Sin
"POGS PUT THE SPLICER DOWN!" I yelled as I ran towards my Ogrest. He was currently lifting a nobleman from some European country who had gotten too mouthy with Jade.
"He nearly hurt boss Jade." Pogs defended while still holding the unfortunate and terrified nobleman by his neck and several feet off the ground.
"And he's learned his lesson Pogs, I'm sure he'll be more respectful from now on." Jade spoke up. Pogs looked down at the woman then at the noble and barred his tusks.
"Lucky Boss forgive." Pogs said then dropped the nobleman, who quickly scampered to his feet and rushed off. I groaned and shook my head.
I was outside the Sadamas center in a area that Nate and his orkands all but strong armed the local authorities and Tech-9 committee into letting us use. By that I mean Nate and his crew just started setting things up without asking and refused to take anything down.
The first thing they set up was Jade's booth, mostly because the enchanted items she sold was the main reason anyone came to look at our presentation but also because her booth had the most components out of everything we brought to the center and getting it set up freed a lot of space and manpower. Unfortunately this also signaled to any military personnel and nobles that we were open for business so within minutes of the center being open Jade's booth was swarmed.
The arena enchanted item that Chase created made setting up the arena for the Solaris Wolfen combat tournament easy. All we had to do was place the main mat of the arena down then place the four corresponding corners down in the desired size and put a little mana into it and it created walls made of light. Instant arena.
This also was drawing a crowd since people had never seen a mobile arena before and several members of Jiggle's squad were using it for sparring practice currently. Which was it's own headache because they were not holding back, so the now the arena was host to a near Chase-level battle going on inside between Cobalti and Rubis. The two Ogarai were exchanging blow after burst attribute mana charged blow.
"Pogs can you stop those two before they destroy the arena?" I asked. Pogs looked at me apprehensively then shook his head.
"Not leader, Commander Jiggles or Generals need to." Pogs replied.
"But you're a Ogrest, they're Ogarai. Shouldn't they listen to you because of that fact?" I asked.
"They Commander Jiggle's Ogarai. I have no power." Pogs simply replied. I groaned then stomped over to the arena and sounded on the thin wall, someone getting their attention.
"Enough! We have work to do! Go back to your patrols!" I yelled. Cobalti and Rubis both stood to attention and trumpeted cautiously before rushing to the door of the arena.
"Sorry Boss Sin!" Rubis exclaimed as he ran out of the arena and rushed to resume his patrol with Cobalti.
I shook my head then glanced over at the military personnel from the JSDF who'd been watching the fight between the two Ogarai. They all looked stunned and a little worried, glancing between the departing Ogarai and Pogs standing beside me.
"Sin!"
I turned towards the direction I heard my voice and saw Nate walking towards Pogs and I carrying one of the containment cages with a member of his Orkand squad. On the top of the containment cell 'Briar Lieon' was written on a plaque in bold letters.
"Did you carry that all the way here from King's Glaive?" I asked and walked over to meet the man. Nate and the Orkand moved the containment cage in front of the arena and set it down near the door.
"Yeah, wasn't that heavy." Nate said, casually standing up and stretching. The Orkand he had with him did the same and nodded in agreement.
"Not heavy at all!" The orkand mirrored.
'Only becuasd you're a freak of nature…' I thought, thinking back to all the feats of strength he's preformed in the past month.
Nate's body has definitely undergone body modification, in his muscles and bones at least. The containment cage was several tons and there was no way that the orkand alone could bare most of the weight which meant that he was baring it as well. If his body wasn't modified his bones would shatter under that weight.
"Don't over do it, Honey." Jade said casually from her booth. He smiled at her then looked down the path he took to get to the center. I turned as well and saw four more orkands along with Normal and Exotic carrying the second cage which contained the Solaris Wolfens.
"Put this cage over here!" Nate ordered the evos and pointed to a spot a few feet away from where he was. The evo team hurried over to where Nate designated and dropped the cage, then all worked together to align it with the Briar Lieon cage. Nate walked over and inspected the cage then closely then nodded and turned to me.
"Looks like everything is good Sin." He said. I nodded then channeled mana into my manacite communication ring and focused on Astrid. She already had a Solaris Wolfen and was the one Madilyn tasked with gaining their participation in the rides and tournament.
I walked at a brisk pace while I was in view of the JSDF and other military personnel from other countries. The moment I reached the edge of the weeping willow forest I broke into a full sprint, Pogs ran as well and was careful to stay close behind him. I suddenly felt like I was being watched.
I saw the edge of the treeline that of the grove the King's Glaive was in and slowed my pace to a brisk walk again then exited the treeline. I immediately saw Astrid standing in front of the King's Glaive control car, a man dressed in a British royal navy uniform stood in front of her. His face was flushed red with anger and his fists were clenched.
"…As the eldest daughter of the Folders family it is your duty to do all you can to bring prosperity to the family!" The man yelled.
"And as I told you father there is nothing I can do! Chase's rule that you have to earn the respect of the Lunar Liger sharks and Mer-as-folk to purchase one is in place for a reason. They all have more mana than the average sailor so it would be impossible for any soldier to control them." Astrid explained.
"Nonsense! If you try hard enough you can convince him, he'll let us buy the evos! Did you forget why I made you come under his employ?" The man asked.
"Father! I am not some common whore!" Astrid snapped and stomped her foot.
"You are whatever I say you are! Now our family needs these evos to…" Her father started to shout.
"Astrid, who's this?" I asked, startling Astrid's father. He spun around, seeing me and Pogs standing a dozen or so feet away. Astrid's father got over his initial shock and quickly righted himself before clearing his throat.
"I am Lord Pollock Folders, the marquee of Redveil." Pollock said with a haughty tone. I narrowed my eyes at him then looked at Astrid.
"Astrid, you know the boss doesn't want strange people hanging around the King's Glaive." I said in a chastising tone. Astrid's jaw clench from my tone but from aside that gave no indication of anger.
"I know, my father was just leaving." Astrid said hurriedly. However Pollock looked like he had different ideas.
"Actually I am here to see Master Kingston!" Pollock exclaimed sternly. I frowned and crossed my arms.
"He's not here right now. Even if he was, browbeating your daughter and attempting to muscle your way into his mana train would only piss him off." I said. Pollock looked down his nose at me in the annoyingly condescending way that nobles did.
"And who are you to speak for Master Kingston?" Pollock asked. I narrowed my eyes at his silent challenge.
"Audin Akkesin, former enforcer for the Red Dragons and current security head for Sho'lajah Artifact Company." I said crossing my arms. Pogs took a step beside me and cracked his knuckles; small bursts of flames erupting from each cracked knuckles. "And the one with a Shaped evo granted by the boss."
Pollock gritted his teeth looked to his daughter expectantly. Astrid to her credit looked back at her father with an annoyed and slightly offended expression. Seeing that he was getting no support from his daughter Pollock growled low in his throat.
"So you're not going to let…" Pollock started only to get cut off by a thundering wail.
"CHASE YOU GODDAMN IDIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" A familiar voice screamed. I looked up and saw Alberto falling rapidly towards the ground.
"POGS!" I yelled and pointed up at Alberto.
Pogs started to channel burst attribute mana into his feet to try and catch him only to see a bolt of lightning blanket the sky and Alberto suddenly disappeared.
The lightning bolt landed a few feet behind Astrid and her father beside the engine car, which turned out to be Bone-lasher holding a terrified Alberto. The boy clung to the evo like a terrified cat.
"General Bone-lasher!" Pogs exclaimed and lowered his head slightly. Astrid frowned at the scene of Bone-lasher holding Alberto in a princess carry.
"Alberto?! You were supposed to be with Chase!" Astrid exclaimed. Alberto glared at Astrid.
"That idiot kicked me off Grimm-Guard! I fell like five hundred feet!" Alberto snapped. I looked upwards and saw the aforementioned evo flying several hundred feet above us, he was circling above the weeping willow forest.
"Oh come on! I've fallen from higher places than that and survived." Chase's voice called out from above us. I looked towards the direction of the voice and saw Chase floating down slowly towards us; presumably from on top of Grimm-Guard's back. He had Bo tucked under one arm and his grandpa 's unconscious body strapped to his back with some sort of crystal strings.
"I don't have your broken mana manipulation ability!" Alberto snapped. Chase landed a fee feet away, near the treeline and dropped Bo unceremoniously on through ground while the crystal strings holding his grandfather to his back snapped. He then set his grandfather down then rolled his eyes at Alberto.
"That was before I had those abilities." Chase said then glanced around and saw Astrid. He smirked and waved a hand towards her. "Astrid! There you are. I was going to have Damon go looking for you."
Astrid frowned and narrowed her eyes at Chase for his remark. Her gaze then switched to Alberto who seemed just angry.
"Why?" Astrid finally asked.
"Loki finally challenged Chase to a duel." Bo said unceremoniously. I froze as did Astrid before both our jaws dropped.
"WHAAAAAAAAAT?!" Astrid and I exclaimed. Alberto chuffed and crossed his arms.
"Technically he's challenged Chase, Bo and I. Since we're the only practitioners of Shaping." Alberto exclaimed. "Chase got a new evo who embarrassed my father and now he's challenged Chase with his continued practicing of Shaping on the line."
Both mine and Astrid's head jerked to look at a totally unbothered Chase. They way he was acting totally unaffected by all this both totally pissed me off and reassured me. If anyone was going to panic about a bad situation it would be Chase, so the fact he was calm about it only showed how sure he was that he could beat Loki.
"Wait…why did you need me though?"
"Mana batteries…" Chase said casually. Astrid's expression went blank for several seconds before turning into a monsoon of fury.
"AGAIN!" Astrid screeched then stomped over to Chase and poked him harshly in the chest. "OUR AGREEMENT WAS ONLY UNTIL ALL THOSE EVOS WERE MADE FOR EVO-CUTION! NOT A DAY AFTER!"
"Astrid…" Chase started but Astrid bulldozed over him.
"I'M NOT A TOOL FOR YOU TO USE! I AM A NOBLEWOMAN!" Astrid snapped.
"Astrid!" Alberto exclaimed and stepped in front of Chase and gave her a pleading look. "Astrid…it's my dad…you know why this is important…"
Astrid's expression softened at Alberto's words. The dark sadness in her eyes hinting that she did in fact knew why it was so important to him. She sighed in the face of Alberto's pleading eyes then crossed her arms.
"Fine…" Astrid said, then looked away from Alberto. Chase clapped his hands together, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Good! Then in that case can I have you find Iris, I'll need her to act as a mana battery as well." Chase said. Astrid frowned.
"Are you going to have Jane act as a battery too?" Astrid taunted. Chase shook his head, either not realizing she was being sarcastic or not carrying.
"No, I need her to take my place during the demonstrations today. Damon is though." Chase replied then looked to Alberto and Bo. "Bo, Alberto, you two know what you need for do."
Both nodded and headed towards the King's Glaive control car. Chase watched them walk off then turned towards me.
"Sin, I'm going to need you to be extra vigilant today. Only Jiggles squad and a handful of other evos are going to be there for security. All of mine are going to be preoccupied for the rest of the day." Chase informed me.
"Why?" I asked.
"Going to be busy healing the evo Beaufort so graciously gave me." Chase replied then turned and reached down to sling his Grandpa over his shoulder.
As Chase and Bone-lasher started towards the King's Glaive control car's open door Pollock decided to stop being a fly on the wall and stepped into Chase's way.
"Actually Master Kingston, if I could have a moment of your time?" Pollock asked, though the stiff firmness of his tone suggested anything but a question.
"Sorry whoever you are. I'm kind of in a time crunch." Chase said, then walked around Pollock and continued towards the control car. Pollock sneered at Chase and tried to catch up to him.
"It would only be for a brief moment. All I ask is a favor, surely my daughter working for you has earned me that?" Pollock said. Chase stopped and turned to look back at Pollock then quirked a eyebrow and looked over at Astrid.
"Oh….that's your dad…Astrid you know the rule about family at the mana train." Chase said in a calm and oddly emotionless voice.
"I know…He just suddenly appeared." Astrid said. Chase sighed and looked back at Pollock with a sterner frown.
"Look, I literally do not have anymore time to talk to or deal with anyone else. I need to prepare for a duel, so whatever favor you want to ask me will have to wait." Chase said then started towards the mana car.
Pollock looked like he wanted to say something else but the finality of Chase's tone and the way he turned away from him without another thought gave him pause. Also the death glares he was receiving from Bone-lasher as he passed by probably had something to do with it.
"Sin get back to the center!" Chase ordered as he stepped into the mana car.
"Yes Boss!" I exclaimed.