It was all Eric could do not to gag, nauseous with unexpected pain from his ripped-open cheek, certain his jaw had been broken. He froze, not daring to move when he felt the expertly held stiletto pressing against the back of his neck just enough to cut, as he heard Drake and Louie cry out, catching sight of a giant bear of a man sending them both crumpling with a pair of punches to their gut after casually gripping, and destroying, the hafts of their weapons, as if they were no more than twigs.

“We’re strong enough to knock you fools out with a single hit, and fast enough to cut your throats before you can even blink an eye,” declared the man who even now held Eric’s life in his hands, smiling viciously as he twisted his knife just enough to rip open Eric’s throat… yet shallow enough to be taken as a warning alone, even as he fought against the need to spit up the hot tang of blood coursing down his throat.

Eric found himself on his knees, heart hammering with terror, never having felt so utterly humiliated and mastered as he did at that moment when he was contemptuously forced to the ground, dagger shifting in the blink of an eye as his aggressor slammed knees into the back of his spine.

“Assume the position, motherfucker, and don’t even pretend a convict like you doesn’t know exactly what I mean!”

Eric had seen enough movies to know he was expected to spread his arms and legs flat on the ground, so he had no leverage to do anything as his arms were abruptly yanked back, wrists and ankles cuffed and tightened to the point he was hogtied before he could even fully register what had just happened.

“Back off, motherfuck—“ Drake’s sharp yell broke off in an awful groan.

“Don’t fight em, Drake!” Louie cried out. “This ain’t the cops! Bounty hunters’ll kill ya and call it self-defense!”

Desperate words that earned a whisky-roughened chuckle. “I see you boys have danced this dance before. Good. It will keep things simple. You can call me Lions. As far as you escaped conscriptees are concerned, I am your sun and moon. Your day starts at my pleasure, and ends when I say you drop. You backtalk? I break bones. You commit insubordination? I will punish you at my pleasure, up to and including death. Understand, Conscripts?”

Eric’s gut quailed when he heard the snap of locks echo through the narrow brick-lined corridor, and felt the cold weight of iron now fastened entirely around his neck.

“Nelly?”

And with that one word Eric’s world became one of agonized confusion, his body twitching uncontrollably as electric current tore through his body. Long endless moments, and Eric was certain he heard a few choked off cries but couldn’t be sure as he came to himself with a gasp.

He couldn’t quite hold back his groan, his shoulders strained beyond endurance thanks to the hogtying he had suffered, too dazed even to react when rough hands stripped him of sword belt, bardiche, backpack, and everything else he had been carrying, his helmet also forced off with zero concern for his shattered jaw. Save for his body armor, he was now apparently weaponless and bound.

“The kid’s secure, Lyons,” said the lean, stubbled hunter, smirking down at Eric as he resheathed his wicked-looking dagger, complemented by what looked like a 1796 cavalry saber, much like Morlekai and Alice's own, on his left hip. “Fool even had a crossbow in his backpack. It looks like Stibb’s info was spot-on.”

“Good,” said the giant of a man. “These two idiots won’t be causing trouble any time soon. All of them were equipped as our intel noted, though I fail to see any crimson raven or crow.” He glared, but shook his head. “You ready to secure all their gear, Nelly?”

“Give me a minute, Lyons. You know this shit gives me a headache.”

“Protocol!” the man snapped, before glaring Eric and the other’s way.

Eric, for his part, just groaned, bleary eyes catching sight of his friends in broken heaps, save for a trembling Alice, shivering with terror and gazing at the world with wide frightened baby blues through her thick auburn locks. Eric did note that she was secured only with cuffs, but flinched so bad when any of the three bounty hunters looked at her, Nelly with a glare, the two men with hungry sneers, that she seemed no more threatening than a freshman highschool girl who had fallen in with a dangerous crowd, and now regretted cutting classes and just wanted to go home to her parents.

And that she could convey so much with a single terrified glance told Eric all he needed to know.

Whatever the play, she was ready.

Even if the only play reasonable against these monsters was trying not to die.

Eric did note how Nelly was spending long moments in concentration before she shuddered with a gasp, and Alex’s eyes widened to see an actual steel cage on a cart frame manifest before them.

The sandy-haired woman who had the tightly corded body and hard, no-nonsense gaze of a soldier or merc, met Eric's glance with a glare. He quickly lowered his gaze.

“You a spell caster, scar-face?” she said, tapping the hilt of her sheathed wand, Eric noting that now Alice’s wand was also secured at the opposite hip in a second gun-like holster. “You have any wands or other arcane tricks I should know about?”

Eric flushed and shook his head. “No wands, and I’ve never cast any arcane spells at all.”

He cried out, crumpling to the ground when a fist slammed into his ear.

“That’s Lieutenant Nelly to you, asshole!” The knife-wielding rogue hissed.

Nelly smiled coldly as Eric groaned, before bending over, gazing at Eric with a bemused smirk as she lit up a smoke with a flicker of flame from her fingertip, before putting that very finger against his temple.

Eric felt a cold sliver of dread at her touch.

“What’s your name, kid?”

“Eric Silver, Lieutenant Nelly,” he whispered.

“You commit any crimes, Eric Silver?”

“Not before the world went to shit, Lieutenant Nelly.”

She chuckled softly, taking a deep, thoughtful drag. “Yeah, it did. Didn’t it?” She got up, exhaled a cloud of blue smoke and flicked the butt at a crumpled, still groaning Drake.

“Is he lying?” the smaller, jittery man asked, flashing Eric a contemptuous sneer from his ugly mug.

She shrugged. “Probably, Ferret. But who gives a fuck? He’s collared, he’s working with known criminals, and not only is he a pod survivor, he’s actually working on infusing his core.” She flashed a cold smile. “He’s already saturated to at least 20%. I could tell that much, just by touching him. How many people you know who can do that?”

Ferret shook his head, glaring at Eric. “Bastard. That means he’ll be able to get an Advanced class! We didn’t even get the chance to evolve to our Standard officer classes until we hit level 15!”

She nodded. “Exactly. So Eric Scarface Silver is the bonus that makes this bullshit mission worth it.”

“Damn well better be," Ferret grumbled, before stealing a look Alice's way. "We're not putting her in the cage, are we?"

Lyons snorted. “From what Stibbs told us, she was this crew’s femme fatale and worked as a high-priced escort when the boys were serving time.”

Eric winced at that as Alice lowered her head, flushing with shame.

Ferret frowned. “She a trained assassin or something?”

“Nope, she just seduced targets and got access to secured systems and databases. Sure as hell doesn't look twenty five, though, does she?"

“Looks like a ripe little peach to me,” said Ferret with a hungry smile.

Alice’s eyes widened. She bit her lip and looked away.

Nelly snorted. “You really wanna stick your dick in that? God knows where she’s been.”

“Does it matter? We’re all clean. Diseases are a thing of the past, right?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Lyon’s snapped. “She’s an adventurer like the rest. You saw her wand.”

“I see a wand Nelly is now keeping awfully close to her hip,” said Ferret with a knowing smile. “You find a new toy you like, Lieutenant?”

Surprisingly, this earned a short sharp bark of laughter from Nelly. “You’re damn right I like it. Lightning to go with my ice bolt. And this bitch won’t be needing it, with how she’ll soon be serving her country.” She turned and glared at Eric. “You. Get in your cage, and no lip.”

And before Eric could even nod, he lurched with a cry when Ferret slammed his ear and kicked out the back of his knees before grabbing him and tossing him in. Eric was chilled by just how capable the rat-faced man was. His Strength was certainly higher than Eric’s. And his Quickness? Didn’t even bear thinking about.

“Ferret...”

“What? I’m just keeping the little shit honest. Now he knows his place. Don’t you, little shit?”

Eric just glared at him from behind the thick steel bars of the wagon.

Before crying out with surprise when powerful wiry arms grabbed him by the hair and slammed his face into the bars, repeatedly.

"When I say, don't you know your place, little shit? You say 'yes, Master Ferret, I know my place. I'm a good little shit!'"

The sadistic glint in the man’s eye turned to disdain when Eric began to froth and spasm.

Acting skillcheck: Success!

“If you kill him, the share’s coming out of your cut, Ferret,” Lyon’s warned as he effortlessly grabbed Drake and Lyons, tossing them both in like sacks of grain, shoving a still-spasming Eric aside.

The man snorted and spat before grabbing Morlekai by his locks of silky hair and frogmarching him into the padlocked and barred wagon as well, then slamming and locking the steel cage door, secrets revealed to Eric by sound alone.

But it was only when Lyon’s said, “let’s get going,” and their transportation began moving, that Eric dared crack open an eye, getting a sense of their predicament as best he could, while still playing the collapsed, unconscious victim.

Overall, it didn’t look good.

He and his friends, who had thought themselves such masters of these tunnels and the strongest survivors of Junk Town, had been caught, trussed, and caged like they were less than nothing by players that were clearly a far higher level, or just far more gifted than they. Thanks to a treacherous backstabbing bastard of a mayor who had clearly been playing them all from the very start. Worse, they were all secured by chain wrist and ankle cuffs secured behind their backs, and thrown into a steel cage with bars an absurd inch thick.

As if designed for securely imprisoning adventurers with a bull's strength. Not zero level conscripts at all.

In addition to steel helms painted matte black and shaped very much like military half-helmets everywhere, their captors were all dressed in dark fabrics with a form fitting mesh of chain mail underneath. Nelly and Ferret were wearing some form of kevlar jacket with steel plate inserts, while Lyons wore with effortless grace a thick steel cuirass. All of them had short gladius-like blades at their hips, probably regulation, in addition to the wands worn by Nelly and the knives and saber worn by Ferret.

In addition to his gladius, Lyons had what looked to be a thick steel rod secured to a sheath on his back, and Eric had no doubt that with that man's Strength, that steel rod could hit with enough force to crumple even a tank gun. It wasn't edged, probably because a typical steel blade would crumple under the power of that man’s swings.

A guess which proved to be chillingly prescient when the bounty hunters were ambushed by one of the massive lizards that had nearly consumed an entire caravan of refugees, just a handful of weeks ago.

In the blink of an eye, Ferret was racing forward to tear through the tendons of the monster’s limbs so fast it chilled Eric to see, while Nelly drew her wand with expert ease and roared “Glacie Pilum!” as a massive spear of ice tore through the air to blast right through the surprised lizard’s chest.

But before it could even finish falling to the ground, its head exploded into bone shrapnel and mist, with one swing of Lyon’s wicked steel rod.

“Damn, Lyon, was that necessary?” snorted Ferret.

Lyons grinned. “And out it went like a light, before it could even say goodnight!” The man laughed. “Couldn’t let you have all the experience and fun.”

“Kill-stealing bastard,” Ferret grumbled, wiping off the bit of spatter that had caught him.

“What was that, Ferret?”

“Nothing, Captain.”

“Good.”

Yet as terrifying as the display of speed and power had been, Eric felt just the tiniest sliver of hope.

Because as impossibly fast as Ferret was, made all the deadlier thanks to whatever cloaking skills had allowed him to ambush Eric, he hadn’t been fast enough to avoid being caught by Lyon’s gore spattering. Which meant that he was speed absurd, but not speed you’re dead in the blink of an eye.

Sure as hell, he was faster than Eric.

But clearly not faster than the speed of sound, and perhaps not as fast on the uptake as his fellows, in any case.

Because all he did was smirk and nod as if it was his due, when Alice gasped and said “Here, let me clean you up, Officer Ferret,” quickly wiping away the spatter with a rag she had pulled out of nowhere, looking a smirking Ferret right in the eye when her pink tongue dipped out to lick her rag before she dabbed away at a trace of gore in his stubble, then giving a satisfied smile.

“There, you’re good as new.”

“Trying to kiss up to the new masters of your world already, girl?” Nelly snorted. “You sure must have a lot of experience spreading those legs, don’t you?”

Louie tensed and inhaled, Eric could tell, even though the four of them were cramped so tightly in back that they could barely move. So too, he could all but sense Morlekai's cold glare, as if he was marking the trio with magics far darker than any elemental spell.

Especially when all Alice did was sigh and flash a guilty smile. “You got me, Officer Nelly. I’m a bit of a naughty girl, and this isn’t the first time I’ve worn a collar. But I know you all are just doing your job, and you’ve certainly put my partners in their place. Yet seeing as how I’m out here, and they’re in there… Maybe it isn’t too late for me to make a fresh start?”

Nelly barked a cold laugh. “We put your boys in chains, girl. You do know that the judge in Newport is going to make you all take the oath to serve your country, come hell or high water, right?”

Alice dipped her head. “Of course.” Intent eyes locked with Nelly’s own. “But there’s service, and then there’s… service.”

“Ha!” Nelly snorted. “I’ll bet you don’t even care that they’ll be making you serve the next twenty years on your back, right? At least being the cute little peach that you are, you won’t be forced to serve on the front lines. That is, if you pay your cards right.”

Alice’s smile grew. “Cute little peach, am I? Do you like what you see, Officer Nelly? And for your information, the happiest moments of my life were spent on my back, with plenty of rope, and a collar even thicker than this one. And I’ve always adored officers in uniform. Especially the women. They work twice as hard as the men, and need someone who knows how to help them… relax.”

Nelly flashed an almost predatory grin. “Careful, Alice. Or I might just decide that I like you after all.”

Alice bit her lip and winked. “I’ll be a good girl, Officer Nelly. I promise.”

Other things were said then, but Eric was no longer paying attention as Nelly’s voice grew huskier and the men began to laugh, taking advantage of the brief, precious moments of distraction.

Because even if he despaired at the thought of claiming the half ton of steel being used to secure and transport them, a single thick steel collar was another matter entirely. It was only his fear that somehow they would sense it. Somehow, he was certain the mage among their group would know if he removed it.

So he didn’t.

He left his steel collar intact and in place, just as he did the three steel collars of his friends, and the reinforced cuffs binding their hands and feet.

Artifacts that were now bound to him for all time.

You have successfully soul-bound 20 artifacts of steel, right under the noses of foes that could effortlessly kill you!

Eric was relieved that it had only cost a fraction of the potency he had earned from the giant rats, and hardly took up any of his Soul Reserves at all. And even if there was now the slightest amber tinge to the steel, one could hardly tell the difference in the dim flickering light of the pair of bobbing lights floating above their group as they continued winding their way down a corridor that had transformed itself to hard basalt stone, no more branches or side passages anywhere in sight, though the bounty hunters made their way confidently enough.

As long as there was room for the wagon, they paid the terrain little heed.

“You wanna stop now, Lyon? I think maybe we need a little… break." said a desperate-sounding Ferret.

Nelly laughed, at that moment sharing a cigarette with a grinning Alice. “Why, Ferret? Seeing a couple girls make out got your nickers in a twist?”

The rat-faced man swallowed. “Um… yeah, maybe?”

Nelly flashed an evil smile as she jerked the collar around Alice’s neck then, the succubus arching her back with a smile when Nelly gave her a hard kiss.

“Thank you, mistress,” Alice whispered.

Nelly grinned. “Can you believe this boy? He actually thinks I’ll share you.”

Alice gave a sultry chuckle. “I’ve been a very bad girl, mistress. I’m afraid I’ll need lots of discipline before I’m fully reformed.”

Lyon’s gaze hardened. “Time.”

"What time?" Nelly snorted. "We're the CSA's top bounty hunters, and those fuckers don't put time limits on our operations. They said their mole can secure the higher-ups a fortune in gold in return for a cut, once he gets his house in order? They call us. We take out his trash on our schedule, not his. And if those bastards are actually going to give that little weasel a 20% cut, they damn well better be giving us an equal share!”

“We already discussed this, Nelly!” Lyons growled. “We keep the orcs off the safe-crackers, we get our 10%. If Stibbs was right about how much is stored at that black book reserve, it’s almost as much as at the New York branch, and that was taken over by a fucking dragon!”

“So why the fuck aren’t we getting 20%?” Nelly snapped, while Eric was hard at work on the padlock of the wagon.

Lyons gave an exasperated shake of his head. “Damn it, Nelly, if these fools weren’t in a cage… Fine! I don’t give a fuck how much you grumble, so long as it’s just between us. And if you want to have a tumble with this piece of eye candy, feel fucking free. But you keep your shit between us! We’re not gods, and we’re not stupid. Our commander built us up because we have potential, but even at level 30, a regiment could still take us out, if we’re actually stupid enough to question the higher-ups. We just do what we’re told, same as everyone else.”

Lyons snorted and shook his head. “And there’s a reason why I talk to the colonel. Frankly, it took me cashing in on a shit-ton of favors owed, for him to agree to even a ten percent cut! Taking out a few orcs should be child's play, so long as we avoid their shaman and chief. And you should be thrilled and kissing my charismatic ass for the next fucking century, Nelly, because completing this mission will secure us all a fortune you can't even fucking conceive!"

Alice stole a quick glance back, amber eyes catching Eric’s for just a second before sultry lashes fluttered Nelly’s way. “Are these boys stressing you, Mistress?”

Nelly snorted. “You’re damn right they are. Come on, Moppet. Let’s get some privacy, on the other side of your boyfriend’s cage.”

Alice sighed. “Very former, very ex boyfriend who never told me about any fortune, and was probably going to leave me high and dry. He was such a softy, he wouldn’t even spank me! At least with you, I get to feel the pleasure of...service.”

This earned a dry chuckle as the pair of girls passed the wagon, Eric’s heart now beating a mile a minute as the pair of mage lights Nelly has been using to light the way, much like Alice’s own, was pushed further down the hallway to where the pair of guys were kicking back, Lyons actually reading a book while Ferret was gazing the girl’s way with dilated eyes, even though Eric suspected he couldn’t see a thing with the floating lights deliberately placed near his eyes.

“Trust me, you’ll never have to worry about him again, moppet. Now get on your knees the way you know you want to, and worship me the way you know you must.”

“With pleasure, Mistress,” Alice said from her knees with a throaty chuckle, and if Nelly had had any doubts about Alice’s sincere desire to service her before, they were neatly dispelled by her sub’s passionate enthusiasm as Nelly’s breath hitched, and she shuddered with pleasure.

“You’re a good little slave, aren’t you, moppet?”

But Alice’s only response was to do what she was doing so skillfully that Nelly’s back arched and she cried out.

And a split second later, after her hair fluttered with a sudden shift in pressure and the stone corridor flared with an unexpected light… Nelly made no sound at all.