22. Mad Dog (I)

The first thing Zane did when he got back was upgrade the Beacon.

The second thing was to have Reina ramp up the training. From now on, all unused essence stones went to the militia. He dedicated a chestful of stones to setting up stakes, walls, and ditches.

Whoever these Mad Dogs were, he was not taking chances.

A few days later, he got his first messages on the Beacon. When he checked, a notification popped up—

𝘏𝘦𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘛𝘰𝘮. 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘮𝘢𝘯.

𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘱. 𝘞𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘥 𝘋𝘰𝘨𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘶𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳.

𝘐 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭-𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘮𝘦.

𝘞𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘥 𝘋𝘰𝘨, 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬. 𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘐𝘧 𝘐 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘐'𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰𝘰, 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘦. 𝘍𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩—𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘦... 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘭𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 '𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘥𝘰𝘨𝘴' 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘯 …𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩. 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘸𝘦'𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶.

𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴,

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘢

Zane had already gotten started on the defenses. As for running…

He'd run if he had to, sure. But he was never one for running. Running only got you so far. If these folk were as aggressive as Tom claimed, they'd face up sooner or later.

And it just irked him. Running, instead of fighting.

He'd get a look at these Mad Dogs first. Then he'd make a decision. So far, all he had to go on was Tom's word. Tom seemed a nice enough guy, but Zane wasn't trusting the future of his people on the word of someone he'd met once. That last bit especially—their being glad to have the Luminous Faction at their camp... could be innocuous, a genuine kind gesture. Could be they had other intentions, just like these 'Mad Dogs.'

Zane had to see for himself.

Back at the Beacon, he could see the Mad Dogs' progress on the map. Their territory was still a ways West—there were maybe six or seven F-ranked dungeons between them and the Luminous Faction. Seemed like they were mostly expanding up and down the coast.

Still, every day he kept a careful eye on them. He thought about reaching out via Beacon but instantly shot the idea down. It was probably better they didn't get on the Mad Dogs' radar.

***

Around the end of the third week, a wolf Monster wandered into camp in the dead of night. Zane woke late. He only heard the aftermath. It'd cornered a child, who screamed. Luckily, this happened near the huts—A couple of warriors woke up and took the beast down before it could do any real damage. It was lucky too that the thing was only Level 7.

They soon determined the Monster came from an F-ranked dungeon to the southwest. It must have started leaking.

Zane meant to clear it first thing in the morning, but Reina had a better idea.

"You're always going on about how we should protect ourselves," she said. "It's an F-ranked dungeon. It's nothing serious. Why don't we give our warriors their first field test?"

So they set off together at the crack of dawn. A troop of forty-odd warriors, thrown together from a bunch of different dungeons Zane had cleared. Former warehouse workers made up maybe half. There were former electricians, former carpenters, former construction workers, former truckers—a few white-collar jobs too. After integration, some accountants and schoolteachers had discovered a fire they didn't know they had.

Their old lives were all in the past. Today, they thought of themselves as warriors of the Luminous Faction.

Annie had got up to Level 11 and she was raring to go, but her mother said no. It didn't matter her Level; she was not fighting monsters. The little girl was still fuming when they left.

The leaky dungeon was called the Millennium Glade, nestled in a valley riddled with towering ancient white-barked trees. A gentle wash of sunlight poured in through the canopy. Things were lazy here, almost sleepy. There was a gentle breeze, the soft chittering of birds, the fresh smells of damp earth and wildflowers. You could be lulled into forgetting you were in danger.

And there was danger. Most came in the form of imps, these tiny green things with spears. They were like goblins' smaller, uglier cousins. They were faster too. A few warriors panicked when the Imps came rushing. But once they downed a few, they started to gain confidence. They started to believe they were really warriors; they could do this.

They came across a direwolf of the same species that had wandered into camp and cornered it and killed it as a unit. So far, Zane hadn't needed to step in at all.

He was a little more worried when it came to the boss fights, but they turned out fine too. The first was against a slender woodland sprite called the Thornheart Dryad. It used poison spikes, summoned vines and little sprite minions to mess with the warriors. After half an hour of skirmishing, they managed to whittle it down and end it. Zane only stepped in once, when a warrior got out of line and nearly ate a boulder to the face.

By the time they got to the other boss, the Greatwolf, they looked like a real fighting unit. Still green, still prone to gaffes, but much less jittery. Zane never knew what to say to them, but Reina did. She threw in encouragements at all the right times—"Well done," "Great read, James," or "Clean work!"—and urged them on with a—"You've got this!" or "Come on, just a little more—yes!"—when it seemed they might falter.

In the end, the mission was a massive success. They cleared an F-ranked dungeon almost entirely on their own.

Lunch was a massive celebration. They used the dungeon winnings to buy the most expensive food the Beacon offered, a kind of striped crab that would have been a delicacy at a Michelin star restaurant just three weeks ago. The Beacon gave each crab as much essence as an essence stone. Warriors leveled just by eating. They made a feast of it.

***

Zane excused himself halfway through. He went northwest. He was on a mission to clear up all the nearby leaking dungeons, starting with a former wildlife sanctuary where the beasts had escaped and mutated. It took most of the rest of the day. One in particular was finicky: a graveyard. There were three bosses there. Go figure, they were all ghosts and ghouls, they were all speed-based and they could all cloak. It wasn't hard tracking them down and squishing them, just annoying. They couldn't do much to him.

It wasn't much fun, and he longed to be on the road again soon. But he still felt satisfied after he cleared out all the nearby dungeons up north. He imagined it was the kind of satisfaction some got after thoroughly cleaning their house. Things just felt nicer.

***

The sun was starting to set as he walked back. He was still in a pretty good mood, though he could see dark clouds gathering on the horizon by the sea. There would likely be a storm tonight. The roofs had been replaced now—turned from straw to wood to steel. They'd better be ready.

As he climbed down the Highlands, he frowned at his mini-map. There were white dots as usual, marking Luminous Faction folk, but what were those white dots with red in the middle? There was a clump of them gathered right outside the main settlement. There was a clump of white dots too, on the other side, facing them…

He stilled.

He'd checked the Beacon map this morning. He hadn't seen any signs the Mad Dogs were expanding east! But who else could they be? Then he was sprinting down the plains fast as he could.

He came upon the settlement. There was Reina. Her hands were balled to fists, her face twisted in anger. Her warriors milled nervously behind her.

Across from her, just twenty paces off, stood a bald man with a puglike face. He was shirtless, exposing a very unimpressive body. His arms were riddled with tattoos. Across his chest, the word MAD DOG was carved into the flesh in gruesome capital letters.

𝔻𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕜 𝔸𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕠𝕟 (ℂ𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟡

ℂ𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤: 𝕄𝕒𝕦𝕝𝕖𝕣

Behind him was a crew of men just like him, all bald, all with MAD DOG carved into their chests too. It must've been cleared every level up—did they re-carve it every time? Zane had hardly met them, and they already seemed ridiculous.

"Enough! Leave—now!" snarled Reina. Her fists were clenched so hard they were trembling.

"Aww," smirked Derek. "C'mon, baby, don't be like that. Anyone ever tell you you're beautiful? Tell you what. You come back with me and we'll let your friends off easy. Think about it, alright?"

"What do you think you're doing in my Faction?" said Zane flatly.

They finally noticed him. All at once.

"Zane!" Reina's face lit up. "Thank God you're here! They—"

"Oh, this is Zane," Derek turned his narrow little gaze on Zane. "Your girl's told us all about you. You're a big fella, aren't you? And you're—" his eyes widened, twitched.

But he was only stunned for a second. Then he barked out a laugh. "Phew! Level 43! Someone's been eating his wheaties."

He wasn't cowed. Interesting. Zane wondered what gave him the confidence.

"Yeah, okay. So you're a big boy, real big," mocked Derek. "But guess what? We've got a guy just as big as you. And he's got an army of Level 30-pluses to back him up!"

Ah.

The men behind Derek started to bark like hounds.

"You think you can take all of us, big boy?"

Zane stayed raised a brow. "How strong is this… Mad Dog… precisely?"

"He's got two Levels on you, buddy. And a hundred fighting men willing to die for him!"

"Oh," said Zane. He gathered this was meant to scare him, but all he could think about was how interesting a challenge it sounded.

Still—"You should leave," he told Derek.

"I don't think I will," said Derek. He must have taken Zane's words, his calmness, as a surrender. His smile grew smugger. "How about this? We give you three days to clear out. Take all your shit and get the fuck out. Three-day grace period, isn't that nice? After that, well… all's fair game. Run fast, and who knows? Maybe we won't catch you."

"How generous," said Zane dryly.

"Isn't it? We could wipe you now, you know. We won't! But you've gotta give me something for it. I want that one." He pointed straight at Reina.

"Go fuck yourself!" screamed Reina.

"Oh, I like that!" laughed Derek. "It's more fun when they have some fight in 'em."

Reina seemed one insult away from lunging at him.

"I'm not going to ask again," said Zane calmly. "Leave."

"No," said Derek, smirking.

Zane shrugged. Then slowly, methodically, he started walking toward the man.

"Oh yeah, that's it," said Derek. "Big boy's mad. Well guess what, big boy? You touch me and you're done. Your whole village's done! Mad Dog won't spare a single one of 'em!"

Zane kept walking.

"Did you hear me, you stupid oaf? You touch me and we'll raze this shitty little village to the fucking ground!"

He was panicking; his voice got higher and higher pitched the closer Zane got. Until Zane stopped right in front of him. Zane staring down at him impassively. Derek swallowed. "Yeah, yeah, that's right—"

Zane slapped him so hard his front teeth went flying.

He slapped him so hard Derek's whole body went flying, tumbling spinning into the grass.

For a second, Derek just lay there, staring dumbly up at him, as though he couldn't believe then Zane really just hit him.

It took a half-second for the others to react. Then one huge black Chain whipped through the air, blasting them all off their feet. They went flying, screaming as in Zane crouched down to Derek's level.

Derek tried to rise. "You!"— he spat. He looked furious. "You punk! I'll fucking—"

Zane slapped him again. This time, something audibly cracked.

But this one didn't break when he went down. Sure he choked out a sob, but he seemed madder if anything. "I'll fucking kill you!" he shrieked, slobbering drool. "I'll kill all of you! Your girl too, I'll break her like a dog! Oh, yeah. Just you wait. Once Mad Dog hears, you're FUCKED!"

Zane sighed. He looked to the sky. Then his Chains burst into being. "Once Mad Dog hears?" he cocked a brow. "But who will tell him?"

Far too late, Derrick seemed to realize his mistake. "…Uhh—wait—hold on, now—"

"You should've kept your mouth shut."