Chapter 80: If Fate shows you a Door II

  “Alright, my turn.” Janette said and walked into the combat area, giving Marcus a high five. “Janette Long, level 34 Hawkeye class.” she said while Rita gathered her wits and looked the young woman over. “Are you a scout or sniper?” she asked. “I’m the main damage dealer of our group.” Janette said and pulled out a small pistol from under her clothes. Rita would have normally taken this for a joke but the encounter with that “Titan” had taught her a lesson. She went back to her starting point and was about to form one of her fragments into shield as she watched Janette unloading her gun.

  “What exactly are you doing.” Rita said and anger started to swell in her chest. “Those metal pieces are a part of you.” Janette said, ignoring Rita’s question. “I think of them as part of me, yes.” People could not understand how it felt for a Metal Master to be bound to their fragments and she normally did not talk about it much. “No, I mean they really are a part of you. Which is bad for you. We truly are a horrible match up for your class.” Janette said and walked five more meter back.

  Rita did not understand what was going on but her training overcame any distraction and she focused on the task at hand. Once again she started with one fragment formed like a blade and aimed at a non vital part of her opponent. The young woman moved forward and just before the metal fragment hit her, she avoided it with a simple lean. Rita tried again and the same thing happened. She added her second piece into the mix and Janette continued to avoid both while slowly moving closer. Rita increased the speed and even started to attack from dead angles but the Hawkeye dodged every attack with minimal effort. A few more steps and Janette stood in front of the bewildered woman and pressed her empty gun against her chest “Bang.” she said with a smile.

  “Very impressive. I take your shooting is as impressive as your defenses?” the lord said, barely hiding his ever growing excitement. Janette nodded and walked off the combat field. Rita felt like she was in a bad dream. She was holding back but that was no excuse for what was happening here. “Then I will go now.” Achara said with a serious face and a small knife in hand. “Achara Nam, level 34 Catsith class.” Rita pulled back her fragments and nodded.

  The Asian woman vanished into thin air.Of course this was a bad match up for her class but she was not that defenseless against such tricks. Her fragments formed into blades and started to rotated around her body in a meter distance. One was on shoulder height the other on the knees. As the pieces rotated a slight wind was caused and pebbles bounced around. For several seconds nothing happened and Rita picked up some gravel throwing it around her. A small stone hit something in the air and Achara became visible, Rita moved one of her weapons to attack but the other woman vanished a fraction of a second later. That was scary! Rita had never seen or heard of a Catsith going invisible this fast. She pulled her blade back and continued her death rotor. Seconds past again and she was about to try the shotgun trick again as suddenly a blade was at her throat. “Phase Walk?” Rita asked and stopped her blades. “Yes, but I’m not very good at it yet. In a static situation like this, I feel confident on using it.” Achara said with a soft smile. Rita nodded and declared her passed.

  Kou was the last on the list and because he was support he did not need to fight Rita directly. Instead his task was to deflect her fragments and to show off his area effect ability. He also lifted Rita up a bit and for once she seemed to enjoy the test. “You pass too.” she said.

  Alistair Cromwell watched the proceedings and made some decisions. The raid was no longer the most important task here. He had to ensure good relations with these people. “Very well, with all of this out of the way I think we should sit down for tea, or coffee if you like.” He said and invited them into a large, fancy room. The furniture was made from dark wood, large exotic plants exuded a powerful aroma and servants provided tea, coffee and biscuits. Shortly after they had sat down two more people joined them. A tall, bald man with a figure close to Marcus and a smaller man with shoulder long dark hair and a strong southern European look. They introduced themselves as “Hammond Lund, Spirit Guide level 81” and “Carlos Rodriguez Garcia, Accelerator level 62”. The rest of their raid team.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  When Marcus heard the class of the large man his eyes turned into big saucers. A Spirit Guide! First a Metal Master and now that! Such a rare and interesting class, and the man looked nothing like he would have imagined for this class. The new and old raid members talked and quickly found common ground.

  While they talked, Grace got up and walked over to Rita who stood a bit aside nibbling on a chocolate biscuit. “Your pride must be hurt.” She said standing next to the smaller woman. After Rita did not react for a few seconds Grace continued. “Janette was right they were all horrible match ups for you, and it was only a test. Don’t worry about it.” Rita nodded and continued to destroy her biscuit in the slowest way possible.

  “I get the Catsith but the other two make no sense to me.” Rita finally said. Grace nodded and looked over to Marcus who was already in a deep discussions with Hammond. “Marcus is the real deal. He is remaking the Fighter class into something incredible, once he gets to the high levels the world will take notice.” Grace said. “That healing ability…” Rita said and Grace nodded “It is his third ability, a Game Changer. Honestly, it is insane, I have never seen anything like it.” The biscuit finally vanished and another one took it’s place. “And Janette, she is already a monster. You will understand once you see her in combat.” Grace said and left Rita alone with her thoughts.

  “But say, Marcus you are very young. You must have become a class holder with 18? Right?” Hammond said and Marcus loved his Scandinavian accent. “Actually no, I was 15 when I took my class. But I only really started actively using it with 18.” Marcus said with a smile. “That is so young!” Hammond looked shocked and so did Mr. Cromwell. “Say Marcus, which monolith did you touch? The one in Poland?” the older man asked with sudden curiosity. “No, the one in southern France.” Marcus said wondering about the significance of that information.

  The lord leaned back in his chair and sipped on his tea. Memories of a rainy day, on a hill in France, flooded back into his mind. Unbelievable how much he had changed, Alistair thought.

  From the start he had a weird sense of recollection with the young man but was unable to point his finger on it. Normally he was very good with faces, even before his transformation and the intelligence crests. The scrawny teenage boy with the bad leg had turned into massive man. Alistair had a strong feeling about the young man five years ago and his determination had inspired the old man on that day. Was it fate that they had met again under these circumstances?

  Alistair excused himself and left the rest of his group in charge of entertaining his new important guests. He went up into his private office and to his PC. With a few hand movements he pulled up the prepared contracts for the new raid members. He had prepared them in advance, trusting Grace Taylor not to disappoint him, but things had changed significantly. Several points, limitations and rewards needed change. Alistair had spent much money in preparation of this raid and hoped to gain much from it. But he would give it all up if it meant building a favorable relationship with this clan. The fact that he had met Marcus before, on that important day, was too much of a hint from fate to ignore it. Sometimes you have to trust the instincts of an old dog, Alistair thought.

  Mr. Cromwell had vanished for an hour and Grace was beginning to wonder what he was up to, when he finally returned with an electronic tablet in hand. “I’m sorry, I kept you waiting. I brought the contract for our cooperation. Please give it a read.” He offered it to Grace but Kou took it with an apologetic smile. “Contracts are my territory.” Kou buried into the file and scrolled over many pages of text while Grace and Marcus watched over his back. Kou furrowed his brows “Are you sure about these conditions? You would basically give us equal rights on loot and general rewards in addition to a million dollar base pay per person. That feels a bit too generous given that we are a lot lower level.” Grace looked over the more than fair conditions and glanced at the old lord Cromwell. That sly dog, he has already recognized the worth of the Colors of the Wild, she thought and smiled. “Well Marcus, should we take it?” She said and looked at her clan leader. “Yes.” he said but gave the old man a thoughtful look.

  The new raid members were settled in the guest quarters and the core team gathered in the office of the lord for a short review. “What are your feelings?” Alistair asked. “You are asking now after you have given them that super generous contract?” Rita asked with one eyebrow raised. “Yes, I still want to hear your opinions.” Alistair said, leaning back on his large leather chair. “They are good people. My friends like them all. I don’t know how strong they are, but if they are weak they will just die.” Hammond said in his very Hammond way.

  “Grace is definitely strong. I have never seen her in action, like you have, but I can tell in one look she is going to be an asset.” Carlos said and added “Can’t say much about the others. Well, the one woman Janette, her eyes make me nervous.” Alistair nodded and turned to Rita. “I think they are stronger than you would expect but they lack actual experience.” She said and the man in the chair smiled. “Thank you for your opinions.”.

  “What do you think?” Rita said, challenging her old friend. Alistair got up and straightened his back “We had several disappointing experiences with other groups in our raids, over the last years. If this goes well I hope to continue and deepen our relationship in the future. But first the raid.” Let’s see where fate is guiding us, Alistair Cromwell thought.