Chương 19: The Bull and The Snake

Ch. 19: The Bull and The Snake

"Obviously I'll need you to be on your best behavior," Kayla said.

"Obviously," I replied.

"You represent me and you're my responsibility. Understood?"

"Yes, mom."

"You're sticking by my side. You're not running off, tangoing with cores by yourself. I know you have a tendency to jump headfirst into dark pits, let's try to avoid that." The parking attendant directed Kayla to an empty spot. It was deep underground with other service workers for Dodger's stadium. We got out and I handed Kayla her drink, a dirty chai latte. I sipped from my iced coffee with a big splash of whole milk.

"When did they say your car would get fixed?" She asked.

"They're just waiting on one last part. Should be fixed within two days." We walked up a ways but we saw the problem pretty quickly. One of the players' tunnels was covered in sand. It was sealed off with caution tape but sand was pouring in from a heavy, heated wind coming from inside the hellmouth. Instead of a host of teeth, the hellmouth had four fangs. Two on top and two on the bottom that curved inward.

"Snake core, you said?" I asked.

"Yes. Ever had one?"

"I've done a desert type before but… never tangoed with a rattler. Scary?"

"Terrifying. Move quick and strong too. Don't get me started on those scales." Kayla was wearing something a little more gear appropriate than the athleisure she wore last hunt. She sported a linen long sleeve with rolled up sleeves and flexible linen shorts to move quickly in. She had on hiking boots and had her hair in a ponytail. I wore a white shirt and Dickies work pants. My shoes were old runners. We both had our sunglasses on.

I also had brought a backpack to stash cool shit in in case I found some weapons again.

"You ready?" She asked.

"Yeppers."

"Remember: By. My. Side." I let out a deep breath, She's treating me like a kid. The whole point of this trip was to fight stronger monsters. But if I stay by her side that's going to be tough. I used my fingers to press through the menu of my status screen. There were two missions in front of me. Stick By Kayla's Side (100 xp) Evade Kayla (500 xp) There's some level of self-actualization to these quests. The more I want something, the more exp its worth. That's why there's this one at the very top.

I craned up to look at the quest that had been their since my journey as a god started. Cure Dory (1, 000, 000, 000 exp)"You the lead?" I asked. Another voice, deep and carried itself throughout the player's tunnel said, "That would be me." I turned and saw a mountainous man with muscles bursting through his polo. He was young enough, probably mid-thirties, but had a thick mustache and a modern mullet that you see on Australian influencers.

Atop his head was a baseball cap with two holes in it to make room for his bull horns. Wait what?

"Hi there," I said, unable to stop looking at the prongs on his head.

"Billy. Billy the Bulwark. Yeah, I know. Probably don't see much of these on alphas. Eventually some of the powers the gods give you have to come with physical manifestations. These bad boys came at level 10."

"Wow," I said, "Level 10. What do they do?"

"Increase my strength. Stamina. Also, it gives me this power called 'Red Cape.' Which allows me to do extra damage on a target of my choosing. What's your name, friend?" He had one of those smiles that forced you to smile back. He was like an affront of charm. I met his outstretched hand with mine and when he shook it, he practically took my arm off.

"Drake. Pleasure."

"Kayla told me you'd be joining us. We're all going to do our part to make sure you experience this as safely as possible. And hopefully learn some things along the way. But it's like Kayla probably told you, Charlies are a lot rougher than Bravos. Oftentimes it's not just the number of sapients but by how organized they are. This happens to an Anubisan military outpost. And I shudder to think of what would happen if we encountered her." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"What would happen? What would be your call?" I asked him.

"Instant retreat. Immediate upgrade to Delta at least. Probably get some guards on the hellmouth and mobilize a higher level team ASAP."

"Wow. She's that powerful?"

"Yeah," His face darkened and he cleared his throat, "I know you and the other member of this team have dealt with a demon lord. Well… this time we won't have a god who can protect us. My priority is to keep this team safe. You give me a holler if you feel in danger. You got it?"

"I got it."

"Great! The other team should be arriving soon. And as you could probably tell, my god is Brutos, the minotaur god. Duh, the horns. Oh, that's both of them now!" I whispered to Kayla.

"This guy seems really nice," Before turning and having my day completely ruined. Billy had mentioned someone else on the team running into a demon lord. I didn't realize he was talking about the same demon lord that I had dealt with.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Franz."

"I was about to ask you the same question," Franz said to me.

"It's called a Ride-along."

"It's actually not. It's actually called a companionship. You don't even know what it's called. What are you even doing here, you're an NPC?"

"You're an NPC!" I screamed, "Last I heard, Spiros' death left you high and dry."

"That was tough. But I quickly got in touch with a new god and they made me their champion. Jealous?" I was so fucking jealous. I never even had one god who wanted me and this bitch got two??

"What god would touch your smelly ass?"

"Woah," Billy said, "Seems like there's a little bit of heat right now and it's not just the desert sun! Let's cool off before we jump in there. Remember, we can't do this without teamwork." Kayla punched me in the arm. Her expression told me everything.

'Best behavior.' I sighed and told Franz, "I'm cool. I'm real cool. Should we jump in there?" The last member, a man named George, joined us after fetching his canteen from his car. Billy offered us waters and we topped up our canteens. I immediately put my white tee over my nose as the winds whipped sand into my face and I entered the desert tar pit. The rest of the champs joined me. We were surrounded by desert but the scouts that did recon had left a note for which direction to head in.

We traveled along the dunes for an hour. Billy and I walked side by side.

"It's kind of like the Richter Scale," he explained, "It goes up by a factor of about 10. So… imagine this, not sapients but… the average monster? It's about as strong as the average Alpha pit's core."

"Oh, good," I said. We arrived at a dune that, to me, looked indistinguishable from every other hill of sand. But Billy looked at his map and said, "Yeah, okay. Should be about here. Let's crouch." He went prone and belly crawled up the dune. He peered through his binoculars.

"Drake, come up here. I want you to see this." I joined him and he handed me his binoculars. There was a large desert temple. It was surrounded by a moat of water with Palm trees springing up on the other side. The actual temple was a large sandstone structure, pyramidic, but with terraces that had doorways and windows. There was a terracotta roof at the top with an empty balcony.

Billy gently guided the binoculars down to the front of the temple, where tents were set up and soldiers that looked like dogs waited by a pool of water. In the center was a banner that had a canid head.

"Okay, those are gnolls. They're tough. We don't fully know the politics of Anubis' army, but we know that her guys are well trained. This is probably going to be a doozy of a level so I want you to have the opportunity to walk away." I was drooling.

"I'm ready."

"Perfect," he said, "I want you to sit out for this one and watch how we work. You cool with that?" I let out a sigh, but I nodded my head. Billy looked around to all of the others and said, "Let's move." Billy jumped over. George and Kayla joined him. Franz grabbed my shoulder and pulled himself up using it. As he ran down the dune he kicked sand into my face.

"Fucking asshole," I whispered as I looked through the binoculars. We did not have an understanding of the politics of this world. They likely had their own complex lives and schemes and wants and goals as a society. But the more important fact was that if we did not defeat the core, they would come into our lands and destroy us. So everything else was secondary. The one thing we did know was that demons were the toughest amongst the monsters. They were all codenamed after pagan gods.

Anubis was a black dog woman with a flowing white outfit, so the name 'Anubis' was the natural fit. The first time she was spotted, she destroyed an entire group of Bravo Champs by herself and closed the core so we could not rebut her. We had had dealings with her military many times. It seemed her army had vast control of whatever this desert was called. I scanned the battle with my binoculars, watching as Franz and a gnoll were in the middle of battle.

I took my fingers and put them in front of the glass, pretending to crush Franz by closing them. Kayla was slamming monsters back and healing when need be. George was conjuring flames, using them as a ranged attack and hiding behind Billy who was slamming his fists against the dog-like dangers. My binoculars continued past them, to the moat. My gaze traveled up past the palm trees to the open doors, where I could see guards inside not yet notice the commotion outside.

I traveled further upward, past the second floor window and up to the terracotta roof with the balcony. The beaming sunlight almost blocked her, but there she was. She had the same white flowy robes as were written about. Her black short fur caused her to stand out on the orange roof. Anubis. Anubis the demon lady.

"Oh, fuck," I whispered. My binoculars trailed back down to the camp where it looked like my team was overtaking the canids. My sight shot back up to the roof and she stared directly at me. I waved at her. And then she waved back.