Fourteen

"Stay close to me, watch our backs, don't let any of these little shits get close enough to touch us," Benny said as he walked down the ramp. The old man had a swagger to him, a rolling stride that took up more space than it should. A faint sense of danger emanated from Benny, not a full aura like the other cultivators had shown, but just pure body language.

A path opened up in front of them, the mixed crowds breaking apart to allow them through. Kon stuck close to Benny's right side while Diur took his left. His HUD flashed and filled with information, covering the upper right of his faceplate. A small map appeared, filling faster and faster as they walked.

"Benny, what's going on with the map?" Kon asked, keeping his voice low as they kept walking. The crowds were pressing in against them the further into the massive hangar they walked. Darkness started to close over them as they entered the heart of the facility. Yellow lights were stretched out every few hundred meters, glowing faintly enough to break up the pitch black.

"Sonic imaging from the Puca. This place isn't exactly up to code if you catch my drift. They like changing it frequently with whomever is currently in charge adding hallways or extra rooms to charge for services. Between that and my own unit in my helmet we should have a fully updated map of the entire station in a few minutes," Benny said.

The halls narrowed, the scarred metal of the facility growing duller and duller as they entered the older portions of the settlement. Haze rose, steam and smoke mingled together across the yellow light, swirling in hidden eddies as they pushed deeper. Stalls lined the passage, dozens of peoples standing around the stalls bartering or passing goods back and forth.

Kon's eyes got stuck on them, the vast array of alien life he'd never seen outside of a holo. Most were armored with toughened jumpsuits like their own, but some were in fully hardened combat suits that covered every inch of their body in armor. None of their armor came close to what a Knight's armor would reach, but they were still impressive.

Even wearing their suits he could tell they were alien. Extra limbs, quadrupeds, insect like creatures that chittered, a few of them were tiny while others were giant, there was even an ooze that was slinking about in the crowd, offered a wide berth by everyone.

"Where are we going?" Diur asked, her head constantly swiveling around herself. The crowds had gotten so thick that all of their shoulders were touching. Kon double checked his map and saw that a small red circle had appeared over it.

"Follow the dot," Benny said even as Kon deciphered what it was. They were only a few minutes away at their current walking pace, fighting through the crowd. Kon looked over at the stalls and saw skewers of meat, woks of noodle-like foods, plants of every color, rift monster bones dangling even as the meat cooked over open flame. His stomach rumbled and his energy starved body suddenly yearned for rift energy.

"Any chance we can get some of that? Later I mean," Kon asked.

"Kids always thinking with their stomach," Benny said. Diur chuckled softly but Kon didn't see her denying she wasn't interested in the food.

"Benny didn't say no."

"Stay alert and if we do this without making a mess I'll get you something fresh," Benny said after a moment of silence. They reached the red dot and Kon looked up to see a series of flashing red lights, dim and diffuse in the haze. It was a pendulous creature, rolls of fat and jowls filling the humanoid looking creature until it was basically a round oval.

"Now, keep your mouths shut and just look menacing," Benny said as they pushed their way into whatever the building was. There was a humm as they walked through the doors, the smog of outside whisked away by heavy filters. Purple-violet lights left the entire area dim, obscured shapes moving around in the near-darkness.

"Now silence," Benny warned again as he took off toward the corner of the room. His outline suddenly became bright white, Kon's HUD updating to outline both Benny and Diur bright enough that he could see them regardless of the poor lighting.

A huge corner booth dominated the back half of the area, dozens of figures standing around it, looking around the area. Red lights suddenly started to populate his view, outlining weapons on the majority of the creatures there. Most of the weapons were concealed under heavy coats or other clothing, but the two biggest aliens held massive clubs in their muscular hands.

"What are they carrying?" Kon asked as he squinted at the clubs they were carrying. The outline was flashing red rather than just a solid line like everything else.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Pulse clubs. Send a blast of electricity when they land. They can short out personal shields along with inflicting plenty of blunt force trauma," Diur responded before Benny could.

"Don't get hit by it, got it," Kon said as they got closer to the table. They stepped down from the main part and into the booth area. Seventeen beings suddenly tensed up, plenty of weapons were partially drawn, while a shadow broke away from the side of the booth.

Kon's heart beat faster as the HUD hadn't outlined the figure before it moved. A sudden blue line washed over the creature as it slunk forward to stand in front of them. Benny stopped, still looking relaxed as the creature straightened to its full height. It was nearly seven feet tall with sloped shoulders and long, tubular face with hundreds of teeth glowing in the purple light.

"May I help you?" the creature rasped, a shiver rolling over Kon as an aura started to spill out of the creature.

"Shit, it's a cultivator." Kon found himself wanting to speak, to let out all his secrets as the velvet-red aura washed over his feet and started to climb his legs. Kon focused on his own power, the energy inside of himself and tried to draw it forth to protect himself. Diur did something similar as the energy was subtly repulsed.

The creature's energy didn't even try to attach itself to Benny, simply bending around the Knight to flow toward Diur and Kon. Luminous yellow eyes blinked twice slowly as the creature looked at Benny before its aura shriveled up and retracted.

"My apologies master, it was not my intent to insult one of your magnitude," the creature hissed, voice low and raspy as it bowed its long neck toward Benny. A sigh came through the comms as Benny fought back his irritation.

"I seek to speak to your master about labor," Benny said, his voice modulated through the speakers in his helmet. The creature bowed, turning to look back at the hidden figure in the shadows of the booth. It hissed, a long threatening sound. A hand waved in the darkness, doing nothing but stirring the shadows.

"The master will speak with you," the unnamed cultivator said, bowing its head and melting back into the shadows. The crowd of guards backed away, opening a passage for the trio to advance.

Benny moved without hesitation walking toward the edge of the table. Closer to the figure Kon could make out little of it. It was humanoid, two arms, a torso, and a head, long hair moving around as if underwater.

"Benny…why do you play these games with me?" the voice hissed out of the shadows. The old man sighed and shook his head in annoyance.

"Turja, when did you get out here?" Benny said, the speakers cutting out and his regular voice sounding. A weak white light emitted from the table and Kon got to see Turja.

She looked human, her features similar but with a pair of stubby horns emerging from the center of her forehead. Pallid white skin was covered in thick black tattoos that made Kon dizzy to look at. They looked like runes, but not correct, as if they were missing pieces.

"Ohh…it's been at least a decade now. Your friends decided that collateral damage was alright and I lost my home. Now I am here," Turja said. She had a slow halting way of speaking, as if deciding each individual word.

"They've gotten sloppy the last few decades. Prefer mass chaos and fighting to surgical strikes," Benny said, a hint of bitterness in his voice as he stood there with his thumbs tucked into his belt. Turja just cackled at him.

"They learned it from you. You're not the only old thing floating around the galaxy. I remember Tlier-Na," Turja said, her words broken further apart by her laughing.

"Sometimes a message has to be sent. Which is an excellent segue to what I came here for."

"The tribe that took the contract. I didn't connect them by the way, I'm not that foolish. It seems every time Knights are ambushed that the ones who do it wind up dead. Along with their families," Turja said.

"Messages are important. Clean fights are fine, but I won't let these vultures pick at my family while their backs are turned," Benny said.

"Nielsen in the lower quarter did it. Connected them. It was a blind meet, but he knows which tribe it was that took it."

"How do I find him?" Benny asked. Turja chuckled again, rasping low sounds as she looked toward the front door.

"Nielsen is an idiot, but he's not that dumb. He knows you're here and he's on his way now."

"How'd he know?" Benny asked, an edge in his voice.

"I told him. And now we are paid back from that incident on Halmud Four. Also you're getting sloppy in your old age, you didn't change your engine emissions when you arrived. I knew it was you the moment you entered the system," Turja said. She didn't seem to be alarmed that Benny would do anything about her selling him out.

"Fine. Paid off. Are you going to leave or watch the show? I got some kids with me so I can't promise it'll be as clean as normal," Benny asked. Turja stood up, her guards gathering around as she left the corner booth. Away from the table Kon got a good look at the alien.

She was tall, lithe, with a muscular build, her hair inky black with tendrils floating behind her. She looked over toward Kon and Diur and fangs showed as she smiled widely at them, black eyes with crimson pupils widening as she took a deep breath.

"Oh that's interesting. Well, keep your heads down, the old goat is dangerous to all. Including his pupils," Turja turned back to the old man and bowed her head.

"I will see you next time. Oh, Nielsen doesn't know it's you or that you're a human, just a bounty hunter." Turja said as she disappeared into the darkness of the club with a waggle of fingers.

"The longer you're around the more you realize that the galaxy is a small place," Benny said with a sigh as he looked over at the now empty area.

"You kids ready for a fight?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.