The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

Krow let Sigram heave him up the top of one of the columns that didn't go all the way to the ceiling. What was the reason for that? They ran out of stone and just decided to leave it?

"Did you lose your guns again?" Evlene smirked at the hooks in his hands.

He shook his head, coughed. "There was a lever to create a deluge just waiting there?"

His guns were in his Inventory. He flicked the grapplehooks there as well.

"Sometimes it's necessary to redirect waterflow to other parts of the underground," Evlene hummed, a slight frown on her face. "I didn't expect them to be able to activate those. The idiot. Even if he and his companions didn't die, they likely broke multiple bones."

"Odd thing for a Reeve to know. Did you work in sewer maintenance?" Krow grimaced as his boots squelched, a trail of water running off him. 

He hoped that was reservoir water. Some of it had gotten in his mouth. It was Redlands, but shkav there were downsides to the immersion experience.

"It pays to know much about the city, as a Reeve," Sigram disagreed. "Odd knowledge is often beneficial."

The vargvir waved a hand at Krow. A warm gale swirled around him, ruffling the Travelcoat. A Spell. At the end of it, he was barely damp.

"Oh, you do laundry too?"

"We cook, we clean, we even m—"

"Make certain that we are as presentable as possible at all times." Sigram did the same spell on Evlene. "Enough. They know we are here. We must move fast."

"Marses would already be alerted." Evlene fell into professional mode. She eyed Krow, pointed at the next pillar platform. "Can you jump?"

"I can."

Sigram once more led the way, Evlene keeping her post near Krow, who double-jumped after the vargvir.

Krow watched their movements. He was envious. To be able to move like that without a movement spell, the Wolf Warrior class was really versatile.

It was one of the reasons he'd shortlisted it. At high levels, he didn't need a strong movement spell, and at Lvl 50 there was an automatically assigned mount quest.

They bounced a path through the massive reservoir and finally landed on a dry platform before a tunnel.

Sigram cocked his head, ears swiveling. Krow blinked at the familiar action. How many times had he seen Gazzy do that? He looked away. This wasn't the time to give in to nostalgia.

The vargvir glanced at Krow. "You could stay here. There are more people than expected ahead. I believe it's a hub."

"Equip-one," was Krow's reply. His armors coalesced around him.

He took the revolvers out of his Inventory.

Even if he couldn't keep up with two Reeves possessing levels over twice his own, he could still defend himself and give covering fire. From what he'd seen, neither were long-range specialists.

The two Reeves looked his armored figure up and down, then nodded reluctantly.

"Smugglers?" Evlene reached behind to the glaive carried on her back, refocusing.

"Possible. The scents are established. A long-term habitation. But it also smells like paper…"

"They did steal a book." Krow shrugged. "Maybe they do that a lot? There are many rare tomes in Tvarglad."

Sigram hummed, pinned his cloak back, revealing his axes. He rested his hand on one, before voicing a theory. "An illegal bookselling operation."

"Really, another one?" Evlene sighed. "The last one burned the books around me, Sigram!"

Tvarglad was a city of contrasts. 

The orderly circular wall design, yet containing a riot of gardens and trees between the walls. A reputation for being hotblooded and fierce warriors, yet there's the fact that the city was home to the greatest Enchanter research library in the world.

What other warrior nation would count illegal bookselling as worthy of the attention of their royal guards?

The tunnel led directly to another reservoir.

At least this time, the water levels weren't so high.

Krow dived into an alcove behind a supporting pillar as they were met by a full troop of people defending the other end of the tunnel.

The two Reeves burst into action. 

Evlene's glaive sliced up armor and broke bones on the shaft. Sigram's three axes flashed in the lamp-lit tunnel, precise and deadly.

Krow targeted the enemies looking to crowd either of the Reeves. 

[You've eliminated a Lvl 38 member of the Dredris Crime Group and gained seven (7) Silver Serpens! 6/40]

He could also take out the ones they'd already weakened, apparently.

He started shooting shieldbursts.

With those kinds of levels, his darkspears would be like beestings. 

Wait, forty people?!

That was the equivalent of a large bandit camp.

Krow recognized the name.

Dredris was a popular crime-group for players in Marfall to join to gain Infamy, mostly due to the fact that they kept being found out by authorities and had multiple battle-quests.

The members were nicknamed 'Dreds' on the forums.

Their incompetence was so lucrative, it became a meme.

Possibly the only reason they survived to Zushkenar was that players kept bolstering their ranks.

Krow reloaded.

A wounded Dredris member broke past the two Reeves, heading for Krow.

What?

He'd done mostly nothing. Was this guy one of the ones who fell on his face because of his shieldbursts and now wanted revenge?

Priorities, guy.

He shot as fast as he could. The Dred barely stumbled.

He triggered Shadowbind. The Dred froze in his tracks.

Sigram glanced back, tossed his third axe almost negligently.

The axe buried itself in the Dred's nape and exited through the voicebox, severing the spine and pinning the criminal to the floor in front of Krow with an almost growling sound.

Thanks, but he had it.

The Dred gurgled, still alive. Krow ended his misery.

[You've eliminated a Lvl 43 member of the Dredris Crime Group and gained eight (8) Silver Serpens! 16/40]

He stepped on the corpse's back and pulled the axe out. The sound of metal scraping against bone was…actually sounding real. He'd heard that sound multiple times in Zushkenar.

Norge, what the hell. Did you record a butcher?

To go so far for realistic sound design, that's kind of obsessed.

Not that Krow could criticize.

He hefted the axe.

[Eight-Thunder Axe]

[Quality: D][Unique]

['Upon the peak of Mount Thelamos, I gaze down on the world, gripping the axe of my father's father. 

'Teacher tells me, 'Nature does not hurry, yet all is accomplished.' 

'That is not my creed. 

'I call upon the roaring skies. I call upon the herald of destruction. I call upon the thunder.'] 

Krow hurled it into the melee. 

It slammed against a Dred rushing Sigram's back, impaling her against the tunnel wall with the same growling thunder that met the Dred Krow was still standing on.

Sigram kicked a Dred into three others and reached for it, the axe neatly fitting back seamlessly into his movements. Thunder crashed and suddenly three people around the vargvir fell to the ground convulsing.

A synergy effect.

Krow started shooting again.

Evlene smirked at him briefly as his shieldburst send a Dred stumbling into the path of the bloody glaive somehow already skewering through the heart of another.

Were glaives supposed to pierce like that?

They pushed the defenders back out of the tunnel into the reservoir area.

Cries and screams sounded.

What?

Krow took a moment to process.

There were prisoners. Scribes shackled to writing desks.

Several of the Dredris members headed in that direction.

For hostages?

Shkav!

After the one Shadowbind, he didn't have enough MP for even a double-jump.

He aimed, shot out the knee of the Dred in the lead. The vargvir stumbled into the siren behind him. The human Dred reached the scribes, only to crash into a writing desk, also with a bloody knee.

He may not be able to kill them with one bullet, but there were still weak-spots that would allow a critical hit.

It was too bad, really, that knee-shots didn't work on most monsters.

The momentary delay he created was enough for Evlene to reach the prisoners and slice through the heads of several who thought to take hostages.

The others hesitated, and she ripped into them with a wild grin.

A crash sounded on the far side of the reservoir.

A red cloak fluttered, its owner dragging one of the Dreds out of a stone doorway by the neck.

"What in Kombar's name took you all so long?" Marses roared from across the reservoir.

Tsk.

"Where is the appreciation?" Krow yelled back. "After we took a nice long bath to meet you!?"

He almost didn't notice the woman aiming a dagger at his side. He dodged, getting a scrape across his ribs instead of a blade through his heart.

At the difference between their levels, he'd have died instantly.

He shot out her knees.

It didn't keep her down for long, but at least the shieldbursts were more effective. 

"Down!"

He dropped. Evlene's glaive whistled above him, slicing into his opponent's throat.

He huffed into the damp stone, thumping a fist onto it, before boosting himself up.

He was next to useless in this fight.

That irritated him.

He understood, of course, that the high levels of the opponents were entirely due to the presence of the Reeves and it was fine letting them take care of it.

He was just…

He didn't expect the mixed emotions that this visit to Tvarglad caused.

He holstered his shieldburst revolver with sullen force, then took a deep breath. He wasn't here for a Redlands win, he reminded himself.

He gave a small smile to the prisoners. "I don't suppose you know where the key to those things are?"

Let the warriors deal with war.

He had things to do.

[You've finished the quest |:The Book of Maron:| with good success, gaining +20 Experience Points, +15 Silver Serpens!]

[You've finished the Sub-objective: Find Marses, gaining +30 Experience Points, +8 Silver Serpens!]

[You've finished the Sub-objective: Fluttering Pages with 45/187 loose pages found, gaining +5 Experience Points, +3 Silver Serpens, and +1 Reputation Point with Tvarglad!]

[You've finished the Hidden Sub-objective: Illicit Duplicate with 45/187 pages of the restricted tome 'The Book of Maron' copied, gaining +3 Experience Points, +1 Silver Serpens, and Maron's Codex (Incomplete)!]

[You've finished the Hidden Sub-objective: Save the Scribes! with 23/23 scribes unharmed, gaining +5 Reputation Points with Tvarglad!]

  [Quest Completion: C+]