Mage Mangler -(Crucible of Ascension)

Word had clearly made it to the Raxors that we were coming. Of the twenty men they had, all of them were waiting on the rooftops of the main street into their territory. The street was notably light in the way of population which was a wise decision on their behalf.

I moved toward the building closest to us until I thought I could be heard, then shouted up. "I want to speak to your leader. Quel is it?"

One of the Salorian's shouted down. "I've nothing to say to you today, but one day soon I will whisper in your ear as you sleep. I will tell you how coming here was a mistake. I will tell you that your loved ones will all die slow painful deaths, and then I will slit your throat.

Loved ones. I stifled a chuckle. "Why'd you have to be like that, Quel? If you come down we can have a proper good scrap and do this like real men."

"Your words are poison, Grunir. We will bide our time and end this on our own terms."

"First off, that has got to be the most elaborate way to say you're a fucking coward, Quel. And secondly, I'm not a Grunir, you cheeky bastard. I'm six foot over here! I was going to do this all civilized, but you've pissed me off now, so here's what's gonna happen.

"Dalgom said he wanted to shove his axe up your arsehole and I told him, 'Dal, fella! That's not how we roll. Plus you'll end up with a stinky axe and who wants coward shit all over their weapon, hey?' But, after talking to you I think I'm of a mind to let him live out his wildest fantasies.

I felt Dalgom's hate filled eyes boring into the back of my head and it was all I could do not to break out in laughter.

"And that leads me to my next point! If any of you want to join us and avoid Dalgom's romantic intentions, come down now and not only will you be unharmed, I pay well and I've got some big business plans. If you're any use with a weapon or magic, you could do very well working with us. Otherwise you can die a painful cowards death with Quel.

No one moved but then I hadn't expected them too. What did strike a chord with me was how angry Quel became. He struck me as a calm, patient man, and everything I'd heard about him was that while he was a killer he was cold and ruthless. So it was a special feeling to watch him fly into a fit of rage.

"That's not how this story is going to end!" Then he shouted something I couldn't make out to his men. As one they raised crossbows. The rest of my men had stayed further back but even they retreated when they saw the weapons. I had to leg it to safety. Not a good look, but somehow, as bolts bounced all around me across the cobbled road, I managed to escape with a graze across the top of my head and a nick out of my ear. Not bad, all things considered.

I made it back to a safe distance, and Loosh appeared by my side. "I have to hand it to you, Joren. You really do have a way with words. It was almost like you wanted him to come down and fight."

I chuckled. "I did. But failing that, you reckon I made enough of a scene?"

"I'd say so. What's the plan now?"

"We wait. Maybe send a few small fireballs at them just to keep the pretense alive. Crossbows won't have the range. Get Adar involved." I pointed at the half starved Velorian. "Might as well start earning his keep."

Our two mages went to work, a little slow and shaky on Adar's account, but practicing with Loosh had to be a good thing.

After little while, Dalgom sidled up to me. "What's the plan? Are we going to try and take them soon?"

"Nah." I looked around to see if anyone was listening. "This is just a diversion. I was gonna tell you earlier but I wanted it to look real."

He lowered his big head and hissed. "Diversion for what?"

"The Haska. I'm hoping they'll come after us while were fighting. Though, I've not heard anything yet, so I might have fucked up."

His eyes widened and he muttered "Diversion," under his breath, then started looking around nervously, as if he expected the Haska to start running out of doorways at us.

"Just chill Dalgom. You'll make everyone nervous. I'll let you know when it's time to change things up."

He nodded and stepped back, no doubt to share the new information.

Around ten minutes passed with the Raxors keeping low so they didn't get caught with a pot shot, but otherwise, the whole thing was pretty uneventful and I was starting to think I'd massively misjudged. It wouldn't matter in the long run. We had the Raxors cornered. I could bring our other people here and just storm the building.

It seemed Quel was getting bored as well and shouted down between volleys of magic.

"I expected more from you! What's your plan here?"

"Wait for you to stop being cowards and come down off the roof so we can kill you all. Can't stay up there forever can you?"

"You can't stay in the street forever."

"We can take shifts though. Can you? Get awful hungry soon enough."

As we spoke one of his men fired their crossbow at me. It was a hopeful shot, looping high in the sky rather than direct and it bounced not far from my feet. Loosh had returned fire immediately and put a bit more zip into it than her previous efforts. It struck the man in the chest and faced and he went down screaming. And that was about as exciting as it got for another twenty minutes until we finally got a message from Mosda that the Haska were moving in force.

I passed the message on to those around me and told them to get ready to turn and fight a real battle. Then I pulled Ree over.

"We're going to slink a little further back to prepare. I want you to keep an eye on those bastards up there. Let me know if they make a move. If they run, follow the leader and find out where he hides.

Ree nodded and then slowly slipped back into the shadows of the buildings to our right until I could hardly see him even though it was daylight and I was looking straight at him.

Then we waited, tension building as I tried to look nonchalant. Not fear, but the intensity of trying to juggle the maximum amount of balls you can handle.

Finally, the moment of truth came. Erratic movement at the top end of the street as regular folk cleared out of the way of a dangerous-looking mass of bodies that made no effort to hide their approach.

Leading them were two heavily armored Grunir who looked like something out of a fantasy novel, heading to fight a Balrog from the pits of hell, rather than turning up for a scruffy little gang fight.

"Ready everyone!" I shouted. "Remembered, if you can and it's no risk to yourself, leave some of them alive."

"Er, I prefer just killing," one of the fighters behind me said. "Keeping people alive has never been a strong point of mine."

"Do what you need to do. I'm not exactly an authority on measured violence. As long as most of the others try we might keep enough of them alive to hold the territory." I side-eyed Loosh and noticed she was looking at the man behind me with wide eyes. I turned to see who it was and took him in properly as he replied. "Good. Then I'll just get to killing and we can work out the details later."

The only material across his upper torso was a leather strap that held a massive sword on his back. Otherwise his dark yellow torso, full of muscles and scars was on show. Shaggy black hair with a life of its own framed the eyes of a killer and the twisted smile of a sadist. He was not one of our men.

I dropped into a fighting stance, as I read his identifier:

Name: Hendel Poe

Title: Merchant of Lasital. Elonan's Bane. Butcher of Reilis. Harrower of Linon II.

Level: 29

Class: Warrior/Tradesman.

He raised his hands, matching my stance. "I mean, I was looking forward to killing those Haska bastards, but if you insist."

I met his eye. It would be one hell of a fight and I got the feeling I'd probably lose, but my fists tingled and my yearned for the challenge. If it wasn't for Loosh nudging me, things might have gone very different. "Stop it Joren, your being rude to our guest."

Her words broke me out of the spell of combat, and I stood straight dropping my hands. "Sorry about that. Wrong end of the stick. What brings you here?"

He stood straight as well, half a foot taller than me he peered over my shoulder. "Like I said earlier. We should kill first then talk."

I shrugged. "I'm down with that. You bring any others?"

"Nah, they're too busy making me money. Extortion and racketeering is a full time job."

"Fair enough. You want the Warrior brother and I'll take the Mage?"

He looked at me like I'd grown another head. "You got a level thirty mage with you, why would you do that?"

I held my finger to my lips and grinned. "It's a secret."

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He shrugged. "You do you, I'll do me." The he looked up into the gray, drizzling sky and raised his arms out wide. "The rain tells me today's a good for murderin'. You hear it?"

"Sure do," I lied. Then looked to Loosh. "Word from Mosda?"

"Yes. They're ready."

Our conversation died as the wall of Haska fighters came close enough to make their threats.

"Dunno who lit a fire under your ass, Dalgom. But credit where credit's due, but you did a good job with the Cutters."

I noticed the mage wasn't looking at the half-Ogrid like his brother was. He was looking at Loosh and Hendel and he did not like what he saw. His elbow slipped out, nudging his brother in the ribs as Dalgom replied. "It's not me you need to be speaking to Grunir. My territory was the first to fall. He pointed down the line to me, but the warrior was already looking at our little group.

"Yep," I shouted. "I'm the one you need to threaten."

"Who in Hagrog's balls are you?" His eyes slipped over to Hendel? "And why are you here?"

"Well," Hendel said in a chirpy voice. "This fella seems to be good at clearing out pests, or at least bringing em in line, and I figured I'd help him out with the worst of the worst."

"You don't have the manpower," he said gesturing at his much larger gang.

"You all ready?" I asked those around me. It was rhetorical, and only Hendel replied. "Watch for a fire ball into our center."

"Will do," I replied, then roared for the charge. I didn't stop to check if anyone was following. I was a committer, come what may.

After I took three steps, Hendel's prophecy came true. The Haska Mage threw a fire ball at the center. It was destined to pass me by so I swerved into its path to prevent too many early deaths in our ranks.

The fire engulfed me like a warm blanket, the only damage was once again to my coat. The freshly applied wax sizzled and the leather darkened, but my speed carried me through the worst of the effects. I emerged smoldering in more ways than one, but completely unharmed.

"Amazing!" Hendel cheered as he sprinted past me. He was much faster and made a beeline to the level 24 armored Grunir, currently clattering his axe on his shield.

As Hendel closed the distance to his target, he leapt impossibly high, pulling the massive sword from his back mid-air.

It was insane to watch and looked more like something out of a computer game than anything I'd seen so far. It taught me a valuable lesson. There were levels to this game, and Hendel fucking Poe was at least one level above me.

The Grunir rose his shield to block, and I had my own damn fight to fight, so I dragged my eyes away, and zoned in on the Level 21 Mage. He was in the process of throwing a more condensed ball of power at me.

The gray and white crackling ball reflected in his eyes. An evil grin on his face. "Run through this, bastard!" he screamed as he let it go.

Not knowing what to expect, I held up a hand rather than let it ruin my coat further.

It smashed into my hand with the force of a thrown brick, only to fizzle away like the Mages smile. Then I was on him. Big haymaker to the mouth. It was about the only place not covered in armor and his bearded jaw was slack with confusion at my running through his attack.

The punch brought with it a sickening snap. My momentum carried me into his chest, and we both fell to the floor. Thankfully Dalgom was right behind me and defended a cudgel attack aimed at my head, while I slid the dagger under the Grunir's helmet and finished the job.

Once back to my feet I turned to see Hendel Poe still fighting with the Grunir Warrior and almost moved to help him. I stopped as his eyes flickered over to me, a smile on his face. He was toying with his opponent. Drawing the fight out and having as much fun as a kid at a theme park.

The rest of the line was involved in a bloody battle and it was hard to say who was getting the better of the fight, despite the loss of their mage.

A wiry woman with two knives attacked me. She had no identifier and moved like she was in quicksand. I lunged forward with a front kick to her chest. Ribs snapped under my boot as she flew back into the riving mass behind her. She was dead before she hit the floor and was trampled by terrified warriors.

"Who the fuck brings unascended to this type of fight?" I shouted at those in front of me as I prepared to continue my murder spree among them.

"We did," Loosh said appearing from behind Dalgom. Then fired past me to kill two more fighters with a flickering ball of orange and yellow.

A shout went up behind the Haska, and the energy of the fight changed. Our opponents moved back as panicked cries of another gang, echoed around them. Dalgom, being able to view the battlefield much better than me, cleared up the situation. "Mosda is here. The Haska are breaking."

"Shame. I only got two."

"Hendel only got one," Loosh said, though her voice had a slight nervous quality to it. I looked over to make sure Hendel had finished with the armored warrior to find the Grunir he'd faced no longer had a breastplate.

Where it had gone, I didn't know, but it had allowed Hendel to slide his arm under the grunir's ribs. The crazy bastard was now elbow deep inside his chest cavity and grinning like he'd just gotten a new toy.

That made a lot of sense, since it looked as though he was trying to use the dead warrior as a puppet."

"That's rough, even for me." I muttered and decided to leave him to it while I rounded up the fleeing rival gang. It was at that moment Hendel thrust the corpse in the air in an impressive feat of strength and shout.

"Come back my beauties!" he shouted. "We just want to talk!"

Unfortunately for the Haska, they had no choice. The noose had been tightened and the plan had worked better than I could have ever imagined.

"We surrender," Grunir shouted holding up his hands.

"You have a say here?" I shouted back.

"Yes." He pointed at the bodies of the Mage and the Warrior we'd killed. I'm their younger brother. Next in line to the business and the territory and I surrender to you."

"A streak of metal flashed past my vision, crossing the distance in a breath to burry deep into the Grunir's forehead. I turned to see where it had come from, though I already knew. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Hendel standing there, puppet discarded, bloody hands on hips, grinning and nodding to himself. "You see that shut, Joren? Think I've still got it."

"Yeah. It was a fine shot." I dint really know what else to say to him, so I turned back to the terrified crowd. "Who would be next after him?"

No one came forward and I sighed. "I promise you won't be killed."

"Unless your another fucking brother of those two shit-birds," Hendel added.

"An elderly man stepped forward:"

Name: Willick Sevel

Title: ---

Level: 17

Class: Warrior/Tradesman.

"I ran the streets before those two took over. Served them ever since."

"Will you serve me?" I asked.

"Who are ye? Never seen nor heard of you before."

"I'm Joren Vayne and I've taken over Dalgom's crew, the Cutters, the Haska's and by the end of the day, I'll be adding the Raxors to the tally. Hendel and I still need to have a chat, but I'm hoping we're going to come to some beneficial arrangement for both of us."

Hendel slapped my back. "Let's hear what you offer these fuckers, and then you can make your case to me."

I fought the urge to squirm under his hand and walked forward to get away from it. "Bottom line Willick. You'll get to carry out all the same scams and cons and deals as you have been. Only now you'll do it under my leadership. It's gonna be silent leadership when it comes to your businesses, however there'll be a few points I must insist on. "When I need men you provide them. You don't fuck with the other territories. They're your brothers and sisters now and a union like that should reap bigger profits for all, I'd say."

Willick nodded. "Ain't heard nothing I can't agree to yet."

"I'll also have more opportunities further afield. These opportunities will be dangerous, but they'll lead be rewarded with greater financial gain."

Everyone including Hendel was listening now. He had his fucking arm across my shoulders again and I was seconds away from blowing the whole thing to pieces by attacking him.

His next words smothered the fuse. "I'm in too. Only, you can't have any of my men. None of them are fighters. I wouldn't trust them to fire a fart if I'm honest, but they're very good at running my businesses. I generally just make sure to keep them safe, but with this new super gang of yours, I'll not be needed half so much, will I?"

It took a moment to full acknowledge what he was saying, but Loosh patted him on the arm. "You're absolutely right. We'll make sure they're well protected if you come away with us."

"Good. Give me a holla when you need me." Then he just fucking sauntered off down the street whistling an off-kilter tune."

In many ways I envied the mad bastard. I was enjoying building a criminal empire but roaming around free as a bird certainly had its appeal. One day, that would be me again. One day I wouldn't need anyone to help me do what I wanted to do.

Willick spoke again. "And if we don't fall in line?"

I realized he hadn't actually agreed yet and my annoyance at that that must have shown on my face. "You're about to find out. I'll ask you first. Are you in?"

Nervous or not, he bit his bottom lip. I'm open to it, but not on those term…"

I stabbed him in the eye then shouted to the rest of the herded fighters. "I've had enough of bullshit today so I'm going to make this simple. Everyone willing to fall in line move over to the left side of the road. The rest of you to the right."

They all looked at each other confused and no one moved. "Now I'm going to count to ten. When I get there, I'm going to kill everyone not on the left side of the street. One."

By the time I got to eight, everyone was on the left side of the street.

"Well done all of you. You've chosen life, wealth, and safety. For now, come with me. We still have one thing left to do today and you all need to earn your buttons."

I marched them down the street back to where the Raxors still hid on their rooftops.

Ree appeared from the entrance of the building the Raxors stood atop. They didn't fire on him, nor did they raise their crossbows to fire on us.

"What's happening?" I asked as he approached.

"They surrender. I gave them the same offer you gave the others. Stay exactly as they are. Keep their businesses, no in fighting with the other territories and to provide help and support to Hammer endeavors."

"Hammers? " Loosh asked. "What's that?"

I grinned at her. "Shit, did I not tell you? I named our gang."

She looked like she wanted to scream at me, it took a great effort and some deep breaths but eventually she manage to suppress her reply into threatening growl. "I feel like I should have been involved."

"Yeah, probably. I'll ask you next time."

As she simmered, I looked back to Ree. "Amazing work. How'd you manage it?"

"I'd say we all managed it. Hendel and your own display out there, was enough for them. When the rest the Hammers arrived it put the decision beyond doubt. Will you accept Quel to continue as leader?"

"I'll have to meet him first. Do you trust him?"

He nodded. "As much as I can, given the circumstances."

"That's good enough for me."

At those words, Ree turned and waved to fighters on the roof. As one they dropped out of sight only to appear at the front door a minute later.

I waited where I was, they had to walk to me through my men. It made them rightly nervous, but I wanted there to be no misunderstandings.

Quel led the procession and nodded to me in something approaching a bow. It was a good moment for me. "You fought well today, Joren Vayne. We watched a wave of destruction crash upon the shores of our fair city, drag all who stood in its path down into its violent depths.

We cannot stand against that wave so we will jump willingly and pray for our salvation."

I snorted. "Very poetic, Quel, and I think I can speak for everyone here when I say that was the fanciest surrender we've heard so far."

He bristled a little at the word surrender, but remained silent.

"Anyway, we're happy to have you on board. Ree vouches for you so I'm happy with that. Just don't cross me because I don't do second chances."

"I understand and if Ree is a Salorian of his word, then you will bring wealth and prosperity to the area and there should be no reason to cause conflict."

"Took the words right out of my mouth." I scanned the other faces around me, Gorsh, Dalgom both close by, watching proceedings. Dalgom with a sour look on his face for the Raxor leader, but he kept whatever grievances he had to himself.

"This all means that only the Rats remain."

"Let me guess," Loosh said dryly. "You intend to attack tomorrow?"

If anyone was unhappy with the idea, they didn't show it. I'd proven without any doubt that my attack, attack, attack method was effective. So I surprised them all with my answer. "Not this time."

Loosh recovered from the shock first. "So what?"

"So, we're gonna take a few days to bring all the leaders together and get them cooperating. We still need someone to speak from the Haska gang."

I glanced over to where some of their stronger members crowded, listening. I nodded to them. "Choose someone among you to speak for your territory and have them come to the Pilgrim Inn tomorrow at noon. Make sure it's someone I can work with. If they start arguing the toss with me, I'll kill them. This is not a democracy. Understand?" Heads bobbed in unison so I continued.

"They can bring one other with them and," I glared at the other gang leaders, "They'll be completely safe. Quel, Gorsh, you both need to be there too. I'll send word to Hendel, we're going to get this whole thing running like a well-oiled machine. Well give it a few days, then we'll pay the Rats a little visit."

A few faces paled when I mentioned Hendel, and now I'd met him, I knew exactly why. He was violent, ruthless and utterly unhinged and he was an excellent addition to the team. If we played it right, Peralt's death was becoming less a gamble and more a certainty.