Tycoon May: Chapter 42

Chapter 42

<Wake up!>

Grant groaned, trying to rub his aching head.  He couldn’t remember why he hurt so bad, but it probably had something to do with the choking dust, smoke, and flames all around him.

<If you don’t get up, right now, you’re going to die.>

Sarge’s no-nonsense tone was like a bucket of cold water dumped on his head.  The last ten minutes came rushing back, and Grant struggled back to his feet, despite the piece of twisted metal sticking out of the side of his leg.

<This whole thing is about to come down.  If you don’t move, you’re going to get buried.>

“Do you think the wagons made it through?”  Grant winced as he ripped out the metal and started climbing for the spot of light above his head.  “Or were they caught in what happened?”

<We won’t know until we get outside.  The reaction was too explosive for me to sense anything else going on around us.  Now move faster, before it’s too late.>

A rumble from the loose stone around him made Grant freeze, then redouble his efforts to escape the basement.  There was no other way out besides climbing the rubble left by the floors above, and the few twisted and warped sections of portcullis that had somehow made it inside.  In fact, that’s probably what saved Grant’s life.  He managed to find a piece of portcullis intact enough to use as a makeshift ladder, and made it out of the collapsing gatehouse with less than a minute to spare.

It started to crumble under its own weight, pulled down on top of the body of the Wielder that had nearly killed Grant before he even knew what happened.  He tried taking another step, but his leg finally gave out.  Collapsing onto his knees, Grant clutched his injured leg and watched the gate house create a tomb of worked stone for the terrifying warrior that he barely escaped.

“He’s alive!”  The voice was barely audible over the sound of the stone edifice collapsing, which was drowned out by the even louder sounds of the magic wards strengthening the walls snapping and sparking with booms of thunder as they shattered under the unforgiving force of gravity.  “Somebody help me, he’s hurt!”

Suddenly, Sam was there, helping Grant to his feet.  “Come on, Grant.  We need to go.  They’ll be after us with everything they have after something this big.  Our only chance is to make it to the next city and sell the wagons to the other merchant trains before they can catch us.  Then we’ll be able to scatter and disappear.”

“Right.”  Grant had heard Sam, but his words hadn’t sunk in yet.  He was still processing what had happened.   “Sell the wagons.”

“What happened in there?”  Sam guided him toward the waiting group of wagons, where several other injured were already sitting on top of wagons.  They watched with wide eyes as Grant approached, the backdrop of the collapsing gatehouse providing them with plenty of reasons why they should be concerned he was joining them.  “We barely made it out before everything started going crazy.”

“Everything went smoothly for you guys?”  Grant looked around for Aria, Evander, and the Wrecking sisters, but didn’t see any of them.  “Where is everyone else?”

“They pushed on, to clear the way.  We’ll catch up to them soon.”  Sam helped Grant onto the seat of the front wagon and climbed up next to him before passing over a roll of bandages.  “Patch up that leg.  I’m sorry we don’t have any potions left.”

“It’s fine.”  Grant started winding it around the wound, but he noticed his Regeneration skill had already started to slow the bleeding.  “So, are you going to tell me how it went for you guys?”

Sam flicked the reins and got the wagon train moving before answering.  It gave Grant enough time to take a drink from a water skin and clear his head a little more.  “Things went without much of a problem.  Evander and I hit the men watching the wagons with most everyone else, and Aria went after the men hiding inside the building with the Wrecking sisters.  They were so surprised, we had won before anyone knew what happened.”

“Glad to hear it.”  Grant grunted in pain as they hit a pothole in the road, causing his leg to shift.  “How did so many people get injured if things were so easy?”

“We jumped on the wagons and had them halfway through the gate before the guards could do anything.  That’s when the first explosion happened.”  Sam glanced at Grant’s burnt and scorched armor.  “Pieces of the guard house started falling on us, breaking bones and causing a panic.  We rushed through before the second and third explosions really messed things up, but it was still pretty rough going for a bit.  The animals didn’t appreciate the loud noises, so getting them back under control took a bit.  That’s when you walked out.”  Sam made sure to steer around the potholes to avoid more discomfort for Grant.  “Now will you tell me what happened?”

Wincing once again, this time at the thought of his own unfounded bravado, Grant looked back over his shoulder at the city slowly growing smaller behind them.

“I overestimated myself, and drastically underestimated what a full-fledged Wielder in District May can really do.”  Grant cleared his throat and turned back around in his seat.  “After I made it to the gatehouse door, I expected to rush in, overpower a bunch of guards, and hold the building while the wagons made it out of the city.”

<It was only a matter of time until you found someone capable, Grant.  Don’t blame yourself for what happened.  It went as well as could be expected.>

Grant ignored Sarge, and instead took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “Instead of a bunch of guards, there were only three.  A Wielder and two of his Vassals.  May Twentieth, to be specific.”

Now it was Sam’s turn to wince.  A fight with a Wielder was vastly different from a fight with a Vassal, especially if they were focused on combat.  Instead of interrupting, Sam stayed quiet and waited for Grant to finish on his own time.

“Their weapons were swords, very similar to mine, but bigger.  Probably meant to be used when fighting from the saddle.  I think they are called Odachi, while mine is an Uchigatana.”  Grant tapped February Twenty-Nine.  “It’s probably what saved my life.  I might have been able to beat one of the Vassals, but all three of them combined?  I should’ve been no match for them.  Fighting in the gatehouse was tight, and having a shorter weapon meant I didn’t get hung up on anything while we fought.”

“It doesn’t matter who should have won, Grant.  You walked away, and that’s all that matters.”  Sam lifted a hand to put it on Grant’s shoulder, but thought better of it.  “Don’t let it eat at you.”

“Don’t worry, there’s far worse things to haunt my dreams.”  Grant sat up straighter, refusing to let his thoughts crush him.  “Anyway, when I came through the door, we fought.  Nobody even said a word.  It was…eerie.  I was doing my best just to stay alive, so I started using the skills and spells I have.  One of my spells, called Thundering Step, uses lightning.  There was something about it that interacted with their weapons’ ability, and it caused an explosion.”

“Three enemies, and three explosions.  I guess that explains what happened.”  Sam popped the reins, eeking out a bit more speed from the pack animals.  “I’m just glad you managed to make it out okay.”

Grant didn’t reply, and Sam allowed them to fall into silence.  It had been a fast but furious fight, and the Vassal weapons exploding had been quite the shock.  Grant couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if the Wielder’s weapon had exploded as well, instead of just creating the massive final shockwave that ended up being the final nail in the gatehouse’s proverbial coffin.

<It’s almost impossible for a Wielded Weapon to break, but almost isn’t never.  If the Wielded Weapon had exploded, a good portion of the city would’ve disappeared.  They contain too much power for anything but another weapon to survive.  It might even crack the boundaries of reality, and that’s not something we want to do.>

“Look!”  Sam unknowingly interrupted Grant’s conversation with Sarge, pointing to something along the horizon.  “That has to be Evander.  Nothing else looks as big and dumb from a distance.”

Grant couldn’t help but laugh at Sam’s joke.  Somehow, he was right.  The silhouette was unmistakably Evander, and the jaunty attitude was somehow visible all the way from here.  He definitely looked like mental cultivation wasn’t his primary focus.

“It looks like he’s waving us forward.  They didn’t find anything waiting for us.”  Sam flicked the reins again, trying to get the wagon train to speed up even more.  “Thank the stars above, I think we’re in the clear.”

Grant couldn’t help but grimace at Sam’s comment.  “You didn’t have to say it out loud like that.  Now, something bad is definitely going to happen.”

“What?”  Sam shook his head.  “Don’t be so superstitious.  We’re going to be fine.  All we need to do is make it to the next city, and everything will be smooth sailing from there on out.”

<Oh yeah, he definitely wants you to have to fight some crazy huge monsters.  No other explanation at this point.>

Grant couldn’t help but agree with Sarge this time.