Chapter 4 - Orcs And A Corrupted Haven

Richard had been running for about an hour, not a full sprint, but fast enough that he was able to turn a 120 mile journey into just a bit above 3 hours. Once he got close to Prescott he saw a glowing dome off in the distance. It wasn't any of the Havens he was familiar with and he'd been around these parts. As he continued to stare at the dome he could see that it wasn't pure white like the other Havens, it had red streams going through the dome, much like veins would in your body. These streams would pulse now and then, making it look eerie.

"How the hell would someone be able to corrupt a Haven like that?", then he heard movement off about half a mile to the west. He looked around for something to hide in, then slowly creeped into the ruins of what looked to be a two story home. He hid under where a window had once been and peeked out, trying to see what had made the noise. It wasn't long before he spotted an Orc walking through the rubble. It was holding a huge club, almost the size of one of it's own legs that was studded with black spikes.

Richard tried sizing it up, then nodded to himself as he began using his darkness to create a vacuum of air. He pulled a couple of his special black rocks out of his dimensional space, then loaded one up and took aim. His first shot was all he needed as it blasted the Orc straight through its chest where the heart had been. A giant hole was gaping in the Orc's chest, it tried to scream but instead began to gurgle, then fell to the ground. Richard ran up to it, listening for any other sounds in the surrounding areas. There was nobody else for the moment, so he checked the body. It was a male, roughly about 7 feet tall.

There wasn't much on it except the haunch of what looked like a monster, but Richard couldn't tell what it had been because it had been mostly eaten. There were a few teeth in a bag, but other than that there wasn't much more on the Orc. Richard sighed as he began slowly walking towards the glowing dome and that's when he heard it. There were screams of pain and anguish, human screams to be specific. He hurried his pace and made it to the dome within about ten minutes. Three humans, two male and one female, were tied to posts outside of the dome and were having turns taken on them by a group of Orcs, either for beating or less desirable acts.

One of the men looked like his jaw had been dislocated, as it was flopping around below his open mouth. The Orcs were having a grand time using the humans for entertainment. Richard scanned the humans, then the Orcs. He could probably take down at least two of the ten Orcs surrounding the humans before they located him, then he'd have to use ambush tactics to take out the rest. It wasn't particularly sporting, but if he could get the Orcs away from the humans, maybe he could give them a chance to escape.

As he watched and readied his air cannon again he saw a much larger Orc step out of the Haven dome and grin at the three humans. "You have done well to survive this long. Do not worry, your numbers will add to our own and we will be stronger for it." Richard made another air cannon on top of the one he had made, then one under it and two to the sides of it. It was going to be a massive risk, but he knew it was one he would have to take. The big Orc was the Alpha, no doubt about it. 'Fuck man, I really hope we can take all these guys on.'

He loaded up his ammo and tied all the cannons together with more air. Then he had a brilliant idea, which is funny because he smacked himself mentally for not thinking of it sooner. He grabbed the stones from his storage space and began holding them in tubes of air at the back of the cannons, loading them each up with 20 of his special rocks. Once they were loaded he grabbed the cannons and aimed at the big Orc first.

"Eat this you big ugly bastard." He shouted, which got the attention of the big Orc before it had five holes blasted through its chest. It's eyes rolled up in the back of its head before it fell over, once it fell the other Orcs charged. Richard reloaded and unleashed a flurry of his special stones, the first Orc to be hit was hit just under its neck, taking it's head off and sending it flying with a hole in the middle of it. The next Orc was just to the right of that one, it's legs and groin were separated from the rest of it's body as Richard's cannons tore it in half.

The third Orc tried to dodge, but lost it's arm and right side of it's chest, falling to the ground and bleeding out. One after another the Orcs were dismembered and killed, limbs and blood flying everywhere until there were no rocks left. Richard had missed a few times, but hadn't stopped shooting. Once the last of the Orcs outside the dome were down, Richard waited and reloaded his magazine tubes, listening for any other sounds of Orcs coming.

After ten minutes no other Orcs came, so he grabbed all his rocks and placed them back in his Dimensional Space, unraveling his Automatic Air Cannon. He slowly crept from body to body, collecting anything that was of value from each of them. The Orc Leader was the only one who had anything worth it on him though. He had three assault rifles that had been infused with darkness, which he knew belonged to the three humans tied up outside of the dome.

As soon as he felt the rush of Darkness flow into him he sighed, it felt completely full if he was honest with himself, which was amazing because that meant he might just be able to get a couple levels out of this. He walked up to each of the three humans tied up and cut them down, helping them to the ground gently. The first thing he did was to pop the dislocated jaw back into place, then Heal most of the wounds he could find. Once that was taken care of he sat down and pulled out three waterskins, handing them to the humans.

"Who are you?" the female asked, Richard shrugged "Just your friendly neighborhood spiderman." She rolled her eyes and the two men started laughing. "Seriously though my name's Richard, I'm the Caravan Guard Captain for Marc's Fantastic Wares." The woman stood up along with both of the other men. The three of them put their fists to their chests and Richard sighed, standing up and saluting them back. The woman stepped forward "Name's Lieutenant Claire Jenkins. This is Privates Matthew Dick and Patrick Lyle." I nodded to each of them "What are you three doing out here so far away from the Haven?"

Claire sighed "Can I speak frankly sir?" Richard rolled his eyes "We are out in enemy territory right now, stop with the military command structure for a moment and just tell me what happened." She nodded and both of the men relaxed "We were out scavenging, trying to hunt down a clue about an underground bunker that we had heard about from a wanderer. It seemed far fetched, but his description was too unique and specific to be a lie, or so we thought."

"So you guys are the ones that were missing?" She groaned "We lost one of our men when these Orcs ambushed us.", "What levels are you guys?" They all brought up their sheets and it was fairly obvious they had no business being this far from a Haven. "Seriously, not even level 20? What do you think you're doing this far from an actual Haven?" they all bowed their heads in defeat. Claire tried to speak up, but Richard silenced her with a gesture "You're with me until I decide otherwise and when we get back to the Haven, I will deal with each of you. Where is your other member?"

She pointed inside of the dome, Richard nodded and handed them their guns "Follow me and stick to my back like fucking glue. If any of the Orcs show up shoot until you can't shoot anymore." They all nodded and as a group all walked into the Dome wall. It had the same Haven dome feeling that Richard had gotten used to, then when he was on the other side he looked around and breathed a sigh of relief. There were no ambushes in sight or hearing range, what he did see though were destroyed buildings that looked like they had been outside and absorbing darkness, not inside of a Haven.

He continued walking until they got to the center of the Haven and found the Haven stone and pedestal. Once he touched it he felt a wave of uneasiness and nausea flow through him. He could still access his sheet and menu, but he felt queasy touching the stone. He spent 23,197 Essence to level himself up, bringing him up to level 30 and his Wisdom up to 17. Then he felt something else, then as if he was hearing the voices of the Harbingers again he almost crumbled to his knees.

"This Haven is not a true Haven. It was taken from it's place and erected here by those who have given into the Darkness. If you wish to cleanse this Haven it will require 100,000 essence. If you wish to move this Haven, you must take the stone and feed it Essence until it is cleansed. A minimum of 1,000 Essence is required to keep the Haven stone from decaying. Half of the Essence you feed it daily will be used to cleanse the taint from the Haven stone."

Richard sighed, he knew what he wanted to do, so he picked up the stone and fed it 1,000 Essence. The dome came down quickly and before long they were shrouded in Darkness again. "What did you do?" the Lieutenant asked "I took the tainted stone, I'll work on cleansing it so another Haven can be erected, but I couldn't leave it here to be destroyed by some random monster." She nodded and they followed him until they found the body of their fourth member. He grabbed the badge and pocketed it, slinging the man's rifle over his shoulder along with the 2 magazines the man had.

"Alright, where's this bunker you idiots risked your life for?" Claire led the way, walking just a bit ahead of everyone as she led Richard and the other two towards the outskirts of town to a building that had an impressive wrought iron fence. The fence itself was still mostly intact, with only a few patches here and there torn apart. The entered through one of these holes in the perimeter, then Richard took the lead, keeping his ears opened. He could hear and see much better than he could before, which helped him to pinpoint slow and steady breathing from the house that seemed to be up the hill.

He put his hand up and spread his fingers, the others slowly moved away and retreated to hide behind a few trees that had been mostly destroyed from what Richard assumed were monster attacks. He closed his eyes and listened, it was very steady breathing. The heartbeat was barely audible, but with no sounds in his surroundings he could hear it. He moved slowly and cautiously, trying to make sure to make as little sound as possible. The breathing nor the heartbeat changed pace as he made his way up to the house.

It was about ten minutes before he finally got up to what looked to be an impressive residence that was definitely darkness infused. He pinpointed where he was hearing the breathing from, it was one person and this person was on the second floor of the home in a bedroom in the northwestern corner of the building. Richard carefully opened the front door, then made his way up the stairs until he got to the room where the person was. He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of a woman who looked to have altered herself.

She was probably 6 feet tall, maybe a bit shorter. Long golden hair that laid down underneath her. Long pointed ears, wings on her back and claws for hands and feet, her body covered with feathers. She was completely naked and Richard saw that the only spots clear of feathers were her breasts and between her legs. He sighed and pulled his axe out of his Dimensional Space, resting it against the door to be ready at a moment's notice. Then he knocked on the door and watched the woman startle awake.

Her eyes immediately went to him, but before she could move he touched the hilt of his axe "Don't even think it. I'm not here to hurt you, I just want a few answers." She sighed and nodded before leaning back, completely unfazed by him seeing her naked. "What do you want to know human?" Richard rolled his eyes "Every single one of you acts like you weren't humans before, but I'm not here to argue that point."

He leaned against the wall "So my first question is, how long have you been living here?" she looked out the window and thought for a moment "About three years. My clan was killed and I'm the only survivor." Richard nodded "Second question, are you the one who infused this place with darkness?" she nodded "Yes, it wasn't that hard and it's made it much more amenable to live here."

He stepped away from the wall, just far enough that he could still reach his axe if he needed to "Third question, did you know there's a bunker below this house?" she nodded again "Yeah, I've eaten almost everything edible, the rest of it just being seeds and tools. There were a couple of guns, but I don't think the tools or the guns have aged well." I nodded and sighed "Well I think the seeds will be manageable. Did you know there was a corrupt Haven nearby?" she nodded "Yes, 11 Orcs were running it. I kept away from them the best I could, I'm not that strong, but I'm fast and I can see farther than most people."

He chuckled "Well they're taken care of. The Haven stone is with me and I'll be cleansing it little by little. If you show me where the seeds are, I'll leave you in peace." She stood up and sighed, then walked over to him "What would you say if I said I'd like to come with you?" he smirked as he quirked his eyebrow "Oh? You do know that us humans enjoy being inside of Havens don't you?"

She rolled her eyes and chuckled "Yes, I do enjoy the feel of a Haven now and then as well, but in all honesty I'm lonely. So lonely in fact that I'd be willing to tether myself to a human for a prolonged period of time." Richard laughed "Oh well damn, I feel special. I mean an Avian looking to tether herself to lowly me?" she grinned and walked up right next to him "Oh you should definitely feel honored." She stared him in the eyes for a long time, then burst into laughter when he didn't blink "Damnit you win. Seriously though, I'm not super strong, but I am fast. If you take me with you I can be your eyes and ears if you need me to."

Then she sighed and slumped her shoulders a bit "I've been alone for three years and it starts to eat at you, ya know?" Richard nodded and put a hand on her shoulder, which she didn't balk from, but instead put her claw on "I know the feeling. My daughter and I moved from place to place for almost 8 years, almost always alone except for a month or two here and there where we stayed at a Haven." Richard groaned and slumped his shoulders "I will probably regret this, but I'm willing to let you come with us on the condition that you follow my orders to the letter."

She nodded and led the way into the shelter, which was hidden underneath a metal door in the floor of the basement. Once they walked down there, Richard saw what looked like opened canned goods scattered all around the floor of the shelter mixed in with boxes of food. The place was littered and as Richard looked around the Avian had the decency to look ashamed. He chuckled and shook his head "Alright, so where are the bags of seeds you were talking about?"

She walked over through the rows of shelves, all empty save for cardboard boxes that had been opened and emptied of their contents. Once she got to the back of the rows Richard saw five crates, each filled with bags of seeds for all sorts of different crops. He began emptying each of the crates into his dimensional space "So what's your name anyways, if we're going to be working together I need to know who I'm dealing with, my name's Richard." She watched him empty the crates as she stood there leaning back against a shelf "The name's Kelsey."

Once he was done emptying the crates he began walking back out of the bunker, grabbing a few beds and storing them in his Dimensional Space as well. It wasn't even remotely close to full yet, but it was filling. He remembered when it would barely hold just a few meals for the road back when it was level 1. Each time he leveled it up it tripled in size until it was to the point it was now, where it could probably fit an entire airport hangars worth of stuff. "Alright Kelsey, let's get out of here."

They walked out of the bunker and the basement, Richard putting everything and anything of value into his Dimensional Space, then stepped out the front door. As soon as Kelsey left the door Richard heard the click of guns being brought up. "Don't shoot, she's a friendly." He saw the team step out from behind the trees and nodded to them "This is Kelsey, she's gonna be coming with me." The Lieutenant saluted, pumping her fist to her chest. "Now let's head back, the bunker was mostly empty, however I did manage to grab a shit ton of seeds."

"So Lieutenant, what are you going to be doing now?" Richard asked as they began heading back to the Haven. "I don't know. I've been giving it a bit of thought, maybe bring in a couple more members so we don't lose outright like we did with the Orcs. We got complacent and were pretty cocky, won't be making that mistake again." Richard nodded "Yeah, I'd say try two or three more people coming with you. One thing though, from the way you guys walk and handle yourselves, you don't spend nearly as much time in Darkness as you should. Your guns look Tier 2 or Tier 3 at most."

The Lieutenant hefted her gun and shot a hole in a tree about the size of a mans head. Richard rolled his eyes, pulled his axe out and threw it, he didn't even throw hard. The axe flew through the air and sliced the trunk of the tree all the way through, watching it topple and called his axe back. "Like I was saying, your guns are weak. It takes at least a Tier 3 to do any kind of damage to most Orcs, but having a Tier 4 weapon or a Tier 5 like my axe would do you wonders."

Claire groaned "I know, like I said we got complacent. I just like spending time with my man, you know what I mean?" Richard nodded, then sighed "If it helps you feel better, I don't see my daughter for almost 2 months every time I leave to make this run. I get to spend maybe 2 weeks with her at a time, splitting that time with Fiona while I'm there, well it just makes things harder." Claire nodded as she thought through the differences in their schedules. "So you really don't get to see your girls hardly at all?" Richard shook his head with a slight frown on his face "Nope, I love and miss them daily. I won't lie and say it's easy, but it gets easier when I come back stronger than I was."

Claire nodded again "So we should be spending more time out here?" Richard shrugged this time "That's up to you, not my choice and I'm not telling you what to do. I'm telling you that I would suck it up and get my ass out there so I didn't lose another team member." A big sigh escaped her lips as they kept walking "You're right, I should suck it up." Then she turned to the others who both nodded as well, grim determination on their faces. Richard pulled away from the hunters and stepped back in line with Kelsey.

"So, we haven't had much chance to talk, I figure we have a couple hours before we get back to the Haven so let's talk." Kelsey smiled and scooted a bit closer to Richard "Alright, what should we talk about?" Richard shrugged "You have any kids?" she shook her head "No, there wasn't anyone in my clan I was attracted to enough to have sex with." He nodded, then cocked his head with a weird smirk "Don't tell me you're a virgin?" her eyes went wide, she opened her mouth only to close it again and Richard laughed "Oh my word. An Avian virgin, I never thought I'd see the day."

She smacked his arm and sulked a bit, so he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in "You know, you are a sexy little bird. I think I'd be willing to let you have the honor of taking my seed." Her eyes went wide again and she blushed even harder, then Richard pulled her until their hips were touching. They walked like that for a few before Kelsey spoke up "You are incorrigible." Richard chuckled again, "I've been told that a few times. Seriously though, you never found someone you were attracted to?" She looked up at him, then turned her head away and blushed. "Oh, never found an Avian you were attracted to. Is a wingless man becoming an object of affection for you?"

She smacked his shoulder again, then leaned her head on his shoulder "I don't know if it's the loneliness of the past three years or the fact you are so confident of yourself, but something about you is making it hard for me to say no." Richard nodded with a smirk "It's all about being sure of yourself, knowing what you can and can't do. I'm stronger than most of the people I meet for one specific reason, I push myself and grind as much as possible. Tonight was a fluke that changed up my routine a bit, but those Orcs more than made up for it."

She nodded and they continued walking like that for a while "So you were talking about your daughter and another woman earlier?" Richard nodded "Yep, my daughter Nelle is my everything. Before this whole shit show started I was married and had five kids, one of them was hers from before we met and the rest were ours together." Kelsey looked up into his eyes and brushed a tear off his face as he spoke, Claire and the other two fell back just a bit so they could listen as well.

"Before all this started we were happy, the only worries we had were our car possibly breaking down, my hours at work being cut, stupid and mundane stuff. Then Darkness came and we had a lot more worries. Like most of the world we panicked and tried to find somewhere safe. We made it to a Haven and in all honesty I was too scared to do anything at first. We realized pretty quickly that we would need to hunt for food and things like that, so I decided to be the one to do that. My wife couldn't because we had a newborn, not even a year old and still breast feeding."

"Those first few years were horrible, every day I would end up with some kind of injury. It wasn't long before I learned the value of Haven spells, specifically Heal. Then I began to spend more time out in the Darkness, working on myself. I got to level 5 within a year, which I know it doesn't seem like a lot now, but this was the beginning, those first days." Richard sighed as the memory of his dead family came back to him "When the super Darknness soldier initiative came, something told me not to be a part of it, even though I wanted that power."

He took a shaky breath before continuing "I was there when the Orcs were created, we were the first Haven attacked by them. The only survivor of my family was Nelle. I promised myself that day that nobody would ever hurt her or anyone I loved again and if that promise was broken, they would pay with their lives. That's why I train so hard, because I want to make good on that promise." Kelsey nodded and stopped walking, making Richard stop as well. She turned to him and hugged him "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up."

Richard embraced her and let the tears flow "It's fine, it's the past now and I'm happy-ish. I've got my daughter, I've got a woman who is pretty awesome and doesn't mind me being gone for long periods of time and I have people I've become friends with in all the places I visit." Kelsey nodded and leaned in "Well if you want, you've got me too." She whispered. Richard chuckled and whispered back "You might just regret saying that."

She giggled and let go, then they continued walking. Kelsey brushed Richards hand a few times with hers, until he chuckled and wrapped his fingers around her hand, holding it. She smiled and leaned in "Damn your grip is strong." He started loosening his grip before she tightened hers "No, I like it."

It didn't take too much longer before they got back to the Haven, when they did Richard handed the seed bags to the group "Find a few more members and remember my advice. Staying out in the Darkness now and training like your life depended on it will make all the difference later." Claire nodded and saluted, then headed towards the Haven barrier. Richard walked forward with Kelsey right behind him, she was shaking like a chihuahua. "Don't worry, if you're with me you're safe."

To emphasize his point Sammy came out with a couple of guards to greet him "Hey Dick." Richard laughed "Sup Samantha." They both laughed and embraced "Sam, this is Kelsey. Apparently I'm sexy enough that even though I don't have wings or feathers she still wants this D." Sam nodded "Not gonna lie you are one sexy dude. The wife was adamant about you coming over to dinner tonight. I mean if she has to cheat on me, at least it's you."

Kelsey stood there with an open mouth, shocked at what she was hearing "Speaking of which, I should probably head over so we can bang one out before you get home." Sam rolled his eyes "You are seriously incorrigible you know that?" Richard nodded "I know, I get told that a lot." Then he took on a serious tone "Seriously though, if your guards leave the Haven, do it in groups of ten or more. We found a corrupted Haven that was housing a group of 11 Orcs. Not sure if they were the only group or not, haven't seen or heard anything since, but if the Orcs are this far out it might or might not be a lone group."

Sam sighed "Damnit man, I thought they were all taken care of outside of the borders of Cali." Richard shook his head "Nope, now I've got a corrupt Haven stone that's going to take a lot of Essence to clean." Sam nodded and followed Richard back into the Haven "How much Essence will it take to clean?" Richard sighed "1,000 a day and half of that goes towards cleaning it. Or I can push the full 99,000 into it if I had it right now and clean it." Sam whistled "Damn dude. I don't think anyone here has that much. What's your Essence max?"

"9,000 shy of what it takes. I've only got just under 10,000 right now, so if I want to accelerate the cleaning of it, I'll need to go out hunting quite a bit." Sam nodded, then they saw Marc and the group he brought back haggling "So I see they're missing someone. The Orcs killed him?" Richard nodded "Yeah, make sure they don't leave the Haven without at least 5 people. It's getting more dangerous now with the possibility of more Orcs. I don't want to start a panic, but that was a bigger group than it should have been."

They continued walking until Sam had to leave to go back to his post. "You're pretty popular huh?" Richard nodded "I'm stronger than almost anyone in most of the Havens I visit. Nowadays it isn't the rich that have the power and popularity, it's the strong." Kelsey nodded at that "It's been a while since I've touched a Haven stone, mind if I go do that?" Richard grabbed her hand and pulled her with him. It didn't take long before they got to the center of the Haven where the pedestal for the stone was situated. The stone itself was the size of Richard's head, completely smooth and circular with a blue glow to it.

"Oh a blue one, that means it's a Defense Haven?" Richard nodded "Yes it does. Go ahead and do your thing, I'll be waiting." Kelsey walked up to the stone and stepped away a moment later. Richard could see her muscles had tightened just a bit, her eyes seemed to focus a bit more and she had a slightly more graceful step. "5 levels in one go, haven't done that since the beginning." Richard nodded "It's exhilarating to say the least. Alright I have to check in with Marc first, then we have to book a room and go to Sam's."

Marc was pleased Richard was able to make it back quickly, "Oh and I have Jason training with some of the other guards. The kid has a bit of cockiness to him, but he's strong I'll give him that." Richard nodded "Yeah, I can't say I blame him. He's been working his ass off to get up in levels. Problem is he's reckless, I'm going to have to break him of that." Marc nodded "So who's this lovely feathered lady?" Richard grinned and wrapped an arm around Kelsey's shoulder, "Marc, this is my new squeeze Kelsey. New squeeze Kelsey, this is Marc the leader of the trade convoy."

Kelsey blushed as she shook hands with Marc "Well then I won't be making the moves on you my lovely feathered one, too bad too because you are absolutely gorgeous." Richard chuckled and Kelsey tried to look away as she turned beet red "Seriously though, she's coming with for the time being." Marc nodded "Well then, as long as you follow Richard's orders I have no problem with it."

They went over to the Inn and checked in, then made their way to Sam's place. "Were you just picking on me, or am I really your new 'squeeze'?" Richard grabbed her hand and pulled her close "Depends, do you want to be my new squeeze?" she looked into his eyes for a moment, then blushed and looked down at the ground, nodding "I wouldn't mind, as long as you're gentle, but what about the woman you said is back home?"

Richard shrugged "Fiona and I have an understanding. As long as I make sure she's taken care of and safe, she doesn't mind he having a bit of fun while I'm gone. When I'm home it's all about her and Nelle." Kelsey nodded, still staring at the ground "So you want to have fun with me?" Richard ran his fingers through the golden hair at the top of her head that flowed down to her shoulders "I mean, you're pretty and I think we could get along pretty well. We can take it slow if you want? I might be stronger than most people I know, but I don't force anyone." She nodded and they continued on "I'll think about it."