Lucy

The outlaws attacking Clearvein were swarming toward the north side of the town. They were keeping their distance but we could still see them thanks to the chunks of emberlite we had scattered around earlier.

There seemed to be at least a dozen that were all riding on the backs of assorted crystal creatures, moving about erratically but occasionally coming close enough to fire off a few shots or crystal webbing.

It was a skillfully coordinated assault, none of them ever staying still long enough for someone to get a clean shot or land one of the explosive arrows Zari had prepared. For the time being it was a stalemate, but it was taking our full efforts just to keep the swarm at bay.

Sooner or later we would run out of ammunition and the spiders would be able to surge forward. If that wasn’t bad enough there were also a pair of crystal vultures that were repeatedly swooping down and knocking our gunners off the buildings.

Knowing our stalemate would soon turn into a losing battle I turned to Zari.

“What do we do? I’m ready to tear them up, but no way I can get anywhere close.” I waved my blastpick, annoyed.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t plan for these hit and run tactics.” Zari grunted, leaning out from behind the small wooden barricade we were positioned behind and firing off a pair of shots from her revolver.

Hitting such mobile targets was nearly impossible, but Zari and I both kept laying down covering fire the best we could anyway. Most Rooks knew how to handle firearms but didn’t excel at them and we were no exception.

The majority of our training went into practicing with our crystal weapons so we could effectively handle crystal creatures. Nobody had ever thought about the terrifying possibility of crystal creatures being used in combination with firearms.

“The vultures, I think I can at least take those out for us.” I nodded upwards as we watched the two birds circling.

They had outlaws riding them too, which likely had something to do with how they were taking out the highest threat targets in such a terrifyingly precise pattern. It turned out that when the crystal creatures of the Scorch acted with intelligence, there was little we could to do stop them.

“What do you have in mind?” Zari flawlessly snapped open the cylinder of her gun, emptying and reloading it in just a few seconds.

“They’re going after our archers first far as I can tell. Means they’ll probably head for the two we have on top of the general store next.”

It was partially a guess, albeit an educated one. I had been carefully watching them strike and the vultures had without fail been going after the members of the posse armed with explosives.

They didn’t always take them out successfully and had to retreat before people could get clean shots on them, but if I were to move fast enough I was confident I could catch them out.

“Go for it. We need to start turning the tide here.” Zari leaned out of cover and fired three times at an outlaw that had come a little too close for comfort.

He fell off the spider, crying out in pain and clutching his arm. The crystal creature he had been riding hissed in anger and charged straight at our barricade.

“Go now. This one is mine.” Zari drew her rapier and stood out from the barricade, brandishing it with a twirl and staring down the arachnid without fear.

I didn’t have time to watch her deal with the spider as I rushed to the general store, but I heard a panicked screech and risked a quick look back as I ran. The spider was spread out motionless in front of Zari, clearly dead from what must have been a single lethally precise thrust from her thin sword.

Crystal armour was as worthless as quartz when your opponent was skilled enough to land a perfect killing blow through the gaps. I was more than a little impressed, even if such precision wasn’t exactly my own style.

Sometimes things called for a scalpel and sometimes they called for a hammer. Taking down the two vultures definitely seemed like a job for the latter.

Confident that Zari could hold the outlaws and their creatures back without me I continued rushing for the general store. I didn’t bother with the ladder and instead used my blastpick to vault up onto a stack of barrels that I then kicked off to land heavily on the roof.

The pair of archers and Rook holding a rifle swung around in surprise as I arrived, but there was no time for me to greet them. I could just make out the dark shape of one of the two vultures diving down towards us.

“Get down, now!” I shouted as I raised my blastpick up high over my head.

To their credit, the startled trio did as I asked immediately, diving to the side as I launched myself up into the air and brought my weapon down towards the spot where the archers had been standing.

The huge and weighty weapon carved through the air and smashed down right onto the neck of the vulture as it finished diving down. The resounding crack of the impact was enough to make my bones shake, but I wasn’t done there.

I pulled the trigger on the shaft of the blastpick, detonating the shotgun shell with a violent explosion that forced the tip of the pick to shoot forwards, punching through the neck of the creature and severing its head.

The outlaw riding on the back screamed as he went flying off the vulture, landing off the side of the roof with a heavy thud. He’d be lucky to walk away with a few broken bones.

Over the side of the building I could already see a couple of townsfolk moving in to tie him up, so I kicked the corpse of the vulture down off the rooftop and looked up to the sky once more.

The second vulture was definitely up there somewhere, but I struggled to make it out. Goblins usually had better night vision than most races, but only being half didn’t do me any favours there.

I thought about it tactically. The outlaw riding that vulture had almost certainly seen me take out their friend. How would they respond?

It turned out that their response came a lot quicker than I thought. Before I could react a screeching vulture had slammed into me from behind and swept me off the rooftop.

I cried out in pain as I felt crystal talons pierce my armour and dig into my flesh. It took everything I had just to keep a hold of my blastpick as I was lifted up into the air.

Knowing I didn’t have long before the bird dropped me, I gritted my teeth and swung the blastpick back as hard as I could. Any kind of movement was immensely painful thanks to the razor sharp talons digging deep into me, but I knew that the sudden fall would hurt a lot more and take me out of the fight for good.

“Son of a…” I heard the outlaw riding the vulture start to swear as my pick came close to hitting them.

Unfortunately I couldn’t work up enough momentum for a backwards swing to do much more than annoy the creature and rider. I kept trying, and the rider kept swearing in annoyance until she finally took the bait and grabbed onto the shaft of the blastpick.

Jackpot.

As soon as I felt her grab for it, I doubled my efforts and yanked the blastpick down as hard as I could, sending the outlaw lurching forward. She let out a panicked cry and I braced myself as the vulture suddenly dropped downwards sharply.

The bird’s new flight path perfectly aligned it with the side of the Rook headquarters building, and it didn’t have nearly enough time to stop, swerve or slow down. Instead the crystal creature crashed right into the wooden wall, sending both the outlaw and myself flying off it.

I tried to adjust myself midair for the least painful landing possible, which wasn’t easy considering the large bloody gashes torn into my shoulder and side once again, but I at least managed to fall in a way that my armour took the worst of the impact.

The outlaw hadn’t been so lucky. She had fallen in a way that had left her right leg utterly broken. She was screaming out in pain even as the vulture dropped down from where it had crashed, turning its razor sharp wings and talons in her direction.

“P-please no!” The outlaw scrambled backwards across the starsand the best she could manage as the vulture advanced on her.

I saw then that she had lost her mask in the crash. It was on the ground broken in two several metres away from her.

Honestly? The thought of leaving her to the creature did cross my mind. It felt like a fitting end for someone trying to use the monsters for their own gain.

But I was a Rook. Our code was to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. I struggled back to my feet and hefted the blastpick up over my head with both arms, bringing it down in a way that allowed gravity to do most of the hard work for me.

The lethal point of my weapon cracked through the vulture’s armoured head just as it lunged forward for the outlaw. It let out a gurgling screech as it slumped over, stopped dead in its tracks.

I spared a quick look for the outlaw, but several townsfolk were already moving in now that the immediate threat had passed, tying them up and grabbing their gun before moving them away into one of the buildings.

I silently hoped that their injury wouldn’t be too bad as I checked over my own armour. The integrity was definitely compromised, thanks to those talons and the fall, but it could probably protect me from a few more hits.

My body was in pretty bad shape. One of those sharp claws had reopened my previous wound and I was bleeding pretty badly. My left shoulder had also been torn into and crushed by the vulture’s powerful grip.

Realistically I knew I should retreat from the battlefield. I had taken out two of the more dangerous crystal creatures and the outlaws riding them. My efforts had made a difference but I knew that if I stepped back and people died I would be partially to blame.

So long as I could still swing my blastpick I would keep fighting. I wouldn’t let the outlaws claim any more lives or cause any more suffering.

Zari had seemingly been doing a fantastic job at the barricade. As I cautiously made my way back over, having hastily bandaged my wounds the best I could, I saw that there were now three dead spiders and just as many downed outlaws around her. It actually gave me some semblance of hope.

The outlaws outnumbered us, sure, but we were the more skilled combatants. With the townsfolk fighting by our side we had enough firepower to keep them at bay and our remaining combat-ready Rooks could deal with any stupid enough to try rushing in.

We could actually win this fight. We could take down and capture all of the attacking outlaws and figure out what the hell was really going on.

Why they were after Kate. Why my friend had to die.

Answers wouldn’t bring him back, but they would give me a way to move on. Justice could be served, and if not I would at least find who I needed to take down next.

“Lucy? You sure you’re alright to keep fighting?” Zari winced at the sight of my armour as she stowed her rapier and retrieved her revolver once more.

In answer, I rested my blastpick against the wooden barricade and retrieved my own firearm from the armoured holster at my side.

Zari didn’t try to convince me further, simply nodding before leaning over the cover to take a few shots at the outlaws. She hurriedly moved to duck back down beside me as several shots whizzed over our heads, one denting Zari’s pristine armour and causing her to stumble from the impact.

“You alright?” I hurriedly caught the much larger Rook before she fell out of cover.

Bullets slammed into the barricade and splintered the wood for a few more seconds, then the firing slowed to a stop as the outlaws likely reloaded.

“Didn’t penetrate. Just surprised me.” Zari took a deep breath, narrowing her eyes. “It’s starting to worry me, though.”

“What is?”

“Why don’t they press the attack? They have the numbers and plenty of crystal creatures. If they wanted to overwhelm us they easily could. Why fight us at range like this? Why not use dynamite or a bigger creature to breach our defenses like before?”

“I don’t know, maybe they don’t have any left? The attack on their camp could have left them hurt pretty bad. I know I took out quite a few spiders and outlaws.”

“No. They wouldn’t attack unless they were sure they could get what they wanted. I don’t trust this at all.” Zari shook her head. “There should be a Rook guarding Kate’s room, but I want you to head there too. I have a feeling all this is just another distraction, meant to keep us busy.”

“You sure you can hold them here alone?” I took a second to flip open the chamber on top of my blastpick and load another shotgun shell into it.

“Should be alright, and if my theory is correct then they won’t try to push into town too far. They want us looking out, not in.”

“What do you want me to do if you’re right?”

“Take them down, and don’t get yourself killed doing it. If you need backup, you know where to find me.”

“Alright. Good luck.” I nodded to Zari and she grinned at me, wiping some sweat off her brow.

“Same to you. You’re still buying me that drink after all this, right?”

“Absolutely.” I returned Zari’s smile with one of my own. “Mind giving me a little cover?”

In response, Zari shouted out to the dynamite archers on top of the general store and they turned in out direction, firing off a pair of explosive arrows in front of the barricade.

The three or so spider riders that had been drawing close to us immediately scattered as soon as the archers loosed their arrows. They were simple wooden projectiles designed to deliver the deadly explosive payload tied tightly to them and they did so perfectly.

I was glad Zari had given me the warning, as we both needed to clamp out hands down hard over our ears as the deafening explosion shook the ground under us and raised up a thick cloud of starsand.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity while I had it I took off as soon as I had recovered my footing. Blastpick in hand I rushed through the town and toward the saloon.

The Ruby Rest was seemingly untouched by the fighting happening on the other end of Clearvein so far. There were still several injured Rooks and townsfolk being tended to within while many more had headed there to take cover.

I didn’t head through the main saloon doors. Instead I carefully made my way around the back of the building where there was a simple wooden staircase leading up to the rooms for guests to stay.

I tried to keep low and move as stealthily as was possible in my current condition, but I knew I was probably doing a pretty poor job of it. I knew that a Rook was supposed to be guarding the stairs, but I couldn’t see any sign of them.

That on its own was enough to put me on guard. I wondered if I should go and grab a couple of Rooks to back me up but decided to scope things out myself first.

Time was of the essence. If Zari was right and a group of outlaws had already dealt with the guard we had deployed…

I tightened my grip on the blastpick and made for the staircase, but I didn’t make it more than a single step before I heard a door being thrown open above me.

“Quick, we’ve got to get her to Sean. I don’t know how long she’ll be out but if we let her wake up…”

The first voice sounded feminine but unfamiliar, and it was quickly followed by that of a man.

“If she wakes up I put a bullet in her head. We can’t risk it. Too many people could end up dead.”

“That wasn’t the deal,” another voice growled. “We take her alive or we don’t take her at all.”

Before an answer could come, the trio of black-clad outlaws appeared at the top of the stairs. Sure enough the tall one at the back was carrying Kate over his shoulder, her unconscious form visible in the soft emberlite cast by the lamps nearby.

“Put her down, now.” I ordered, preparing to swing my blastpick. “You don’t want to see what this thing can do to a person.”

“Lucy, wait!”

One of the outlaws suddenly stepped forward into the light. I couldn’t help but gasp as the closest lantern illuminated his familiar figure. It was Cyrus.

He was dressed the same as I had last seen him with the addition of a dark crystal mask. His ruby repeater was holstered at his side, and he was holding his left hand up to me in a calming gesture.

It was clearly him, but I still struggled to believe what I was seeing. Kate had told me he was dead. I had believed her. What was going on?

“I promise I can explain everything, but you need to let us pass. Kate is-”

“You’ll explain everything to me right now.” I spoke through gritted teeth, cutting Cyrus off. “How long have you been working for them to start?”

“We really don’t have time for this, Cyrus.”

“I can handle this!” Cyrus whirled around and hissed at the tall man.

“There’s no time to explain. Tell your friend to drop her weapon, or I’ll make her.”

As the tall man at the back of the group finished speaking, I felt a chill run down the back of my neck. I didn’t want to take my eyes off the trio in front of me but I became acutely aware of a soft hissing coming from right behind me.

“Hands up, now. Drop the pick on the ground. We don’t want to hurt you.”

I slowly turned my head and saw that behind me were the two massive diamond salamanders that we had spotted at the camp. They were both close enough that they could incinerate or rip me into pieces within seconds. Hell, probably both if they felt like it.

I didn’t stand a chance and I knew it. Despite that, I still wasn’t ready to surrender.

“I cried for you, Cyrus. Both times I thought I lost you, I cried.” I practically spat the words out as I stared down the young man I had thought of as a friend. “You owe me an explanation, if nothing else.”

“Last chance. Lay it down and stand aside Rook. This doesn’t have to get violent.”

I ignored the man at the back and kept on staring right at Cyrus. He averted his gaze, his guilt obvious even through the mask.

“Look, I promise this isn’t what it looks like. We had everything wrong before. Kate is dangerous. We need to get her out of here before she wakes up or people are going to die.”

“That what they told you?” I scoffed, shaking my head. “I thought better of you.”

“Lucy, please…” Cyrus sounded like he was genuinely begging. “I promise you. I’ll come back and explain this to you. Just drop the pick.”

I shook my head but slowly did as I was told, lowering the blastpick to the ground slowly.

“Oh, one more thing.” I took a deep breath. “This isn’t just a regular pick.”

Before anyone else could react I swung the blastpick downwards at the wooden staircase and pulled the trigger.