Knights Apocalyptica

“We’re scouting today,” Dame Yuvia informed the Knights as they gathered around for the morning debrief. In the distance, the sun rose and cast its rays over the wasteland; a dry beauty. Erec rubbed his eyes; in the end, he’d only gotten a couple of hours of sleep after the installation.

But it was worth it. The image of his Armor in excellent condition with its secret modification weighed heavily in his mind.

“Each Knight Errant will take along an initiate—one will have to juggle two at once. They’ll lead you out from this town on a ten-mile trip—North, West, and South from this location.” With that, Dame Yuvia began to pick out who went with who—Erec and Colin were to accompany a rather large Knight Errant. The man had too deep of a laugh and seemed overly prone to physical expression.

He patted Erec on the back, cheered him and Colin on, and then ordered them off to fetch their Armor.

“Come a long way, haven’t you rust bucket?” Colin asked as he stepped into his Vallum model. His father was either still working on commissioning another suit or had decided to punish his son by forcing him to wear the standard issue for initiates. To Colin’s credit, the boy hadn’t complained about his new Armor—not yet, at least.

“Wouldn’t say that,” Erec moved his arms in the Armor—it was as smooth as ever, with VAL running it from the inside. Whatever the processor was doing hadn’t become apparent yet, at least that he could tell. Though the visual display seemed more streamlined, VAL declared it’d made a ‘software update’ to utilize the new modification. A process that was still ongoing as VAL adapted to the design specs of the Kingdom’s technology and integrated his own.

“You've gotten under the wing of a Master Knight. That aside, rumors are flying about your meat-headed presence on the battlefield. Shouldn't that qualify as a long way for someone who came from a pitiful station?” Colin snorted. “Not that I engage in such pedestrian drivel, but my peers have asked me whether or not my house is looking to retain your service.”

Erec stopped and looked at Colin carefully. “What, are you looking to recruit me?” He waited for another beat. “Who else is talking to you anyway.”

“Good retainers are hard to come by, but I’m not big enough of a man to put someone on my family’s payroll who punched me in the face. Plenty of people associate with me. At least in passing, they know that eventually, we shall be out of this Academy.”

“Good; I wouldn’t have taken money from a weakling like you anyway." Erec smashed one of his fists into the other, a loud clang of metal from the motion as he suppressed a laugh.

“Mindless fighters like you are common because they often lose their heads,” Colin started to cackle at his ‘joke.’

Out of a scale of bad to awful, that one was closer to bad. Or maybe Erec was getting too used to them. Goddess knew that Colin opening up and expressing himself through his horrible humor hadn’t done a damn thing to improve it. Erec let out a begrudged sigh, before pausing. Somewhere out there was the Knight Errant; they’d be searching for the White Stag.

“Listen, I’ve been thinking lately,” Erec started in carefully. “I’m glad you’re not as awful as when I first ran across you, but I think things will change for you soon. You’ve been doing better—with that little spark of change you’ve been fanning. But people will come when they've seen an opening to use you to get what they want…” He paused, unsure of how to phrase it. He certainly wasn’t a paragon of virtue, nor could he be trusted, considering his vow to the Duke.

But he’d rather vital information about Colin’s affairs go to his father rather than an enemy.

“You’re worried about sycophants,” Colin said, nodding his head. “There were some in my early court life, boorish individuals. No doubt if one were to come up to me, I’d be able to pick them out in an instant.”

No way in hell he would. “Just—listen, if anyone does anything strange, like, gets too friendly with you, run it by Garin, okay? Sometimes, I do the same thing when I’m unsure about people. He can usually figure out what they’re really about.”

“Ah, a Baron’s son advising a Duke’s heir. Quaint.” Colin looked to the sky. “…Perhaps that advice has some merit, as much as it makes me upset to admit, I’ve never cared to judge character since they’re beneath my prestige. It frequently isn’t worth the effort to do so.”

“…Right.” They slipped into silence as they met up with the Knight Errant.

Shortly after, they were marching through the sand to a destination unknown.

Sun drenched the wasteland in warm light. In the distance, Erec could see a small mountain and the occasional rusted-out structure that stood the test of time. There was a twang in his gut as he plodded along. This place might be lonely; the feeling of the cracked ground beneath him and the vast lack of life almost oppressive.

But now and again—there were patches of wild grass. Or some other stubborn plants thriving and fighting the adversity of their environment.

Compared to before, living this way was more honest. Far more natural than the artificial caverns below, it might not be pleasant. Structures fell apart, people died, and monsters slaughtered.

But that reality resonated in him. He felt an acceptance of the cycle of what was and what could be—a deep understanding that dwelled in his soul as he, Colin, and the Knight Errant kept going.

Erec kept his eyes on the horizon.

He saw something. An eye stalk rose like a thin twitchy plant—swiveling in their direction; it dropped as quickly as it rose, hiding behind a mound of dirt. Definitely not natural.

“Monster,” Erec called, surprised he’d spotted it before anyone else—even VAL hadn’t given him a heads up.

“Huh?” The Knight Errant asked. “Where?”

Erec gestured in the general direction. “Hid away after spotting us; we’d have to get closer to where it’s hiding.”

The man nodded and pulled out his hand communicator—a short enough distance; it would be suitable to contact Yuvia. The two exchanged some quick words as the Knight Errant relayed Erec’s report, and then Yuvia gave them further orders. Approach and determine if the monster is behaving oddly. They were to flee if it presented too high a threat.

“Dangerous,” Erec said, shaking his head.

Colin kept staring where Erec had noticed the creature. “Shouldn’t we wait for more people? A couple of higher-ranking Knights or some soldiers? While we’re certainly a lot more capable, especially compared to other initiates, however—“ Colin started to say.

“Bah.” Their Knight Errant said. “You’re getting a taste of Dame Yuvia. She’s hungry for that next rank, been working at it for the last two years, but they haven’t seen fit to promote her to Knight Lieutenant for exactly this—too eager.”

Erec shared a look with Colin.

“Don’t you lads worry. We’ll get through this. Get close enough to get a peek and observe; pull away if it makes any moves.” He assured them, sensing their hesitance. All in all, the man wasn’t bad at leadership. A skill that Erec had been growing to appreciate more and more when he saw it in action. It was something he wanted to cultivate in himself but didn’t think it’d ever suit him properly. “Besides, from what I heard, one of you punches above your weight. We’ll get along fine! Confidence, lads!”

Erec let out a pained exhale as the man took the lead and started off toward the monster. He kept a low profile and informed them to follow his movements precisely with a whisper. The Knight Errant made full use of his cloak as he moved from a lowered position, most of his body covered by the camouflaged fabric of his Vallum Armor. It did a fair job of blending them into the terrain.

But, the main thing that reassured Erec was that they progressed with weapons in hand.

Even if his battle axe wasn’t tested in a fight yet, the weight felt right. Like an old friend, even if they’d scarcely met.

Getting closer to the location made a few things apparent. The deceptive nature of the wasteland hid the creature well—a mound of dirt blocked it from view and hid the fact that a divot in the ground was behind it.

As they made out the edges of the slight convex in the landscape, they got their first real sight of the monster. A long, stretched, fleshy creature entwined with itself struggled in the shallow hole. Three eyes swayed in place as it gurgled helplessly, slime congealing in the sand around it as it labored to breathe. From time to time, things came out of the Rifts that weren’t suited to the environment—or maybe this world in general. Only the Goddess knew how long this pitiful creature struggled in the sun.

Or how the hell it even got here?

The group paused as they took it in.

“Non-threat.” The Knight Errant said, shaking his head. “Thing’s half dead already.” He reported on his hand-held communication device.

“Is it making noises?” Dame Yuvia’s voice crackled on the other end of the line.

“Yes, ma’am; it’s dying out here.”

“Pull back then; not worth our time.” She said with a casual dismissal.

The Knight Errant put the device back down, clipping it into a belt wrapped around his Armor. He stared at the creature and cleared his throat.

“So, we’ll be disobeying her orders,” He finally said after an awkward pause.

“Huh?” Erec asked.

“Well, for one, we shouldn’t be leaving a potential enemy at our backs. I have seen that backfire plenty enough. It doesn’t look like it’ll put up much of a fight, but it's the principle of the matter. More than that, to tell you the truth, can’t stand just to leave it suffering, even if it’s a damned monster.”

“Agreed. Only a plebeian would be so unrefined.” Colin said easily from his side. Erec swayed between the two, confused. How was it that he was the least bloodthirsty? Sure, it’d be fun to test himself against an enemy, but this thing was in a pitiful state. Fighting a desperate dying monster wasn’t exactly at the top of his priorities—

Colin formed a glyph—a second later, a gout of flame consumed the monster. Its tendril flailed as the gurgle evaporated into silence, leaving nothing but ash.

“Burned as the Goddess decrees,” the man nodded with approval.

As they walked away, the communicator buzzed again. An urgent request for reinforcements to the north. Where Olivia was.

They’d encountered a small pack of silent beasts.

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