I stared with fascination and maybe a touch of horror at the destruction my weapons had wrought. My estimate had been thirty seconds to a minute to burn through the shield based on what I knew of the shields I had on the fortress and the power of the weapons. But the barrage from all sixteen mana lasers – set to continuous fire – had burned through whatever shitty defense they called a shield in less than three seconds.

I had been so surprised that I didn’t get the beams turned off until most of the building facing me had been sliced through. I knew the beams had passed through the building and out the other side because I could see smoke rising from behind the taller building. Honestly, I had been more worried about overloading my weapons by using this setting more than anything else. They weren’t designed for continuous use. But the time frame had been so short that no damage occurred to the weapons.

There were a few small explosions from the building and shortly after the main target collapsed, causing dust and debris to billow out. There was another explosion from the building behind it and that building collapsed as well, adding to the chaos.

I was eventually pulled from my stupor as impacts rocked the shield of Retribution. I quickly glanced at the shield indicator. The attacks were powerful, coming from high-grade enchanted mana cannons, each impact dropping the shield five percent. But the defenders were not coordinated and my shields quickly recharged before the next impact slammed home.

Leaving the mana lasers to cool, I activated my mana cannon batteries and targeted along the length of the wall facing me. I fired as soon as the cannons were on target. The shots landed short, hitting the wall instead of the rampart but it was enough to blow the thing to pieces. I saw parts of bodies flying away along with the bits of the wall.

I had no sympathy for these people. They turned their backs on everyone for the illusion of power and prestige. If left alone their stagnant rot would corrupt further towns and the world didn’t need more bullshit like that.

I checked that the wall was reduced enough to allow the Marshall’s men to gain entry and I moved onto other sections, firing with only one cannon as I detected an enemy. In one particular instance, I got to witness one of the men on the wall fire his mana cannon into the city instead of at me. I sliced his legs off with a mana laser burst and left him there to scream. There wasn’t much for me to do after clearing the wall so I slowly floated around in a circle, watching for trouble while I adjusted the aiming parameters of the mana cannon targeting. The drop-off was more severe than I anticipated but my new changes should improve my mid-range accuracy.

The remote viewer actually came in really handy during this fight and I was glad I decided to keep it. While I could see everything from inside the command room, I couldn’t peer around buildings. But with the bird’s eye view that the orb gave me, I could watch streets that were out of sight. This was the first urban-style combat I had been in since Chicago and then we just destroyed every building that could hide enemy forces. Trying to keep the destruction to a minimum was much harder.

I did witness some tense fighting inside the wall but it appeared that most of Mr. Rosewill’s soldiers either fled or were killed in the initial attack. I did wonder if I killed him in my attack or if Ska was right. I hoped he was wrong, otherwise, I owed him a hundred credits.

It didn’t take long until I got the signal from Jim Mors, he looked injured but otherwise fine. I rocked the ship in acknowledgment and sped off to the north. There was no way I was landing in that mess.

***

Cleanup and securing the city took a week. I paid Ska his credits, the cheeky shit couldn’t stop gloating.

“So, what now, Jim?” I asked as I walked with him through the remains of the inner compound.

“Not sure. The Guild representative fled after your initial attack. We never had good information on where he was located so we couldn’t catch him. A few of the Rosewill guards escaped as well, either into the Bazaar or into the countryside. If we determine any of them broke the law while they were in charge of the city a bounty will be placed on them and they will be hunted down. Otherwise, it isn’t worth the time to go looking for them.”

I grunted in acknowledgment. “Who’s going to be in charge?”

“We found a few city representatives that were exiled from the town. Until a new Mayor can be elected, they will share the power.”

“Aren’t you afraid of another Edward Rosewill taking over, or another Guild flunky?”

“No, the shit that the last asshole in charge put them through was enough to open their eyes. Plus a demonstration of what happens to those sorts of people around here didn’t go unnoticed. Had the attack been slowed it may not have had the same effect but thankfully that wasn’t the case.”

I nodded. I could completely understand the citizens' reaction to seeing a ship appear from nowhere, obliterate two buildings, and reduce an entire fighting force to remnants within only minutes and I would be awed and terrified as well.

“So you and your men will stay here then?”

“Yeah, it was one of the reasons we chose to come. A lot of us still have family in Houston. We couldn’t sit back any longer. Besides Reinforcements should be here from the ranch by tomorrow,” Jim stated.

“Oh, I hadn’t realized more were coming.”

“Some were out on missions, others wanted to see if you could truly pull it off before they threw their hat in the ring.”

“Well, not everyone can be a front-line fighter,” I added. “I guess this is goodbye then,” I said, offering my hand.

Jim gripped it firmly and gave it a shake. “Thanks for the help.”

“No problem. If you see Ska tell him I’ll be waiting at the ship.”

“Will do,” Jim said, giving a casual wave as he turned and walked away.

***

Lord Vik’t tapped his finger in irritation. The loss of Houston was annoying. He hadn’t expected this Paul Fuller to move so quickly to retake the town. Not that he much cared, the town wasn’t under his jurisdiction and it only hurt his competitor within the Guild. There wasn’t even any attempt to retake the town, as it was deemed too in the red to be worth the effort.

Lord Vik’t didn’t necessarily disagree. The cost to retake the town, refortify it – properly this time – and install a competent steward was just not worth it considering the meager wealth and items that flowed through the town. The only reason it had been deemed worthy before was the enchanted items of Paul Fuller’s that came from that town as well as someone in charge offering up the town on a silver platter.

Still, Lord Vik’t made a note to watch the town. A future chance may come along to reestablish ties within the city and bring it into his circle of influence. Not now, of course, all of his money was tied up with these damn shipbuilders that he had transported over. They were busy putting together a construction yard and in three months' time would begin the process of construction on their first dirigible.

Dirigibles were much easier to maintain than whatever nonsense this Paul Fuller was flying around in. He had seen the captured images from his spies within Houston. It looked nothing like any ship he had seen but the destructive capabilities were on par with a Guild galleon, despite its small size.

Lord Vik’t would have liked to create a frigate or even a galleon airship but his funds and resources were limited. So he would settle on two galleys They were smaller but faster and had two-thirds the weapons of a galleon. He would have liked to get a closer look at the weapons on this strange ship of Mr. Fuller’s but his people couldn’t get close enough. It wasn’t important, he could overwhelm the man with numbers if he had to.

***

It felt extremely liberating to check another concern off my list. I knew the list would never end and Martin had been right, somewhere along the way I lost myself and only kept fighting for the sake of others. But that was smothering their growth.

Sure I could help them level but even that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Even I found it hard to utilize all my newfound abilities and attributes that I had gained since hitting level twenty.

While it would have been nice to have them join me on this journey, they had lives to live and had found a place to make their own. I liked Saint June but it still didn’t feel like home to me, more a place of safety I could retreat to. And now with Fiona able to retake human form permanently, I suspected she would quickly try to conceive that child she had wanted so badly. I wished the two of them the best of luck.

As for Ska, well he was finding his own path as well. I think him getting kicked from his clan led to him taking up the role of the protector with his warden class. I think he feared losing his new friends and family even more than I did, he just wasn’t as vocal or expressive about it but if you knew him well enough, as I did, you could see the slight facial ticks that he tried to hide.

I had done as much as I could for my friends and the town and it was time for me to start a journey of my own again. I was no stranger to loneliness but it wasn’t exactly an enjoyable experience. I would have to take on a more friendly persona if I wanted to make new friends along the way.

I chuckled, thinking about the last words Fiona had said to me. “Don’t be such an asshole to everyone you meet, and just maybe you might meet someone nice.”

“I will try,” I said softly to the empty ship as I flew southeast across the old Gulf of Mexico.