10:40 AT, Day Six | Fort Arbor / Eastern Battlements
I, along with Ray, Rigar and many soldiers are gathered upon the eastern battlements.
We are watching the treeline with much tension, everyone is tightly gripping their weapons.
It's not every day that you're on a gigantic alien space station turned MMO-like game arena. Then you capture a fort and shortly after you get notified of approaching energy signatures that might be hostile.
Ray grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze.
I turn to look at her and she just smiles.
After a few minutes, a truck emerges from the forest line and stops just a few meters away from the border.
The doors open up and I squeeze Ray’s hand harder.
Out steps a large man that goes by the name Marcos Riven. One of the contestants in this fine game we are playing. His black hair sways in the wind, perfectly framing his red eyes. He is wearing a pretty nasty looking set of armor, it's super spiky.
Next two human guys step out of the truck. One has red hair and wears a nasty scowl on his face. The other is brown haired and seems to be trying to calm down the red-haired one. Perhaps they are some of the ‘core members’ of the Quartet.
Marcos motions back inside the truck and another door opens, and out steps April Potter. It seems she has cut her light blue hair since the last time we saw her, it's now hanging at about shoulder length. She also has a completely different feel about her. Previously she was all happy and friendly, but now it feels like she is ready to raze a planet if needed.
Immediately Ray and April lock their blue eyes, almost as if their shared eye color allows instant information transmission between them.
After a few moments, we get an incoming request for a comms channel.
Naturally, we accept it quickly. It doesn't appear that they are hostile, they don't even have their weaponry out.
April starts off with a fanciful greeting, “Ahoy there, dear Ray and Kovon. It's been a moment, has it not?”
“It has indeed, what brings you to this fine neck of the woods on this day?” Ray asks.
“We were in the area and just so happened to hear of your recent exploits in capturing this fine fort. So we decided we would pay a visit and see what you troublemakers were up to.”
“Pfft, troublemakers? Us? We are perfectly well behaved. We would never cause any trouble whatsoever.”
“Im sure you don't need me to reiterate on how crazy that statement is. By the way, you two are looking quite fancy in that armor of yours. I presume you have also defeated your first legend and such?”
I butt in, “So what if we have?” This earns me a flick to the forehead from Ray. Apparently she doesn't like me questioning their motives. Oh well, I guess I'll just leave the negotiations to her.
“Apologies for my partner here. You know how military heads are, always careful.”
She motions to Marcos, who is standing just behind her, with a similar calm calculative expression to my own. “Yep, I know that fairly well, as you can see. They always get in the way of fun, don't they? All ‘lets not cause chaos’ and ‘we can't waste resources on pretty decorations.’”
“Oh yeah. As for your prior question, we did manage to defeat our first Legend. It was quite a fun raid, and we learned quite a lot. Plus, we got some pretty fancy gear out of it.”
“Thats good to hear, we had a bit of trouble. We severely underestimated our first, and lost a few people. The respawn system is quite neat though, it's like we are in some videogame.”
“Darling Ko here always mentions how it's similar to videogames. Perhaps you two could get along in that regard.”
At this, April glances over in my direction. I can feel her eyes examine me, almost as if she is evaluating my presence. After a few seconds, she appears to come to a conclusion, “Perhaps we could. Now, down to a little bit of business. We have a proposition for you, a friendly one. If you wouldn't mind hearing it.”
“Of course, we’d be delighted to hear it. Would you like to come inside? I'm sure we could scrounge up some tea, or liquor.”
“That does sound nice indeed. But, given the circumstances…”
Before she can finish her sentence, a screen appears in my vision, realizing our needs.
‘Would you like to initiate a parley?
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Neither party shall be able to harm one another until mutual dissolvement.
Yes / No’
I presume a similar one appears in their vision as well. Naturally, Ray clicks yes. Shortly after, it appears the Quartet do as well. A large yellow dome-shaped barrier goes up across the entire clearing. Likely signifying that this is a no-combat zone.
11:20 AT, Day Six | Fort Arbor / Conference Room
The Quartet’s party is led inside, and we all meet up in one of the many rooms of the fort.
They have taken their seats on one side of the table. They all look very prim and proper, except for the red-haired guy. He is currently leaning back in his chair, with his feet on the table.
Rigar and Itvak have joined us in this parley as the system calls it.
“Alright then, how about we start with some formal introductions? I'm sure you've heard of me and my esteemed darling. We are kinda famous after all.”
The Red-haired guy scoffs at her remark. I want to punch him.
Ray proceeds to introduce Rigar and Itvak. Ignoring the rude guy.
“Nice to meet you, Rigar and Itvak. Allow me to introduce my two companions as well. The hot head with absolutely no table manners is Rao Dianz, a sol-renowned fencer from Venus. The other lad is Bon Trau, an intelligence officer of sorts.”
Bon gives a brief introduction, his voice wavering with anxiety. Rao just gives us a sharp look and goes back to ignoring us.
I really don't like this guy. He just irks me for some reason. I definitely feel like ima end up punching him at some point.
“Nice to meet ya, fellas. Now, what was this business that you wanted to propose to us?”
“Well, very simply put, we would like to do a joint legend-raid. We have discovered the legend beast of this biome, but it is far above our current capabilities. So, we would like to form a temporary, or perhaps longer lasting, truce so that we can tackle it together.”
That is a brilliant idea. Not only do they earn our goodwill, but they get to see what our core members are capable of. As well as learn some of our tactics. Naturally, we will learn the same about them, but information is key in a game like this one.
I make a minor motion signaling my agreement with the idea to Ray. A signal we developed that no one else will notice besides the two of us.
“We would be delighted to join you in such a venture! It sounds like a lot of fun. I'm sure the rest of our buddies will agree too. So, how do we do this whole truce thing?”
“Thats excellent! I was wondering about the truce thing as well.”
Another conveniently timed menu appears. Asking if we would like to enter into a temporary alliance. Naturally, we both agree and for now, we set the duration to one week.
Through one of the windows, I can see the yellow barrier disappear. I guess its not necessary now that we are officially in a truce.
Another menu pops up saying ‘A truce has been established between the Moonlight Alliance and Quartet Confederation for a duration of one week. For this period, encroachment upon each other's territories without permission is forbidden. Attempting to harm the other party in any way is also forbidden. Attempts to break the truce shall result in immediate death, with a tripled respawn timer if applicable.’
“Woah, those are some pretty harsh punishments. Guess neither of us are going to get out of this one, eh?” Ray says, with one of her world-famous smiles.
“Guess not, we are in it together, for a while at least." April says with a smile of her own. Though it's nowhere near as cute and dazzling as Ray’s.
We proceed to go over more details of the arrangement. You know, the basic boring military stuff. Turf boundaries and such. We end up basically splitting the biome down the middle as far as hunting grounds and such go.
They also tell us what they have learned about the Legend of this biome.
Apparently, it's a gigantic version of the Molan. The large, man-eating moose. Oh boy, this is going to be fun.
Its name is Achilles the Ravenous, which is honestly just about the most terrifying name you could have. They say that it is rated as a Low-extreme level, with a suggested party of 12 great-level warriors to defeat it.
Luckily, it seems that between their four contestants and six other core members they have four that are great-level. Marcos is one of them, unsurprisingly. But unfortunately Rao is another. Damn, that guy just had to be strong, in fact, he is bordering the middle of extreme level outside of the vessel.
Guess my plan of punching his face in is going to be a bit more difficult than I previously anticipated.
Along with our four great-levels (Linda is only around high level) and all the other lower-level members, our two parties should be strong enough to take on Achilles. At least, in theory. This time, we have no clue anything about his skills or patterns, like we did with Vesir.
Apparently, it's located a fair bit Northeast of our location. Basically right on the midline of the biome. Which is interesting, it's like they expect us to fight for it.
We still haven't seen any trace of Luna or her forces. It makes one wonder what they are up to, off to the far west. Our scouts that way are making progress, they should reach the theorized biome transition some time tomorrow.
Though, I'm honestly a bit afraid of what Luna could have in store. She always seemed like she was hiding a lot. With that flawless mask of hers.
We proceed to share information about our experiences in the arena. It seems they were near-identical, as you'd hope.
Their starting biome was a temperate forest. They ended up with a Legend called Aesir the Swift, a giant money-like thing. I'm glad we didn't have to fight that thing, it sounds like a nightmare.
The conference wraps up and they head back into the forest. Presumably to whatever fort they captured to deliberate.
After all, planning for a Legend Raid, especially a joint one, is going to take a fair moment or two. We set the date to fight it for three days from now, 9:00 AT on the ninth day.
I'm sure that it will be a fun fight.
No matter what comes next, Ray and I can undoubtedly overcome it, together. Plus, we've got friends, so there is no way we can be stopped at this point. So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 93
Next: Chapter 94 | Gathering
