Shiv approached the gate with confidence, despite the extreme discouragement Duncan had subjected him to. 'I don't care how many times he's spanked Duncan. I'm taking him down.' Shiv smirked. The young nobleman had some wild stories, that was certain…
Shiv rounded a corner, dodging a group of cityfolk going about their early morning business as if there hadn't been a massive battle just a few blocks away. With the sun behind the gate, framing it, Shiv saw that it was wide open. 'There's the target. Now I've just got to close it.' He took a step forward, then realized something weird, "The sun… rises in the south?"
He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud until an old man sitting on a very nice chair laughed. "Where else would it rise from? The West?" He chuckled then became serious. "What's with all the blood on your clothes, kid?"
'Oh. That's why everyone has been avoiding looking at me.' Shiv looked down at the bloody, dirty, torn, and sweat stained clothes he was wearing. He looked like a murderer on the run. 'Which is almost exactly what I am.' The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"I'm looking for the most powerful sucker defending the gate." Shiv said, but he didn't move on. He had a strange feeling…
"I don't know about any suckers, but I'm the captain in charge of this gate. What can I do for you?"
'Yup.' His feeling turned out to be the reality. "I want you to close it and not to open it under any circumstances."
The old man raised an eyebrow. "You're using words that are a bit too fancy for me, kiddo, though I think I gather your meaning." He scratched his unshaved cheek. "Do you have a good reason for your request?"
"I think this is where we're about to disagree, but yeah, I do. I want you to close the gates so absolutely nobody can escape."
The captain frowned. "I don't know what they're escaping, but I have a feeling I won't like it. Because of that, I'm afraid I'm just going to have to leave the gates open."
Shiv sighed. "See? I knew we would disagree."
***
Shiv ignored the people rushing in the opposite direction he was walking. They wouldn't be able to move all of the rubble he'd piled in front of the gate for at least a few days, and the plan to destroy them was going to be executed long before that.
Duncan had not been wrong about the gate captain's power. Shiv had taken quite a beating in his fight with the old man, but he'd also gained an impressive amount of levels from killing him. After taking care of the old man, he'd annihilated all of the captain's soldiers, who attacked him with a fervor that revealed just how much they'd respected their captain.
With all that finished, he had moved a nearby house in front of the gate and collapsed it, thereby effectively blockading it against any escapees.
As Shiv walked back toward the farm, an unwelcome idea began to form in his mind. 'Nah, they won't start the plan before I return… but what is everyone running from?' He started to get a little nervous, so he tensed his legs and launched himself onto the roof of a nearby building with the help of his earth manipulation. Once there, he began running until he reached what looked like a church steeple. He quickly climbed as high as he could on it, and groaned. "They did! They started without me!"
In the city below, a sea of strange colors were spreading out in every direction, starting at the farm complexes. That sea was all of the animals that had been collected and bred in the farms. Some of them were indescribably powerful, and gave Shiv chills just from looking at them. Mixed in were a decent amount of creatures he recognized, however.
He settled into a more comfortable position on his seat with a dark look. He did not appreciate being stuck up here with a bunch of dangerous animals prowling around below him. Soon, he saw the last of the animals leave the farm… and then a new wave came out. This wave was made up of smaller creatures that closely resembled the foxes of Shiv's home planet, but had one distinct difference: they were green.
They also had flaming torches doused in oil tied to their tails.
This was the final phase of the plan- set the city on fire. It had been Duncan's suggestion to tie the torches to the foxes, which is what Shiv had spent all morning doing. The little foxes were clever and had vicious claws that, while not capable of piercing Shiv's divinely blessed skin, still caused pain and annoyance.
He had persevered nevertheless and finished his cursed task, leaving a bunch of foxes with sticks tied to their tails running around wildly. He couldn't imagine how much trouble it had been to set all of the sticks on fire. 'I bet Briggs made Burnface do it.' He chuckled.
Shiv watched the animals for a while, but the pure animalistic destruction and slaughter of the human lives and their property soon made Shiv sick to his stomach. 'After all I've done and seen, I still get sick from watching this stuff? That's… rough.'
"Shiv, come back to the farm complexes! Your help is needed in the northern quadrant." Farhad's voice echoed in Shiv's head, making him jump up and search for the voice before remembering that Farhad was an aether user, and had unlocked Telepathy.
He couldn't reply, because he didn't have telepathy, so he just began moving.
It was difficult to stay away from the animals, because a large number of them had climbed atop the lower buildings, the same as him. He managed for the most part, every once in a while having to run for his very life or simply hop onto a different building to avoid an especially high-level monster.
It took him a long time to reach the farm complex, which still had its gates open and had quite a few animals prowling around inside, both of which were not part of the plan. 'Something has gone very wrong.' Shiv became serious and intense, ready for whatever came his way.
Continuing to avoid animals as best he was able, he threw himself into a dark alley at one point to avoid a creature that looked like a buffalo with the mouth of a shark. In the alley, he picked himself off the dirt with a growl, and brushed some of it off before readying himself to keep moving… until he realized the growling hadn't stopped when he had.
He froze, then slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder, deeper into the alley, and found himself face to face with Uriel.
He instantly relaxed and sighed in relief. "Bro, you scared the hell outta me. Don't do that!" He couldn't frown like he wanted to. He was too relieved.
The giant wolf lunged at Shiv, who rolled his eyes until the very last second, when he saw the killing intent in the monster's eyes.
"Traitor!" Shiv ducked with inhuman speed, causing the wolf to lunge over him. It landed and whipped around with a feral growl and glared at Shiv with its yellow eyes.
"Your eyes are the wrong color. What, are those contacts? Hey! You're supposed to be protecting Blaze, you traitor." Shiv threw himself at the wall to avoid another lunging attack, and surprised himself and the wolf by crashing through the wall into the building. He shoved himself to his feet with a bit of panic and was up just in time to punch the wolf in the face mid-lunge. It was thrown to the side by the force of the punch and rolled twice before also scrabbling to its feet with a wary expression. The two opponents stood there, breathing hard and staring at each other for several tense, silent moments. Abruptly, the wolf threw its head back and howled.
"You better not be calling your friends. One of you is more than enough." Shiv threw himself forward, grabbing a rock from the ground as he went, and molded it just in time to stab a wickedly jagged knife into the wolf's neck. It's mournful cry abruptly cut off and turned into a growl, then a gurgle when Shiv ripped the knife out, along with a good portion of the wolf's throat. It stared at him with hatred for several seconds before collapsing.
[You mistook a Wolf as your friend, and killed it anyway.]
"Oh. It wasn't Uriel." The disappointment that filled Shiv was immeasurable. "And nobody asked you, System."
[You have leveled up, Would-Be-Friend-Murderer]
Shiv raised an eyebrow. "Again, nobody asked. Where have you been, anyway? I've destroyed an entire city since you last informed me I killed something, you know."
The system didn't respond.
But the wolves surrounding his building did.
They howled.