Twenty-One
 
“Help me, please,” Diur, the Ulmna girl, pleaded. Her grandfather’s unconscious body sagged in her arms and she struggled to hold him upright. Kon stepped around Alice and grabbed him by his wounded arm. The old man groaned but didn’t wake as they dragged him back into the depths of the pagoda.
Broken down doors lined the hallway along with more corpses strewn about, but Diur never slowed as she led them towards a blank wall. She pressed her palm against a section and the wall faded away, just an illusion. Kon blinked and looked for the light projectors, but he didn’t see any. Diur panted as she led her grandfather to a narrow bloodstained cot and Kon helped her lower the old man to it. Sodden bandaged lay around the bed along with an emptied out medical chest.
“Do you have any more supplies?” Kon asked as he stared down at the single case. Diur squirmed for a second, embarrassment and shame radiating off of her.
“No. The healers pavilion is where we stored the majority of our supplies. That rock beast is currently on top of it.” She tore up some sheets and wrapped them around her grandfather’s wounds, trying to slow the bleeding. Kon shot Alice a look but she solemnly shook her head.
“He’s stronger than me, his body is fully saturated with energy. To heal him would drain me beyond uselessness and at best I could maybe heal a few of the most minor wounds. It’s not enough to save him,” Alice said. Diur looked at her sharply, a retort on her tongue when the old man sputtered back awake.
“Diur. Rest. I am finished. Knight Alice Roose, will you accept a contract?” he spoke in stuttered gasps as he struggled to breathe.
“Name the terms.”
“I am Elder Buirn Hthior, of the Hthior clan of the Ulmna Confederacy. I will gift you my core for safeguarding my granddaughter, Diur Hthior, and returning her back to Hthior clan lands.”
“Grandfather, you can’t,” Diur cried, shock and horror etched across her face. Her emotions were so humanlike that Kon worried he was misreading the situation.
“It is my core to do with it as I will. Our armory is depleted, our treasury sacked, we have nothing to give these humans. But I have centuries of strength that I can gift. Alice Roose, will you accept this contract?”
“You expect me to cut you open and pull your core out in front of your granddaughter?” Alice said, finally shaken by the old man. He chuckled which morphed into a bloody cough.
“Wait for me to pass, it won’t take long. Diur, I need you to survive and report what happened back to the Patriarch. You have your duty,” Buirn’s words stopped as he broke into a violent fit of coughing before slumping down, chest rising and falling erratically.
“I’ll see her home safely,” Alice said. Mniur nodded slowly and closed his eyes, his breathing slowing as he let his consciousness fade away. Kon slowly sank to the ground and they began to wait, minutes stretched out before Alice broke.
“What happened here?” Alice asked Diur, pulling the girl's eyes away from her dying grandfather. She slumped to the ground and grabbed the old man’s hand, interweaving her fingers with his as she stared at them.
“One of the Ancestral Elders of our clan found this world and ordered us to open up a training facility here. The everstorm prevents us from scanning orbit but also keeps others from seeing us. It’s been a secret training spot for nearly a century now. Hundreds of us are sent here to train and grow stronger, returning back to our systems once we enter E-Grade.”
The word she used wasn’t E-Grade, Kon realized but something else. His translator stumbled over it for a moment before correcting the word.
“We got lax, forgot our safety measures. They breached the outer fence first. We had a tribe of Teno who worked for our branch of the family for generations. They tried to stop the breach, but then the rockets came flying in. That’s when grandpa got Elder Mniur and tried to go out. But a pack of Lupine intercepted them. Grandpa killed several but was hurt badly and forced to retreat. He got back here and shoved me into the safe room before going back out again.” Diur told the story mechanically, all emotion gone from her face as she spoke.
“After that we just stayed in the room. The arrays kept the sound out for the most part, but I could still hear them screaming. We had just left the room when you all arrived.”
“Kon, stay here. I’m going to look over the dead assassins, see if I can figure out who they are,” Alice said. She rose and walked through the illusionary door without another word, leaving Kon alone with the girl and dying old man.
“I’m Kon,” Kon said. The girl looked at him and he could see the pain and exhaustion that haunted her eyes.
“I got that.” Then they sat there, silently, awkwardly, as they waited for the old man to die. The rattle of his lungs filled the room and the scent of his pungent blood filled every one of Kon’s breaths. He sat there, across from Diur, and just waited.
Alice came back twenty minutes later and took one look at Mniur and scowled. The tenacious bastard was still clinging to life, but had fallen into a deep sleep. The air of vitality around him was gone, vanished the moment Alice had agreed to take the contract.
“The black suits are Goblins,” Alice spat with disgust. Goblins was a derogatory term humanity had picked up for the menagerie of genetic rejects who filled the edges of civilized space. They came in a wide array of bodies and looks, but all of them had one central core tenet that they stuck to. Violence. Unending, unrelenting, violence. There was a reason every civilized group had pushed them out to the edges of known space. A roving tribe of goblins was every colonist's worst nightmare. Every now and then they’d get their hands on a fleet of ships and cruise around raiding a few systems before they were pushed back. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“No tribe insignia? And aren’t they a little to well armed and disciplined for goblins?” Kon asked. Alice shot him a surprised look.
“Goblin raids were a very real concern for the colony. We worried about that more than we worried about the rifts.”
“Hmmm, and no. They don’t have any markings to show their tribe. Which is an issue. And they’re very disciplined and young too. Most couldn’t be older than you.”
“A young, unmarked goblin tribe that’s heavily armed and disciplined working with a Lupine warpack?” Diur cut in. Her voice was incredulous as she looked at the two of them. Once they met her gaze she turned meek, folding under the combined weight of their stares.
“She’s not wrong. It’s strange alright. One more thing to report when we get rescued. You said one of your Ancestors is on planet?” Alice asked, changing the subject.
“I didn’t say that. I said she discovered the planet. She might be on world. There’s a few spots on the planet that have enough density she can cultivate. None near here though. If she knows what happened she’ll come to see. Grandfather is a direct descendant.”
“Oh no, she’s a young master,” Alice said under her breath, hardly loud enough for Kon to hear.
“I am a young master and UImna have very good hearing,” Diur said calmly, hints of emotion starting to peek out.
“What’s a young master?” Kon asked, looking back and forth at the two of them. Alice sighed and rolled her eyes.
“They’re generally spoiled brats who’ve been heaped every advantage that their faction can give them. They’re generally stronger than the average cultivator, but they can have attitude problems,” Alice said it loud enough for Diur to hear without straining. Kon waited for the girl to refute it. Diur just nodded before saying simply.
“Aptly said.”
“Didn’t think the old man would be a direct descendant. Isn’t he kinda weak to be one?” Alice said.
“You have no manners, Knight Roose. Grandfather is a direct descendant and he was at the peak of D-Grade. He didn’t wish to pursue cultivation into C-Grade though. He said the politics became opaque.” Diur let a bit of heat into her voice as she defended her grandfather.
“He has seven siblings, all of them made it to the C-Grade. He’s the only one who was happy though. At least that’s what he always says.” Diur deflated a bit and looked at the torn up visage of Mniur. Kon had to admit the old man had been tough as nails. He couldn’t have survived a quarter of those wounds let alone stand against a Knight and threaten to fight her.
“There was no C-Grade protecting this training facility?” Alice asked.
“No. At first there was, but they quickly eliminated everything dangerous on the plateau and the only good cultivation spots are hoarded by our Ancestor. They went back to the confederacy decades ago.”
“Is there a security area in the pagoda. Somewhere that could have recorded the fight?” Alice asked.
“There was one. But it was hit by a series of rocket blasts. It was on the top floor.” Kon remembered the top floor and the split in half ceiling. He doubted that anything as fragile as electronics had survived that.
“We need to know how many of the Lupine are left. I killed one on the Dragon’s Maw, and he couldn’t have been anything more than a low D-Grade. I searched and found seven other dead Lupine, all with their chests cut open. Whoever did this took the time to harvest every single core they could get their hands on. They thought they had time,” Alice mused to herself.
“That implies that the rest of the survivor’s from our ship aren’t close by. Or that the Ancestor’s position is either known or that they don’t know if they’re on planet or not. A C-Grade cultivator would be able to tell if another was around, probably have a few hundred kilometer radius they’d be able to detect,” Alice continued to talk out loud.
“You think there’s a C-Grade Lupine warrior?” Kon asked. Alice immediately shook her head.
“A single C-Grade would have cut through all of this without issue. No need to lure the rift beasts and sacrifice all the troops and equipment. The battlepack is probably led by an upper to peak D-Grade battlemaster and filled with low to mid D-Grade fighters. What’s left of them anyways.”
“How big can battlepacks get?” Kon wondered out loud.
“Rarely more than forty. They can assemble Warpacks, but if they did that we’re fucked and it doesn’t matter.”
“Warpack?” Kon asked. Alice sighed and rubbed her eyes.
“Your ignorance is only outstripped by your curiosity. A warpack is composed of battlemasters, the leaders of the battlepack. Thousands of powerful warlike cultivators all who only hunger for the fight. Not a lot of warpacks floating around. Seeing as they’re system threats to anyone and everyone.”
“If there’s forty of them, which you said is about as big as they get, then they’ve lost nearly a quarter of their number.” Kon was hopeful. That many losses and they’d have to be thinking of packing up and going home.
“Yeah. Issue with these guys is they’d rather fight to the death than admit defeat. True battle maniacs.We’re going to have to wipe them out to get them off our asses. We’ll leave here immediately and start heading toward the survivors. They’ll be the next target.”
“Do you think we were the target here, Knight Roose? Or just victims of opportunity?” Diur asked.
“As well hidden as you are. Wrong place, wrong time. They saw this as a big payday and they decided to divert their attention to get rich. I’m sure you have all accumulated a rather large treasury of cultivation materials from the surrounding areas.”
“Yes. We had. Grandfather had said we were approaching a time when our branch of the clan would be in position to usurp the head family. That is gone now.”
“Who knows, maybe you were the targets and we just got caught in a bad spot. Thought we were a treasure galleon or something and blew us out of space,” Alice said with a dark chuckle.
“Listen Kon. In the future, remember this. Never take contracts from sects or cultivation clans. It’s always messy. Stick with rift clears, security jobs, insurrections, stuff like that. Demi-immortal cultivator’s plans are like a spiderweb coated in grease and just waiting to catch on fire.”
“Knight Roose is not wrong. The planning we are trained to do is esoteric to say the least. I believe it’s time we leave though.” Diur had unshed tears in her eyes and her fingers were white from where she grasped Mniur’s limp hand. Somehow Kon had missed the raspy breaths stopping. The Elder was dead.