Chapter 24

  The moon had already risen into the night sky. Danny was struck by how much it illuminated the surroundings when no light pollution clouded the glow. Indy whined from his arms. The poor fox had grown tired quickly. Urged by this feeling that he was so close to something important, Danny decided to carry Indy the rest of the way. Ash followed dutifully behind, with no complaints. “Almost there guys, I can feel it.” Orange ears perked up and Indy suddenly seemed very interested in what lay ahead. “You feel it too, huh?” The Treasure Sense was a peculiar power, but Danny was hopeful that it would lead to something good. He heard a muffled conversation ahead. Nature’s night sounds made it hard to make the words out clearly. Only bits and pieces were intelligible.

  “...know the rules… break… pay the price.”

  “...don’t have to… never see me… move on…”

  “...right… but we want to.” Danny was close enough now that he heard the sound of a soft thud mixed with the wheezing moan that came when the wind was knocked out of you. When he was close enough to see the scene, Danny watched two men beating up on some other, smaller guy. It was clear that this was not some fight between equals, they were going to kill the dude if they kept this up. Carefully setting Indy to the ground, Danny commanded his animal companions to stay put. Ash outright refused. In a hushed voice, Danny struck the bargain that if he was in trouble Ash could help, but he was going to try to settle this on his own first. After getting her agreement, Danny stepped out of the cover of the bushes and branches.

  “Stop that!” Danny said. Maybe there was some context that he was missing. Maybe the guy getting beat up deserved it. Maybe Danny should ask questions first and hit people with a stick later, but seeing these guys wail on the obviously defenseless guy was infuriating. Something about it rubbed him the wrong way. Feeling his teeth, nails, and sense sharpen, Danny resolved himself to give these two a taste of their own medicine. The two men were an almost comical duo: one was a hulking giant that probably ate whey protein and an entire cow for breakfast, and the other was slender and thin with a mean look in his eyes and a cruel smile. They turned to take in the challenger, but not without giving a final kick to the groaning heap on the ground. The big man put on a pair of brass knuckles with spikes on them. The thin one pulled out a serrated knife that looked more like an instrument of torture than a practical weapon. The thin one spoke.

  “Brotherhood business. Piss off.” That was the last straw. Whatever this “Brotherhood” was in the business of, Danny didn’t like it. He shot forward, recalling his training with Sassa. His rage made him reckless. Instead of probing out the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents, like he had been drilled to do, Danny launched a Falling Thunder directly at the big man. One meaty paw caught the staff. The surprised and pained flash that ran across his face told Danny that the hit had still hurt. The giant retaliated with a punch to Danny’s midsection. Watching the fist sail through the air, Danny was struck by how slow it was. He easily avoided it while closing the gap. Scratches to the face of the big man forced him to release Danny’s weapon. The bulky boxer stumbled back, wiping blood from his cheek.

  The thin one decided to take his turn. Their coordination was nothing compared to Sassa and her clones. Instead of attacking simultaneously, they let Danny take them on one at a time. Wild slashes came from the thin man. Sloppy and slow, Danny had little trouble dodging them. He heard the larger man recovering, so Danny struck the knife-wielding hand of his current opponent with bone-breaking force. The crippling blow bought enough time for Danny to deal with the incoming haymaker. Again, Danny dodged and answered with a strike of his own, this time dislocating the shoulder of the giant-sized man. Both men retreated next to each other, huffing and puffing as they tried to decide their next move.

  “Run.” Danny said. He had made his point. Besides, it was taking all he could muster to hold back enough to prevent permanent injuries. The well of rage that the Lupine Ferocity transformation caused was hard to ignore. The thin man, who seemed to be the leader of the two, looked at the bleeding wound on the big man’s face. Danny could see the creases of fear on his face. The leader turned back, putting on a mask of bravado.

  “You’re a dead man walking,” he said. He turned to the man they had beaten. “You too. Both of you. Dead.” With a nod to his large companion, the two of them disappeared into the forest. Images of chasing them down and tearing them apart flashed through Danny’s mind, but he pushed them away. Features returning to normal, Danny walked over to their victim. He looked at Danny with a face somewhere between grateful and afraid. There was something else there too, but Danny couldn’t figure out what it was.

  “Who are you?” The bloodied and bruised man wheezed out.

  “I’m Danny. I was—”

  “What do you think you’re doing? Are you stupid?” The man began a coughing fit. He spat some blood into the grass. “Now they’ll be after me. I was supposed to—” he broke into another cough.

  “Easy, easy,” Danny said. “Those two punks are gone now. It’s gonna be fine.”

  The other man snorted. “Hog and Slim aren’t the ones I’m worried about. The whole Brotherhood is going to be after me now. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

  “What are you talking about? Who is the Brotherhood?” Danny was confused. The guy used a nearby tree and pulled himself upright. Maybe he isn’t as helpless as I thought.

  “Who’s the Brotherhood— are you? You actually don’t know. Shit. You must be from a different Tutorial or something. The Brotherhood is a biker gang, from before. We beat guys for loan sharks, deal drugs, that kind of stuff.”

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  “We?”

  “Yeah, we. Well, I suppose I’m an ex-member now. Anyway, all of us ended up in the same Tutorial and took it over. Nobody Levels without the boss, Chris’s, say-so. Keeps all the best stuff for his inner circle and the other members. Non-members are forced to do all the shitty stuff.”

  “So why were they after you?” Danny asked.

  “I wanted out. I joined up a couple of years back.” Now that Danny was getting a better look at him, this guy was not at all the helpless victim that Danny had thought. He had a tattoo on his neck that he hadn’t noticed with the struggle and shadows. The beat-up guy had on a black wife-beater with a leather jacket over it. His jeans were worn and distressed, but free of holes; a black belt with a large silver belt buckle in the shape of a devil head held them up. Brown boots completed the ensemble. “Ever since the current leader, Chris showed up, the Brotherhood has been going to hell.” The biker continued. “We weren’t angels before, but it got more violent when he took the reins. Only got worse in the Tutorial. Now, I can’t stomach some of the things they do, ‘specially to the girls.” His nose scrunched like he had smelt sour milk.

  “Why did they do that to you?” Danny gestured to the dripping red coming from the biker’s nose and mouth.

  “It’s the rules. You want out, gotta pay the price.” The man used his shirt to wipe the blood from his face. “We’re fucked now.” The man let out a sigh. “Name’s Mario.”

  “Mario? You don’t look like—” Danny quickly realized how that sounded. “I didn’t mean—”

  “No, it’s fine. Mario’s my biker name. Guys found out I like to play video games when I’m at home, busted my balls for days. Started calling me Mario, guess the name stuck.” Mario answered. “Brotherhood’ll be after us now. Me because I broke the rules. And you, well, for steppin’ in on Brotherhood business. Chris’ll wanta make an example out of the both of us.”

  “I think I’ll manage.” As if on cue, Ash stepped into the moonlight, Indy hobbling behind her.

  “Oh shit-fuck! Big wolf incoming!” Mario shouted. He raised his hands and they began to glow. Flames began to flicker in his palms.

  “Woah, woah, woah,” Danny put himself between Mario and Ash. “She’s with me. I’m a beast-tamer class. Chill!” Finally, the embers flickered out and Mario reluctantly lowered his arms.

  “Sorry, uh, Danny. I’m a little amped up still. When your wolf— dog?— came out of nowhere, I thought we were about to get wasted.” He appraised Danny and Ash. “I’m not typically a fan of backwarmers, but maybe we can keep an eye out for each other. At least until this Brotherhood stuff blows over.”

  “Why don’t we just take out these Brotherhood guys, they are bad news, aren’t they?” Danny asked. It seemed simple. These gang members were not the good guys, that much was clear, and they got a bunch of people under their thumb who couldn’t leave without a beating. Sounded like a good group to put a stop to.

  “Easy, tiger. The Brotherhood has got some strong guys. All of ‘em are around the same Level as me.” Danny realized that he had yet to Identify Mario. [Level 45 Human Pyromancer].

  “Pyromancer?”

  “Stage 2? Where’s your Level?” It seemed that they both had the same idea.

  Danny explained the broad strokes of cultivation and how it split from System Leveling. Mario seemed surprised that there was an entire other way to get stronger, but he was much less enthusiastic than Danny had been when he found out. Monster-slaying had been right up the biker’s alley. Despite the moniker, Mario was a fan of classic fantasy RPGs rather than platformers featuring green pipes and turtle-dragons with spiked shells. What build did he usually play? Stealth archer. Apparently, the System didn’t base classes on one’s gaming preferences. The relatively casual conversation, while based on Levels and classes, was welcome. That Danny had not had a conversation that wasn’t based on training and getting stronger, or invasions and existential threats in a long while was not lost on him. Eventually, they returned to the matter at hand.

  “Listen,” Mario started. “Way I see it, we have two options: get the hell out of dodge, or we face the music. Staying around the area is not feasible with the Brotherhood after us. Assuming you still want to travel together…”

  “Yeah,” Danny said. “Can never have too many friends, right? It doesn’t sit right with me letting those guys keep doing what they’re doing.”

  “No offense, I’m sure you’re super strong and all, but Chris and some of his inner circle are over Level 50. Can’t exactly just storm in there guns blazin’. Gotta think it out a little more. Hogs and Slim aren’t exactly the cream of the crop.”

  Danny made a mental note to Identify new people he met in the future. “Any ideas?” He asked.

  “We can sleep on it. Sending Hog and Slim back with their tails between their legs won’t raise too much of a stink. They will send out a crew tomorrow though, we’ll have to get a move on by then.”

  “About that…” Danny explained that he only had one tent. Another requirement of the more and more Draconian-seeming Brotherhood rules was that Mario was only allowed to bring the clothes on his back with him. No supplies, no weapons, no food, just his jacket, shirt, jeans, and boots. They found a suitable area to make a camp, and Danny felt so bad that he insisted Mario sleep in the tent. He made his bed lying next to Ash and Indy under the stars.

  “Should we even get involved, Ash?” Danny asked the large wolf that had become his pillow. “I mean, this won’t get us any closer to one of those Pylons that Aspen mentioned. Maybe we could recruit some of the people who are stuck there to our Faction, but why wouldn’t they just try their luck on their own, especially after how the Brotherhood treated them.” Danny sighed. “I don’t know… I also just don’t like the idea of letting a bunch of biker bullies go unpunished. It just doesn’t seem right to me.” He sat to look Ash in the eyes. “What do you think?”

  I think it is your path to follow, Ash responded, whatever you decide, I will be with you.

  Danny flopped back down to a lying position. “Thanks, but not exactly all that helpful.” He could’ve sworn he heard the wolf growl out a chuckle. “Good night, Ash.”

  Sleep well.