This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

  Also making an appearance in this chapter, once again, is Quiverbow. The sharp-dressed weaponsmith is the creation of Domochevsky, my cover artist and foam-weapon creator, and also shares a name with a Minecraft mod he made. The Stormbreakers (including Xe, Nisha, and Kamira in this chapter) are the creation of Xel_Artz

  Last but not least, I want to thank Annabelle Hawthorne for letting me put her into this universe. I know AiLoves deeply admired you, so it seems fitting that you become a part of her world.

  —

  Chapter 45: Hard Work’s Reward

  My arm was set early enough that I didn’t need to wing it back to the Officer’s Hall. Wasn’t about to take my time, though, and I set off at a trot as soon as I made my goodbyes. As I moved, I caught a gnce of Paige and Lucy speaking to Gloria, our yarrb at their feet. Nibbles came to me at my whistle, trotting right alongside me. Though nobody who wasn’t a representative would be allowed into the building, Guild Pets were allowed. Given the mind-bending variety of Csses, Races, and Abilities that could be present, he likely would not be the only one there.

  The door before me, I took a deep breath. What happened in the next hour or so could very well determine whether I lived or died, and could also decide the fate of the Camp. No pressure, right? As I reached out to the door knob, two things hit me at the same time. First, I could already hear sounds of conversation coming from inside. The pce was usually on the calm and dignified side, as people heavily felt the weight of what their actions could mean. Not so today. The noise coming from inside was raucous, boisterous. This meeting was not going to resemble the corporate world I was more used to.

  The second was a slender, pale hand reaching from the side to touch my forearm as I reached for the door. Given that I had not remotely seen or heard her coming, it could only mean one person. “Leah, I was not expecting to see you here today.”

  “Jeremiah, I could say the same… but you’d know I was lying.” Leah was the single deadliest Assassin at camp, frequently seen far Below accompanying teams well beyond the point of sanity. “Guild Leader Mariah of Luna could not make it, I will represent our interests.”

  “Given how strong you are, it is easy to forget that your Guild is small.” Luna was not a group I worked with. They didn’t hire people, and I couldn’t afford to hire them. Powerful scouts, skirmishers, snipers, and other such hyper-mobile and stealthy types. Last I checked there were only about a dozen of them, and Leah had invited me to join them some time before. Before I settled into my Tank role with my present team.

  “I know you don’t know the score for today, Kithkin, but you’re a target. The only big dog in the pack.”

  “I’m tracking at least some of it. Lots of resentment, no way to resolve it. I’m probably here because I got the sideways promotion to the big kids’ table, my team’s smaller than half the ones here.”

  “Color me impressed. You even brought backup.” She nodded her shrouded head at Nibbles, who nodded back. “You still owe me the rest of your story, so don’t die.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Want me to enter first?” I tilted my head towards the door.

  “Please, yes. Everyone will be too busy staring at you to notice I’ve taken a seat.”

  I took the cue and opened the door. The noise in the room had been noticeable from outside. Inside? It was intense. Banging tankards on tables, voices ranging from “vein-bursting anger” to “jolly shouting” to “needing to be heard over the din.” The noise was practically a living thing, beating against my chest and eardrums. An Ogre was stationed at the door, checking people as they came in. Even the ten-foot man needed to raise his own voice to be heard from a couple of feet away. “Name and Guild?”

  I had to raise mine quite loudly to speak back to him. “Guild Leader Jeremiah Kithkin, of Shield Against Shadows.” I was, thankfully, good at this kind of thing. Shouting over the chaos of battle for five years of strife will do it. My thundering voice carried over even the ambient ongoing explosion the room was imitating, carrying the words I had spoken. With them, the sound dropped off as though thrown off a cliff.

  All eyes turned to the door. To the interloper. To me. A voice boomed out from the rear of the room. “Kithkin! Looks like the guest of honor decided to show up after all!” The tone was not joyous. Far from it. The speaker was an armored Human, with a broadsword belted at his side. He looked mad enough to take bites out of the sword itself and chew them into nails. His badge was of crossed sabers, one I did not recognize.

  From the left, a more familiar face. “That’s enough, Gerald. You know more than one of us invited him.” The speaker was quite tall, about my height, and muscur. An Arctic Fox beastfolk, the tips of his ears capped with some kind of metal along with jagged tracery down what I could see of his body. His badge showed the tornado and lightning bolts of the Stormbreakers. Xe, their Guild Leader and likely their strongest member. “We have enough issues going on without you starting a needless fight in here.”

  “Yeah, and I didn’t send one of those invites. The entire point of today’s meeting is to talk about how to fix the stuff those high-and-mighty Majors keep doing to us!”

  It seemed prudent to speak in my own defense, here. “You seem to forget that I’m new to the title. My Guild is eight demons and a yarrb. Marshal Shapiro granted me access to the Majors, I didn’t recruit a full organization.”

  An empty beer bottle flew from somewhere to Gerald’s left. Though not the best aimed, I felt it prudent to stop it before it could hit the Ogre behind me. A momentary fsh, and my Shield Gauntlet pulsed out its disk of blue force. The bottle didn’t hit hard, and dropped to the ground at my feet. From behind me, I heard the Ogre’s voice go “thanks.”

  Quiverbow was strapped with multiple weapons to the right. “Stop wasting your time and your beer, we got better things to talk about. Golden Age and Flight of Fury have been flexing harder recently, they’re the only ones really hitting the Depths with any regurity and they’re choking out the market on four different components I need. Same with other Independents on the Row, half of us can’t get materials for experiments anymore without selling our souls.”

  Back by the hearth, an orange Cat Beastfolk was in an eborate Spanish breastpte, complete with leather riding boots and a broad feathered hat, a rapier at his side. His own badge was a nce and windmill. Guild Leader Sabeto, of Caballeros, another of the folks who invited me. His voice carried a matching accent. “It is not only them. Uprising stopped updating maps, calling their finds to be trade secrets. Munin’s Wing stopped helping startups like they used to, demanding full repayment in kind for the basics. José has been getting pushed off his sky routes, too. Green feathers don’t look good ruffled.”

  “Bah, who needs them? We can keep going just like old times.” This man was big enough that he barely fit in the room, a barely-bipedal Elephant Beastfolk… or not quite what he appeared, since I could see a shimmering Demonic Aura about him. This line immediately ended the calm… ish… discussion we had been in the middle of, and brought back the raucous arguments in full force. I found myself gesticuting wildly at the Human next to me as we argued the benefits of Freence teams hunting for communal materials, barely able to be heard over the din once more.

  There was a sudden boom, overwhelming in the tiny room even over the din, like lightning had struck in the middle of the crowd. For one wild second, I thought that Marshal Shapiro had brought himself into our midst, that I had failed. Through the ringing in my ears, I could hear Xe’s voice. “Cease this! Can’t you all see this is the problem?” All of us were staring at him. Bit of a relief that it wasn’t me, this time. “Uh, sorry I had to do that, but we were off track.”

  A nasty looking Troll near the middle of the room was carrying a massive hammer. “We keep fightin’ among ourselves, and they keep stompin’ over the remainder. Seems simple enough.”

  Quiverbow nodded. “We band together, we work better.”

  I nodded back at her. “Something I’ve always said. Nobody is strong alone. No offense to the Independents.” there was a mixed rumble from a half-dozen folks at the tables. “We all need each other. The Enchanters can’t take the front line to get their materials. The Knights need their backline to take down the big threats. Those Below need Surface Hunters to make sure they have a home to come back to. My Guild is still tiny, we have to rely on the rest of you for so many of the details. We cannot be fighting each other. Whatever else comes, the solution comes when we work to common cause. We all have what the others in the room need. Any three of us working together can do more than any five of us working separately might.”

  Xe looked at me with intent. He wasn’t the only one. “You’re talking about unionizing. Taking all the small Guilds and Independents and formalizing an alliance.”

  “I hadn’t thought about it like that, Xe. We have a really fractious and independent bunch. The kinds of rules we would all have to abide by would change how everything works, or else be so loose that it would be meaningless. Anyone who wants in on that would have to be all the way in. Almost as hard as if it were a Guild of itself. Whoever led the thing would have to both know mass-scale leadership and understand the struggles of the Small Guilds.”

  And that, of course, is when the other shoe dropped. The red-headed German woman, carrying weapons worth a king’s ransom, stared me in the eye and said six deadly words. “Sounds like we found a volunteer.”

  Wait. WHAT?

  The Spaniard ughed sharply. “You took down, what, five major demons in the streets the st two months? Yeah, sounds like a job for you. I’m in, if and only if you are leading it.”

  I looked to the sides, slightly wild-eyed and desperate. A Human carrying a rge club was nodding at me as well. Guild Leader Matthew, of Malus Malice. “I agree, and I’m sure my team will as well.”

  Leah’s voice, from a shadowed corner. “Luna will support this.”

  From behind me, I heard a Human woman. The writer Annabelle, the Guild Hall’s premier Independent Archivist. “I will as well. Everyone who wants to join, come by my station to sign. Unions take a minimum of twenty-five people to form, and it sounds like we have plenty. Guild Leader Kithkin, the first signature must be yours. Will you accept the role that has been given to you?”

  I pride myself on my ability to pn. As a Guild Leader, I had always been required to be the one who did so. Battle tactics. Logistics. Contacts. Response trees, search patterns, assignments. The slightest detail could mean the difference between a successful hunt or a monster left to rampage.

  I spend my days pnning so that I don’t have to spend my nights mourning.

  There was no way, none at all, that I could possibly have seen this coming. And yet, having no forethought, no time to consider, this question had a solution. Not one I might enjoy, but a solution. After all, nobody is strong alone. One reason for this is that, the more people you had together, the more likely you were to find that rare someone willing to take on the thankless job of herding the demonic, superpowered cats in the right direction, but the harder that job becomes. If I didn’t raise my hand, likely nobody here would.

  I found myself speaking. “I accept. All of you have the ability to contact me. Give me what you need to see in the byws and regutions for what is about to form. I can’t promise speed for the final product, but I will ask for no dues until completed and will not hold anyone wanting to leave against you if you don’t like how they look when all is said and done. Spread the word to those you trust to join, my only requirement is that any Guild that joins be no more than twenty-five people, and willing to come to the aid of any of the others whether or not they have joined.” I walked over to Bel, pulled out my pen, and signed my name to the paper she produced.

  If I thought the room was loud before, I was wrong. Nibbles’ ears fttened as he pressed into my legs. Honestly, I agreed with him. At least in battle, the noise meant something. As I was getting near the door, drifting out to make good my escape from the chaos, Xe caught my eye. He nodded, and made his way through the crowd towards me. We left the room into the shockingly quiet noonday sun.

  “Sorry to do that to you, Jeremiah, but I think you’ll do well.” Static was crackling at his eartips, his marbled fur ruffled.

  “Really? Xe, you baited me into what might be the hardest thing anyone in the room has ever done. Bar takedown included.” People from both of our Guilds were approaching rapidly, having seen us emerge.

  “Baited? Debatable. You said it yourself, this is going to take a long and esoteric skillset. One which, unless I’m greatly mistaken, exactly you and maybe two other people at Camp possess. Your people have done me a solid several times in the Dungeon. They helped Anita and Kamira find things we absolutely needed, and the quality you hold together is remarkable. Plus, well, you have a seat at the table. No matter what we do, it doesn’t mean anything unless someone can make the big dogs listen.” We were no longer alone. All of my team, along with a tall red-brown Maned Wolf Beastfolk carrying a broadsword, were with us. “I’ll talk to the other Stormbreakers, but I don’t foresee any of them refusing to sign up under your fg.”

  Xe, apparently, did not quite have the reaction called right. The Maned Wolf got a remarkably angry look on his face. “Xe, tell me I didn’t just hear that right. You’re putting the Stormbreakers up under someone else’s authority? After all we’ve been through?”

  I tried to smooth things a bit. “You are not being taken over. We’re unionizing. I am…”

  “Yeah, I know who you are, Kithkin. Frankly, I don’t care. You’re not one of us. You haven’t proven yourself our way.”

  Xe looked worried. “Nisha…”

  “No, Xe, not this time. Kithkin. You want me to sign up? Fine. Earn it. Dueling Circle Three, in ten minutes. We go a round, you show me why you think you can lead this.”

  This, though? This, I anticipated happening. Just not this quick. Nisha was a Maned Wolf… at first gnce. Not when looking at him with the senses I could bring to bear. His head was horned, though it was easy to miss. He, too, carried a Demonic Aura with him. The barest whiff of sulfur. No common Beastfolk, this one. Fine. So be it. “I accept. To unconsciousness or surrender. I have neither a wish to die, nor to kill, so if it’s all the same to you let’s let the lethal attacks lie.”

  This conversation was not a quiet one. At Nisha’s nod of acceptance, people scrambled in all directions. Emily and Lucy scrambled in mine. As Emily immediately got started making sure to pull as many incidental pains out of me as she could, Lucy got to affix me with one of her trademark gres. “Jay, care to expin why I can’t ever seem to bring you here without you getting into combat?”

  I really, really wish she wasn’t being as accurate as she was. “No time for the full version until after the duel. At least this time we’re not trying to kill each other.”

  “Jeremiah Kithkin, you did not just help your case. What do you need us to do?”

  I did mention I love my wife? “Look, I just got put into a really big position. I need you all to make sure, no matter what is happening in the fight, people’s opinions of me are generally positive. Failing that? Find other Stormbreakers and get a read on what Nisha’s deal is. We have some paperwork to sign after all of this.”

  Emily gave me one particurly potent eyebrow. “Then I’d best make sure your right hand still works afterwards, too.”

  Okay, ouch. Probably deserved that, but ouch.

  I didn’t need to do much advertising, but man was I gd I had on my kit. The only thing I had to do was make sure all of my stuff was strapped on securely for the fight, instead of just being there in case a meeting went off the rails. Nisha was already waiting in the circle, some form of light armor equipped and a broadsword in hand. No shield visible. I could not Scan him for more information before combat started, especially not with the gathering crowd of observers. Definitely a Demon of some kind, but again I couldn’t tell quite what. Also definitely built strong, the narrow legs of the Maned Wolf he resembled giving way to significant muscle, the sign of a dedicated front liner.

  There was a tap on my shoulder. Sarah was there. “Look at the way the sword is designed. That thing transmits one thing, fire magic. He’s going to bring the heat, Jeremiah, be ready for it.” A nod in her direction was all I had time left for. Xe stepped forward to mediate. Normally, this would be a conflict of interest, but I decided I’d not object this time. He didn’t seem the type to let it interfere. The circle itself was not particurly rge, about twenty feet across. Not enough room to get out of range of each other, it was meant for quick and direct matches.

  “Alright you two. Friendly bout rules. Do not kill your opponent, this duel will proceed until unconsciousness, surrender, or until any body part touches the ground outside the circle. There will be no use of firearms, nor of abilities that can kill bystanders.” We both nodded, unsheathing our weapons as he stepped back to the circle’s edge. “Begin!”

  Duels usually had an unofficial kind of structure to them. By the time you get to this point, the preliminaries are over, and both of you know that it’s well past the point of no return. As soon as things start, someone tries to go for the immediate victory over the other. Fewest resources spent for the most dramatic victory. It made sense. Not this time. We both stood there, looking at each other. Psychically daring each other to make that critical first move. I saw how he held that bde, to the low left. My right. If I had tried to dive in, it would have come at my unshielded side. I had no way to know how dangerous that attack would have been.

  Nisha’s stance changed subtly, the sword point coming to center. His sword began to glow, then, shedding heat shimmers as its core shifted from steel gray to cherry red. “Good, you’re not stupid.” I wasn’t all that quick to agree in my own head. After all, I was the one who let myself get tricked into becoming a union boss and then got into a duel against what appeared to be a fairly strong Spellsword. In a fsh, the glowing bde sprang into motion. It traced a circle, and as it came above his head the glow burst into true fme, suddenly coming down at my head like a meteor descended from the heavens.

  Almost before I could think, the glowing edge of my Guild Leader’s Saber was up and meeting it halfway. In the chiming recoil, I attempted to entangle Nisha in a Lightning Net, but missed as he suddenly spun to the side. This time, his ssh was stopped by my Shield Gauntlet, still striking hard enough to nearly knock me aside. It was getting hot in the circle, viciously so. While I was significantly more resistant to the heat than most, what was presently unpleasant would get dangerous quickly. I had to take control.

  That sword was no piece of junk. Suri knew her stuff, and though I could try Combat Disenchant it wasn’t likely to work. Nisha would also be resistant to my several fire tricks, and knew about my Lightning Net. Not enough room for a Double Team, either, which meant I’d be doing this the old-fashioned way. I charged in, hoping to use a combination of my rger and much heavier frame combined with my saber to deny him the time to use his abilities.

  The tactic was met with limited success. What it cked in elegance, it more than made up with the surprise factor. Nisha was using his sword two-handed, relying on fire and agility instead to protect himself from harm. A Striker, not a Tank. I collided with him, and the fact that I outmassed him by a third led to predictable results. He was unched backwards, but managed to nd himself within the circle’s bounds and get set to meet my incoming attack with a sword stroke of his own. With a deep growl, he breathed sullen red fme upon me.

  The pain was dramatic, but a combination of resistance to fire and some equally-dramatic recent increases in my pain tolerance let me simply take the hit for long enough to deliver a mighty punch straight to his sor plexus. I didn’t envy him that one, and I was the one on fire. When he hit the ground, I was thankful that one of his hands nded across the line. He recovered quickly from the blow, but the duel was over. Xe was eager to call the stop, and I was eager for it to be done. “Halt! Nisha, you have touched the ground outside of the circle. The duel is over. Medics!”

  Emily was already dashing forward to see to our wounds. The Kitsune nurse could no more hold herself back than hold back the oncoming ocean tide. The bout had been brief, and though vicious the number of real injuries was a mercifully short list. I came away with some strain and bruising in addition to getting some superficial scorch. Nisha, once he was breathing normally again, was if anything even better off. If the Camp got attacked, both of us would immediately be on the front lines. “How is it that you won this fight, and you still managed to pick up more injuries than your opponent?”

  While she was seeing to me, though, I noticed that my wife’s attention was not on me. She wasn’t joining our partner’s lecture to try to get me to take it easier. That was odd enough that I followed her gaze, and found what was so fascinating. Nisha, the fiery Maned Wolf, was getting a lecture from his own partner, a woman whom I immediately recognized. A Wolf herself, in icy whites and blues, Kamira had been in the group my people had worked with st time. She was giving him a talking-to, but something was off.

  A regur guy might not have noticed. I, however, had the experience of both my wife and the other dies of my Guild. Kamira was mad at him, sure, but the gestures didn’t indicate fear or concern. Nisha’s body nguage was slightly guilty… which wasn’t the emotion I was expecting to read off of him. Waving Emily off temporarily, I got up and walked over.

  They saw me coming and cut off the conversation. Must be private. “Nisha, gd you’re alright. Good fight, that, and I get the feeling that if we had gone much longer I would have had several new scars to show for it.”

  Kamira gave him an icy gre, so strongly reminiscent of Lucy I instinctively leaned away slightly. No need to be in the line of fire as she opened up her mouth. “Yes, like if you had actually taken the fight seriously instead of just testing him out. How many times do I have to tell you? One of these days you’re going to misjudge things.”

  … huh. That tracked with what I saw alright. It was also not particurly encouraging, I wasn’t holding back all that much when we were fighting.

  “Come on, Kamira, everyone at Camp knows Kithkin by reputation. He at least wasn’t going to eviscerate me, even if he could.” Ouch. “Good fight, agreed. You earned my signature, if you’re willing to step into the ring for it. Let’s not find out what will happen if we ever have to go at it for real.”

  Kamira looked at me apologetically. “That’s the best you’re going to get from him, I’m afraid. We’ll have your back if push comes to shove. I think Suri is back at the Open Tent with your Enchanter, too, it takes a lot to hold her attention this long. Take it as a compliment.”

  “I will. Thanks, you two. Any idea where I can find folks from Guild Pantheon? I really need to talk to them before I leave Camp today, and it’ll give a chance for the initial flurry of activity to get done with signatures.”

  Kamira nodded. “Sure, I was just talking to Daniel by the Medical tents. Usually where they hang out if they aren’t on a task.” I nodded and thanked them again, then got on my way. Back to my wife, back to my medic, and then onward to the next task on my list.

  My day was not nearly done. Hopefully, the rest wouldn’t literally be breathing fire at me.