Mantle of the Gods

Gesai hit Jart in the face with her elbow.

She followed it up with the back of her fist, then her other fist. Aryne had been a Tier Five, which had her at a HUGE advantage. Jart on the other hand, was only a Tier Four. and he might have been with the Cultists, but he wasn’t ready for Gesai.

The red-haired woman didn’t let up to give him time to get out his weapon. She also didn’t pause to take our hers, instead she started silently casting her weapon skills on her hands.

Her gloves had been completely destroyed, leaving her showcasing the blackened scarred skin that would probably never heal. One fist froze over as the other one caught on fire. I’d seen her fight with a sword before, but this was completely new.

Jart tried to scream, but she caught him in the throat, silencing it. It took two more hits after that to knock him down. The unconscious man fell face first to the ground and she held her fist above him as if she was contemplating killing him.

“Let’s get him into the Station and we can put him in a cell.” I looked at Rix, “Will that work?”

“Sure.” Rix walked around to the front and went into the Authority Station.

“Let me…”

“I’ve got it.” Gesai grabbed Jart by the collar and started dragging him towards the front. I ran around her and opened the front door so she could walk in.

There wasn’t much inside. A desk, a bed, a crystal the size of my fist, and a cell.

Rix was helping Tophua onto the bed and had the cell door open.

“Take his CB.” The red-haired woman nodded at the crystal, “Supplies are in there.” She was handing another red vial to the Blacksmith.

Gesai ripped the CB off of the Cultist’s wrist and tossed it on the desk. She slammed the cell door closed.

“We need to get the two of you out of here.” She looked at Rix and myself.

“Chasers are gone.”I motioned at the road, “I sent the three teams to go get help. They’re jamming any messaging further than local.” I tapped my CB.

“You both are idiots!” Gesai shook her head, then looked at the recovering man, “Can you keep an eye on them in here? I need to go see what I can do out there.”

Tophua nodded, “It would be my pleasure.”

Gesai pointed at me, “You.” She pointed at Rix, “Stay.” She moved back to me, “Here.”

We both nodded and she pulled her sword out of her CB and headed out the door.

“You’re not going to stay here…” I turned to see that Rix had already vanished. “Here?”

“Wow.” Tophua waved his hand through the area that Rix had just been in, “I thought she was a student.”

“She is.” I walked over to a window and peeked out. The fighting was still intense, “What happened to the people you were bringing here?”

Tophua shrugged, “Jart knocked me out while I was putting them in that dungeon…” He looked at the bare wall by the door, “Pocket. Looked like they shut that down.” He waved his hand around again, “What family is she with?”

“Mundane.” My nerves were getting the best of me. My heart was beating fast and it felt like I had ants crawling all over me. I knew there wasn’t much I could do out there, but I felt like I should be doing something.

“Really?” Tophua laughed, “I’ve never seen a family yet with an ability like that.”

I had a bad feeling that he was about to start asking questions that I was going to have trouble answering.

“Don’t you think we should be out there?” I pointed towards the fighting, “How many Tier Fives are there?”

“Aryne, Ceridwen, Peregrine, and Zorna are the four we have here.” He stood up, “Forgot how good those things are.”

“Peregrine?” That was the only name I didn’t recognize, “Who’s that?”

“Peregrine Publian.” Tophua shook his head, “Came out here back when Hye took over the Clinic, said something about retiring away from all the politics.” He laughed, “Bet she’s wishing she was back in Harror now!”

I couldn’t imagine a Publian working on the other side, which meant that there were two Tier Fives out there on our side. We actually had a chance to win this!”

“That’s not good.”

I moved over to the back to see what he was looking at. There were four Cultists in the middle of town. Each holding a glowing dungeon seed. My whole body screamed for me to flee.

“Yeah.” I swallowed, “That’s really not good.”