Chapter 557: Wrong kind of meeting

[Event complete. Raid complete. All player contributions calculated and locked. Rewards delayed until final actions regarding Greater Infernal Demon ‘The Watcher’.]

Mason smiled at the completion text. Apparently they’d dealt with the ‘threats’. It was just mop up now. Though he expected to have to make some kind of decision up there.

‘The Watcher’ got back in his ear and talked all kinds of crazy shit. There was a ‘your children’s children’s children’, and a ‘torture for eternity’. But when the evil little technological tyke had tuckered out, he calmed down and got back to his old self.

You can still see reason. You can still change your mind and end this farce. You have that power, Mason Wolf. I can begin anew.

“Good to know,” he said pleasantly. “Now relax up there, I’ll be seeing you shortly. With a whole bunch of goblin engineers.”

It got crazy again after that, and Mason was finally able to lock the thing out with Apex Predator. Apparently shouting profanity at high volume in someone’s head was close enough to count as ‘harmful’.

“Is it still bothering you?” Demi said, her big, magically-infused green eyes all concern and love. There were still little specks of the old, beautiful brown, and Mason decided he could wake up to those eyes for the rest of his life.

And maybe would, if he could get a few things squared away.

“Not anymore.” He gave her a squeeze, still scanning his players one by one with Ranger’s Mark as he walked towards them. Shockingly, they all looked pretty healthy. He reached them and did a head and mana count, getting everyone formed up to tell him what the hell happened.

“Goblin bomb worked.” Carl grinned like it was his plan. “Plus those big elementals. What the hell kinda power is that, anyway?”

Demi shrugged shyly beside him, still gripping his hand like a safety rail.

“It has a really long cooldown. Like a week. And I can’t control it.”

Mason winced, sorta wishing they’d saved it for Jeong and the other players. But he understood why she’d used it, and maybe if she hadn’t they’d have lost someone. Likely Seamus.

Even with the elementals helping, the fire mage had a rough go. His ankle was broken, apparently self-inflicted as he’d tried to get himself off the tower. He was covered in welts and burn marks, and he looked ready to make out with Alex he was thanking him so much.

“This guy,” he kept saying, “legend. Fecking legend, mate.”

“I have no more mana,” Alex said in response, his face red and covered in sweat. He sat down by a rock and horked up some spit, staring off into space looking like he’d just survived Stalingrad.

Plenty of others had cuts and bruises. John’s face was half swollen, and he smiled at Mason with a missing tooth. Annie’s ‘monster form’ wore off, and she sat staring at the lava and wouldn’t answer to her name until Phuong touched her shoulder. She looked up at him like she didn’t know where she was.

“Are you alright, Miss Annie?”

“Hmm?” She blinked, her face the only piece of her not covered in demonic goo. “Yes, we’re fine. Thank you. He can’t be killed. Not really. Not on this plane.”

Phuong gave Mason a look, but he just shrugged. He didn’t consider Annie his ‘problem’ yet. And however strange she seemed, she was better as a team player than ever. That was good enough for him.

Becky looked…kinda miserable. It took Mason a minute to find her, standing with Lodie the goblin near a tower and whispering in hushed, angry voices. When he came towards her she turned away looking like a kid who’d broken a window.

“What’s wrong with you?” he said, honestly having no idea.

“I figured you’d see it,” she said, turning back with tear streaks on her face. “I mean…why the hell did you jump down right there? Didn’t you hear the damn thing tickin’? I know it was dangerous…but, it was a God damn giant demon and I just…”

She threw up her hands, and Mason’s goblin bomb’d, scrambled brain pulled a few vague memories of the cowgirl running off before he exploded. He laughed out loud.

“What the hell is so God damn funny?” Becky stared with red eyes. “This ain’t funny, Mason, I blew you up! Stop laughin’!”

He moved in and grabbed her, and she thrashed like a wild dog until he forced her into a hug. She finally sobbed and wrapped her arms around him.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t…it must’a been so…I couldn’t look…I was too much of a coward and…”

“Stop worrying.” Mason pulled back and forced her to look at him. “You did good. It was bad luck. I think I told Lodie it was alright.” He turned to the goblin and raised a brow. “Though I don’t remember realizing it was that big of a bomb. You should have warned me. That could have killed someone who didn’t regenerate.”

Lodie scuffed the floor with a shoe, mumbling something about ‘cave bombs’ and ‘goblin bombs’ and ‘obvious’ and possibly ‘thinks stupid female’.

“But you did good, too,” he said with a grin. “That might have gotten ugly fast without you. And that scooter thing looked pretty awesome. Think you can help me deal with the greater demon infested boiler…ah, Heart thing next?”

Lodie smiled from pointy ear to ear and nodded.

“Yes. But, talking to brothers and cousins, we have to build a lift. For doodad. Everything’s broken. I know you said hours, but…we need maybe a day. The rollers are snapped, and the tower is all bent up and…”

Mason lifted a hand to stop her and sighed. Now that the raid was ‘over’, most of his concern drained away. The greater demon would probably take weeks or months to recover and become a threat. He could leave now, so he’d pop back to Nassau while they worked, and then they’d settle things.

Meanwhile, his players would be here safe and sound, hidden from Jeong. And probably happily ‘relaxing’ with a bunch of goblin girls…

“Take your day. Go free all the engineers in your little town there. Then go back to the city. You can get whatever you need. I’ll be back in twenty-four hours at the latest.”

For a second Mason thought Lodie tripped. But she’d lowered her head and rushed him, crashing straight into his waist to hug him, pushing her way in beside Becky.

“Thank you, mighty hunter lord. Oh thank you thank you.” She held on and looked up at him with those big, cute eyes and that very pretty, feminine face. He did his best not to find it attractive. He really did. “Won’t be sorry. I’ll make hunter lord so happy, you’ll see.”

He cleared his throat, disconnecting himself from both girls. Becky wasn’t staring daggers, at least. She looked amused, if anything, as if she didn’t even conceive of him getting with a goblin.

He made sure not to look at Demi, though, because there was no way she couldn’t see right through him. He turned back to his players to explain. They were all so beat up and drained they mostly just grunted, but he forced them to their feet to trudge back to the goblin city.

“Sorry for this,” he said to Phuong. “But can you stay with the engineers and check out the town? I don’t expect any problems with the raid officially over. But maybe keep an eye on that demon until we’re back?”

The old soldier nodded with a smile.

“I would have suggested it. I’ll take Seamus, Garet, and Alex, if that’s acceptable. I’m hoping Alex can work on that ankle a bit.”

Mason nodded. The men groaned. Phuong blew air with contempt and started telling them about spending forty three days in a jungle with a bullet in his ass. By the time he was finished they were all following him like whipped dogs back down the ramp, Garet eventually carrying the fire mage.

“You not going with them?” Mason said, when Lodie followed him and the others. She shook her head.

“Need to talk to uncle. Others can build a lift.” She rolled her eyes like this was easy and boring. “I make bombs, remember?”

Mason knew better than to ask goblins questions. He led the others on a slow march back to ‘safety’, accepting many rounds of praise and congratulations from his ‘mountain tribe’ scouts en route.

Their leader, Guk, suggested Mason change his title to something especially important. That they might need a new word beyond king. The goblin spent the rest of the trip in deep contemplation.

King Blizix’s guards met the players at the edge of the city. They explained the situation, then were marched back in like conquering heroes. An impromptu parade started halfway, with goblin citizens throwing mushroom bits at their feet like really gross rose petals. Mason decided it was the thought that counted.

“Friend and ally!” King Blizix greeted them at the fort, making a show of welcoming them in. He even stuck out his hand, and Mason cringed before taking it, knowing that the creature would…yep.

He did a wiggle. And then literally every other goblin wiggled, every eye completely serious. Mason gave his shoulders a shake, and the goblins seemed satisfied.

When they were inside his fort and away from so many prying ears and eyes, the king gave his niece a big, relieved hug.

“She wasn’t in the way too much, yes? Very clever? Very useful?”

“Very clever,” Mason agreed. “She helped kill the biggest demon I’ve ever seen. Blew half of it up with a bomb.”

Lodie blushed some kind of brownish color, but puffed up like one of those fish. Blizix and his nearby guards all looked extremely impressed. The king especially held onto her and grinned like a proud father.

Mason asked for another night in the palace, not bothering to explain he’d be vanishing off on his own. He figured he’d be back before anyone really noticed anyway, intending only to check on Haley and the settlement.

He asked for privacy for himself, sending Becky and Demi back to their ‘old’ room without him to rest. They whined and tried to convince him with fluttering eyelashes and promises, but he didn’t want the risk of distraction while he washed off his Transformations.

“Just a quickie,” Becky whispered in his ear. “You can fuck us both in that fancy shower.”

A shiver of lust went through him. And there was a time he couldn’t have resisted that. But phase three Mason was a new man. And he couldn’t relax until he talked to Haley.

“I’ve created a monster,” he growled, slapping her ass and sending her off with a smiling Demi and a glare.

The king rolled his eyes at him in solidarity, as if he understood completely. Then he led him to a locked, ‘hidden’ bedroom for ‘escaping nosy kin’. It was simpler than the rest, a smaller bed and a fireplace without much else, but it had a shower.

“Very good,” the goblin explained, handing him a key. “Only key. No servants. A room only for tired kings.”

Mason gave him a grateful smile and took it, locking himself in with a sigh. He stripped and soon stood in the impressive goblin shower, impatience dripping off him like the water and the bits of his battered, transformed body as he blessed the water with his power.

As soon as he looked human, he’d go get Demi and warp back to the fey. All he could think of was getting back to Haley. Everything else could wait.

“Hunter goblin lord?”

Mason blinked and turned to see Lodie standing just inside the locked door. The shower in this room was open, with no glass or anything to hide behind. She was just standing there, inspecting him like the servant girl before.

To him it looked like…hunger. But what the hell did he know about goblins, especially since they apparently didn’t find staring at your naked body rude.

“How did you…” he remembered the stupidity of asking goblins questions. “I came in here to be alone.”

“Apologies.” Lodie came forward with her hands twined. “I thought…since you said I was so clever? And because…I blew up the big demon and all. That maybe…you’d take me?”

He blinked, at a loss for words. Had he been so obvious when he looked at her? He hadn’t thought so.

“I mean not now.” Lodie shrugged. “But it could be now. You could take me anytime. I mean, I really want to. Whatever big human hunter…I mean, whatever you want. I’d sign. I just…really want to be your vassal.”

Mason let out the breath he’d been holding. Contract. She wanted a contract. Except he was totally naked and the towels were several steps away on the sink, and he didn’t really feel like coming up with goblin engineer-princess rules right that second. Especially without…

He froze as he realized he was an idiot. The raid was over. He was in a ‘safe’ place—the city of an ally. Haley was his whatever the hell assistant name and he could summon her. Whenever he wanted.

He clicked the power in his patron options before he finished the thought, eyes boring holes into the words. He couldn’t remember how it actually worked on Haley’s end, but he was pretty sure she could refuse it or something.

For several long, agonizing seconds, nothing happened. Lodie was looking awkward, mumbling something about being young and inexperienced and female, but that she would do her best, just like the others.

Then the air hissed with arcane power. Haley popped into existence wearing a plain but business looking white blouse and black skirt. Her hair was up in a bun, with only one or two strands out of place. For Haley this meant a panicked hurry.

She scanned the room, taking in the blushing goblin girl, then turned and looked him up and down, unable to fight the smile.

“I dressed for the wrong kind of meeting.”

She was all confidence and professionalism. But he could see the relief, and the exhaustion. He stepped out and pulled her into his wet arms, burying his face in her neck and breathing in her scent with closed eyes.

She was with him, and she was safe. And the protective rage he felt at whoever or whatever deserved his attention could wait. But by Christ it would come, and whoever deserved it was going to have a very, very bad day.

“Tell me everything,” he said.