Honour Rae
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B3 Ch7: Free Hive
🕑 Added 2023-04-01 04:11:47 +0000 UTC** Re-edited Nov '23**
The next thing Arthur knew, he, Brixaby, and Shadow stood somewhere else entirely.
Gone were the rolling, fertile fields that had been scattered with debris from the castle. Now, the ground was arid and scraped raw from the wind and blazing sun overhead. But not quite dead like the scourge-ravaged lands.
They were surrounded by dragons and hostile-looking people who pointed spears, bows, and swords at them.
"Welcome to Mesa Free Hive," drawled an ironic voice. “I am Chablis.”
A dark-skinned woman stood in front of the general crowd with crossed arms. Though she was dressed in common brown-gray homespun threads that were certainly not new, they were kept clean. There was an air about her that proclaimed her as the leader.
Shadow snarled in reply, and so did Brixaby who’d dropped to Arthur's shoulder.
Arthur looked around, his heart still beating fast with adrenaline from seeing Cressida and Joy disappear within the confines of a net. Though it felt like only a few moments ago, a deeper sense told him that much more time had passed.
The bright sun was high in the sky, though the portal might have transferred them across several time zones. They could be anywhere in the kingdom.
"Where is the other rider your people captured?" he said to Chablis, then looked at the other dragons for signs of nets in their claws.
"Rider?" she repeated.
"Yes,” he said with an edge in his voice. “Our training class was attacked by your dragons.” That last part was an assumption, but he hoped it was a reasonable one.
Someone called out from the audience. “How’d that kid link with two dragons?”
Shadow turned and snapped at the would-be heckler, showing teeth. "He is not my rider. He’s an idiot I’m trying to keep safe!”
Arthur pressed on, “Shadow is helping me and my dragon, Brixaby. We are from Wolf Moon Hive, still in training."
Arthur intentionally kept his rank as a Legendary quiet. It wasn't that he didn't expect anybody else to sense it – especially if any of these people were dragon riders – but he knew that throwing around his rank would not go well with people already unimpressed with him.
It only bred resentment, and as they were severely outnumbered, that would be a bad idea.
He looked around. "One of your dragons captured a pair: a pink and her rider. They are part of my retinue. Where are they?"
The woman's eyebrows shot up. "They’re safe."
"Then show them to me."
She chuckled and shook her head. "You are not in charge here, young master," this last part was said with the deepest sarcasm. "Now, what did you say your name was?"
He got the impression that she knew exactly who he was and this was an attempt to rile him up. Nobles hated it when commoners didn't automatically know them on sight.
Inwardly, Arthur activated his Charming Gentle-Person card, and checked his class stats to make sure the usual ones were equipped—Gambler and Cooking. He wanted every point of Luck and Charisma he could scrape up.
This would only become a battle of strength if he failed to talk himself out of this.
"My name is Arthur, and this is Brixaby," he said, "from Wolf Moon Hive."
"Hmm… Arthur and Brixaby.” She made a show of pretending to think. “You wouldn't happen to be the new legendary pair, would you?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some people shift around uncomfortably.
"We are."
Chablis sighed. "Well, I’d hoped not. That will certainly stir up the hives more than they already have been." Then she looked over her shoulder. It must have been a signal because the red dragon he recognized earlier pushed through the crowd to stare down at Arthur.
The red inhaled, nostrils flaring. "Well, it does seem that some cubs grow up and develop teeth. Now you're a dragon rider. A stooge of the hives."
In a flash, Brixaby flew to a point right before the red dragon's nose. "Arthur is good and brave! If you don't watch your forked tongue, I'll pluck out your core card and give it to a Rare who will serve me."
The two dragons snarled at each other. It should have been ridiculous because Brixaby was about the length of one of the red's front teeth, but an indefinable sense of power rolled out from him. It was the strength of his Legendary core card, enhanced by the pair of Legendary cards he’d linked with Arthur.
Arthur suspected that sense of power was the reason why they had not been outright killed from the first moment.
No doubt, these people could manage it if they piled on them all at once, but caution had so far held them back. They probably didn't know the extent of Arthur and Brixaby's powers – that every card that was thrown at them would be used against them. But more than enough rumors about Brixaby had gone out to make most worry. Nobody wanted to lose their cards.
Arthur was more than happy to let Brixaby play the evil card-stealing dragon while he took on a more reasonable tone.
Stepping forward, Arthur held out open hands. “I think there’s been a… misunderstanding. Our training class was on a mission to protect a card library from the scourgelings. Nothing more.”
There were some scattered laughs throughout the crowd. Someone called out, “Yeah, the library was protected all right.”
That meant it had probably been looted.
Arthur kept his expression neutral. “If the cards were kept away from the scourgelings, then I'm satisfied. Meanwhile, my dragon and the rider pair you captured need to return to the eruption. We’re needed in case there’s a demi-scourge.”
Chablis held up her hand. “The eruption was three days ago.”
Three days?
A pit opened in his stomach. What if he and Brixaby had been needed? What if a Demi-scourge had erupted?
Immediately, Arthur checked the status of the countdown timer for the Shadow Teleport.
As Shadow was a Rare, the Siphon copy effect lasted for an hour. However, that timer had long since expired. From Brixaby's slightly unfocused expression, he was checking the same.
In fact, the only thing that had not expired yet was their quest to aid an ally. Likely because it no longer had a timer on it.
Noting that Arthur was caught completely flat-footed, Chablis’ lips twisted into a sarcastic smile.
“Our spies have reported back that teams were sent to your location. Not rescue team, mind you, but recovery teams with express orders to harvest cards.” She paused for a moment to let that sink in, then continued blithely, “Apparently, they've gone over the area with a fine-toothed comb. Several of the hives are already accusing one another of secretly holding your cards. What do you say to that, new Legendary Rider?”
Arthur thought for a moment. “I suppose most people suspect the Blood Moon Hive of looting our bodies?”
There was a distinct pause, then a couple of barked laughs from the crowd.
It took Arthur a moment to realize that they had expected him to be arrogant and incensed over the thought that the hives were already fighting over his heart cards. They expected him to be a high-handed noble.
It was all too easy to imagine somebody like his cousin, Penn, yelling at the woman, accusing her of lying. Other nobles would have no problem throwing their powers around.
They were, he realized, in an awkward stalemate.
This woman and her crowd could kill Arthur and Brixaby eventually and harvest their cards, but it would come at a ruinous cost. In addition, he felt there was some other power play going on.
He had learned a lot of dragon body language over the last few weeks since he had linked with Brixaby. When the red dragon had stepped forward, he had put himself between Arthur and the crowd.
The quest had said that Arthur was to aid an ally. Could that mean the red?
So Arthur pressed forward in the moment the surprise had given him, shrugging one shoulder. "I heard how Noble's Woodmours treats his people. I wasn't there to protect his interests, just the cards from getting swallowed up by our enemy."
Chablis’ gaze sharpened. "And I suppose you wouldn't mind helping yourself to some of the cards as payment?"
This was a trap. She was testing him to see if he was too virtuous. As an experienced liar, Arthur easily sidestepped. Again, he shrugged.
"There would be a certain…," what did Cressida call it? "carrying tax."
She relaxed very, very slightly. Admitting that he wasn't unbelievably honorable seemed to be the right move.
Shadow suddenly broke in, his tone full of wonder. "Is this… Did you say this is a Free Hive? You actually exist?"
"Who are you?" the red asked as if noticing him for the first time.
The dragon straightened. "Shadow, once linked to Rider Torres, one of Denny's retinue. Who are you?"
"You may call me Laird. And I suppose once you lost your rider, you were thrown out of your hive?" the red pressed.
"No," Shadow said with a low growl, "once I refused to link to a rider of their choosing, I was exiled to Wolf Moon Hive."
Arthur flinched. He hadn't known that. Of course, he hadn't exactly asked. It was wrong to demand that a dragon share their core with somebody not of their choosing… he hadn’t even thought it was possible until he met the King.
Nevertheless, he couldn't get too distracted. He looked back towards Chablis. “I need to see my people and ensure that they are safe.”
“You think that we are going to allow you your combat riders?”
Riders?
“How many did you take?” he asked, then added with worry making him desperate, “We haven't done anything to you. We were following orders and were no threat.”
“We couldn't be sure about that,” the red said. “And we took two pairs: the pink and the blue.”
“Laird!” the woman snapped. Apparently she felt he had given too much information.
The dragon tilted his head in a shrug.
Arthur's heart beat fast. “The pink is a meta, and the blue has powers over sea salt. They aren't combat riders.”
That caused a little bit of a stir through the watching crowd, and he wasn't sure why.
Arthur continued. “I'm not asking for them to protect me, I'm here to protect them. I was put in charge of the class, and I need to ensure they are safe.”
“How like a hive rider to demand from us.” But then the woman glanced back over her shoulder to exchange glances with a few others. They were actually considering it. She turned back, “The only way we would agree to your request is if you agreed to wear enchanted card locks.”
As if on cue, someone stepped forward with a pair of glowing bracelets etched with rune markings.
Including the nets, this was the second enchanted item he had seen from these people. This was no simple bandit camp. They had very high-level craftsmen here. Higher than he had seen in Wolf Moon Hive.
Arthur hesitated. Not because he was planning to pull a trick on them, but because he remembered very well what it felt like to be without his skills. That had been the Mythic Lung Bei’s specialty, and it had left Arthur entirely helpless.
“Brixaby will not be locked,” he said.
“We did not ask for the child to be locked,” she replied easily. “Only you, as a show of good faith.”
The child? That was odd phrasing.
Before he could open his mouth to respond, Brixaby moved. Quick as a blink, he dropped down from where he had been hovering at nose level with red Laird, and landed on Chablis’ shoulder.
“Then you won't mind being my mount,” Brixaby said darkly, his clawed forepaw falling to the base of her throat. “Nothing happens to Arthur while he is locked, and I don't start ripping cards out of hearts… starting with yours.”
There was a very, very ominous stillness.
With remarkable poise, Chablis said, “As long as the rider is locked, we have no quarrel.”
“Of course we do,” Brixaby said. “You kidnapped us.”
Time to take the more reasonable position. He and Brixaby were a good team. “If I agree, you bring back my riders and we talk,” Arthur said.
“Agreed,” was Chablis’ quick answer.
Arthur very much did not want to lose access to his cards, but if this was what it took to ensure Cressida and the other pair were okay.. he held out his hands.
“Then bring out my people.”
The two bracelets clicked on, the designs on them glowing but unfathomable at first glance. Arthur steeled himself against the sense of weakness as even his bodily attributes were locked away from him.
However, it did not seem to interfere with the basic link between himself and Brixaby. Small mercies.
Meanwhile, two more nets with rune markings covering the weavings were brought out. Arthur didn't know much about what went into an enchanted item because Wolf Moon Hive was too small to attract ultra-high-quality crafters. From the little he understood, enchanted items were different from card anchors which were directly tied back to the caster's card. A properly enchanted item took on power of its own.
He also saw that there was a difference between the nets coming out now, and the net he, Brixaby, and Shadow had been held in. That net lay off to the side, limp, with the rune markings dead or flickering. Much of the weaving looked burned. He suspected that these were not Legendary-level enchantments and had been strained almost to the breaking point by holding himself and Brixaby.
That was likely the true reason why they were here now. Chablis had to let them out before the enchantment failed and they were forced out.
Laird himself took one of the new nets. And even though it looked empty inside, he plunged his clawed hand in. Things started rattling around, and Arthur heard bleating sheep, annoyed chickens, and horses inside.
Had those dragons completely ransacked the Woodmours estate?
That would explain why there hadn't seemed to be much livestock around.
Or people, he thought, with the start of a sick feeling. Somehow, he’d have to find the leverage to get those people back… assuming they wanted to return, having been abused by their noble.
Finally, Laird found what he needed and yanked his claws out. Through a twist of space that didn't track correctly to any of Arthur's senses, Joy and Cressida were suddenly standing in front of them, blinking and looking confused.
Joy's wings were half-spread as if she were about to flap. She paused and looked around. “It's so bright out here.”
Cressida’s reaction was much sharper. “What's going on? Who are you people?”
Laird's answer was to pull out the blue Len and his rider, Tamya. Honestly, Arthur didn't know that pair very well. He didn't think that they had spoken more than a couple of sentences in his presence over the last couple of months.
Both Len and Tamya recoiled, finding themselves in front of so many people, identical frightened looks on their faces.
“It's going to be okay,” Arthur said, for the benefit of all of them. “This is Laird, and this is Chablis. We've been taken from the Woodmours Estate.”
“Yes, you are our guests,” Laird said with a dragon smile full of sharp teeth. “You’re in our Free Mesa Hive now.”
Cressida swelled in indignation, and Arthur could practically see a "How dare you" forming on her lips, which was not going to be helpful. They did not need any noble attitude at this moment.
“They've agreed to let you out of the nets, and now we're going to talk,” he said.
Upon hearing this, Cressida snapped, “Fine. What is a Free Hive?”
Arthur couldn't help it. He grinned.
She caught his look and leveled a stern one in return. “What?”
“It's just...I'm glad not to be the only one in the dark for once.”
“Our free hive is located on the underside of this mesa,” Chablis said, “Congratulations, you are no longer in the kingdom.”
Cressida whirled around to stare at her. “What do you mean?” She looked down at her feed. “Are we in the scourge-killed lands?”
“Not anymore.” Chablis gave probably the truest smile he had seen so far. “You see, what you have been told about the deadened lands beyond your kingdom is a lie.”
Comments
Falcon79
The pace would be improved if we got additional dialog from the hive's legendary riders before Arthur is captured. Perhaps a report from the teacher, or a reflection of lack of interest in the report due to other distractions. There are many possibilities, but right now, having read it a second time, it feels a little rushed, and the feeling was even stronger the first time I read through it.
Honour Rae
It's less of a kidnapping and more of a... involuntary liberation. :)
Big casino
You know for a book series titled All The Skills the MC relies a little too much on luck. Man I hope he gets some time to finally level up more body enhancement stats and get an actual combat class. Or card. He’s spent 2 whole books without them.
Rubeno
We haven't really seen Scourge truly work together as in cooperation between mythics. At most we have seen eruptions as if made by singular faction otherwise kingdom woild have been easily overrun by cooperation of several mythics.
Rubeno
Never!
Addanc
When will we stop with kidnapping arcs
Arch Fiend
Yeah, I was thinking that too, I feel like a scourge eruption might actually be a teleporting thing, seems weird they could just tunnel up and nobody know about it, cause they would have to gather up before starting a big eruption so I'm thinking they have some form of teleporting, it might just be the power of a God scourge to cause eruptions. Need answers lol.
Julien Fellegara
Sorry Michigo but your thinking is a bit slopy. And hard to read. He has TWO legendary card. He is lvl 20 baker and cooker. You are saying me that he will be useless until you give him all the more powerfull cards in the world? Joke. I would be awed watching a MC kill a bunch of raiders with a nuclear bomb. Yeah, incredible. No, he didn't do shit. And if he don't have any combat card, it's his own fault. Like everything happening to him so far.
Michigo
First of all: right now he doesn't have cards like master of battle or master of magic. Once he gets those he will for sure get a big boost to his combat strength. On the other hand even with the master of body card stuff like lets say super jumps or the ability to run/climb/etc really good won't help him one bit in a battle of wits or a battle involving swarms of dragons (aka what he went trough in the last couple of chapters). In other words: we have no idea what exactly the results of the time skip to his skills are. It's clear as day that the author is keeping those hidden from us for the moment, to reveal them a bit later into book 3. Heck it was even mentioned directly to us readers at the start of book 3: the details of his new skills and skill levels will come later, after readers that read the story book by book have been introduced to the setting of book 3. In short we are in the intro-worldbuilding phase of book 3, his awesome new powers and the likes aren't meant to be shown off yet (hence we get scenes those powers aren't that useful in anyways). What we do know from book 1+2: he has a bunch of mundane classes and is a decently skilled thief... that was thrown right into a crazy battlefield.
Julien Fellegara
Hum, guy. Why do you think he has connections? Think about it. Both start with nothing. For the MC of MoF, it's even worst: He can't fight and have a hard time casting spells as a .. mage. The pace is realy okay in MoF. Just that each event is explored. While here.. we fly over.. so obviusly the MC end underdeveloped. Here, the MC should have been able to make his own strong allies. Even stronger than him. He didn't. MoF take 2 years. Here ? 5-6 years? Bribaxy take one weak to lvl up 20 in flying. MC, after 6 years, has at most no usefull skill at this lvl. He should have cooking at lvl 50 or more. He should have tens on them. Should be able to make tons of money. Buy tons of cards. Here, he was given 6 months of training. Where is the super force, enhanced sens, reaction time, super jump? I did progress a lot more at the gym in 6 month than a MC with super power. What a joke? Look at his cousin. He seem lazy as fuck, at lest in the first books. But he is able to defeat people with PLATES. So if HE could achieve so much with a learning skill, why is the MC so useless? I don't want him to be stronger than ancien dragon.. but he should have a silver tongue, near magical side. Enchanting appearance. Intimidating presence. What the point writting a story about learning skills, if you fly over and don't actualy learn skills, moreover use them? And don't use the escuse of him being young! There is realy young skilled people, incredibly skilled peoples even. Without any magic. AND story wyse, he was only able to learn miscellaneous skill for the most part, so he can spend the three next years build a perfect physique, and then the years after that fighting skills, and after that, magic skills, godly crafting skills like runes carving, magical traps, dimensional rings, magical swords, portals between city and new weapons to assist or even protect citys and whatnot. There is no need to NERF him so much. The only thing i think is a lack of planification, or a lack of imagination. The power of is legendary SKILL cards, should have been able to make him craft new things that normal mind couldn't even think about. Endless possibilities, and near zero achievement. What a waste.
Pradian
It is obvious that you prefer the glacial pace of MoF and that is fine. But holy fuck was it a slog and so unmemorable. Regarding your other comment about mof mc being better. You are comparing a guy who is literally in school and have connection with the principal and resources to draw on vs a guy who has to work and have no mentor or school to guide him, obviously he would be worse off.
Dmitriy Zaslavsky
Aside from coordination, mb it's not as easy to travel the worlds for them?
Michigo
His attributes and skills gave him lots of advantages, they are the very tools he used to survive so far. "But why is he so weak" => easy, he really advanced fast trough the ranks of society, hence his opponents have always been a lot more experienced than himself. In RPG terms he got himself some nice stat boni, skills and really strong dragon sidekick, BUT his "level" is just way under what was was up against. Best example: those meetings with the king, no amounts of stats/skills/cards can help him against someone strong enough to be the final boss that early in the story. PS: his lack of strong combat cards makes sense as well, his hive is rather poor and it would be pointless to hoard low level combat cards. He needs more time to aquire the good stuff. Plus Brix can somewhat brute force card based combat despite his young age.
Arch Fiend
He will probably end up going back but as a spy assuming he throws in with the free hive and agrees to work with them, I still think he'd need to go back for now. I can't even tell if the free hive even had dragon riders, they talked like they didn't.
Arch Fiend
The whole mind singer thing proved the scourge work together. I remember someone saying it was their biggest worry that two of the gods would attack the capital , I'm sure nobody would worry about something that has never happened before.
Blorcyn
Assuming the scourge gods work together as much as the mythical do?
Arch Fiend
You know what I really want to understand the most? Why the scourge haven't won if they have two more mythics(God Scourge) 7 vs 5 now over the dragons, the fact there are hives outside of the 7 kingdoms(assuming 7 because that seemed logical lol) isn't surprising, do they have mythic dragons?
Rick
Absolutely! Depending on what the "truth" is, Free Hive may have just recruited a Legendary rider and dragon. (Membership with the Free Hive may also make it easier to create a matching deck!)
CentaureHeart
Yeah I don't even remember if he made a list of all the possible skills he could get and to actually try and get them. His stats could and should be much higher than that
Julien Fellegara
He will never have an use to his cooking skill anymore. All of his class are not that usefull even. He have some point in strengh or charisme, even luck, but they never gave him an edge. He can run fast, never had an use. Same with reading skills.. in fact it's hard for me to even remember his skills, because he don't use them. I think he use like.. 5% of his cards potential. Some slice of life would greatly help..
CentaureHeart
Yeah I would have liked Arthur to explore his role as a hive leader a lot more. Even if it meant a large time-skip for Brix to be big enough.
Dennis
oh this is getting very interesting
Ryan
Good chapter but I don’t like these Free Hive people. Hopefully they get some comeuppance.
Leonard Bukowski
Hmmmmmm……. When the author was going to have Arthur partner with the mind scourge to get out of the last situation/ perhaps go rouge the readers had a meltdown….. is this another attempt to get Arthur to go rouge? One that is more acceptable to the readers? Hmmmmmmmm…..
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
Thaldor
The thick plottens!! 😲💜💜💜
wilfredo zurita
Thank-you for the chapter, at 3am :D not my favorite time
Julien Fellegara
The story is too fast paced in some ways and not in others. Every situation is shallowly explored and then we jump on another. That's not the first time, that was already my feeling when he left the caravan. Just this should have take a book too explore.. Honest feeling. I would like to praise the story.. but it's the first time i continue to read a book only because of its potential.
