The Original Beefcake

Half a year had passed since the great ork battle and Marcus wondered where the time had gone. A lot happened and yet it felt like only a few days went by.

The daily routine kept everyone going. Portals came and went again with only a few smaller monsters and critters showing up. The highlight was a giant bird that looked like a red eagle but several times the size. Any hype quickly vanished when Janette took it down in one shot. She really can't miss anymore. Marcus didn't level up at all in half a year and he was told this was more or less normal. He could see now why everybody was trying to get into a clan or corp to go on expeditions.

Not long after the ork incident Janette had told Marcus she would soon leave. Which caused him to nearly have a stroke. She had laughed and said she would go home for a month to cuddle her Cherry. When she returned (which felt longer than a month to Marcus) she was hyped, "LOOK AT IT. Gaze at perfection!" She held her hand up and Marcus spotted a silver ring with a green stone in it. "We are engaged!" Janette danced through the room.

"Can you believe that? While making breakfast, that woman told me to show her my hand. And then, she just put it on and said "now you are mine forever". She didn't even ask me, just declared I was hers!" Janette's energy was alarming and the team worried she might melt down like a nuclear reactor and destroy the base in a massive explosion.

The next big thing happened one evening, when Pavel suddenly ran screaming through the hallway, only in his undies and waving his tablet over the head. When they finally caught him he showed them the news on the tablet. Somebody had figured out Windwalker's second ability 'Air Step' and Pavel was able to learn it. The whole team vowed to help him with his efforts, which made him shed tears of joy. He quickly regretted it.

Marcus had been very serious about the topic and did his best to support Pavel. "You are the devil! No, the devil would have more mercy than you."-Pavel to Marcus after a day of special training. The special training Marcus devised for Pavel was very fruitful and after only three weeks he was able to do the 'Air Step' for the first time. When he heard from Marcus, "Phase two of the training can start now!" He once more started to cry.

The hardship was worth it. With Air Step Pavel could use his Wind Walk ability extremely quickly, several times in a row, allowing him to shoot up into the air with one and then directly move further. Three super fast Wind Walk uses was currently Pavel's limit. With the increased range (more training and the buff to intelligence) he could get on a seven or even eight story high building in a blink of an eye.

Naturally, Marcus didn't fall behind in his training either. He got his first victory against Lars in grappling which was a milestone for him. Then he too learned what suffering meant. "Good, I can finally start using my ability, too." Was Lars' only reaction. Even with his high vitality and Lars turning down his power, Marcus realized quickly that shocks and pain wasn't something he could easily overcome with more vitality.

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Truthfully, he worried greatly that he had no defense against 'status effects'. Pain, blinding, other mental effects completely bypassed his vitality and stopped him cold. This was true for anybody else, but for somebody who was in the business of getting hit this was a problem. Debuffers were his natural nemesis.

Maybe enchanted equipment could help him down the road. He had heard of enchantments that could reduce or even negate certain effects as long as they were not too powerful. Still, even one of those items cost tens of millions of dollars even if you can get a chance to buy one. Demand for enchanted equipment was steadily rising, while the amount of Artificers was increasing a few per year.

Marcus had finally mastered the use of Impulse Hammer for all kinds of strike techniques and for grappling. Thanks to his even higher vitality he had to decrease the power drastically for training. Anchor worked without a hitch and Marcus had started to incorporate it into his normal attacks and defenses at a low to medium level. This allowed him to withstand heavy strikes and counter at the same time. It was surprisingly difficult to fight somebody who can't be pushed back or hindered.

Still, one aspect of Anchor was troubling Marcus a lot. Even with his high vitality, it ate through his endurance extremely quickly. At max power it drained him dry in less than five minutes. In contrast to Impulse Hammer and any ability he knew off, Anchor seemed to consume a percentage of his endurance. And Marcus didn't understand why.

Birthdays and other festivities came and went and Marcus felt more and more at home. In truth he started to worry about the day he had to leave this base in Finland. Of course this was at least two to five years away, he predicted. He would need some outstanding results before a clan would take the risk to bring a Fighter as a tank to an operation. But time didn't stand still and Marcus' prediction was also completely off.

On a warm and sweaty Friday night Russo joined the team around a small fire place where sausages (imported from Germany) sizzled and for some reason pirate songs filled the air. He wore a grave expression and the mood quickly changed. "The Finnish authorities have been talking to the LCPS. Over the last months, they noticed a marked increase in illegal objects on the black market. Alien artifacts and other stuff that must have come through a portal illegally," Russo told the team.

"A group named 'Hard Boys' is most likely behind it. They send people through unsecured portals and sell the stuff on the black market. And we are to stop them". Russo took a sausage while the rest exchanged looks. "Do I get this right? They want us to kill people, humans?" Marcus asked bluntly.

"They definitely have some class holders or they wouldn't be able to pull this off. That means the police are out of the picture. At least here in Finland," Janette said, while looking into the fire. Marcus wasn't stupid, he knew class holders died every year killed by other humans. It was human nature, but to be directly told to go and kill people wasn't what he had expected. "IF we find them and they surrender we will deliver them to the Finnish police. If not, we are allowed to use lethal force to stop them." Russo said, without looking up from his sausage.

As Marcus soon learned the Hard Boys were not some small gang, but a medium sized crime syndicate, that had been on the rise over the last years in eastern Europe. Their symbol was a pistol and a sword in the form of a cross. They specialized in the exploitation of unsecured portals and provided large amounts of artifacts, plants and animals to the criminal underworld. This was no laughing matter and luckily the LCPS thought so, too. They sent another team to support the Thunder Squad.

The new members arrived in style with a transport helicopter, only a few days later. Marcus and the rest stood near the helicopter landing pad and shielded their eyes against the wind of the still spinning rotors when Rian Cullen left the machine. His team quickly followed and Marcus knew all of them, but one tall blond man, who walked next to Elena. The first impression Marcus got was that they all looked stronger and more hardened. He could only imagine what one of the 'elite' squads had accomplished, while he sat around and did nothing for half a year.

He felt uneasy about how the reunion would work out, but after Cullen hugged Russo, Pierre stepped up with a smile and gave him a hearty handshake. "I hope you haven't been slacking off. I owe you a rematch." Marcus knew he only won last time because of surprise and Pierre looked a lot stronger now. He braced himself for a devastating defeat.