need a repeat performance then?” Alice asked. The laughing died as everyone looked over their basic weapons with a lot more appreciation.
It was a mix of spears, swords, knives, and a pair of bows that Alexandra and Loras had both claimed. Neither knew how to use a bow, but the last week had had them spending enough hours in the firing range with them they were passable with the weapon.
“No magecraft. Got to do this the hard and bloody way. Earn your runes the right way,” Alice said as she closed her eyes again.
“Agreed,” Benny’s voice cut in from one of the hidden speakers getting everyone to jump in surprise.
“I think he invites people on his ship just to scare them.” Kon rolled the thought over in his mind before looking toward the only person not complaining or looking stressed, Ignacio.
“How you doing, Nacho?” Kon asked as he felt the ship begin to decelerate.
“We’re coming down on the hunting grounds. Be ready to engage the enemy the moment the doors open. Looking to be all F-Grade in the landing zone, but there are E-Grade monsters around, so Kon and Alice stay alert,” Benny warned before Ignacio could say anything.
“I’m ready to piss myself in fear. But I see no reason to complain about it,” Ignacio said cheerfully, which drew a series of looks as he grabbed his weapon of choice, a ten foot long boar spear that was eight feet of ultra strong alloy shaft and two feet of sharp steel. None of the weapons here were forged of treasure-alloy aside from Kon’s knife and Conclusion which hung on his hip.
Alice grabbed her axes, kept one in hand while putting the other in a fast release strap that Ignacio had made for her that let her carry it on her back. Her crystal shield went into her other hand and Kon knew she was looking forward to field testing her new toy. His own knife hadn’t been blooded and he was intent to do that as well, but it wasn’t as much of a concern for him as Alice’s shield was. She planned to incorporate the weapon into her primary fighting style even once she was armored.
“Me first, then Kon, then you guys. Stick to your fire teams.” Alice’s order was met with a series of grunts and acknowledgements as everyone strapped their weapons on.
They had decided that each of them would take out their own fire teams. Breaking them up had been an argument, but Alice and Benny were both worried about cliques forming. Breaking it up now was the best intent so Kon ended up with Mathis and Mustafa from the former squires as well as Beto and Alexandra.
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Marie, Ahmed, Loras, and Ignacio stuck with Alice and Kon almost felt bad for them. She had built the blocks he needed to become who he was, but it hadn’t been pleasant.
“Alright, we have our positioning figured out?” Kon asked them, looking over his four cadets. Alexandra was their distance fighter, her bow gave them their primary fighting ability, while Mathis and Ahmed both carried long spears with short swords and Beto had a shield and long sword. Their early planning was that the two strongest of the group, Mathis and Ahmed, would use their spears to hold beasts at bay while Beto protected Alexandra while she fired at the beasts.
All of them had belt knives for butchering and Alexandra had another long knife that was closer to a sword on her hip in case anything got too close to her. Kon couldn’t help but look over their weapons and wanted to sneer at it, but at the same time he really didn’t want to see anyone die because they tried to replicate what Alice had forced him to do.
“Yes, we follow my orders and work together,” Alexandra said. Mathis hadn’t even tried to take control of the small fire team, yielding to the smaller mage who had taken command with ease. That Beto was already used to following her commands and Mathis was willing to go along with it, Kon had decided to leave it to them to pick their leaders.
Alice’s fire team had a slightly different approach, but for the most part was similar enough. Both Alice and Kon had agreed not to step in unless death was certain. A bit of maiming could be fixed easily enough with Alice’s rune, as Kon had learned more than once.
“Landing zone is hot!” Benny’s voice came through the speakers as they all walked toward the ramp. In weeks to months they’d be landing on hot zones with energy weapons, projectiles, missiles, and who knew what else coming toward them. For now it was just muscles and claws and Kon couldn’t help but be thankful for that.
“Three…two…one…touchdown.” The ramp lowered and Alice and Kon were the first ones off the ramp. Fighting side by side with her was something Kon hadn’t truly done and this would be the last time today that they would have to fight.
Alice landed with her shield in front of her as her axe cleaved flesh from the line of monsters that pounded toward them. It wasn’t a fight, but a slaughter. Kon went to work, his attention pulled away from his mentor and toward his own fights. Humanoid, milky white monsters with black talons and no eyes came toward them, snake-like nostrils twitching as Kon swung Conclusion around. Every blow ended a single one of the monsters, but the lack of reach and ability to scythe through opponents began to make its presence known as Alice leisurely killed more of the monsters than he could.
“Might need another side arm. A sword maybe? Or one of those giant warhammers?” The thought hardly distracted him as he spattered himself in monster blood, bodies piled up as the F-Grades finally broke against the two of them. He hadn’t even broken a sweat as he slaughtered the animals.
“CLEAR!” Kon shouted and their cadets came out. The former squires had seen things like this before, but even they looked a little green as they looked at the battleground. Ignacio leaned over and threw up, but he kept marching, which was better than Loras who dropped his sword and grabbed his knees as he hurled his lunch all over the ground.
“At least he cleared the landing ramp,” Alice’s whisper nearly made Kon smile, the earpiece he had directly linked to her and Benny.
“If he made a mess on my ship he’d be cleaning it with a damn toothbrush,” Benny growled, but there wasn’t any real heat in his voice. Kon pushed them to the side as he started barking orders, trying to get his fire team to line up. Mathis and Mustafa both lined up, spears pointed outward while Alexandra and Beto stood behind them. Beto kept his positioning deep enough that he could swing his sword without accidentally hitting Alexandra, but close enough he could get to her with a step or two.
“We move west, Alice heads north. Don’t cut east or south, there’s E-grade rifts over that way,” Kon instructed. To their west was waving grasslands, thick strands of purple vegetation that rose well over six feet tall and swayed with the breeze. Or monsters running through them.
“Alright, let’s get moving on. You harvest what you kill and you don’t die on me, alright?” Kon said, urging his little group forward as he took command for the first time. His team snapped to, moving together into the tall grass without a word of complaint and Kon felt a trickle of pride as they breached the grass. Behind him the ramp to the Puca closed, Benny stayed on the ship to let them all go out and experience this themselves without his presence to hover over them.
“I hope they’re ready to start making nodes.” None of them knew it, but Benny and Alice had agreed, that once the hunt was finished, it was time to start them on building out their node network. By the time they moved toward Orgo and the cultivators that had gone to fight there, they’d be ready to start the body cultivation process