Chapter 15: XCVI — Registered and Claimed

  Something was wrong. And Kayode could taste it in the night’s air.

  “Your papers?” the guard asked.

  “This is the third time I’m being asked for them,” Kayode told the guard. Three checkpoints at the city gates was beyond odd.

  “And we’ll ask over and over again for it if we feel we need it sir,” the man said, eyes hard, and then snatched the document.

  Kayode could only stand and wait as he checked it, reading every aspect of the paper from top to bottom, and calling over his colleague to assist him in verifying a few things.

  It was not a particularly calming thing to experience when one knew their documents were false.

  But he couldn’t stop them, and they’d been falsified with all the professionalism that a dwindling Great House’s fortune could buy, so Kayode turned his thoughts to what he would do if they tried to stop him.

  The common gate guards likely held D Tier Classes at best, and they didn’t fight often. Kayode knew most would be in the early stages of their Second Awakening, with very few beyond Level 15. As things stood, he could neutralize the pair easily with a surprise attack.

  Beyond them, however, were the elite guards—Third Awakening and beyond. He had no hope of forcing his way past those. If it came to that, he would have to flee.

  And with the massive guard towers looming above the gates, what were the chances of him getting far before an archer put several arrows into him and ended this Loop very, very early?

  Low. Quite low.

  Sovereign’s Presence?

  The only way to use that successfully would be to make himself look like someone of authority and if the Grand Duke truly had sent them then that would be exactly who they were looking for.

  Nothing to do, then, if this went bad. So Kayode waited.

  He waited when one guard whispered in another’s ear.

  He waited when another frowned at something they saw in his papers.

  And finally, when the guard set his eyes on him and a hand on the hilt of his sword, Kayode called forth Winter’s Teeth and—

  “You can go,” the man said, handing him his papers.

  Kayode killed the ice particles on the brink of forming, and took his papers with slightly cold hands.

  He stepped past the guard and heard them stop another man behind him.

  “Papers?”

  The man handed them over.

  “We’re going to need you to come with us, sir.”

  Kayode kept walking.

  The streets did nothing to calm the alarms buzzing in his head. They weren’t empty—if anything, they were as busy as ever—but it was what they were busy with that truly set Kayode’s teeth on edge.

  Into the mix of busy citizens now were men and women who wore green and blue. The military colours of House Adegoke.

  They made no noise, barked no orders, they just planted themselves in various locations across the city streets and stood as still as statues.

  That was more than enough to tell Kayode he had to get out of here. But he couldn’t, not without reaching the Guild Hub first or he would not be making it very far.

  Just enough money to hire a wagon—that was all he needed. And this payment was the only way to get it.

  Kayode made his way there and entered.

  Luckily for his nerves it was just as busy as it had been in the morning.

  He headed toward the clerk, a woman now—the man from the morning shift likely long gone—though she looked just as annoyed, if not more so, at the prospect of doing her job.

  “I’d like to turn in this foot,” he said, placing it down on the counter along with the Quest paper.

  She sighed, picked it up and placed it on a disk-like object. The Relic flared up and cast a Notification into the air.

  [(E) Material-Identifier Stone: Left Beast Wolf Foot.]

  She eyed it, eyed the Notification, took the foot and placed it in a drawer.

  “Can I have my reward now?” Kayode asked.

  She sighed. “Getting to it.” And then she pulled out a drawer filled with coins and began counting them individually—like a sloth might.

  You have got to be fucking kidding me.

  One. Two. Three…

  She eventually gave him his money as twelve silver rather than one gold and two silver, but matters of denominations were very far from Kayode’s mind at the moment.

  “Thank you,” he said, and very much did not mean it. Then he was heading for the door.

  He had his fingers on the handle when he saw several soldiers approaching—all clad in the colors of House Adegoke’s fighting men, one of whom he identified as a Captain by the armband he wore.

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  Kayode stepped away from the door and slid back into the crowd.

  The door opened a moment later and the Captain and his men stepped in. One of them held a large flag, on it was the symbol of a quill—the crest of House Adegoke.

  All eyes fell on the Captain as he entered, and he was comfortable beneath their gazes. His kit was spare for a man of his rank—no cloak, no ostentation. A sword hung at his hip, and beside it a coiled length of dark cord secured to his belt. A whip

  He was a man in his forties, he had dark hair, rough skin, and a face cut through with old battle scars. An army Captain like him would statistically sit in the late Third Awakening—almost certainly a D Tier Class, if not pressing higher.

  He hadn’t seen Kayode yet. That was good. But if Kayode stayed here, that wouldn’t remain true for long.

  Slowly, and with as little fanfare as he could manage, Kayode manoeuvred his way towards the back of the room.

  Any moment now, the Captain would let all know the man they were looking for. And Kayode would have nowhere to run.

  Conversation thinned, then stalled entirely. All that were left were the hushed whispers birthed by the presence of the army.

  He needed more time, but the Captain was already speaking.

  “My name is Captain Harker Graves,” he said, his voice clipped and gravel-rough. “By writ of the Grand Duke, all Adventurers within this building are now subject to Emergency Levy Activation.”

  What?

  A few hands drifted toward weapon hilts. Stopped. Drifted back again.

  Kayode saw the room grow tense all at once, saw a man walk up to the Captain, big, and with armor that looked like it had been used and used well.

  “Emergency Levy Activation? What the fuck does that mean?” the giant asked.

  The Captain met the big man’s eyes. Unflinching, like he had stared down bigger and tougher several times in his life and come out on top. “That you all are about to be inducted into the Grand Duke’s army.”

  Kayode kept drifting backwards and closer to the exit.

  The big man laughed. “And if I say that I have no interest in fighting for the Duke’s cause? If I say that he’s never done anything for me so why the fuck would I want to do anything for him.”

  The Captain’s eyes were cold. “Then you are sorely mistaken.”

  The man turned back to the crowd and laughed. “Well, it looks like I’m sorely mista—”

  The Captain’s fist struck the man’s neck, killing his words dead. A second blow landed in his gut, sharp and practiced, dropping the big man retching to his knees.

  “Lieutenant,” the Captain ordered.

  The man beside him moved at once—fluid, wordless—drawing not a blade but a pronged device and clamping it around the man’s neck.

  The big man grunted, his body locking as if seized by invisible hands. A crackle of energy jumped once, twice—then the Lieutenant released him and clipped the device—the Relic—back to his belt.

  There were numbers written on the man’s neck now, glowing a soft red.

  The Adventurer rubbed the place as if checking for injuries, and frowning in confusion when he found none. “What the fuck did you just do?!” he hissed.

  “The Grand Duke demands service from his subjects,” the Captain said, his voice flat. “If you feel otherwise inclined, you are free to leave.”

  The Adventurer frowned harder, and then his confusion turned to rage. “Well, I am leaving!” he snapped, and stepped out of the door.

  Kayode saw him storming off through the window. He knew what was about to happen, he’d seen that collar, and that mark, before.

  But if he called out a warning, he’d be drawing attention to himself.

  “Corporal,” the Captain said calmly. “Set the Levy Pole’s radius to encompass this establishment.”

  The standard-bearer adjusted the segmented pole without hesitation.

  An instant later, the Adventurer’s head exploded into pink mist. His body met the dirt.

  The room gasped.

  The Captain’s gaze swept the room. When his eyes settled, something shifted behind them—an invisible pressure dropping like a weight onto every chest at once.

  Men stiffened. A few staggered as if struck. Breath hitched, hands shook, knees buckled. Kayode watched one man’s face go slack with terror as a dark stain spread down his trousers.

  Whatever the Captain was doing, it wasn’t just intimidation.

  Kayode felt it brush against him—cold, heavy, absolute—then slide off without purchase.

  [Skill: Enforcer’s Dread — Negated by Vessel of Stone III.]

  He wasn’t the only one the Captain’s hold did not consume—half the room sprung into motion.

  The more impulsive men rushed the front doors, blades already half-drawn.

  Kayode didn’t see what the Captain did to them. He only saw bodies lift off the floor, slam into stone, and drop without rising.

  He turned and ran with the others—mostly veterans—angling for the rear exit.

  Soldiers were already there. Blades out. Skills primed.

  A man went down to a single punch, his body folding bonelessly. Beside him, a woman flicked her wrist and pinned another to the wall in a spreading web of translucent force.

  The soldiers pressed forward.

  The Adventurers met them.

  One man drove his fist into a soldier’s face, snapping teeth loose and sending the troop reeling.

  The response was immediate—the butt of a blade crashed into the man’s mouth, shattering bone and knocking him unconscious.

  Their orders, whatever they were, did not encourage killing. Everything short of that, though, seemed permitted.

  There was no way through. The Captain would have anticipated the veterans pushing for the rear exit, which meant that was where the heavier force would be waiting.

  Kayode spun and ran back into the Guild Hall, ducking as a body sailed past him and slammed into the far wall.

  A soldier caught him by the wrist and drove a fist toward his face, throwing his full weight behind it.

  Petrify!

  The world went black and when the light returned, the soldier was screaming with a broken hand.

  Kayode swung—Storm Writ—his knuckles came alive with lightning. It sank into the man's belly, sent him spasming with shock for an instant, before he collapsed onto the floor, drool hanging out of his mouth.

  Kayode turned away from him and looked for an exit—one that wasn’t currently guarded.

  He looked at the reception and did not find the clerk there. He looked for their exit and his eyes fell on the door behind the counter next. It was a free thing, with no men having yet clued into the fact that it might be the best out.

  Kayode went sprinting for it.

  He ducked under a bolt of energy, jumped over a rolling man, slipped out of a soldier’s grasp, leapt above the counter, reached the door—

  Something snapped around his arm.

  A whip.

  It went taut before he could react, ripping him off his feet and hurling him backward. Kayode slammed into the wall hard enough to crack the enchanted surface, then crashed to the floor, the impact driving the air from his lungs.

  As Kayode coughed and spluttered, he saw the Captain pull his whip back, wrap it around another man and send him crashing hard into the ceiling. This target, not quite so tough as Kayode, landed with a broken arm.

  The room was quite still after that, with most Adventurers having stopped fighting either from a lack of will, unconsciousness, or death.

  Kayode still had more strength to spare.

  He shoved his feet beneath him and propped himself standing.

  The soldiers moved to round on him, but a gesture from their Captain halted them. “Secure the others. I’ll handle this one,” he said, eyes steady, confident.

  Kayode raised his two fists and slid into a stance.

  And then the Captain was a blur.

  He slipped past Kayode’s guard, and threw a punch he had no hope of dodging.

  Thankfully, Kayode was already readying his defence.

  Petrify!

  The world went dark. And pain brought the light.

  Kayode came to stumbling backwards, nose flaring hot—broken–and the world spinning around him.

  The Captain looked at the bruise that covered his knuckles with a passing interest. “Nice trick. Lets see how well it helps you in the battlefield,” the Captain said. And then he swept Kayode’s legs out from underneath him and Kayode was landing hard on his backan instant later.

  His head rang like a bell; there was no way he could stand. He felt a weight and an impossible strength pin him down anyways.

  Cold metal clamped tight around Kayode’s neck.

  Then the pain came—hot, edged, and static.

  “Welcome to the Grand Duke’s army,” the Captain said, voice like twin daggers. “I trust you will serve His Grace well.”