It took a few minutes for Artemis and Jen to get into position, when the crackle in my ear from the activation of comms let me know that it was go-time. The wall of the town stood directly in front of me, some ten feet tall, made of rough-hewn stone and piecemeal construction. It had a rushed, unfinished look to it, and with a naked eye I could see the weak points in it.

Activating erg sight and those weak points became all the clearer. Parts of the wall had been built via a system-enabled crafting skill, but other parts lacked the sort of erg flow that such structures would possess, indicating that they had been built purely by hand. In the mad scramble to survive those opening days, it made sense to rely on whatever tools were available, but if they had a crafting team, surely there would have been enough time to fully replace the wall.

Of course, coerced labor had no incentive besides fear to work harder than necessary, and perhaps Chad and his cronies did not understand the full implications of the wall’s weakness. It probably also served sufficiently well against the less powerful monsters, and if a section collapsed, Chad could just force the workers to rebuild it. Still, the status of the wall helped enhance this opportunity. With a gentle lob, enhanced by the muscle fiber of the harness, I primed then tossed the grenade at one of the weaker sections.

The resulting explosion was less loud than I had been expecting, cracking across the air more like a loud gunshot than an earth-shuddering KABOOM. The shockwave sent the wall around the targeted area shaking at least, and when the smoke cleared, a suitably sized hole appeared in the wall. I surged forward, not relying on my tools to increase my speed, just going at a sprint for the hole and popping through.

On the other side, I found myself in a fairly open space. The gate where most would enter from was to the right, while buildings were arranged in a semi-circle in front of me. The buildings were fairly uniform in structure and design, but varied quite a bit in size, ranging from what looked like single room buildings to a broad, three-story building directly across from the gate. A few people milling about in the circle had turned to face my entry, and more were pouring out of that large building. I had, at least, managed my first priority of getting attention. Now, all I had to do was keep it.

“I’m looking to speak with Chad!” I shouted to the gathering crowd. There weren’t too many, all things considered, maybe fifteen or sixteen people. Actually, looking over the crowd, it was fifteen or sixteen men. All were dressed for battle, wearing mostly armor that appeared to be made from hides or leather, and almost all of them carried hunting rifles. A quick scan with my erg sight showed that all of those rifles were pre-system, but also that each of the men before me contained a significantly higher quantity of erg than I did.

A large man -burly, beared, flannel-wearing- emerged from the crowd. The erg in him had a density to him that far out shone those of his peers. It had a texture to its flow, sluggish but powerful, like a landscape or a volcano, something inexorable in the way that it moved through his body. At his sides, he carried two large axes, held in loops, with his hands resting on top of them, his posture unthreatened but intimidating.

“Yeah, I’m Chad.” His voice rumbled across the distance between us. “Why’d you blow a hole in my wall?”

He had separated himself from the others, creating a distance that helped to elevate him as the others clustered around behind him, forming almost a secondary semi-circle within the half-ring of the buildings in order to further reify his position as the leader. If this had been intentional, I would have scoffed at the performative nature of the posturing, but with it being intuitive, I could only feel a bit sad for everyone involved, to be so busy jockeying for position that they could only turn themselves into tools of hegemonic domination.

“I wanted to make a dramatic entrance.” My own voice rang out clearly, as I pulled down the mouth guard of my helmet, leaving only that part of my body exposed.

Chad laughed and threw his arms wide, a sneer plastered onto his expression. “Well, here I am, and here you are.” His expression turned suddenly into a piercing glare. “Talk.”

“I’ve heard a thing or two about your rule here, and I’m not a huge fan of how you’re operating this town.” I met Chad’s gaze steadily, despite my rapidly increasing heart rate. “Though maybe I’ve heard things wrong.”

“And who have you been hearing from?” Chad smirked, becoming a bit more relaxed. “Anybody in town would have told me about meeting such an unusual character. Which means…” He trailed off and his expression twisted into a snarl. “It must have been those -ladies-.” He imbued that word with enough venom that it had the weight of a slur. “Yeah, you shouldn’t listen to anything they have to say. They just don’t understand how this new world works.”

“Well then, enlighten me.” I instinctively checked over my gear, ready for a fight to erupt at any moment, the tension in the air rising to solidity.

“‘The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.’” Chad stepped forward again. “And in this time of monsters, we either kill or we die, and only the strong have the power to overcome the threats that we face. Those who cannot fight must be kept safe from the roaring dangers of the world, at all costs. It is my duty, the duty of all men,” he waved his arms to his cronies who let up a cheer, “to stand as the first and only line between civilians and the horrors outside the walls.”

“”Much will be expected from the one who has been giveth much.’” If he started with a quote, so could I. “But just because you have a duty does not grant you authority.” I stepped forward as well, feeling the heat rise in me. My hands flexed, I understood for a moment why violence would ultimately be necessary here, he had fully justified himself in his actions. “In addition to the responsibility to protect, you have the responsibility to listen and to uplift.”

“Listen? To those belly-achers? They refuse to do the work that is necessary for survival unless I bend them to the cause.” His hands moved to the handles of his axes, and his forearms, visible thanks to rolled up sleeves, flexed as his grip tightened. “They would throw away all of our lives just to feed their need for rest! Without me, they would all be dead, and you expect me to listen to their complaints?”

“Your saving of them does not give you ownership of them.”

Chad moved with a shocking swiftness, drawing his axes and charging across the bare ground towards me. The other combatants stayed back, watching, likely expecting that Chad would be able to defeat me easily, or otherwise not wanting to interfere. One-on-one was better odds than I was expecting. Feeling like I was going in slow motion compared to Chad’s speed, I brought my left arm and began launching spikes in his direction.

The rotor built into the improved spikethrower increased its rate of fire significantly, as did its purely ergon launch system, empowered by the auto-loader to pull ammo directly from my inventory as needed. Through my erg sight, I saw Chad’s erg ignite, becoming clearly magma attuned as he surged forward, so I fired ice attuned spikes his way. Chad’s axes swung with precise and rapid motions, knocking the spikes away with a shocking ease. It had to be some sort of perk to allow him to do so.

As the spray of spikes continued, though, Chad’s axes began to grow more sluggish, as the impacts with the spikes transferred the ice element into them, which interfered with his own erg attunement. One spike managed to get through the defenses, ripping along his upper arm, shredding the fabric but leaving only a welt on his skin. Then it was suddenly too late, Chad was less than a foot away and those axes had moved from defense to come hurtling towards my face.

I deployed a wall segment between us and back pedaled as swiftly as I could. The axes hit the metal wall and, with a terrible wrenching noise, rended it apart, cutting through the metal before tugging away and shearing the barrier at chest height. Chad bellowed a curse before vaulting over the wall and continuing to charge towards me. I switched to mud spikes and aimed at his legs, a few managing to hit through his defenses and slow him just long enough for me to get another few steps back, though I was starting to run out of space.

I sent my spikethrower back into inventory and replaced it with an earth-attuned buckler, the shield extending all the way over my hand. I was just in time as Chad barrelled closer, both axes coming down at me. Moving with all the speed I could muster, I lifted both arms to block, catching the axe blades on drill bit and shield. Chad bellowed again and increased the force behind his axes, driving me into the ground, his superior height and weight helping to overpower me. I fell to a knee, sweat covering my body.

I was out-matched here, clearly, Chad was stronger, faster, and better trained than I was. The power of the system helped to even those odds somewhat, but even there Chad had an advantage. My gear was superior at least, but it wasn’t enough. Victory was not attainable in this fight, but fortunately I didn’t have to win, all I had to do was last.

I deployed a demo bomb directly behind Chad on a one-second timer. It exploded and knocked Chad off-balance for just a moment, long enough for me to roll to the side, away from his axes. I scrambled to my feet and got back into a battle ready position, slightly crouched, arms lifted to protect me, ready to scurry if needed.

Chad merely righted himself and allowed a smirk to play over his lips. “Is this the best that you can do? This is your strength that you hope to match against my own?” He shook his arms, working the blood back into them fully. “You are pathetic.”

He wasn’t wrong, but at least my poor showing kept the other combatants from interfering, helping to buy more time, the most valuable resource I had available. He didn’t charge in this time, but stepped in slowly, measuring his pace as he stalked towards me. Teldin’s voice suddenly hissed in my ear, “NOW!”

I sprung forward, aiming my drill not at Chad, but at his left hand axe. He instinctively brought the axe up to guard and I slammed the bit into the flat of the axe. My drill bit hit the metal, the whirring of the rotor increasing as I threw the power of my armor’s core into the rotor, then burst with my muscle fiber surging it full of core energy as well, and managed to push Chad back the barest inch. He snarled at me, but then the axe blade shattered, spraying flecks of metal in every direction, lancing across his face and bouncing off of my armor.

He stumbled backwards and I pulled myself up to my full height, meeting Chad’s gaze once again. Chad spat onto the ground and grave his neck a slow roll. “Alright. Maybe I have to take you a bit seriously.” He tossed the broken axe to the side and gripped his remaining axe more tightly.

Chad inhaled deeply and his internal erg exploded outwards into the ambient energy around him like a volcanic explosion, the heat washing over me. Again, he charged.