Chapter 7

We gathered up the fanny packs, and we had 18 of them before corpses of the demons began vaporizing. We dropped the fanny packs into our own packs, and continued our trek through Eastmont. I figured that Bill must be pretty tired by now, and I was feeling a little bushed myself. It was getting toward quitting time for us, so Bill and I started keeping a lookout for a transporter platform.

We only found six more demons and no monsters before we came to a transporter platform, and we climbed onto it. I wished for transportation back to Truth, and the next moment we were back in the hiring hall. Pete laughed and said, “Well, if it ain’t the conquering Heroes. Your trip must have been fairly successful from the look on your faces. Do you think that you could stand another trip back to Eastmont tomorrow?”

I shrugged and said, “Might a well. What do you say, Bill?”

“It is okay by me. Shall we leave at the same time?”

Pete nodded, and I asked, “What is so special about Eastmont, Pete. It is only another large town lost to the invaders as far as I can tell. Is there something going on that we should know about?”

“I have no idea why there would be some special interest in Eastmont, but I got a message from my boss to get it cleaned out as soon as possible. That is why I want sent you two back tomorrow, and I have sort of a favor to ask of you two.”

“Sure, Pete, ask away.”

“My cousin has a son who is studying to become a Barbarian Hero. Would you two be willing to take him with you tomorrow?”

I said, “That sounds okay to me, Pete, if he is really ready for some heavy duty. That place looks to me to be more than the average beginning apprentice can handle. What do you think, Bill?”

“Yeah, Jim, I okay with it if he can handle the pressure of those demons and monsters. I am in favor of any sort of training, but I have no interest in babysitting a novice.”

Pete said, “I have been assured that Ed is ready for a place like Eastmont; otherwise, I would never have agreed to let him go with you. He is an apprentice Barbarian level #3 and reputed to be adept with a sword, knife, or mace. If he turns out to be a problem, just return back home immediately. You can ditch him back here at any time and it will not count against you in any way.”

“Okay, then, we will take him with us tomorrow. Just be sure that he has a sword, a knife, and a mace. Our experience today suggests that he will need them all if he intends to stay alive.”

“That brings up something else, Jim, that I meant to ask you. What do you have planned for those demon grenades? That is definitely not standard equipment for a Monk.”

“Yeah, I know that, but they saved our bacon more than once today. Maybe I should start another class of Hero dubbed the “Grenadier?”

“Tell me about that.”

I gave him the story of facing that giant that turned out to be an animated statue made of sand. I said, “We might well not have survived a battle with conventional Monk weapons. That giant had to be seen to be believed!”

“Okay, I see your point. But for now, I have not seen you with the demon grenades and will not until I can get a reading from a friend on the Hero supervising board. I will keep you posted.”

“Thanks, Pete. I figured that I could count on you. Frankly, I feel like the grenades are sort of like my Demon Bane. They may not be officially recognized, but they sure do great at keeping me alive.”

Bill said, “I have to agree with Jim. He let me borrow Demon Bane for a fight today, and the difference between it and my pair of knuckle dusters was close to the difference between day and night. It was really painful to give Demon Bane back to Jim.

“In fact, I like Demon Bane so much that I am going to have one made for me to use, even if it means that I have to give up being a Monk. Actually, if you think about it, Demon Bane is just a short version of a polearm, and all of them are accepted for Monk use.”

“Yes, you are right, it does look like a polearm that shrank. I will talk to my friend about that too when I bring up the subject of grenades for Monks.”

The next morning, Bill and I were introduced to Ed, the man we were to help become a Hero. There was nothing outstanding about his appearance, but he did not impress me as an up and coming candidate to be a Hero, though I could be wrong. I was going to wait before passing final judgment.

Pete jumped us to Eastmont, and we arrived ready to fight. My opinion of Ed went up a notch when I saw him in a combat zone. There were no demons or monsters waiting for us at the arrival point, so we headed for the business district where we had so much good luck yesterday.

Okay, this was more like it. Bill was on the far side of the street and Ed was dogging my heels on this side just as I had instructed him to. He was holding his sword in his right hand and his knuckle duster in his left hand, and had a buckler on his left forearm. Bill was back to using his dual knuckle dusters and I was armed like Ed, but with Demon Bane instead of a sword.

We had only gone about half a block when Bill spotted a small contingent of skeletons lurking in an alley mouth on my side of the street. I moved Ed up to walk beside me as we made our way toward the skeletons. I don’t know if they had seen Ed and me, but there was no doubt that they had seen Bill. Ed and I dropped back a couple of steps relative to Bill in hope of getting behind the skeletons when they rushed toward Bill, at least as I expected them to do.

Bill was almost exactly opposite the skeletons. He had given them no sign that he was aware of their amateurish ambush attempt. Hopefully that would draw the skeletons out at a propitious time. Meanwhile, Ed and I were doing our best to move along in step with Bill without drawing attention to ourselves.

Ah, at last. There goes the initial pair of skeletons; the rest should follow very soon. It looked like they were trying to lure Bill into letting them catch him in an unfavorable position; that certainly was what they should be doing. The first two skeletons were almost up to Bill, and the rest of the skeletons were moving into position for a rush at him if they were needed.

Okay, there was no way for Bill to keep ignoring the two skeletons who were almost within reach. After all, even the stupid skeletons might catch on if Bill did not act naturally. He raised his hands to a fighting position as the first skeleton came within reach. Ouch! Bill threw his first punch, and the closer skeleton lost his head as a result. The other skeleton seemed to panic and drive his stabbing spear at Bill’s chest.

Bill had no trouble deflecting the spear away from him with the buckler while striking this skeleton in the chest with the knuckle duster in his right hand. The demise of the second skeleton caused the six remaining skeletons to run as hard as they could across the wide street toward Bill. This was now our opportunity to rush behind the skeletons and attack them from an unexpected quarter.

Ed and I each killed a skeleton before the rest even knew of our existence. The remaining skeletons turned to face us, and there was no chance for four skeletons to beat three Heroes who were all within striking distance. Ed did an excellent job during this melee, and my estimate of him rose even more. There must have been some extenuating factor that made him seem so timid while we were in the hiring hall. Well, I might find out about that later.

We stripped the fanny packs from the skeletons, and they had nothing else that we were interested in, so we left them to continue our march toward the business center of Eastmont. Ed seemed to gain confidence in himself and us as we walked, and I was beginning to think that he would make a useful addition to our little group.

We were spotted by a pack of demon dogs just as we stepped onto Main Street. There was no hesitation in their charge toward us, and we were forced into an immediate defensive mode. We formed a triangle with our bodies, all facing outwardly, so that each one of us could see what was happening over a 120° span. There were 12 dogs in this pack, and they were not timid in their attacks.

Fortunately, all three of us had a good protective shield of magic, mine being the best with the diamond ring, but even Ed had enough magic in his greaves to protect his legs, and he was well protected by his other armor that came from the same place as did the armor used by Bill and me. Also, I think that some of the protective effect from my diamond ring was leaking over to help out Ed and Bill. I hoped that were true, but I had no way to test the idea right then.

All three of us were attacking the backs of the demon dogs, except when one reared up to put his paws on our chest or shoulders. Ed’s sword was only marginally helpful against a rearing dog, but he was quick to stab the dog in the gut and rip it open with his knife. That coated him in front with a lot of blood and shit, but Ed ignored that and soldiered on.

All I had to do to kill a dog was to touch him with any part of my Demon Bane—the lightning charge was enough to kill any of these dogs. That made this fight much easier for me than for my two companions, but we all got through with no injury and little tiredness.

Two succubi showed up while we were fighting the demon dogs, but there was not much we could do about them until we had defeated the dogs. Fortunately, both succubi were using fire, so our protective magic saved us. Ed rushed at the two succubi and chopped them down with his sword. His comment was, “This new fire resisting ring I got goes a long way in protecting me from anything that throws fire at me.”

I said, “Okay, but let us know before you do something like that again. Either one of us might get hurt by trying to help you. After all, we do not know all of your protective magic.”

“Oh, damn, I am sorry. I had forgotten about that. Okay, besides the standard protective leather armor, I have steel greaves with a poison barrier and an extra penetration barrier over my kidneys. I think that I am pretty well covered for anything that we might meet on this level.”

I had to admit that he was right and quit worrying about his magic protection level. Of course, when it comes to combat, I seem to be a natural worrier, so I tend to look at every situation with a jaundiced eye. I was told back in the Marines that I seemed to be a natural leader who looked after his men, and that helped me to be advanced faster than most men of my age and experience.