Shiv turned to the next of his opponents without delay, and found a sword stabbing toward his face. He didn't have time to manipulate or summon anything, so he simply grabbed the blade with his hands. His opponent froze, his eyes wide, but Shiv wasn't done. He threw the sword to the side and lunged forward to plant another punch into the swordsman's face.
With three down, Shiv turned to the last two, but found that they were both beheaded. Duncan shrugged at him as if he hadn't done it, but whipped around and crouched with a deathly serious expression when they heard slow clapping.
"Great job, you two. That was the squad we were chasing. It was causing some trouble." Briggs walked forward with an amused expression as he slowly clapped his hands together several more times. Behind him were Farhad and Burnface. "Speaking of trouble- your men aren't being very cooperative with my own." He said with a dangerous edge in his voice.
Duncan stood straight and brushed nonexistent dust off of his uniform. "Is that so? Take me to them. I'll have this fixed immediately."
Briggs nodded and turned around. Duncan moved forward, but glanced back at Shiv first, and found the reincarnated young man staring at his bloody hand with a consternated expression.
"Are you OK, Sir Pugilist?"
"Huh? Yeah, go on ahead." Shiv didn't look up from his hand. Duncan shrugged and followed his new ally of equal height.
"I am very, very strong. And my skin is much more durable. That suited dude was not joking around." He muttered to himself and clenched his fist. He looked up with a new spark in his eyes. He felt a new fire burning within him.
A new fire that begged for destruction.
***
"Yes, we're cooperating with these ugly gentlemen." Duncan said solemnly to his gathered commanders who were staring at Briggs and his gathered commanders with suspicion. To their credit, Briggs' commanders didn't seem to care about being called ugly, and took it with no change in expression.
Shiv walked into earshot just in time to hear Duncan call them ugly, and opened his mouth to express his dissent, only to shut it again when he saw the men behind the short nobleman. 'He… he's joking. That's why he called us ugly, right?'
Behind Duncan, who would be considered far above average in attractiveness by most women, stood the ugliest men Shiv had seen in both worlds. 'Is he making fun of his own men?'
The question went unanswered as the two groups began discussing the temporary defenses they had to put into place for the counter-attack Duncan was certain was headed their way. From how well they worked together, Shiv would have assumed they had worked together many times before if it weren't for Briggs having no idea who Duncan was.
Soon, they all dispersed in separate directions to spread throughout the XP farms and make sure everyone was doing what they needed to do. They left only Duncan, Briggs and Shiv behind. The trio didn't stay still for long. Without speaking, they made their way to the main gate of the farm complex.
"I can't wait to see that old rascal's face when he finds out who took his beloved farms from him." Duncan said suddenly, breaking the introspective silence that had fallen on the other two.
"Why did you try to take over the farm, anyway?" Shiv asked after failing to remember what he had been thinking about before Duncan interrupted him. Something about his mind feeling violated…
"Why, to become rich off of the immense amounts of money this farm produces, of course." Duncan said with a twinkle in his eye.
Shiv got the distinct feeling that the man was lying.
The gate was closed and had a high concentration of Duncan's men on the wall above it. They decided against mixing their men together, as that would require completely revamping the command structure and many other small adjustments that were simply pointless. Revenge worked perfectly well on its own, and whether or not Duncan's band of men, which he called Mirror, was worth anything in a fight would soon be found out, judging by the troops massing in the city outside the walls.
From on top of the gate, the two leaders and the man with the blessing of divinity watched as a group of men walked down the city streets and stopped just outside the range of most spells. Shiv knew that he and Briggs could reach them with ease, and suspected the same was true for Duncan.
The men yelled something from their safe distance that Shiv couldn't make out, and Duncan burst out laughing. "We can't hear you from so far away, ya cowardly sods!" He called out and waved his hand excitedly.
There was a moment of intense discussion between the men wearing the fanciest armor, distinguishable even from this great distance, then one of them marched forward. He was dressed from head to toe in armor that had clearly been crafted by the best metal mages in the city, if not the country.
When the man dressed in fancy armor was close enough by his estimation, he stopped and again yelled. "What are you doing, Duncan!? What is this about?"
"Hey! How have you recognized me!?" Duncan looked genuinely disturbed that he had been recognized, dressed as he was in his disguise.
"How could I not recognize the voice of the boy who's bottom I've paddled on far too many occasions for intruding upon my poor daughter?"
Duncan changed his voice, making it deeper. "Nothing is wrong, boss. You can go on your way, now."
"Duncan, get down from there this instant, or I will have no choice but to inform your parents of this!"
"I'm afraid you will be talking to my parents soon enough, whether you like it or not. Well, that does entirely depend on if the lord of the dead allows his people to converse."
There was a moment of silence, then the man below took his helmet off and asked in a voice filled with dread, "your family is dead?"
"Why yes, yes they are. And guess what?" Duncan leaned forward until it looked like he was about to fall, and all traces of humor and amusement were gone from his handsome features. "You and your pals are going to pay for it."
Shiv was very interested in how much fear showed itself upon the man below. "It- it wasn't us! You have to believe-" He was abruptly cut off by an arrow that sprouted from his throat.
"Excellent shot!" Duncan congratulated his soldier who had shot the arrow from a massive warbow, and leaned over the wall a dangerous amount with a cheerful face again, "say hello to my parents for me!" Then he went about preparing his men for the coming conflict.
Briggs left to tend to his own men, not seeming to be bothered by what he had just witnessed, but Shiv chose to stay with Duncan. He forced more food down his throat while watching the men give orders and follow them with extreme professionalism and practice. He was impressed. They actually looked to be almost as disciplined as Revenge.
"Shiv, I want you to hop down there and punch them all dead before they reach the wall, OK?" Duncan walked up to Shiv with a bright smile.
"Uh… no. I'll stay up here and call lightning down on them."
The nobleman scrutinized him for several uncomfortable seconds, then nodded with a sigh. "Fine, fine. I still think you would do more damage down there."
Shiv scoffed and activated his ability, summoning a thick blanket of dark clouds to cover the stars twinkling above the enemy troops. Lighting quickly began crackling across the clouds, followed by peals of thunder, and then… the first strike landed on the city. The shrapnel from the exploded building killed several soldiers, none of which provided Shiv with XP.
Several more strikes followed soon after, some hitting in the center of the massing troops and others causing destruction among the sleeping people in the city.
The way the farm was situated left much to be desired, in Shiv's opinion. Something like this should be far away from the general populace. Not smacked right in the corner of the city where one breach in the wall could result in a highly dangerous monster wreaking havoc amongst the poor civilians. Also, it made sneaking into the farm complex almost laughably easy, what with how close a lot of the buildings were to the wall surrounding the farms.
Shiv was jerked from his thoughts by the sound of Duncan's voice. "Do you realize that you are killing innocents with those attacks?" There was an unreadable expression on his face.
"I do." Shiv searched the unreadable expression, trying to ascertain how he felt about that.
"You must have a goal you deem to be worth everything, if you are willing to be so cold as this." Duncan still didn't have even a hint of the usual humor he spoke with.
Shiv laughed. 'Nothing in this world is cold.' Out loud, he said, "to me, my goal is worth sacrificing the entire world for."