Benjamin Vryce

They had been walking for hours. Benjamin hadn’t understood at first; but Drumstick quickly filled him in, this station world was in fact a space station the size of a planet. Except on a planet only the surface was available to live on. While this station was riddled with passageways and rooms.

Shipwright had started with a smaller structure, and built outwards over time. According to Drumstick, he didn’t often return to work on old projects or to refurbish old rooms. Instead, he had built new rooms and passageways on top of the old ones. The entire structure was a maze of twisted interconnected passages without much relation to what it was connected too.

The newest and most advanced being on the outside and the work getting steadily older and less used the deeper one went. The rift, as could be expected, was right near the center of the structure. They would have to leave the safety of the well-maintained outer shell and dive deeply into the tangled mess of abandoned projects to reach, and close the portal into chaos.

The chicken Drumstick was actually a well of information. He had been programmed with an anime version of a European butler’s accent and speaking patterns, and a vast store of knowledge. Benjamin had been asking him questions as they walked, and the mechanical chicken had answered everything that pertained to the mission. He either didn’t know or wouldn’t say, what was going on in the rooms they passed though.

He had actually offered to carry the little guy, knowing that they would need to move swiftly. Drumstick had refused, saying that he could ‘manage quite adequately thank you.’ It was true too, the little guy could really run. Benjamin didn’t know if normal chickens ran like this, long loping strides that left the metal chicken air born for short periods, but it was really interesting to watch.

He looked down at his mini map watch again to check their heading. He was a little disappointed with it to be honest, it amounted to a glowing arrow pointing in the direction they needed to move. There wasn’t even a map, he knew Shipwright had to have better stuff than this. Perhaps the World Lord didn’t have time to make anything better, though it was likely he was just a miser.

“Benjamin, I can smell something new.” Ice said, voice reverberating through his mind.

“Hold up everyone,” he said aloud. Bringing the others to a stop. “Ice smells something, I think we might be about to get company.”

He looked to the others; Drumstick had stopped when he had. The little chicken was surprisingly agile, Jade on the other hand, not so much. She had been sitting in Toks arms while the ogre ran after the wolf riding, Benjamin. It took him several long and heavy strides to stop his forward momentum, by that time it was too late. They had walked into the cross section of a corridor, and were being surrounded.

“Vice, what the hell are these things?” Jade asked, from where she still sat in Tok’s arms. She had unholstered her essence pistol and was aiming at the slug like shapes. “Because I have seen this one too, and I just got this outfit.”

Benjamin didn’t know what surprised him more; the fact that Jade Benz seemed to be an anime fan, or the there were freaking slime monsters on a space station. He looked at the green gelatinous, semitransparent, slug like creatures. There were at least twenty of them, ranging in size from a basketball all the way up to that of a small car.

“Drumstick, buddy.” He said, turning to the chicken. “What are these things?”

The golden chicken turned its head to the side and looked from one eye at the slowly moving slimes. The ruby colored lens of his eye telescoping out with a soft whir. Before looking at Benjamin to answer.

“There is nothing to worry about Lord Benjamin, these are the Lord Shipwright’s biological cleaner units. They only target unwanted biological growth inside the stations corridors and dissolve it, before it can cause damage to the structures. They don’t bother proper mechanical life forms at all.” The chicken said with a reassuring tone.

“Drumstick, we are all biological lifeforms.” Benjamin said, with an exasperated breath. Watching as the chicken’s head cocked to the side and back again, eyes whirring in and out of focus.

“Oh, my.” Was all it managed to reply before the first small slime leapt with a bouncing motion and landed on tok’s arm.

It sizzled on contact. Burning through the blood red leather quickly and into the ogre’s arm. He let out a grunt of pain, but didn’t move. He was still holding Jade and he couldn’t hit the slime without hurting her, the agonized dilemma was plain to read on his round face. Jade, solved the problem by swiveling around in his arms and firing her essence pistol point blank into the slime’s jiggly body.

She had to fire three times before her shots penetrated, and the slime melted into a steaming puddle on the floor. Benjamin watched as she quickly healed the ogre’s burns, and leapt down to the floor. She turned her body, pistol extended to sweep the closing slimes. Then said to the now healed and empty-handed ogre.

“Tear em up, big guy.”

The ogre went crazy, smashing and stomping on the slimes. Benjamin watched with fascination; how destructive the ogres could be. he wondered idly if he could get a pattern for himself, before remembering his soul was at its limits. There were options available to him if he wanted some though.

He didn’t really like the idea of introducing ogres to his forest world. Though he wasn’t sure what species had grown in there during the lockdown development period. He really needed to look in on his world soon. To the best of his understanding, it would develop around his mind set at the time of its creation, coupled with the creatures he had inadvertently introduced at that time.

Tok was slowing down, the slimes had burned his armor away in large patches. The burns were getting deeper into his flesh, and Jade couldn’t keep up his healing. Benjamin decided it was time to help out. Jumping down from Ice’s back, he dove into the fray. His hands began to melt almost the instant he thrust his claws into the body of a slime, but he ignored the pain and continued to claw it into a puddle.

His own regeneration would handle the burns with time, and he needed the action. Another one of the slimes had bounced onto his back, but Ice’s massive maw had snatched it from him. He heard her whimper in agony as the burst slime dissolved in her mouth, burning her tongue in the process. He flooded her with essence as he continued to slash at the slimes, healing her wounds as she bit into another foe.

They slaughtered the slimes, over the protesting voice of Drumstick. He wasn’t happy that his Lord’s cleaning unit was being wiped out. The way he said it, it was like he wanted Benjamin to believe the whole place would grow mold and fall apart without these creatures. Eventually, the four of them working together smashed the last giant slime.

A small softly glowing object caught Benjamin’s attention when the car sized, transparent slug melted away into a puddle. Bending down, he picked up a pattern. That put a smile on his face, apparently the big one was the original of this group. He wondered if that meant there was another slime around here for mating, or if the slime just split apart as it grew, to make more of itself.

“Lord Benjamin, I am afraid I must insist that you return that pattern to me at once.” Drumstick said commandingly. “Lord Shipwright didn’t give you his permission to pilfer his belongings, and I will have to report this matter to him if you do not comply.”

Benjamin snorted at the officious chicken. Wiping the pattern clean and looking it over, and found it was intact. He pondered the value of this pattern; a biological dissolving creation had its uses he supposed. In anime they typically just hid in towers, waiting to dissolve the clothes from the female party members.

“Hey, Jade” he called. She came up while he was thinking of female party members. How much soul space do you have left?” he asked her, wondering if she might want the slime. He turned to see her puzzled expression looking back at him.

“What do ya mean, Vice?” she asked, obviously not understanding.

He supposed that made sense that she didn’t know. He hadn’t realized his soul had limits either at first. Not until he tried to surpass those limits, by absorbing the red queen. He lost quite a few of his creatures when that happened, including Silver, his first friend here. Looking over to Tok, he figured it wasn’t worth the risk to Jade if she was already at her limit. Not for a slime anyway, and not at the risk of losing her last ogre.

“Never mind,” he said, instead of explaining the limitations of their souls. She wouldn’t understand yet even if he did. That thought reminded him of all the times he had been told that, by the Arbiter and Erlking. Was he becoming like them already? He looked to her, wiping caustic slime off her hole riddled skin tight red leathers, with a disgusted expression. No, she really wouldn’t understand.

Without worrying about it further, he opened his storage case and placed the pattern into an empty slot. He didn’t really need it, but he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. Creating these patterns was a lot harder than he had thought, and it was easier to modify and existing one then start from scratch.

“Lord Benjamin,” Drumstick said again, beak open and the volume on his speaker turned up. “I have to insist that you return that pattern at once, it is the property of Lord Shipwright.” He really wasn’t letting it go was he.

“Drumstick,” he said as he closed the case and reattached it to his armor. “I am here, with my companions, risking my life for this old pile of Shipwright’s abandoned scraps. That slime was a glorified janitor, and it still had more combat potential then the crap equipment he left for our use. We’ll close the rift for him, and in the process, I’ll take what I please. or, he can insist on being greedy and we’ll leave. What is it going to be?”

It wasn’t like his normal behavior, Benjamin freely admitted that. He had been too accommodating to date though, doing what he had been told and losing so much in return. He didn’t want to deal with it anymore. The Erlking at least understood what he was asking of the humans, Shipwright didn’t seem to care.

“Hell yea, Vice.” Jade chimed in, having changed her and Tok back to their Black leathers. “You tell em…hey, you think the chicken has got a pattern?” she asked, with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

“I believe that Lord Shipwright understands your position. Lord Benjamin, Miss Jade, there will be no need for hasty decisions.” The chicken said hurriedly, back-peddling so fast Benjamin was surprised he didn’t smell burning rubber.

He shot Jade a wink, that was well done. That settled he took a breath and looked around; the battlefield had been cleared of enemies. They could continue the trip towards the rift, still, slimes? He wondered what else the demented World Lord had cooked up over the millennia, then got bored with and dumped in here.

If nothing else, it shouldn’t be boring. He wondered briefly how the rest of the humans who had been trapped in here were doing. He didn’t know for sure, but he got the impression that he and Jade were some of the stronger ones. He hoped they were ok, and doing their part to close the rifts. The universe was entirely too big for just him and Jade to fix alone.