“You would be Eric Silver, correct?”

Eric said absolutely nothing as he left his Tier 2 Ascension Pod Facility, doing his best to ignore the belligerent words from a bloated, red-faced individual huffing as he strove to keep up with Eric’s pace, Eric catching a glimpse of gaudy silk robes, bulbous lips, beady eyes and oily skin out of the corner of his eye. Yet with his Profession being so much higher than his Class level, it was still enough for his Identify Skill to kick in at such close range.

Narri.

Profession (Administrator) – Level 40. / Class (Wordsmith) – Level 20

Physical Attributes: Strength – 10 / Vitality – 13 / Finesse – 13 / Quickness – 9 / Appearance – (Bloated caricature of every politician you ever despised on Self-Tube.)

The man’s smarmy smile turned to a hostile glare when he began to wheeze, almost tripping over a clod of dirt as Eric cut through the knee-high grass. “I will not be ignored by the likes of you, whelp! The charges against you are steep and numerous, and will only worsen if you refuse to cooperate!”

Eric didn’t bother responding, holding tight to the fires in his heart as he steadily walked back toward the fort, doing his best to ignore the party of four that included two guards dressed in reflective white armor and carrying weapons that sent chills racing down his spine, looking so much like the extra troopers in a Nova Wars film. Right behind them was a cursing elder goblin, its expression twisted in a mask of absolute hate as it glared Eric’s way. Eric allowed a disjointed stutter to flow into his steps, an odd weave and bob that somehow didn’t effect his fluid forward progression, thanks to a Finesse score being as high as it was. Because with a goblin shaman’s eyes glaring holes into his back, Eric knew he’d be a fool not to assume the worst.

Strangely, the one who looked the most ridiculous, the beribboned administrator in silken robes and sweaty skin waddling in thick grass wearing silken slippers, was the one he was most leery of. A bureaucrat wielding who knew how much political power, money, and influence, but who’s physical stats made it damn clear that this was a foe he was poorly prepared for. Because Narri’s levels were absurdly high, compared to the average adventurer in Freetown, and the man was clearly no fighter. So the attacks he had no doubt mastered were ones Eric doubted he had any experience in countering at all, the Wordsmith class saying it all.

Because even if Eric had absolutely no doubt who would emerge victorious in a contest of arms, He wasn’t so foolish as to doubt that the man had at least a few cards up his sleeve that might somehow prevent Eric from engaging him at all, no doubt trapping him in all sorts of binding oaths, obligations, and deadlier tools that were little different from the torment of fresh slave collars around his neck.

Sure as shit, Eric wasn’t going to pick up whatever summon notice or equivalent that the bastard might throw his way.

Yet no matter how weak and flabby the man looked, Eric still new better than to engage without studying the situation very carefully. He could clearly sense the powerful energy shield the man had flinched to activation when catching Eric’s ice-cold gaze the moment Eric had left the ascension facility his enemies, for he had no doubt they were all his enemies, had tried so fruitlessly to enter.

Though Eric couldn’t quite hold back a grin at how the furious elder goblin had carried on screeching and banging on the semi-opaque pyramidal sides of the facility with his staff.

“A Tier 2 ascension facility is forbidden! Forbidden by the Terran Accords the Snicklit Tribe has already invest so much, too much, in forging!” The withered old goblin shaman shrieked as Eric continued to walk off, pretending to ignore them all.

Though his chest did tighten as he stole a quick glance back at the weapons they carried, arcane blasters that looked beyond deadly with their sleek, chrome bullpup design, and no doubt they were utterly illegal for any native to use.

Eric grit his teeth, doing his best to ignore the armored pair pretending to ignore him in turn, as if they were just there as silent bodyguards to their masters.

And not his would-be executioners.

The elderly goblin hissed at Eric’s slowly retreating presence, still ignoring them both as he cut through the grass to the hardscrabble path leading back to the keep, the air smelling of rich green grass, wildflowers, and the cool northern wind. The stench of perforated bowels, blood, and scores of decomposing bodies had already been transformed to rich loamy soil fed by a glorious profusion of Spiritual energy from the Earth, Sky, and Sun. To Eric’s mind, it all symbolized restoration, renewal, and a wondrous start for the adventurers and community that would soon make Ashland province a wonderful place to live.

Eric closed his eyes, taking odd comfort in the fourteen odd sentiences he could sense just beyond this newly forged territory, docilely taking their ease at the very lip of the greyed out territory to the west.

Eric frowned, peering hard at the horizon, wondering if perhaps he caught a speck of something out in the distance.

But no. They were at least several miles away.

He then turned his gaze north, which not that long ago had been part of the breadbasket of the US. But now the adjoining territory a dozen or so miles away from Ashland shone a brilliant ruby red on his interface. Just one of many territories that had once been the domain of his sister, before she and all her troops had been pushed back by an alliance of multiple orc tribes uniting to crush all resistance, aided and abetted by the vilest of goblinoid snipers forever keeping Elonia on her backfoot, his sister unable to make use of any of her strategic spells without fearing a white-hot streak of deadly plasma stilling her spells forever more.

The very thought of what his sister had been forced to endure infuriated Eric, the startled hiss behind him making it clear his clenched fists hadn’t gone unnoticed.

He took a deep, calming breath, as administrator and shaman continued to tail him, pretending his interface hadn’t translated every word from the goblin tongue as the shaman continued to snap at the official so clearly in his pocket.

“That abomination is responsible for the Blue Faction threat to our banking operations! A threat you assured me was well within your capacity to resolve, Narri. At this rate, with the absolute glut of slaves flooding all the mining planets of this sector, we won’t even be able to turn a profit! We’ve had to defer on claiming interest penalties on countless thousands of loans, allowing these fools the illusion of leniency, until the present crop has finished dying off in the Valorium mines! As for this unsanctioned ascension center, it must be in our possession by the end of the day, as you promised! Selling it to the right clan will help us reclaim our losses over the entire quarter! Especially with the System forcing all our slave-pods offline!”

The creature shrieked and glared at Eric’s back, waving his staff. Eric held back a fierce grin, more eager than he cared to admit for the enemy at his back to dare the first move.

How eager he was to bring this farce to a close, and let the true dance begin.

“All of our failures and setbacks this quarter! It is this Terran’s fault! You swore to me that he would be in chains before the month was out, Narri. Now get me his head!”

“Silence, Stiggles!” The bureaucrat snapped, voice lugubrious and liquid, projecting with unexpected power, despite his audible wheeze. “I will bleed him dry in the crimson court, as I do all my foes. But my weapons take time to strike! Our enemies must appreciate law’s bite, the contractual bindings of their masters, before we can squeeze every last credit from their living corpses. You know this. Now silence!”

Eric had to fight back a smile as the creature’s screeches washed over Eric, and suddenly Narri was before Eric, now speaking in perfectly understandable English after forcing his waddling feet into a sprint. “Wait, you will wait, young Sirrah. While I, your administrator… your master… addresses you.”

Eric’s flash of alarm, the desperate urge to STRIKE NOW! Transformed to bemused surprise.

You have successfully saved versus Mental Domination! -12 to opponent’s skillcheck! (Mental Resistance in effect.)

SAFE HAVEN status in effect.

You are ONE with the essence of Dominion! No one unworthy may intrude upon the castle of your mind!

The bulbous-lipped bureaucrat paused and gazed intently at Eric for long moments, as if judging the effect of his words, before forcing his face into a simpering smile so phony Eric wanted to vomit all over the repulsive man’s shimmering force shield he probably thought Eric too stupid to sense.

The man who clearly fept no regret about selling out his own race, forced a chuckle.

“I believe we have gotten off on the wrong foot, dear… Elf? halfblood? Well, whatever we should call mongrels like you.” Narri furrowed his brow in mock sorrow. “As much as I resent, nay… am saddened and… disappointed by your refusal to respond to my messages sent most specifically to you… did you truly not read a single one? I’ll know if you’re lying...” The man flashed a cold smile so devilish Eric half-expected a demon’s forked tongue to stick out before Narri chuckled once more.

Eric’s smile was equally cold. Cold enough that the bureaucrat actually flinched and lurched back, before flashing a hate-filled glare so intense that even Eric felt a jolt of peril shiver down his spine. He was just a heartbeat from ending this farce here and now.

Before the man laughed it all off with a chuckle and bonhomie smile that suddenly looked so sincere with his baby-blues that Eric felt a lurch in his gut, quickly averting his gaze.

“Ha. Forgive my frustration! As your patron… your guiding official… your benefactor! I merely regret lost opportunity that may cost us, and by us I mean you, an absolute fortune! Of course we all know that adventurers such as yourself have little time for the constant demands of socialization, genuflection, and submission that high society requires of all its… servants.”

Eric only stopped when it became clear that Narri would budge no further, a hard glare bringing the pair of body guards to subtly flank him, each standing several steps to either side of Narri, each adopting the far-off gaze of a man pretending he’s not there at all… while ready to raise and fire their arcane blasters at the slightest flinch.

The goblin, of course, was cackling and sneering and cursing Eric vociferously behind his back in high goblineese, Eric’s interface making it quite clear the exquisite torments awaiting him if he ever allowed that spiteful little shit to get his hands on him.

Narri crossed his arms and glared, shaking his head. “I have no doubt you have further… adventures planned for yourself. And how a level ten… adventurer? That’s all you are?”

The man snorted before catching himself and clearing his throat. “I can only imagine what delicious… and no doubt highly illegal prizes you managed to get your dirty little paws on to facilitate an actual territory claim! By you! A level ten nobody!”

Narri’s eyes narrowed, the man making chilling observations of his own. “And I note how your eyes caress my guard’s weapons… weapons forbidden to all natives, and for good reason! Is that how you managed to slaughter countless orcish settlers living peacefully on their rightfully claimed territory? And can you honestly say that you feel no guilt at all, trespassing on their lands?”

Eric inhaled to speak, even as his mind blared in sudden alarm. Sensing the trap, heartbeats before it could unfold, as if a single slip could negate a claim so excruciatingly forged, giving his enemies his hard-fought prize, whiles simultaneously being forced to pay a hideously steep price for reneging on his covenant with Blue Corp.

And the too bright eyes of Narri, daring to manipulate with magics that did not directly influence Eric’s will, merely allowed Eric to dig, and fall into, his own metaphoric grave, made it clear that Eric was a fool to take this bloated bureaucratic monster lightly. That even with covenants in place here, he’d best watch every word he said.

“This Safe Haven territory belongs to Blue Faction.” Eric snapped his lips shut, refusing to say anything else. Arguably having already said more than he should. Yet playing the insidious game his foes so clearly favored always requires an extra sacrifice, it seemed, from the weaker. In this case, reminding the sellout before him about the precise nature of this territory. And if his foe still failed to take that in account… then that was on Narri, and no one else.

The man tutted almost sadly, as if he hadn’t come exquisitely close to reclaiming this entire territory for the orcs once more, with all the powers at the disposal of a Wordsmith and Administrator, who was no doubt able to make the legally questionable become ironclad law in the blink of an eye.

But only if Eric was stupid enough to give him an opening.

“Well, no matter. We can arrange for a thorough search and confiscation of all restricted weapons and armaments at a later time.”

“Nope, not doing that,” Eric assured with a toothy grin.

Narri snorted. “I’m just trying to save you legal trouble down the road, foolish boy, but if you truly wish for Bronze tier sector overseers to pay you a visit and perform a very uncomfortable search… well, that’s on you.”

The man’s cold smile made it very clear that Eric most definitely had just that waiting for him in the very near future, if this bloated bastard had anything to say about it.

“But enough on that. What matters now, of course, is your own future, dear Eric Silver.”

Narri’s grin was all teeth. Eric did his best to keep a neutral expression, his only movements being a subtle shift in balance, while doing his best to look just as stiff and upright as administrator and guards both.

Narri gave a satisfied nod, as if sensing that he had Eric’s undivided attention at last. “That’s right, boy. Our reason for traipsing across these badlands, far away from the glories of proper civilization where petty disputes have already been resolved, isn’t to condemn you for mass murder, involving yourself in affairs that have absolutely no concern for one such as you, for all that it is both my duty and obligation see you in chains for those crimes...”

“Wrong,” Eric said, looking the man dead in the eye. “It was well within my rights as a Contender. As you should know, if you are who you claim to be.”

Narri blanched, his face blotching with fury.

Before he lifted his head and filled the air with melodious laughter.

“How you jest, boy. Glorious!” He said with a too bright smile. “Indeed, I am glad, more glad than ever that we came here to see you, despite the burden to our schedules. Despite you having wasted countless hours of our time, daring to nap in a Tier 2 ascension pod that you have absolutely no rights to. Ascension facilities that are, in fact, forbidden to humanity as a whole, and for very good reason! No matter. Let’s completely disregard those crimes altogether! For you and I, we have far more important, far more… relevant things to talk about, do we not?”

The man waved his hand with a snort, as if doing Eric a magnanimous favor. “In a world full of lickboots and sycophants, it is so GOOD… so DELIGHTFUL to meet someone who actually dares to speak their mind to their superiors!”

“Good thing non-existent superiors are not something I have to worry about,” Eric said, clenching his teeth as yet more twisted magic sought to burrow their way into his psyche and soul, Dominion and Sanctuary status bonuses notwithstanding.

On the one hand, it was good training.

On the other hand, a single mistake could cost him everything.

He flashed a fierce smile.

Perhaps it was time for him to set up some verbal traps of his own.

The bureaucrat’s eyes glittered with barely concealed ire. “Silence, Conscript! We don’t have to be here trying to save your fortune! It is benevolence and concern for an ungrateful slave that guides our steps. A slave at risk of loosing over half a trillion dollars if he fails to shut up, listen to his superiors, and obey!”

That number alone froze Eric stiff, as the man had no doubt intended, flashing a smirk radiating so much exaggerated sympathy that Eric wanted to puke.

“That’s right, you foolish, silly boy. Your illicit venture, stealing from black book reserves earmarked for personages far more august than your foolish self, are now in jeopardy of being sent off planet, never to return!”

“Never to return! So much money stolen from you by Blue. Such a tragedy! Such a sad, sad misunderstanding between my family and yourself, young sir!” The elder goblin hissed in broken English at Eric’s back.

Eric blinked, thoughts racing, as all the pieces finally clicked, now understanding Caliban’s urgency, fearing he was already too late.

“It’s a shocking thing to find you were robbed blind by one you thought an ally, is it not, boy?” Narri said, piercing blue eyes trying to lock with Eric’s own, subtle gestures all but compelling a nod.

But Eric stood absolutely still, staring at the man as intently as Narri stared back at him. Though his focus wasn’t on entrancing eyes trying to entice acquiescence, but rather on the skittering prismatic field of force he could just barely make out around the unwelcome visitor, a prismatic ripple of arcane colors in the slanted rays of the morning sun.

His gut clenched when he sensed just how outrageously powerful Narri’s force barrier truly was, protecting the bloated bureaucrat from the most potent lightning bolts, streaks of fire, an orc shaman’s enchantments, and pretty much every other spell Eric had so far seen. Eric blinked in surprise, additionally spotting the rune for ‘Barrier’ and knowing immediately that not only was this man protected from a shamans’ spells, but orcish musket fire as well, even at point blank range.

Yet he noted as well what it lacked, what he suspected pretty much every spell, ward, armament, or other defensive protection he might find on Earth would lack. Which wasn’t too surprising, since this territory alone radiated those energies in a realm otherwise saturated with the arcane, thanks to the System’s emergence, in addition to the magic of blood and necromancy, life and death, which Eric was increasingly certain had always been part of this world’s lore. But, at least in the Western World, he didn’t think Spiritual Energy ever had.

Narri’s gaze hardened, as if having judged an appropriate duration for shock, and what his opponent’s followup response should be. Clearly, Eric’s extended silence wasn’t syncing up with the bureaucrat’s mental script. “Accept the facts, boy! The former inspector Caliban is guilty not only of seizing half a trillion in gold without proper writs and permits, he dared attempt taking the entirety of that fortune… your illicit fortune, off world. He was effectively smacking the face of the Imperium itself, in his arrogance! The sheer gall!”

Narri flashed a hard smile. “Fret not, boy. The gold is only in transition. We can still reclaim the gold, return it to its rightful owner! All we need is your signature, making it clear that you had no idea that the former inspector would dare strip you of all your assets, sending it off world in an account where those funds would be out of your reach for decades, centuries... perhaps forever!”

Eric felt a chill with those words, somehow knowing that at least the last part of what the administrator said was absolutely true.

He truly would have no access to that half trillion, an unbelievable number he could scarce even concieve of, until long after things had been settled here on Earth, one way or another.

It was all he could do not to visibly shake his head.

“Accept it, boy!” Hissed the goblin. “The Blue stole from you. From all of us!”

“Is he with you?” Eric asked, gazing perhaps a bit too intently at the smirking administrator, doing his best to choke back the hot bile crawling up his throat at the vile thing scampering behind them.

Eric forced a smile, quickly rephrasing the question. “The goblin shaman. Stiggles, right? He and the two guards now on either side of me. Are they with you?” He then spun around, keeping his gaze cool as ice when the goblin hissed and reflexively snarled, crackling sparks forming at the tip of his gnarled staff, before thinking better at striking a completely neutral-faced Eric, gazing almost politely, one could even say respectfully, at the shaman. “Or are you simply the chauffeur? Should I be addressing my concerns to the august personage before me, and not the man chosen to walk beside him, perhaps to bridge a gap between our races?”

The goblin snickered at that. “Sure, boy. We can speak. Ha! Truck with me directly, if you dare!” He smirked Narri’s way. Eric was chilled to see the look of sublime fury on the administrator’s face, reflected off the sneering shaman’s orbs as the latter spoke in goblinoid once more. “He wears neither chains nor bindings of word or deed. I expected better, Narri! Ha! Let the brat speak with me. Now it is three favors you owe me!”

Eric forced a smile. “I’m sorry, what was that? Could you repeat it in English, please?”

The goblin laughed. “Some people think overly much of their power.” He gestured to the Tier 2 ascension pod. “How much for your toy, boy? How about a billion?” He flashed a smile so smug, so condescending, it was all Eric could do not to smack his face off. “How about ten? I will happily pay that amount. Even more! And I will swear to do so in good faith before the month is up, by all the oaths and accords that bind us!”

It was all Eric could do not to laugh aloud at that, somehow certain he knew exactly what the creature meant. Then Narri’s voice washed over them all, hinting at such power that Eric couldn’t help feeling a fool at daring to goad this dragon, even if he did take sweet dark joy at the man’s fury.

“Yes, he is here on my behest, Conscript! And my associate will speak to you only when we are done!”

Eric turned to find the man holding a contract, something in his hard gaze, the snarl twisting bulbous fat lips, making it clear that Narri was done mincing words. “A contract I place before you. Truth it demands, and truth it will compel from you!”

Eric glared at the man, feeling the insidious cords of compulsion trying to wrap around his psyche, his soul… and slipping free.

Narri’s twisted smirk abruptly turned to a dark snarl. “Admit it, Conscript. You had no idea Caliban had locked your funds into an account you have no direct access to. It tears one half trillion credits worth of assets out of your direct control! It is a direct violation of the code of ethics that all System sanctioned financial advisers must abide by!”

The man’s smile continued to widen, his whole face stretching hideously wide, Eric hearing a distant tinny ring in his ears as Narri’s forked tongue began hissing in his ear. “The compulsion of truth binds you, Conscript. You cannot deny this truth, so truth compels you. Fundamental truths are inevitability given purpose and form. They are the lynchpin of civilization itself! They are that which binds us and shapes us from the day of our birth till the hour of our death, chaining us to our destined roles every moment we dare to inhabit mortality’s shell. It is truth that ties you to this document, it is truth that shapes your confession, it is truth which binds your fate!”

Saving throw versus infernal compulsion modified by Safe Haven status!

Eric locked eyes with the monster before him, allowing his wrist muscles to twist and knot with pain worse than any fire. As if he denied reality itself, crippled by his own shortsighted folly, forcing his lips to spit out the only words that mattered.

“The only truth that matters is that you have acknowledged your allegiance to one Stiggles, elder counselor of the goblinoid races. Making absolutely clear to the entire world your affiliations with Bloodtear Syndicate. A syndicate against which I have declared Vendetta!”

Narri lurched back with surprise, demonic features snapping back into that of a nonplussed human, surprise turning to fury in the blink of an eye.

“How dare you speak to me that way, Cur! Accords of Dominion have been declared, you did not deny! Chains of servitude bind thee, you did not deny. Assertions of theft, grand larceny, and not once did you deny! Therefor by my power as Administrator… I declare you thief, slave, and lawbreaker! May the chains of law and Dominion bind you! Now sign, slave, and let this farce come to an end!”

Eric shivered as the wellspring of tainted magics washed over him, the bloated creature before him suddenly towering like a pitiless judge glaring down at a pitiful wretch of a thief, so strong the illusion was. An illusion that could so easily have become a crushing reality, Administrator Narri a master of a game the rules of which Eric barely understood.

Yet surprisingly, at least to his enemies, the magics crashed against Eric’s shoulders with no more weight than mist, as easy to shake off as the lingering shadows of nightmare, unable to compete against morning’s brilliant light.

Administrator Narri’s eyes bulged with disbelief. “Impossible! You failed to refute, fool! There is no way you can resist Law’s Dominion!”

Eric laughed, no longer bothering to hide his contempt. Or his hate. “Because this is a Safe Haven, asshole! Your Lawfare bullshit has no weight here! A truth I went out of my way to clarify, numerous insults and attempts to manipulate me ago. If you’re too blind and pigheaded to read the codicils, then that’s on you.”

Eric flashed a smile cold as Narri’s own. “You have dared to bring agents of Vendetta upon my lands, consorted with my foes, attempted to break Safe Haven accords with compelled testimony and twisted magics both. Now you may leave these lands upon which you are most profoundly not welcome, having paid the tithe of revealing to both man and mer exactly how corrupt and compromised you are! Now all of us can recognize the serpent in our midst. The political sycophant we will see removed at all costs!”

Eric glared at the furious-looking goblin just feet away. “I will even allow you to take that sniveling coward of a goblin with you, as a final act of grace. But I suggest you take advantage now, Narri. Because I am a Contender, and heir to all the powers and privileges such rank entails.” His next words were as chill as the sharp wind howling around them all. “And all I see before me is red.”

‘A final warning. My last warning, ever,’ he thought, senses hyper alert, hawk-like gaze mastering the ebb and flow of the high level force-field before him, Find Weakness and Unified Perception noting the steady cycling of arcane pulses through the hissing goblin’s staff.

The wind continued to bluster and howl, revealing locks once more as blond as the day he was borne, slipped free of armaments that otherwise were so tightly bound and secured such that no trace of priceless mithril could be seen underneath the crimson scales of his custom made lizard armor.

Long moments in which Eric embraced absolute stillness, until his foes decided what their fate would be. So no one could claim he hadn’t acted in good faith to a representative of the powers-that-be. At least here on Earth. No matter how much of a conniving malicious serpent Narri was.

Eric had expected contemptuous laughter, perhaps, even gloating as the bloated bastard walked away, no doubt with the disputing little goblin elder by his side, making it clear that their match had just begun.

What Eric hadn’t expected the homicidal fury he saw in the man’s beady eyes, roaring both spittle and words that could never be taken back.

“You dare defy me? Worm? You dare think you can get the best of Narri Biggleton, Northeast Administrator and master of a thousand slaves? You will sign the contracts and confessions I will put before you, and you will do it with your own blood, or your whore will pay the price!

Eric froze in horror, his ears ringing with the whirlwind of fury rapidly consuming him as the monster’s mouth stretched wide. Narri was no longer bothering to hide his malice, not one bit.

“That’s right, fool! Your wench and her friends dared to leave the pathetic sanctuary of a faction I will take great pleasure in crippling and impoverishing before they are forced to leave this world with their tails between their legs! Foolish enough to think they could hide in anonymity, when our spies had their eyes on all your associates, all your friends, since the moment you and your bitch first dared to cross the Grand Consortium! That’s right, fool! You were all doomed the moment you thought you could get the best of our bank!”

The bloated abomination’s laughter sounded like a dying orc’s squeals. “How amusing it was to see the look of terror on all of their faces when they were all snapped in irons, even the mewling little brat torn from her unworthy mother’s arms! And how sweet it was to see their looks of disbelief turn to outrage and horror when they learned that it was you and you alone responsible for their absolute and utter misfortune, even as they will be made to pay with their very lives for your crimes!”

Eric was rocked back by the monster’s vile confession, his worst nightmares proven inexorably true.

His enemies were beyond malicious. And somehow they knew all his weak points, all his secrets, and would do absolutely anything and everything in their power to destroy him, to break him, to make him kneel before them as a lesson. So that no human ever dared fight against the chains of bondage their foes were doing absolutely everything in their power to snap upon all their necks. Through hardship, ignorance, tainted pods and economic strangulation, they were doing all they could to break the entire human race.

Eric could see it in the monster’s eyes. His goal, and the goal of the goblin elder cackling at the sight of Eric’s horror wasn’t just to rule Earth, which implied some sort of love or appreciation, however twisted, for the land one had claimed. No. Their goal was to strip-mine it utterly bare. Void of all resources and enslaved humans sold off to the highest bidder. Monstrous acts Eric feared those goblinoid abominations and willing henchmen like Narri had embraced countless times before.

Even as Eric’s soul howled with horror and fury in equal measure, his clarity had never been greater, every oil-encrusted pour of his enemies standing out in sharp relief, every flux in their cycling mana fields now clearer than ever before.

A wounded and harried tiger’s last stand against the hounds and hunters determined to wear him down at all costs. For now Eric truly was the creature in the cross-hairs that must needs swallow its panic and fury, take the measure of its foes… and bring them down in one fell swoop.

Eric forced a trembling breath. “You have no authority to arrest them,” he said, desperate for his enemy to reveal one last card from the hand he held as smugly as the contracts with which he would bind Eric’s soul.

Narri laughed. “Stupid fool. Of course I do! I am an administrator! Fair, impartial, vested with legal powers that leave me the lord and master of any territory free of a Contender’s folly! And Freetown, you stupid idiot, is a consortium of two powers, soon to be one!” He sneered, before pulling free a golden tube from his silken pouch with a smirk. “All of them have been charged with treason, daring to break their oaths of noninterference given to the gate men each time anyone enters our town!”

His smile widened to a monstrous degree. “Which means, you arrogant little shit, that I need but a single goblin counselor to make a single accusation of crimes against any party I detest, and I can order them summarily arrested until trial, a trial where death is the ultimate sentence that I alone shall have the pleasure of delivering!”

He tossed the golden case at Eric with a contemptuous smirk, while the goblin elder squealed with laughter behind him. “Stupid human! Thinking he could get the best of the Snicklit tribe!”

Narri’s eyes flashed with anger when Eric very carefully dodged the golden case. “How dare you not accept your sentence, mongrel half-breed! Now pick it up and sign it on your knees before me, or I swear I’ll carry out the executions of everyone you’ve ever known or loved the moment we return, and I’ll have you watch each and every one, knowing their screams, their suffering, will eternally be upon your head!”

“Because only you have the power to authorize those executions, I take it?” Eric asked coolly, emotions frozen to icy intensity.

Narri laughed with contempt. “Not only your friends, but the Blue Fool who dared to cross us! All will perish under the weight of my pen!”

Eric’s smile was that of a man finally ready to accept his fate. “Quite a conundrum. I guess the only solution is to make sure that pen touches no writs of execution.”

“Ha, exactly, fool! If you wish for my leniency, yo—“

“Will make sure those writs are never signed. I know,” Eric said, voice so calm Narri frowned in confusion… before his eyes bulged with mindless panic when his trump card of a near-invulnerable force shield abruptly shorted out upon making contact with Eric’s fist.

Find Weakness skill check made!

Fire Fist has critically struck your target!

10 Qi drained!

Your fully healed peripheral meridians welcome the surge of power now flooding your veins!

Before his dumbstruck nemesis could say a word, Eric’s left hook blasted through the wheezing administrator’s belly in an explosion of blood, fire, and gore.