Chapter 162

They found Ruca and Val sitting around a small campfire with another woman who could have been Val’s twin, except thirty pounds lighter and with a sunken, sickly visage. Her arms were covered in sores and the skin around her wrists was an angry, abraded red. Ruca was sitting on a large wooden box and the women had a section of tree trunk that looked like it was left over from the harvested firewood.

“There he is,” Ruca said. “Man of the hour right there. We would not have pulled this rescue mission off without both of their help, but he really took the fight to ‘em. How many did you kill, my friend?”

“I didn’t keep track,” Luke said. “Enough that I got a level out of it.”

“Ancestors honor your sacrifice,” Val and the other woman said in sync. Luke got the feeling it was something these people said a lot, like saying “Bless you” when someone sneezed. Or maybe more like saying “Amen” at the end of a prayer. It felt religious to him.

“Speaking of sacrifice,” Zea said, “We’re here for our share of the money.”

“Your share?” Ruca asked, tilting his head. “I’m sorry, but there is no share.”

“Don’t give me that herosh dung. There’s no way none of those guards didn’t have a sock under the floor to- wait, that’s not right.”

Zea turned to Luke and switched back to Thalian. “Tell him that the guards definitely had money on them, and that the caravan master would have had even more in his wagon. We earned at least half, and by rights it should be half of what’s left over after we factor in the healing services I’m going to need and all the supplies I wasted. I spent probably fifteen gold on materials alone making all that, not even talking about the weeks it took me, and if a healer charges less than ten for this arm, I’ll be surprised.”

After Luke told the two of them what Zea wanted, Val snorted and said, “That’s too bad. We don’t have any money for you.”

“It’s going to take every coin to get these people healthy and back home,” Ruca added.

“That’s not our problem! We helped free them, we deserve a cut of the spoils,” Zea said. Her right arm flopped limply around, drawing attention to the broken elbow.

“We should get that in a sling,” Luke said.

“Later. We’re talking about something more important right now.”

Ruca sighed and said, “I appreciate that you’ve risked life and limb to help us. I’m sorry that you were injured in the process, but that does not change the fact that getting these people back to their homes so they can resume their lives is our first priority. The caravan didn’t have enough money for that. Even with two wagons of food, considering how much these people need to regain their health, we’re going to need every bit of cash to feed them on the long trip back.”

“You just said I was your ‘man of the hour,’ that you needed my help for all of this,” Luke said. “Seems a little bit ungrateful not to deal fairly with us. We’re not even asking for half, just enough to replace the supplies we spent and to cover the healing we need.”

Ruca leaned forward and spread his hands. “I understand how you feel, but the fact remains that we just don’t have enough to give any away. We don’t have enough for what we need. It’s expensive feeding this many people.”

Luke was only half listening to Ruca’s excuses. When the bandit had shifted in place, the box he was sitting on had shifted slightly with him. It was faint, but Luke had definitely heard the sound of metal clinking against metal inside it. Now that he looked at the box, he saw it was black wood with funny little symbols etched into it. There was a latch on the left side and a pair of hinges on the right, brass by the looks of it. It had probably come straight out of the necromancer’s wagon.

“He’s literally sitting on the money,” Luke told Zea. “Wilby’s gone, maybe off hunting, so it’s just these two. I could take them both pretty easily if we want to push it.”

“Can you? Wasn’t that guard the same level as you? The one they were fighting while also dealing with all the other guards?”

“He was, but he was also heavily invested in a defensive strategy. That’s why the fight dragged on so long, I think.”

“We need the money,” Zea said. “I am not okay with just being a cripple for the rest of my life as thanks for our good deeds.”

“Do we have enough left to cover the healing?”

She considered that for a second, then shook her head. “Probably… Hard to say. I don’t know how much it’ll cost here. If we were back on the western continent, I’d say yes, but we definitely don’t have enough to replace all the shock stones, armor chains, and the tentacle ball I used, not to mention all the new damage to your actual armor, not if you want to have enough to live on for the next month or two.”

“I’m okay with not getting reimbursed for that,” Luke said. “We’ll make do, and they’re not wrong when they say they’re going to need a lot of money to take care of over a hundred people. But if we don’t have enough money for your arm, we’re getting some money for that.”

Maybe it was something in their tones that warned the two bandits, or maybe it was just that they weren’t speaking in a language that everyone shared, but either way, things had grown tense. Val at least was expecting a fight, and it looked like Ruca wasn’t far behind. He was still sitting calmly on the box, but he’d shifted his weight to get his feet under him. If it came to it, he’d be up in an instant.

“Okay, look, here’s how it is,” Luke said. “I get that you have a use for that money, and I agree that it’s a good one. We don’t want half, even though it wasn’t be unreasonable if we did. I’m willing to forego the cost for everything we used in the fight, but the money for the healing is non-negotiable.”

“With respect, my friend, you’re in no position to make demands,” Ruca said. “We’ve already given you our answer.”

“Mmm. You’re sure that’s how you want it?” Luke asked as he threw out [Analyze] on Ruca and Val just to make sure nothing had changed. To be safe, he also scanned everyone else nearby to confirm that most people were under level 20 and roughly half of them were in such bad condition that they had actual debuff lines in their status. The crossbows from the guards had been distributed among the healthier of the former slaves, but they didn’t have the skills or stats to assist with aiming and reloading. The quivers were also far emptier, with most people having three or four shots at most.

“Please don’t do this,” Luke said.

“You’re welcome to a bowl of soup,” Ruca said. “If you want to travel south with us, we won’t turn you away.”

Zea snorted. “Travel at a glacial pace while we hunt monsters to put meat on the table and defend your refugee caravan the whole time? For free, no less. No thanks.”

Ruca nodded. “Fair enough. You’ve done more than enough, and I appreciate that.”

“But you won’t give us a cut of the money.”

“I cannot.”

Luke had been eyeing up a skill he’d seen used against him a few times in previous fights. There were a few different versions of it, but he was looking at the basic, bare-bones [Burst Step]. If he’d had this before the battle with the caravan started, things would have gone much smoother. As much as he wanted to save the AP for his bloodline skills, he thought it might be time to spend a little, just to make sure he lived long enough to get the next few levels.

[Burst Step] had three ranks at the same AP costs as [Power Strike], which meant he could only afford the first rank at the moment. That would be more than enough for his purposes, since the second rank just made it so he could use the skill more often, and the third rank increased the speed boost.

Luke spent 10 AP on rank 1 [Burst Step].

Activating it was a lot like channeling [Power Strike]through his body, only without the option of choosing which limb the knot of power would charge through. It had only one option: Straight down through his legs. As soon as [Burst Step] activated, Luke was propelled forward so fast that only his high perception stat allowed him to see anything at all. His peripheral vision became a complete blur for a fraction of a second, and his focus narrowed down to Ruca’s face.

[Power Strike] went through Luke’s arm and spread out through his fist, where it was transferred at the point of impact into Ruca’s jaw. The bandit was hurled backward to land thirty feet away, flat on his back and a groan of pain on his lips.

Val leaped to her feet and her blade flashed through the air. Luke slapped it with an open palm, drawing a line of blood across his skin. He hit the blade hard enough that it was knocked out of Val’s hand, which didn’t slow her down in the slightest. The woman had a half dozen more weapons on her, but before she could go for them, Luke stepped inside her range and hit her with an uppercut that lifted her eight feet into the air.

“Want to grab the money?” Luke asked Zea.

“Sure.” She went over and flipped open the box, rifled through it for a minute, and produced a large leather pouch. “Found it.”

Luke slipped around Zea to block Ruca, who’d come charging back in with a sword in either hand. The man was fast, almost too fast to keep up with despite Luke having significantly higher agility, but [Tactical Foresight] was too good at predicting Ruca’s moves. Within three seconds of engaging, Luke smacked an open palm against Ruca’s forehead and knocked him on his ass.

“Only take what we need,” Luke said. “They’ve got a legitimate need for the money.”

He went over the log, now vacated by the woman he assumed was Val’s twin, and kicked Val in the knee as she tried to leap onto it. She howled in pain as she stumbled forward into the fire, and Luke took the opening to shove her out of the flames.

“Stop, drop, and roll,” he called out to her when she started frantically patting down her leg.

Zea counted out a bunch of square coins with rounded edges and holes in the center. It took her longer than normal on account of her only having one hand, but Luke was able to hold the two bandits off without too much effort. The trick was keeping them from coordinating with each other, which mostly involved controlling Ruca. Val did not have a level head for fighting and obviously didn’t understand her build very well. Luke guessed she’d copied it from Ruca.

“All set,” Zea said.

“Start heading down the road,” Luke said as he used [Burst Step] to intercept Val again. “I’ll catch up.”

Zea took off running down the road, only stopping to dodge an errant bolt fired by a man in response to Val’s infuriated cries to stop the dwifkin. Everyone else just seemed confused about the situation. Luke wasn’t taking the fight very seriously, having done nothing but really defend himself after his initial attacks. He hadn’t even drawn his weapon.

“Well, this has been fun, but I think it’s about time for me to head out,” Luke told Ruca. “Best of luck getting all of this sorted out. Maybe have your people stop wasting their ammunition on us and save it for hunting. Can’t be expecting Wilby to come up with all the meat, right?”

“You bastard,” Ruca spat out. “People are going to starve because of the money you stole.”

“I don’t really feel like we stole anything,” Luke said. “And I’m sure you’ll come up with something. We’re leaving you most of the money and all of the supplies after all.”

Ruca and Val managed to come at him at the same time, mostly because Luke had stopped corralling the former and the bandit had managed to sync himself up with his partner. [Unarmed Martialist] showed Luke exactly what to do in that situation, and it barely took any effort on his part to twist around Val and shove her into Ruca’s path. He was forced to back off or risk skewering her and Luke used the opportunity to break away from the fight.

“Later!” he called out before using [Burst Step] to make it to the road. Luke settled into an easy, ground-eating stride and caught up with Zea a mile or two down the road. The two didn’t stop, though Luke didn’t hear any pursuit. By the time they took a break, he wanted to be miles and miles away from the camp and any possible danger.

“My arm is fucking killing me,” Zea said after a while.

There was that too. Luke needed to ask System how far the closest city was.