Wars and Wealth - Bargains with Exiled Fae

Chapter 4

Drew left the shop and walked to the lower district of shops, taking in the sight of poor, dejected citizens. These were the people he had fought so hard to protect, had sacrificed twelve years to serve and defend. Yet here they were, rejected by those they had elected and scared to even walk the streets openly. The businesses that were open had few patrons entering, even in the early afternoon when they should have been busy.

David only hoped that Mayor Hedley still had a backbone. He had been a capable logistics officer from what David could recall, but even just five years in a corrupt city like this could have been enough to overcome his better nature.

David decided he would just have to remind him what it meant to serve the people. Some lessons might be harder than others to pound into thick skulls.

His head whipped around at the sound of glass breaking. He stepped quickly over to the door of a small pawn shop.

“Come on! Please! You don’t have to smash things every time you come! It costs me three times as much to replace that! I will not be able to pay your tribute if you keep smashing my store!” pleaded the shopkeeper.

Three heavily tattooed men in their early twenties were busy emptying out a glass case. The shop likely had little more than some basic jewelry people had sold just to eat their next meal, yet these thugs were willing to steal even that.

“That is enough!” David’s voice rolled out in a resonating boom that caused all four to turn and look at him.

“Mind your own, bitch.”

“You are my business now, punk.” David said, stepping into the store. “Return the merchandise and leave now, or you will be feeding the fish tonight.”

“Big talk. No one messes with the Vice Lords. Not in our hood.”

“Vice lords? What are you, some kind of sin slaves? Hell spawns?”

“Ha, I like that. Hell spawns. We are about to send you to the hells of our master,” the gangsters declared, pulling a small knife and advancing on David.

David rolled his shoulders, loosening his muscles. These piss ants were hardly worth his effort. He had fought the damned icemen hand to hand for over a decade and these gangsters were like soft putty compared to those hulking beasts.

The icemen had been a dangerous opponent for many years in the far north. Although the war was officially over, it was more of a tentative peace that had been reached. The creatures were more cunning and intelligent than most people ever believed, and peace was only possible after discovering that they were not mindless beasts but instead had a complex culture and leadership.

The Icemen were similar to yeti or white furred apes that weighed over 500 kg of solid muscle and white fur. Their fur was thick and had such a high metal concentration that it acted as armor, rendering most guns useless. Only the most powerful large rifles or stabbing thrusts with a sword were effective against them.

That might not be an issue in open warfare, but the icemen had a strange ability to drive blizzards before them, blinding their opponents and then attacking from the shadows of the forests.

While they didn’t have firearms of their own, in close quarters, their bone blades were plenty effective, and they could hurl rocks that weighed more than half their own body weight that could crush a soldier flat. Between the blizzards, the dense forests and mountains they lived in, and their armor-like fur, it took enormous martial skill and strength to defeat one.

David had found that even if a soldier couldn’t completely shatter the skull with a direct blow, the blunt force could damage the soft brain. However, most of his soldiers would never get close enough to deliver such a hit. 

His own cultivation, speed, and iron hard fist allowed him to surpass even his most elite troops. It allowed him the critical edge that could turn a deadly head on fight to his favor, even if only by a tiny margin. 

“If I shoot, you are dead. Choose now.”

The thug smirked, “No one threatens the Vice Lords. Besides, the fourth General of the underworld has rule over this district. Even if we fell, he would avenge us.”

“Yes but you will be just as dead.” David said bitterly. He didn’t care who this fourth general was. As far as he was concerned there were no generals here under the Imperial ruler. Anyone claiming such a title was an arrogant bastard and just asking for death. Perhaps he would need to check in at the local garrison, if there even was still a home guard here.

The thug lunged in a sloppy stab for David’s guts, but he just slipped it away contemptuously with his right hand and then slapped the thug hard across the cheek with his left.

Even his open palm landed like a sledgehammer, sending the gangster to the ground in a heap.

“AAAH!” cried the other two as they saw their mate slapped down. They both charged at David in a sad attempt at coordination, one punching at his face while the other’s fist flew at his left hip in an attempt to cripple him.

David slapped both at the same time, his open palms slamming into their ears, shattering the ear drums.

Both men dropped to the ground clutching their heads in pure agony.

David winced in subconscious sympathy. Even for thugs such as these, that was a painful attack, but effective at removing a threat in a nonlethal manner.

While he had no issues with killing them outright, the Emperor had asked him to at least mitigate his killing sprees. He would do what he could to only kill when he knew he could easily dispose of the bodies so as to not draw undo attention.

“Now you’ve done it, sonny.” The shop keeper said. “Before, I could have replaced things. Now… the Vice General Tamlin will come. I am a dead man thanks to your heroics.”

David frowned at the shopkeeper and looked at the three men writhing on the ground. After a moment of consideration, he knelt and grabbed two of the men by the hair and jerked their still intact ears towards him.

“I am David. To you of the underworld, I am the devil incarnate, and I will have your souls. Tell your masters that the devil has come and payment for their sins is due. Trouble the good people of this city a day more, and I will be sure you suffer greatly in this world before I take your soul for eternal torture. Am I clear?”

“Lord Tamlin will see you dead for this, bastard.”

David jerked the man’s head violently and there was an audible crack in the man’s neck. He turned his hard eyes on the other man. “There are now two of you left to take this message. I only need one. Choose your next words wisely.”

The man squirmed under David’s merciless grip on his scalp but managed to nod, “I’ll take your words to him. He will come for you, but I will deliver your message.”

“Good enough.” David said harshly. “Now, take your friend’s body and present it to your lord. Let it be a token of my sincerity. Both of you, go.”

The two men scrambled to their feet and grabbed the limp body of their companion and fled before this devil decided to drag them to the underworld as well.

The shopkeeper’s face was pale when David looked up.

“If they trouble you again, I will kill them all.”

“How will you know? You plan to stand guard at my door?” the shopkeeper asked in disbelief.

David walked to the counter and scribbled a string of numbers. “Text this number and they will be dealt with.”

The shopkeeper shook his head slowly as he looked at the phone number, “And I will be dead for my troubles. Mister, I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I think I am still as good as dead. Please go. Go in peace and may we never meet again.”

David nodded to the shopkeeper, “Peace be with you this day.”

He made his way back out onto the street sliding his hand into his pocket and remembered he would have to get his phone repaired or replaced soon.

He glanced around and his eyes locked on the mountain overlooking the city. He needed to clear his head and being back in a forest, albeit one with no snow, would be the perfect place to get away and plan his next move.

As he returned to the nicer part of town, an outdoor outfitter shop caught his eye. He walked in to find a camper’s dream. With the city located so close to natural hiking spots and lush forests, this shop was well stocked with fancy all weather tents, sleeping pads that any soldier could only dream of having access to out in the field, and an assortment of other lavish items to make camping easy for even the most novice outdoors enthusiast.

Unlike the stores of the lower district, this one was full of university students and other young people excited to explore during the cooling autumn temperatures.

Being unfamiliar with the area he stopped a store clerk and inquired about good camping spots.

“Are you looking for a marked spot or something more rugged and secluded?”

“Off the normal path would be better. I don’t mind hiking a bit to get to a quiet place.”

“In that case, there is a waterfall down one of the harder trails. Not many people go to it. If you hike past the overlook, there is a challenging path to the bottom. There are about eight kilometers of caves in there.

“Sounds like you know it well. I thought you said it wasn’t commonly visited.” David asked skeptically.

“Oh, there are enough people that visit the falls, but the overlook at the top is about as far as most people go in the summer. The hike down isn’t too bad but most people don’t want to have to hike back out so they don’t bother.”

“Thanks for the information. How long does it take to get out there?”

“With gear? Maybe six hours for a novice. Someone that knows where it is and is a fast hiker, maybe four hours from the trailhead.”

David smiled. Hiking mountains was his life for the last twelve years.

He had already factored that he would be able to bring quite a bit more gear than he was used to thanks to its lightweight nature, gear that would make life easier.

“If you are camping out… I would suggest that you also get one of our backpack hammocks.” The clerk said.

“A hammock?” Most of the ones David had seen were heavy thick weave things with wood ends to stabilize them. While comfortable, they were not something one would choose to hike with.

“Our ultra-light. It’s a complete system, rain tarp, straps, and a double wide hammock. Get this, its only 1.1 kg.”

“Sold. Does it come in forest green?”

The clerk grinned. “Of course. Let me help make sure you have all of our lightest gear.”

The clerk walked him around the store once more and even helped him load a brand new hiking backpack. David insisted that anything he got had to fit and be under 30 kg.

“30? That should be easy enough.” The clerk replied.