28. Mount Saint Helens (III)

Zane saw the man at their fore.

Gray-haired, blue-eyed, square-jawed. His hair was buzz cut. He held his massive body ramrod-straight. He strode with purpose, almost at a march. He could've been a drill sergeant.

Their eyes met. His were cold and haughty.

𝕍𝕚𝕔𝕥𝕠𝕣 𝕊𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕕 (ℂ𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟝𝟜

ℂ𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤: 𝕃𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕃𝕠𝕣𝕕

𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: 𝕀𝕣𝕠𝕟 𝕃𝕖𝕘𝕚𝕠𝕟

Huh. How…improbable.

So… Zane was wrong. Could be some trouble.

Iron Legion. Where had he heard that name before?

The man's troops lined up behind, beside him. Each fell in with military precision. They were the the same steely-gray uniforms. They looked like straightjackets.

The man said nothing for a while. He simply frowned at Zane like he'd found an insect in his breakfast. Then—

"Zane Walker," said Stroud slowly. "The Savage Sage. How unexpected."

He talked, said everything slowly, deliberately, like each syllable was a stone he was placing down.

"You speak like you know me," said Zane.

"You are the leader of the Luminous Faction. You single-handedly eliminated the Mad Dog faction. Your Faction has thirty-two zones under its command. You make liberal use of chain weaponry."

Zane shrugged. Pretty bang-on. He was more famous than he thought.

"You are the sole true power in southern Washington," the man continued. There was a pause. His lips curved into a sneer. "And yet… you are here. Far from home… Alone."

Zane didn't like how he said that last word. He especially didn't like how Stroud's men began to fan out slowly around him, making the shape of a pincer. At a cursory glance, they picked up their Levels, all in the low- to mid- 40s.

"You are your Faction's only power. Without you, your Faction is nothing... easily crushed."

Stroud's nostrils flared. "It was not wise to come here alone, as you have."

Now Zane remembered where he'd heard 'Iron Legion.' Tom had said it—he said a Signed led a Faction called the Iron Legion up north. He said they'd taken Seattle.

And now, for some reason, they were here. And seemingly about to attack him. Why exactly Zane wasn't sure, but he had some guesses. In any case now didn't seem the time for 'why's'. Now seemed more of a 'what the hell do I do about this' situation.

His eyes flickered from one end of their lines to the other. Was it too much? There were a few 47s, 48s in there. A little close for comfort. And this Stroud… Zane was drawing a blank. The man's face gave nothing away. Level 54… hm.

Yeah, Zane was strong now. Not that strong, though. He hated admitting it, but maybe it was time to get out of here. He readied his Chains. One Inferno, one opening, and in the chaos he'd look to break--

"Hey there! Excuse me. Am I interrupting something?"

The voice was high, almost melodic. It did not come out of any of Stroud's stone-faced men. It floated over from the right.

On top of an ash tree, the same kind of ash tree that had crumbled utterly when Zane had touched it, sat a girl, swinging her legs lazily. A short, messy-haired, strikingly pretty brunette in a baggy hoodie. Waving at them, and grinning.

For a moment, all any of them could do was stare.

𝔸𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 𝕃𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕪

𝕊𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕋𝕚𝕥𝕝𝕖: 𝕁𝕠𝕜𝕖𝕣 𝕊𝕒𝕧𝕒𝕟𝕥

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝: 𝟝𝟘

ℂ𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤: 𝕊𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕖𝕖𝕜𝕖𝕣

When did she get up there?

And Signature Title? He stared at the mini map. …Huh. There were two dots with S's on them. Him, and... her, apparently.

The girl hopped down and landed nimbly in a crouch. Then she stood, brushed herself off, and strolled over.

Zane caught a glance at Stroud's face. It was the first time he'd betrayed a single emotion this entire encounter.

Horror. Utter horror.

The girl strolled up, staring up at Zane. "Hey, you're Zane, right? Hi, I'm Avery! Nice to meet you. I'm here to help." She held out a hand, grinning. Zane stared at it.

"Savant," Stroud got out. "You are not supposed to be here." He sounded a little strangled.

She winked. "I have a knack for showing up in places people don't want me."

Stroud glared at the girl. Avery stared right back. She seemed amused, like this was a joke they were all in on. "So… what? Are we just gonna keep staring at each other? Go on, get out of here. Fun's over."

And to Zane's shock, Stroud made a disgusted sound, a disgusted face, turned around, and stomped off. His men piled in behind him.

"Yeesh," muttered Avery. "What a dick."

"… Who are you?"

"I'm Avery," said the girl. "Avery Lively. What's there to know about me? Let's see… I'm an Aries, I'm twenty, and I'm from Seattle. I was living in Seattle, then Seattle became like fourteen dungeons. Then this asshole Marcus Blackwell took control and started running the place like North Korea. I had a problem with that, so I fought him, he caught me and beat the shit out of me, and I ran away. Now I'm here."

By now Zane was so baffled he just started walking away as a defense mechanism. Avery walked along with him, humming cheerfully.

"So what are you up to?"

A silence, filled only by the crunching of their steps.

Avery cleared her throat. "So," she said even more enthusiastically, "What are you up to?"

She just kept staring at Zane with her big green eyes until Zane got uncomfortable.

"… I'm here to fight bosses."

"Sweet," said Avery. "That dickbag Stroud's here to do the same thing. He wants to claim this territory for the Iron Legion. That's why he's really here, by the way. He sailed all the way down Puget Sound."

…what?

"They're trying to do a sea invasion down south, now that they have like eighty percent of the north. I don't really have the firepower to force them out, so instead I'm here to try to piss them off so bad they give up."

She talked as they walked. Where to, Zane wasn't sure.

At last, he got a clue—a yellow dot popped up on the edge of his mini-map. He started wandering towards it.

"No, wait, not that way!"

Zane didn't stop. Then he felt something hit him in the back, and clatter to the ground. He turned around, disbelieving. "…Did you just throw a rock at me?"

"A chunk of coal," Avery clarified. "And I'm serious. Look."

She picked up another nearby chunk of coal—they were scattered everywhere—and chucked it down the sooty path. It hit the ground. Then it started to sink. And sink and sink until it was swallowed whole and what Zane thought was solid ground washed over, filling the gap.

"That whole stretch is like magma quicksand," said Avery. "You'll get stuck."

"… How did you know that?"

"I told you. I might not have much in terms of like raw power, but I have a lot of things that make me super annoying to fight. And kill. Like my perception."

Avery grinned crookedly. "It's one of my Signature Skills, Echoes of Insight. Among other things, it basically gives me like a dog's nose and a bat's ears and a… uh… Well, I guess perceiving vibrations is also a bat. I'm kind of like a bat with a dog's nose."

She turned.

"Here, follow me. This place gets really boggy."

"You've been here before?"

"Nah, just have a feeling. When you have senses like mine, you learn to trust your feelings."

"…"

Avery started walking down a wide arc, weaving between the ash trees, making seemingly random hops here and there.

She stopped and turned back. Zane hadn't moved. "You coming?"

Feeling like an idiot, Zane followed her.

Thankfully, Avery had stopped talking. Whenever she did, Zane started to get a headache. Instead, the girl started whistling a pop song. She was strangely good at it.

"Hey," said Zane at last, "What's your deal?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you here?"

"I just told you. Or do you mean like… philosophically, or something?"

"No," said Zane, "Why are you here with me?"

"Oh, that's easy," said Avery. She blew a strand of hair out of her face. "My thing is I'm very good at evasion and perception, which also makes me pretty darn good at defense. The one thing I'm bad at is offense, and you're like a very big stick. We can help each other."

I'm like a what now? "I don't need your help."

"You almost just stepped in magma quicksand."

"… I would've gotten out of it."

"Okay, fine," said Avery. "Put it another way. I think you're on a collision course with the Iron Legion. Since they want to take over all the Pacific Northwest, and you're in the Pacific Northwest. And I think you're the best hope we have at actually stopping them. So… here I am! When I said I want to help, I meant it."

"…"

"Here, let me pitch myself. I'm a great scout. And a mage, kind of. I'm good with illusions so I can do some battle support stuff, and cloaking stuff I'm excellent at. And redirection. This is a D-ranked dungeon. Have you ever been in a D-ranked dungeon?"

"…"

"Trust me, the second floor is much worse than you think it is. You'll need all the help you can get. Also, dude, I'm literally a Signed, and I'm offering my services to you for free. Like..."

"…" He supposed if she played support and stayed out of his way—

She rolled her eyes. "Are you allergic to teamwork, or something? Oh, you're so cool, Mr. Lone Wolf. You're so mysterious! Dang, bro—"

"Okay, okay, you can come along," said Zane hastily.

She beamed. "Awesome!"