Chapter 36

Adrian looked at Mike with a horrified expression. “Shells? That is a terrible term.” The memory of the monster that had been intending to destroy their world was still too fresh. “Can’t you use something better?”

“Defensive pods then.”

“What do they look like?”

“They’ll look like a chunk of rock or a husk of wood. They camouflage their colour, but not their shape.” They rushed towards the second closest survivor. “Why this one?”

“It is on the way to the other two.”

“Shouldn’t we be looking for other pods?” Mike asked.

“I am,” Adrian told him without slowing down. “If we get within a stone’s throw, I’ll sense them.”

He saw Mike glance around at the relatively dense trees. “That’s from that domain, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“I wasn’t sure what it could do? It’s not often that someone gets a custom ability, which is that short in its description.”

“It’s a Jaracol special.”

“A what?”

“Nothing. I think it’s unique.”

Mike started muttering into his communication device and he realised new dots had appeared.

“Jules and Charlotte have split up to collect their own survivors.”

“Good,” Adrian replied.

With Mike and others in tow, Adrian kept everyone moving quickly to get to the survivors before any other monsters like the ground wolves found them. The group he was escorting grew to ten, he decided that they were more than strong enough to save themselves so he split from them to go collect people who had been spat further away from the epicentre of the explosion.

Almost an hour later, dots stopped appearing.

“Are there any more?” Adrian asked.

There was a long pause. “Kiyoko says no,” Mike answered finally. “Any pods out there should have opened up by now. Let’s head back.” A new path appeared on Adrian’s map and he led the final five toward the larger group and listened to them talking about their future. One man had left his wife and baby behind and was hoping she would not be punished. They had drawn straws for who was going to go. Another man had no family but many friends and his was a funny case because the man understood that some of his friends would have survived but there would be losses. Two more had partners who had also fought, one of them had volunteered with her in the last stand. She was hopeful of a miracle, but Adrian knew differently. There were no more dots, and the husband was not part of the survivors that had been rescued.

It was a contrast to the success of his travelling companions. Yes, they had been higher levelled than most, but it was just sheer luck they were going to walk away with at most losing one person.

Adrian led his five to the larger group, and they settled on a brisk walk. Some people, despite their inflated levels had not upped their physical skills at all.

Adrian wished he could help those that were clearly grieving, but there wasn’t much you could say in these situations. These scattered survivors of the two hundred who had stayed to let the others escape were heroes. They deserved to be on the same pedestal that he had been lumped on. Life wasn’t always fair, and he struggled to find the words he needed.

He almost sighed in relief when they reached the gate and they disbanded.

“Thank you,” Mike said to the two of them, his hand around Charlotte’s waist.

Adrian nodded in respect to Mike. After all, the man had risked his life in the last stand and only seventy-three of that group had survived. Mike, as a commander had known the odds and had stayed, anyway. “You did a good job.”

Mike smiled.

“Why did that look so painful?” Charlotte asked him.

“No. It wasn’t painful,” Adrian acknowledged. “But maybe a little stingy. Mike did a great job. He was an integral, irreplaceable part of saving the planet, and that wasn’t something that most can say.”

“You guys, enjoy yourselves,” Jules said suddenly. “Adrian and I need to get a drink.”

“Trader.”

“Trader,” she agreed. “Give back the free crap and get a bottle of spiced whisky each.”

“No,” Adrian objected. “No chance. I’m not drinking that shit.”

‎ “For old times’ sake.”

“No!”

They walked together shoulder to shoulder. There was activity in the houses but nothing like Wagga after he had killed the Bird or Albury in the days after the Junta had been defeated. The town was in shock.

“Have you seen the proposals?” Jules asked suddenly.

“The what?”

“The proposals of how to deal with the powerless and the untouchables?”

“I had not considered them.”

“You need eighty percent support for a proposal to pass. Do you want to hear them?”

“Why not.”

There was a park bench off the side of the road. Adrian sat down.

“What’s you doing?” Jules asked still standing there.

“Sitting.”

“I thought we’d agreed to buy grog?”

“Oh, I have lots.” He opened his bag of holding and pulled out a selection of five trader-bought spirits, including the spiced whiskey. “Help yourself. I have beer as well.”

Adrian smiled as she avoided the spicy whisker.

“What is this?”

“Higher priced spicey whisky.”

“Hangover.”

“Not from that.”

She pulled the cork out and took a sip and coughed as it burned down her throat. “Nice.” She croaked and handed him the bottle.

A crystal whisky glass floated up from his backpack and he poured a generous serving.

“Do you have another?”

He interrupted her question by floating a second glass to her even as the whisky bottle moved with no one touching it and poured her half a cup. It was like there was an invisible waiter.

“Nice trick.”

“It’s coming along,” Adrian admitted. “Not strong enough for battle, but it’ll get there. So the proposals.”

“You don’t want to talk levels?”

“No, I’ll deal with that tomorrow. You?”

“Same,” she admitted finally sitting down next to him. “There are currently four active proposals.”

“Let’s hear them.”

“Convert all the cowards into oath-bound servants that will have to obey anyone with a world defender tag.”

“What they’re excluding me!”

Jules laughed. “I am sure the system would let your badge count.”

“I won’t support it, anyway.”

“It’s going to fail,” Jules confirmed. “It only has twenty percent voting yes and five hundred no votes already. The next proposal will pass. All unclean and cowards who had a loved one who died in the Wangaratta Crucible will have their powers and access to classes restored.”

“Is that what they are calling it?”

“The Wangaratta Crucible?”

“Yeah?”

“Yes,” Jules answered.

“It seems a bit underwhelming.”

“Battle, war, triumph, there doesn’t seem to be an appropriate description.”

“But crucible? What sort of test was it? It was nothing like that. It was a town fighting for survival. We weren’t reforged,” Adrian reached helplessly for the words that would describe what he was saying. “People died, and the world was saved.”

“I think it’s fine,” Jules declared. “It’s just a name. Everyone who was involved knows what it was.”

Jules laughed. “This one is funny. Mark of shame. They get their powers restored, but only while their hair is dyed bright pink. I’m so voting for that.”

‎ “Jules!”

‎ Jules laughed harder after reading some more. “Ha. That one might actually get up. Oh, a serious one.” She stopped talking to read. “It is like five paragraphs long, but basically it is a pathway for an unclean to get access to their classes once more. They need twenty votes from those who took part in the crucible.”

“That’s my problem,” Adrian interrupted. “It shouldn’t be Wangaratta’s Crucible. It should be humanities or just crucible.”

“They want their town name linked,” Jules said dismissively. “And fair enough. Anyway, there is an amendment to the proposal that participants only get two votes per year. Means that at most only ten percent of people can get fixed every year and every vote is valuable. I’m voting for that. Oh, definitely no.”

“Oh, what was that one?”

“All males are exiled and females have a choice to take oaths to be maids.”

“Sexist.”

“Degrading,” she corrected. “That’s it for now. But I’m sure there’s going to be more. Hopefully, a few more laughs.” She took a big sip from her glass and choked slightly. “Small sips, Jules,” she reminded herself.

Adrian laughed.

“Have you decided on your upgrades?”

“I’m going to take my time and choose carefully,” Jules admitted. “Above fifty. I can select anything from any class.”

“Are you specialising for fighting?”

“Of course. Bash, whack, zap. You’re not planning on that are you?”

“Maybe half, half. I want to talk to Kiyoko and Mike before I lock the new skills in.”

“Sensible. What do you want to do?”

“Gatherer and alchemist, but more the second.”

“Will you like that?”

“Absolutely. I’m sick of fighting and once you’ve saved the world, you’re not going to get any extra beers if you save it a second time.”

Jules laughed.

“The Billionaire World Saver still trying to score free beers.”

Adrian smiled. “Just saying. Plus, I can probably do as much good as a master alchemist as a fighter.”

“Not a chance.”

“Of course there is. Preparation wins fights.”

“Not in my experience.”

Adrian snorted into his whisky. “You are a berserker. You prick your finger and don’t rest till all your enemies are a red smear.”

“Yep, and it works every time.”

“I agree it has been very effective.”

They sat in silence.

“Well, when the unclean are forced to spend a day a week cleaning the streets, I think it will end up looking amazing.”

“Really. Someone put that in.”

“Yeah, I’m voting no. Nothing in it for me personally.”

“The best way to vote.”

Jules grinned. “I suspect that some of the younger participants worked out how to do the petitions and now they’re taking the piss.”

She laughed, slapping her knees.

“Mud wrestling contest. If you stay as a champion for a week, you get your powers back. Anyone can challenge. That is a yes for me. I can just imagine a fifteen-year kid who is level forty challenging a muscle-bound untouchable who thought he had won his class back.”

“You’re mean.”

“Just having a bit of fun.”

The whisky finished, and he grabbed a second bottle. “Do you want to stay and drink or find company?”

“I couldn’t be bothered, but I assume we’re going to want the wider group to come with us, so we should be sociable. Plus Andrew.”

“Do you think he is alive?”

“No.” Jules studied the ground.

“Shit,” Adrian said quietly. “Do you know where they are?”

“Can’t be too hard to find. There are only so many pubs.”

Together, they spread out to search. There were eleven pubs and their targets weren’t in any of them.

“We can use the communication devices,” Adrian suggested.

“No,” Jules said definitively. “I don’t want to.”

After exiting the pub, they ran into Kiyoko.

“Follow,” the old lady ordered, leading them across the road and down the street to one of the many houses with a party occurring inside it.

“They’re there?” Jules asked dubiously.

Kiyoko just nodded. “Oracle remember.”

With a shrug, they walked up and found the door unlocked, and a riot of noise greeted them.

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