Buttopia
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Chapter 85: Chariots of Fire
🕑 Added 2025-01-17 21:51:38 +0000 UTC“So what happened to everyone?” I asked as soon as the hall door was closed behind us. None of them looked particularly healthy. Even Rabyn looked ready to fall over at any moment.
“Whatever those things were, they got into our heads. I think we ate something they offered, hard to remember exactly,” Elicec said. Cecile gagged but managed to keep his stomach down.
“Dave, you and Glorp are going to have to handle the race. I will do my best to join you later, but I have to spend the start of the floor attempting to purge whatever has happened to them. Hopefully, my knowledge of jesters doesn’t prove inadequate,” Elody said. I didn’t remotely like what that meant. There were seven other squads on this floor. Glorp and I were going to have to somehow handle a race against them alone.
“Rabyn can you tell us anything before this starts?” I asked, hoping at least for some extra information.
“I’ve never actually done this floor. The squad swapped me out for an actual pilot. You’ve got that mallet, though. Use it against the other vehicles,” Rabyn said, swaying slightly as he spoke. Just what did the jesters do to people? The hall disappeared again, depositing us in a large open area with dozens of other people around us.
“Ten minutes til start, racers take your chariots!” an unseen voice boomed out. I looked around, not spotting any of the chariots. The other squads looked just as confused as I did.
“There!” Glorp said, pointing to several small dots in the distance that were quickly growing larger. They mostly looked like horse-pulled chariots with extra wheels. The difference were the flaming horses that were pulling them. I looked around at the other squads and none of them looked particularly pleased. The chariots were only big enough to hold three to four people max, which meant the other squads got to split up. I bit my lower lip slightly as I considered how to play this, a habit I thought I had broken long ago. Glorp and I would be a solo target, and I didn’t like that thought at all.
“Think you can drive a chariot, Glorp?” I asked, having no idea if that was in his metaphorical wheelhouse, but it was probably better he did it while Corey and I fought.
“Possibly, no, likely. With how many levels I gained on the last floor, I believe I can greatly contribute. Give me three minutes. I should be able to quickly adjust my build,” Glorp said, twitching excitedly as he spoke.
I looked back at Elody about to ask if they’d be okay, but shut myself up as I saw her deep in concentration with several of her books floating in front of her. I wasn’t about to interrupt whatever she was doing. My own telemetry scans could wait until the race was over. Instead, I walked over to one of the newly arrived chariots. There was nothing special inside, just a small area for standing and the reins to control the flame horse, however that worked.
The various discussions I could overhear sounded as though the other factions were having a similar problem. Then I noticed something amongst the mass of different peoples, there was a group of giants standing around arguing about squeezing a third person into a chariot or not. I was pretty sure recognized two of them. I quickly ran over to them as a plan formed in my head.
“Hey, we met a couple of floors down, right?” I asked, their eyes all turned coldly toward my interruption.
“Yeah, on the flags, why?” One of them asked. He sounded similar to the one who had agreed to the previous deal.
“Well, four of the squads can move on, right? You already know we keep our word, so interested in another team-up?” I asked.
“Yes,” the giant answered. Well had been easy. Then again he had been pretty agreeable before as well. There was also the fact they had no idea it was just me and Glorp, so that had probably helped things.
“I’m Dave, by the way,” I said. There was always the chance I had just made my first faction ally, so I figured I should let them know who I was.
“Tomthy,” he replied before resuming his argument about chariot space. That was for the best, as I didn’t have a huge amount of time left, and quickly dashed back to Glorp. I found him already standing on the nearest chariot to where I had left him. I hoped that meant there was some good news.
“I invested almost all the levels and experience we gained from the last floor into my courier class, mostly focused on the path of mobile delivery. I think I can handle this chariot fine now. I hope we get enough experience to bring me up to core fortification again, though. I was really looking forward to that,” Glorp said nervously as I hopped onto the chariot behind him. Most of his fidgeting had stopped, but he still seemed pretty excited about this.
“Don’t worry. If you’re stuck with us, I’m sure you will get another chance. I made us an alliance with the same giants from floor three. Assuming they don’t screw us, it should make this a bit easier,” I said, unsure if they would really stick to the agreement or not. Considering four squads moved on, it had to be the better move to stay on our good side, right? I wasn’t sure whether I wished I knew more about faction politics or that I didn’t need to know anything about them at all.
“I really didn’t think this was where my life was going,” Glorp replied as he fiddled with the reins.
“Welcome to the club. It might be the only defining requirement for joining the faction right now. Okay, I’m going to bring Corey out the second we take off. My plan is to just start eliminating as many other chariots that aren’t the giants as I can. You just keep us going toward the finish line as best you can,” I said with a deep sigh. It was the best plan I had for now.
“Dave, thank you for saving me, but um, when we get some time, can we talk? I might need more help,” Glorp spat out the words like a dam had broken. If it hadn’t been for my own years of super-speed rambling, I wasn’t sure I’d have completely understood him. How bad of a situation was he in? It didn’t really matter. He was here because of me, so I’d help in any way I could. How did I seem to keep collecting these debts?
“Of course, as…” The rest of what I was going to say was drowned out by the return of the voice.
“Three, two, one,” it announced loudly, signaling the start. Glorp grabbed the reins and gave them a gentle pull, causing the flame horse to take off. We weren’t out in a complete lead, but we had pulled ahead of well over half the other chariots. Glorp’s new classpath had paid off. Now, it was my turn.
“Take down everyone you can that isn’t a giant,” I said out loud to Corey, after producing them from my storage.
“Understood,” the mallet responded before throwing itself hard into the wheel of the nearest chariot, causing it to splinter and cascade into two others. I quickly switched to my shield orb, as it hit me, quite literally, that I was going to need to soak some of the damage the core was taking. It felt like someone had punched me in the chest. I was tempted to turn my life orb on as well, but I was afraid I’d need the mana, plus my channels still felt a bit off from what had happened on the last floor.
I flipped my fire elemental orb on and scanned the track. Corey was currently hammering away at another wheel. Virtually every chariot was under attack by someone, except for ours. Why weren’t we being attacked? I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth and decided to hold off on blasting anyone in case that drew their attention. Corey was doing plenty for now anyway, and I could just hold the mana in reserve for keeping up shields as needed this way.
We raced along at a breakneck speed as Glorp slowly darted the chariot through the mass of racers, carefully maneuvering us time and time again as he inched the chariot to the front of the pack. After minutes of this precision chariot driving, he managed to pull it out ahead of the others, but just as he did, I spotted one of the carts next to us. There was a large blue-skinned woman pointing directly toward us, screaming. The words were too muffled to make out, but unlike everyone else, she had clearly noticed us. I launched two fireballs at the side of their chariot just as an arc of lightning sprang out of her hand toward us. My fireballs hit home, knocking the cart sideways into another, but so had their lightning. And it had been aimed at Glorp. He screamed out in pain but managed to hold the chariot on track. I could see the finish line up ahead. We were somehow going to win this.
I shot out a few more fireballs myself while Corey knocked down several of the chariots nearest to us. The giants hadn’t attacked us during the race, and whether that was due to the strangeness in no one seeming to notice us besides the one blue woman or not, I didn’t care. If Mel wanted me to run a damned faction, then I was going to make some alliances. That meant as we crossed the finish line and the voice loudly declared us the winner, I was also cheering on the giant’s chariot that crossed immediately after ours. Glorp joined jumping up and down as well while cheering, the pain of the lightning apparently hadn’t been enough to stop his joy.
Faction alliances can be formed in many ways, generally, the largest of the factions out there form them for reasons of power-sharing or to block an up-and-coming faction. When a faction war starts, alliances are more often formed for defensive reasons. When it comes to the smaller factions, alliances can form for nearly any reason, sometimes even just camaraderie. The Green Nebula Collective and the Elder Underpork Empire famously have been millennia-long allies after two of their scions went drinking together on a whim.
Factions, Dynasties, Royalty, and the Holdings by Trig Plunderscan
