“What’s the plan boss?” asked Sam.

Jen replied, “We’re heading south towards Bingo City. The trip should take about two weeks. Bingo City is kind of small, but as soon as we arrive there, we’re going to The Shop and teleporting to Dominoes Hill. Dominoes is about the same size as Bot City, but some sort of quest is kicking off there drawing lots of guild fighters and noble clans. With so many people travelling there right now, we should blend in easily. Everyone ready?”

At Tamako’s and Sam’s nod, Jen led the way to Bot City’s southern gate, and they all powered up their forgetmenot charms. An hour later, they were out of Bot City and completely unaware of the pressure cooker that was about to go off.

****

Hat Trick hated being on guard duty at night, but as he looked over at the slaves in the cages, he shuttered with fear as he thought, “Thank the Seven Decks I’m not a slave anymore.”

Trifecta noticed Hat Trick’s expression even in the low light of the moon, as she too looked towards the slaves and then gave him an understanding nod, and said, “Try not to think about it. We’re part of the Billiard’s now. As long as we keep doing what Eight-Ball says... at least we won’t ever be in cages again.”

Hat Trick looked into Trifecta’s eyes and said to her, “Yea, but we killed their family and friends, and helped put them in those cages.”

Trifecta broke eye contact and looked towards their bandit camp, and replied hopelessly, “What do you suggest we do? Disobey Eight-Ball? Try to run away? I’ll take any reasonable chance to get out of here alive.”

Hat Trick and Trifecta had witnessed what happened to anyone that tried to leave the gang or disobey Eight-Ball. Hat Trick snorted as he mentally declined The System Gambling Quest that popped up offering him 50 gold and 10 utility points if he ran away from the Billiards gang within the next 30 minutes. He didn’t even bother reading the entire quest as he internally snarled at the rewards offered, and then he replied to Trifecta in frustration, “Of course not! I just wish we didn’t have to pull guard duty. It sickens me to stand by watching the others come to take turns with the slaves. We both know how it feels to be sitting there in those cages waiting for the next nightmare!”

Trifecta's eyes watered at Hat Trick’s words, but she hardened her heart, shrugged at Hat Trick and without saying another word, walked off to the far side of the clearing, now standing between the cages and the forest to finish her guard shift, but she wasn’t planning on finishing her guard shift. Unknown to her or Hat Trick, they’d both received the same Gambling Quest. However, Trifecta accepted the quest. She read the quest carefully, and it said: “Chances of death 5%.” With only a 5% chance of death before completion, she figured/hoped all she had to do was run away, and the quest would be complete. The Gambling Quest didn’t say how far away she had to run, so as soon as she was outside of camp a certain distance, The System should give her a notice the quest was complete, she hoped. Then she planned to dump all the points into her agility. She prayed the System wouldn’t wait too long before awarding her the stat points. Without them, Eight-Ball was faster than her, and would surely catch her. Of course, her chances of death from getting killed from beasts in the forest, or from a multitude of other hazards before she made it to a safe town were probably much higher, but she was willing to take that gamble over staying with the Billiards any longer.

*****

Flush sat in her cage leaned up against the bars with her eyes closed. Her spirit, mind, and body had been shattered at the abuse from the bandits. She apparently was one of their "favorites". Flush’s eyes barely opened when her cage was rattled. She closed them after she saw it was the young girl Trifecta bringing her food. Flush sighed with a little relief. Trifecta hadn’t abused her yet, but Flush hated her and all the bandits for what they had done to her family and the caravan.

Flush’s mind replayed the attack over and over. She wished she'd been killed in the attack. In the last town, they were warned about the small group of about 15 bandits, and Flush had argued they should take a different route. The Caravan Guide had only laughed at the reports that the infamous gang leader, Eight-Ball, couldn’t be killed.

It turned out, the Billiard’s gang only had 12 members, and their caravan scouts had even spotted them ahead on the road, but their caravan had more than 100 people with 30 fighters between levels 15 and 25. The Caravan Guide had sarcastically reassured everyone, “There’s nothing to worry about, with such a small gang, even this "infamous and unkillable" Eight Ball wouldn't think about attacking us.”

Flush seethed in fury and heartbreak as she remembered the crossbow bolts, arrows, and swords just bouncing off of Eight-Balls freakish head and body. He tore through all of the caravan’s fighters, as the rest of his gang mopped up behind him, killing the injured, week, and defenseless. Flush squeezed her eyes closed even tighter, trying to shut off the memory of her husband and daughter being slaughtered as they tried to turn over their goods while also begging for mercy.

**********

Sam settled into position as he double-checked his cover and concealment, his line of sight, and everyone else’s position on his onboard battle map. Jen’s AI app was next level. He could see everyone’s position, and he could also see the location of every one of the gang members based upon not only what he observed, but also on what Tamako and Jen observed. Jen manually placed markers on their shared mental battle map for anything Slim told her about or anything she found with her little mind-controlled scouting bird. Jen and Slim worked together a few hours every night trying to build him an AI, but they just hadn’t finished mapping his neural and physical connections, so he wasn’t linked to the AI “net” yet.

Sam pulled out his wooden “rifle,” and locked his ballista bolt ring into its’ sighting mechanism. He then placed the cross hairs on Eight-Ball’s giant head and mentally placed a green check mark on their battle map showing his "ready and waiting" status to the others. Sam was hoping the power of his ballista bolts against Eight-Ball’s head would be enough. He couldn’t imagine it being harder than the city walls his ballista was built to siege against, but with Eight-Ball’s head and body being so round, he was afraid it might deflect off with even a partial dodge by Eight-Ball. However, the caravan guard they found half dead on the trail a few days back had warned them Eight-Ball’s body was impervious to any damage, so… maybe even a straight on strike wouldn’t do it. After the guard refused to lead them back to exactly where their caravan was ambushed, Sam didn't want to provide any help to the coward. He and Tamako wanted to strip the guy and leave him on the road naked to finish the walk back to the town after Jen confirmed the guard had lied about trying to help others escape with him, but it was no surprise to either of them when Jen shot down the idea.

Sam could see in the corner of his vision Jen’s movements, as she moved through the dark camp slicing the throats of several of the bandits, and when she had killed as many as possible or she was discovered, the plan was for her to send the signal for him to fire.

Sam was waiting for Jen’s signal, when his AI suddenly popped up a small picture in picture in the corner of his vision showing someone running out of the camp. It looked like they were trying to be as quiet as possible while running full speed…so not really quiet. Before any of the bandits in the camp could react to the runner, instead of a firing countdown from Jen, his AI flashed the message “Fire!”

With no recoil and no sound, the ballista bolt shot towards Eight-Ball’s round pool-ball shaped head, and a millisecond later, another one was flying center mass towards Eight-Balls round pool-ball shaped torso. Eight-Ball was not looking in Sam’s direction when he fired, and the ballista bolt struck the back of his head dead center, but the bolt didn’t penetrate his head, and it ricocheted upward as Eight-Ball’s head and body were falling forward and down to the ground. Sam’s second bolt that was aimed lower, instead of hitting Eight-Ball in the torso, it smashed into Eight-Ball right where his weird cylinder of a neck attached to his pool-ball of a head. Without waiting to see exactly what happened to Eight-Ball, Sam rolled to the side, and while staying alert to dodge anything that might come his way, he took aim and fired a regular cross bolt through the head of the only remaining guard near the slaves. His AI informed him that the other guard was no longer there, and it was that guard, that had ran off through the woods.

Jen cursed inwardly when she heard the guard running away in the woods. She had already killed 3 of the guards slicing their throats and decapitating them, and she was certain she could have killed 2 others that were asleep in their bedrolls just 10 steps away before getting noticed. Jen shrugged as she mentally ordered Sam to fire, while she quietly ran towards the other two drawing her swords.

“What the hell!” screamed a bandit that watched two giant ballista bolts come out of nowhere and tear Eight-Ball’s head right off his body.

The guards that were now at Jen’s feet barely moved from hearing the scream before Jen used her swords to take their heads off. Decapitation was gruesome, but it was usually one of the best ways to make sure someone stayed dead in the Seven Decks.

Jen’s AI kept her up to date on the body count. She’d killed 5, Sam had killed Eight-Ball and one more, for a total of 7…her AI updated a split second later as Tamako killed two more with her spear. The last two bandits were only slightly tougher and were giving Tamako a little fight, but that wasn’t the problem that Jen noticed.

Jen jumped between Tamako and the two guards taking their attention from her, and ordered, “Tamako smash Eight-Ball!”

Tamako was closest to Eight-Ball when Sam’s Ballista bolts struck. She’d seen the second bolt knock the man’s head completely off his body, and then when his head landed on the ground, it cracked in half where the first bolt had hit it.

Tamako responded to Jen’s order immediately, trusting that Jen could finish off the remaining two bandits by herself, and she knew Sam was providing overwatch in case they’d missed a bandit out in the woods taking a shit or something.

Tamako was surprised by what she was seeing, but not stunned into inaction. She dropped her spear and pulled a heavy war hammer from her storage ring. As she moved towards Slim and Eight-Ball’s head she stopped a second to grab Eight-Ball’s body by the foot. His headless body was slowly crawling and feeling around on the ground for his missing head. She heaved his foot with all her might and threw it across the bandit’s campsite, before continuing the few remaining steps to where Slim was standing next to Eight-Ball's head. She noticed that his head had partially fused back together. Tamako could tell that Slim was doing something that was stopping the head from fusing together more.

Slim messaged Tamako, “Don’t get near me. Stand on the far side and use your hammer to smash his head, while staying as far away from it as possible. If you get too close… it will be bad for you.”

Tamako nodded, and without replying gripped her war hammer on the very end of the shaft and smashed down on the pool-ball head. It was like smashing her hammer into a Deck-City wall.

“By the Seven Decks!” exclaimed Tamako.

“Again!” ordered Slim.

This time Eight-Ball’s head actually cracked a little more.

Jen then turned to help Tamako and Slim after finishing off the last two bandits without much trouble.

Slim messaged Jen, “It will take a few minutes, but Tamako can handle this. Go take care of the slaves pure-heart. They need you.”

It was 10 more swings of Tamako’s hammer, when on her eleventh swing her hammer strike didn't just crack the head further, but shattered it, turning it mostly to powder, and Tamako asked Slim, “What happened?”

Slim relaxed and replied, “The head is dead, and it will stay that way after we smash the rest of his body.”

Tamako asked, “How do you know that?”

Slim rolled his eyes, and said, “As a mana cat, I know all. Now let’s go finish killing his body, so I can gather my loot, and we can collect our experience!”

Tamako asked, “What level do you think he was, and how many experience points do you think we’ll get?”

Slim chuckled, “Who or what do you know that could take two hits from those ballista bolts, and still not be down for the count?”

Tamako just shrugged and shook her head in response to Slim’s question.

“Exactly! He was definitely over level 40, probably closer to level 50. Even with all four of us sharing the points, we’re probably each going to go up at least two levels!”

Tamako grinned as she picked up her pace, and said, “Well, let’s get to smashing!”

Slim and Tamako were panting in exhaustion a few hours later after having to wrestle down and tie up the headless body, and then hammer and hammer and hammer on the body until it was finally crushed into dust.

When the final toe was crumbled to dust, Tamako panted, "Look at this!" as she held up a bounty ticket she received from looting Eight-Ball.

Slim looked at the bounty and replied, "It will probably pay out a very large sum with all those cities and towns listed as payors!"

*******

Sam was doing everything he could think of not to make eye contact, or any type of contact with the young men and women that Jen set free. Of course, he understood why they still looked devastated, even after being freed. He wanted to do anything that would make them feel better, but he primarily felt rage and wished he could have skinned some of the bandits alive.

Tamako and Jen were healing the survivor’s injuries, and Jen was using her psych skill to help many of the survivors cope with, or completely forget some of the things that had been done to them, but only if they requested it. Sam understood he was the coward as he let Jen and Tamako handle the survivors’ situation. Unless Jen or Tamako asked him for something, he busied himself getting the remaining loot and equipment loaded on the wagons and hooking up the “oxen” as he called them.

They were going to take the survivors back north a few days to a small town called Fuzzy Dice, give them all the loot Slim didn’t take, and make them swear a gambling oath to keep everything about them secret. Then they’d turn back south and continue towards Bingo City.

When they were finally ready to leave, in private, Sam asked Jen, “Do you want me to take care of it?”

Jen shook her head and blinked in surprise at Sam, and replied, “God no! I’ve got this. We both know you don’t handle people well!”

Sam’s face turned red as he said, “Did Slim tell you what happened!”

Jen shook her head slightly in confusion, and asked, “What are you talking about? What do you think Slim told me?”

“Nothing! Nothing! Just forget I said anything!”

Jen chuckled at Sam, and said, “No, that's not the way it works Boomer. I’m going to find out whatever the heck it is you think Slim told me. Just not right now, because this can’t wait.”

*******

Trifecta had heard the sounds of a battle shortly after she’d started running away from Eight-Ball and the Billiards, but she didn’t need to turn around to know that Eight-Ball was about to kill the fools that dared to ambush him. She wanted to scream in joy when she received her gambling quest reward 20 yards later, but she kept quiet as she put all the ability points into agility, and started running at a much, much faster pace. Unfortunately, Trifecta’s stamina wasn’t high enough for her to run the rest of the night, but by the time she stopped, she was a quarter of the way to Fuzzy Dice. Trifecta hoped Eight-Ball would assume she was killed by whoever had attacked their camp, but just in case, she planned to purchase a spot on a caravan to the nearest Deck City, and then use the rest of her gold to teleport somewhere far away from Eight-Ball.

Trifecta awoke with a start. She didn’t realize how exhausted such a high agility stat would make her with her low stamina stat. She was terrified that Eight-Ball might be somewhere close. Sneaking wasn’t their gang’s…his gang’s “thing”, so she knew she would hear them if they got close. She decided she would move as slowly and quietly as possible and save her stamina for running away in case he found her.

Trifecta was travelling parallel to the trail that headed to Fuzzy Dice so she would not get lost, but her pace was painfully slow as she tried not to make any sounds. A few hours after the midday sun, she was surprised to hear a caravan coming from the north, the direction of Eight-Ball’s camp, and she thought to herself, “I guess Eight-Ball was too busy after the fight to bother with this caravan, but that’s not like him.” Trifecta was scared and confused about the caravan, but she knew the only thing for her to do was stay hidden as they passed by.

Trifecta was at a loss for words when she recognized several of the people in the caravan were Eight-Balls’ slaves. She knew from personal experience that Eight-Ball would never let them go, but she also knew that no one had ever beaten Eight-Ball. Trifecta wanted to know what happened, but she wasn’t stupid. She would simply never know what happened, and that was O.K. These people would kill her if they found her, and Eight-Ball would do worse than killing her if she went back to see what happened and got caught. No Trifecta was smarter than that. She would just wait until the caravan passed, and then continue to sneak towards Fuzzy Dice.

A few minutes after the caravan passed her location, Trifecta wet herself after feeling a blade press into her back. She knew what Eight-Ball was going to do to her, and she wouldn’t be fast enough to kill herself, or “maybe I am with my new agility stat” she thought to herself as she reached for her knife sheathed at her side.

Jen noticed the girl reaching for her knife and she smacked Trifecta’s hand hard with her blade, and said, “Don’t reach for your knife again! Now, slowly turn around and face me.”

Trifecta was confused when she heard Jen’s voice behind her, she’d expected it to be Eight-Ball. There was nothing else for her to do, so she raised her hands up away from her knife and slowly turned to face the woman. Trifecta dropped to her knees placing her hands out in front of her with her forehead pressed into the dirt, and begged, “Mistress, I meant no harm! I swear! I was only waiting for the caravan to pass! Please spare me! I will do anything!”

Jen’s bird had been following the bandit ever since she’d run from the campsite, and it was apparent to Jen the girl had been trying to escape from Eight-Ball. What Jen didn’t know was why she’d run from Eight-Ball, and she ordered, “Quiet!”

Trifecta immediately stopped talking, but Jen could still hear the whimpering sounds the girl was making into the dirt. The girl’s emotions were just bombarding Jen’s psych skill with emotions of every type, but mostly fear and despair, but fear and despair were not an excuse for what these bandits had done to those in the caravan. Jen waited a few moments for the girl’s whimpering to ease, and said, “Sit up and look at me.”

Trifecta raised her head looking up at Jen while still down on her knees. Trifecta took a closer look at Jen, but it didn’t help her much since all but Jen’s eyes were covered with a face mask. However, Trifecta could see the anger in Jen’s eyes, and she knew she didn’t have much time to figure out some story to keep herself alive.

Jen’s psych skill picked up Trifecta’s emotions as the girl started to control her fear and switched to scheming, and Jen said, “I’m going to ask you some questions. You give me truthful answers, or I will kill you. Understand?”

“Yes Mistress, I understand.”

“What is your name?”

“Trifecta, Mistress.” Jen’s psych skill confirmed her answer was (true).

“How old are you?”

“Mistress, I think I’m 19 or 20, I’m not sure exactly sure.” (true)

“Why did you run away from Eight-Ball’s camp?”

Trifecta was now sure this woman was part of the group that she heard fighting with Eight-Ball, and they clearly were taking the slaves back to Fuzzy Dice. Trifecta started crying a little bit in order to give herself some time to think of a good answer. She just didn’t understand why Eight-Ball had let them go… Trifecta thought to herself, “Maybe one of the caravan slaves was a hidden noble or something and these people were sent to pay a ransom.?” Trifecta, dried up her tears as she saw the woman’s patience disappear, and answered, “I didn’t want Eight-Ball to kill me.” (true)

“Why would he want to kill you?”

“Eventually he was going to figure out that I didn’t want to be in the gang, and then he would kill me for that. Plus, I received a gambling quest giving me extra ability points if I were to run away right then. I hoped if I put those points in agility, I would be able to outrun Eight-Ball when he came after me.” (true)

Jen was surprised by the timing of the girl’s gambling quest, she thought Sam and Tamako might find it interesting also. Actually, she knew Sam would just get more into his conspiracy theories about how The System was really controlling everything. Jen wasn’t so sure he was wrong either. Jen then forced herself to quit that train of thought, and refocused her psych skill on the girl. Jen could tell the girl didn’t tell the whole truth about what she was offered in her gambling quest, but Jen didn’t really care what gold or euphoria the girl might have also received, and asked her, “You’re a bandit, why shouldn’t I kill you right now?”

“Mistress, I heard the fighting as I ran away, and I know you must have watched Eight-Ball kill several of your fighters before you offered to pay enough ransom in some sort of gambling quest for him to let you go. Even though he will kill me when he finds me, if you kill one of his bandits, he will find and kill all of you for messing with his property. I’m not trying to threaten you with what I say, I just beg you to let me live and go free in exchange for the information.” (true) Trifecta paused for a second, and when Jen didn’t say anything right away, Trifecta then continued, “I just want to get as far away from here as possible and find some work on a farm where I don’t have to face killing and torture every day of my life.” (true)

Jen was surprised that the girl thought Eight-Ball was still alive, but decided not to tell her any different, and ordered, “Tell me why or how Eight-Ball can’t be hurt?”

“Potions from the System Shop. I don’t know which potions. He spends every copper he loots on buying the potions every chance he gets. We move from town-to-town looting caravans, other bandits, anyone, or anything, and we all live like dogs because every copper goes to buying his potions. He’s not invulnerable though, or maybe he his, but we do continue to move because he fears that if enough city leaders and guild leaders in a particular area get upset at him, they could interfere with his stealing and looting enough to slow down his purchase of potions.” (true)

“Is it the potions that causes his body to look so weird?”

“Yes, over time his body has been turning more perfectly round as he’s gotten stronger and more durable.” (true)

“I’m going to let you go, but I suggest you run far… far away, and keep a very low profile, because when I return to pay Eight-Ball the ransom, I’m going to tell him that I saw you on the way to Fuzzy Dice.”

Jen watched Trifecta’s face go pale with fear at her words, and then Jen said to her, “Go! Get out of here now!” and Jen watched as the young girl jumped to her feet and ran with all her speed through the forest in the general direction of Fuzzy Dice. Jen sent her little bird to follow the girl, and said to herself, “letting her live with the fear of Eight-Ball tracking her down someday, may not be enough punishment for what she’s done, but she’s clearly been a victim too. I pray she turns out O.K.”