Jade Benz

Jade was struggling, she hadn’t mentioned it to Vice though. She figured he was dealing with enough, what with his buds and his bugs getting killed like that. She felt his pain, she was missing Tik pretty bad too. That was part of her problem right now. She didn’t have both her support pillars.

Tok was really going the extra mile, but watching them fighting and playing together had been half of what had helped her so much. They had distracted her from herself, letting her forget about how crappy her life was. Then there was the other one, that damn stone gargoyle. He was sitting in her void space, like a reminder of bad times.

She had woken him up a few times during the trip over. He hadn’t tried to kill her or anything, but he didn’t have the same feel that Tik had. She wondered if it was because he was a creature of chaos, sent from outside the universe to destroy them all, or if he was just not very social. Either way, he didn’t seem as interested in the games as Tok had.

She felt lonely too, when she first arrived in this damn place it had just been her and her ogres. Her head hadn’t been sitting on straight then though, and she hadn’t realized how screwed up she was. Later, after she hooked up with Vice and his team she felt better. The goblins were fun to tease, and so was Vice. She’d even started developing a thing for both him and the Viking.

Now, Vice wasn’t any fun to tease. She knew what loss felt like, and she didn’t want to put anymore burden on him, but where did that leave her? Jade looked over to the chicken dude, teasing him wasn’t too much fun. He didn’t understand the jokes, seeming to actually think chickens were a human equivalent species.

Running her fingers over her skintight black leather outfit, she sighed. This wasn’t really her style, if she was being honest. There were a few better options in the Erlking’s gift box, but she wasn’t in the mood for a costume change. She looked over to Benjamin, riding on his big ass wolf’s back. She missed that silver and white wolf, now she had to be carried like a child in Tok’s arms. Well, that or walk and that wasn’t happening.

Closing her eyes, she popped back into her void space. The big gargoyle was still there, standing like a statue in a museum. She wanted to bring him out, but he was so damned expensive. Sinking deeper into her mind she looked at her cores. They were still there, spinning away. The trick Vice had taught her about making a small chunk of her mind do it was pretty neat.

That got her thinking, could she put the sad parts of her mind to work on something too? Maybe then, she could actually focus on what was going on instead of dwelling constantly. She managed back home by getting drunk or something worse. When her head was all foggy, she couldn’t think straight enough to worry about her problems, that wasn’t an option here though.

Even if it was, she didn’t think she would do it now. Not after realizing what her last bender had cost Grace and Stomper. If she had known that the little green people weren’t just background trash to step on…but no, it was to late. A tiny part of her mind was relieved though. Stomper was dead, so he couldn’t tell Vice that it had been her who did the goblin town anymore. She felt relief at the thought, and hated herself even more for feeling that way.

When the golden chicken called out a warning, she was so happy she almost clapped. Another group of things she could kill, without feeling bad about it later. That would liven up this boring ass trip, so far there hadn’t been much to do but think.

Slipping down from Tok’s arms, she pulled out her essence pistol and instructed Tok to grab out a few javelins. Whatever it was, she was going to kill it faster than it could react.

“What is it?” she heard Vice asking the chicken. Drumstick, how in the hell did the hentai guy think that Drumstick was a suitable name for a chicken. Whatever, when this was over maybe she would ask Vice to teach her how to absorb patterns, she kind of wanted to keep the little dude.

“I Believe, Lord Benjamin.” The little dude started, referring to Benjamin as ‘lord’ again. she really needed to ask him about that, why did he get all the good shit? She did just as much work as he did last time. “…they are quite dangerous I’m afraid. I suggest you use extreme caution when they arrive.” Damn, she had missed what the golden bird was saying. Ah well, what’s the worst that could happen.

First sign of movement she saw, she lit it up with her essence gun. Tok beside her threw his javelin, impaling the shadowy form. It squealed, and she giggled. Thankfully, it wasn’t the only one. She could see more forms moving in the shadows, where the overhead lights had burned out. from behind her, she heard Vice groan.

“Not again”

* * *

Benjamin Vryce

They had been traveling for hours, and he was lost in his thoughts. The image of Grace’s sleeping face wouldn’t leave his mind. He couldn’t help but flash over to his newest creation, Nyx. She was safely nestled away in his void space, waiting to be called. So much of her had been influenced by his memories of Grace. It scared him, not knowing what that meant for her personality.

He glanced at Jade, who was lost in her own thoughts as well it seemed. He really needed to talk to her, he hadn’t been paying that close attention to her lately. He knew he wasn’t being fair to her, but he just couldn’t deal right now. Nearly everything in this new universe wanted to kill him. The only way to make friends around here it seemed, was to murder someone and bring them back under his control. It felt creepy honestly.

“Lord Benjamin, there is a problem.” Drumstick said, from his place at the lead of the party.

“Oh?” he asked, only now tuning back into his surroundings. He needed to stop doing that, Ice was watching, but still.

“I believe, lord Benjamin that we have stumbled upon some of lord Shipwright’s earlier creations. My data indicates they were gifted to him by the Erlking for services rendered, not knowing what to do with them, lord Shipwright brought them here and attempted to mechanize them. The process didn’t go as planned; the procedures had an adverse effect on the subject’s mental processes, and they are quite dangerous I’m afraid. I suggest using extreme caution when they arrive.”

Well, at least he had some notice. It didn’t surprise him that there were older projects around here, the station looked really run down the last few miles. The lights had been flickering and there was mold growing on the walls. The smell had changed as well. It didn’t smell like an auto body shop anymore, instead it gave him the feeling of an old basement, musty and full of mold.

He could see movement ahead in the shadows, his and Jade’s eyes had been enhanced with essence. They could see in near pitch blackness, but when there was light and shadow present, it was harder to adjust. He had just picked out the silhouettes of humanoid forms in the shadows, when Jade launched her attack.

The essence bolts lit up the darkness as they impacted, making enough light for Tok to throw his javelin. There was light enough now for Benjamin to see as well, there were what looked like lizardmen in there. Covered with different mechanical implants, none of the ones he could see looked the same as any of the others. when Jade’s attack landed, they stopped hiding and started to charge.

“Not again,” he said with a sigh, looking over at Jade. This wasn’t the first time she had forced them into combat because she had attacked early. He shrugged it off as he dismounted Ice. Nothing to be done about it now.

When they entered the lights, Benjamin was able to see them clearly, they were indeed lizard men that had been riddled with cyborg style implants, and they couldn’t have stood any taller than a goblin. Four feet, four and a half feet for some of those who had greater leg modifications. Not lizardmen then, they were kobolds. Kobold cyborgs, and there were hundreds of them.

“Alright ladies and ogres,” he shouted over the clatter of feet and the whir of mechanical limbs. “Looks like we get to do a little dancing to break up the boredom after all.”

“Hellz to the Yea,” Jade replied with a fist pump. “I was getting so bored you have no idea.” She continued activating her force shield, and bringing her essence pistol up. Tok had already thrown another few javelins as the horde came on.

Benjamin shook his head at her, he wanted to be exasperated, but again if he was to be honest with himself, he wanted to fight again too. He flexed his fingers in anticipation, and heard Ice growling beside him. Her hackles had risen and her teeth were exposed, the she wolf looked as ready as the humans to do battle.

When the wave hit, Benjamin was bowled over backwards. The force that the little bodies contained came as a shock to him. He didn’t know if it was the numbers or the implants, but these guys were extremely strong. He took several deep gashes to his arms and face, before he was able to steady himself and retaliate.

The little guys were a mix match of body parts and strange melded limbs. tentacles were prevalent; sometimes replacing arms or legs, sometimes in addition to them. they came tipped with clawed hands, knife blades, saws, antenna and even camera lenses. It was chaos, some of them even had metal plates riveted into their flesh for armor.

Benjamin’s claws were being deflected as often as they were connecting. Individually, the kobolds weren’t any stronger than he was, but there were so many of them. he couldn’t focus on any one long enough to get in a killing blow. After an endless struggle, he summoned King’s Blade from his void space. The blue scythe blade was pitted and scarred, but it was long and sharp.

With a two-handed swing, he separated the head from the nearest kobold. It didn’t go down though, the damn thing just kept right on coming. Benjamin stared at it in shock, noticing only now the wires that still connected the head to the rest of the body. Was it so far removed from life that it could function with just those? With another swing, he severed the wires and the body dropped. Only to be replaced by two more.

He looked over the attacker’s shorter heads, trying to take in how his companions were doing. Ice was like a wrecking ball, bowling the little beasts down and biting them apart. She was being sliced to pieces though, one small cut at a time. Jade hadn’t been able to withstand the tide, she knelt behind Tok, force shield keeping the kobolds back while he laid into them with his fists.

The scene reminded Benjamin of how he had first met Jade, surrounded by swarming rats and being slowly torn apart by sheer numbers. He had still had more summons back then, and the rats hadn’t been armed and armored. Another slash from King’s Blade took several grasping tentacles off an attacking kobold.

They weren’t going to make it like this, they needed more help. With desperation, he looked over to Jade and called out.

“Jade, we need the gargoyle.” He watched her expression as she heard him, her already pale face whitened further and she shook her head.

He tried again to convince her, but again she refused to listen. He understood her reluctance, it was similar to why he was pushing her to summon the gargoyle instead of calling out Nyx. She wasn’t going to budge however; he could see that now. She would do it eventually, she wouldn’t have a choice but she wasn’t ready yet.

Taking a deep steadying breath, Benjamin realized what he would have to do. Reaching into himself, he poured his dual essences into Nyx’s connection line and called her. It was the first time he had manifested the demon, goblin hybrid and it shocked him just how much essence she was demanding of him. The combined essence of chaos and creation was draining away rapidly.

That could be part of the reason Jade had refused him, he thought. If summoning the gargoyle cost this much essence, then she might not be able to maintain her shield if she called it out. that was an idle thought for later however, because he had invested enough essence into Nyx. He shoved a pair of kobolds aside to make room for her to appear and called her into reality.