Unbound

"So, you chose Beefhammer as your name? That's hilarious.”

“Better than Shadowlord, Devon,” the green-gold Kobold snickered.

"Hey!” The purple Kobold poked his brother. “We don't use our old names unless we want to! That's a rule, remember?”

The green-gold Kobold raised his hands in defeat. “You’re right. You’re right.”

“You go by Shadowlord?" Archie asked. They were seated around a table in the room just outside the trap area. The table the Wyrmkin had carted in was a bit ramshackle for Archie's taste, but it was pretty nice to sit down. He still couldn’t believe they had a chair big enough for Beef, but they did—now they were all seated around the table, chatting as if they hadn’t been trying to kill each other ten minutes prior.

"Just…just Shadow. The whole name is—yeah, it's kind of cringe. But I used to use it in my SwordLore account, and I still like it, okay?"

"SwordLore," Beef said, his giant face more excited than Archie had ever seen it. "You played?"

"Uh, yeah. You, too?"

"All the time. That's why I picked my name, too. What did you main?"

“Did you hit prestige level?"

"Oh yeah. I made it all the way to level 80 before they extended the cap. I chose Slipshot."

"Ooh, that's a good one. I did Mauler.”

“Hence the hammer."

"Yeah." Beef sighed. "Unfortunately, magic is OP on the Continent, so I couldn't copy my build here. I had to respec once I knew what I was doing. Now I'm a Strength/Intelligence build."

"Sick. I've leaned into Agility/Strength. Some of these dang bows are brutal on the arms."

"I believe it. Those arrows were starting to hurt."

"Really? I was worried I wasn't getting through."

"You were. I had to keep adding chitin onto my armor whenever you landed a hit. And those Status Conditions?" Beef whistled. “Nasty.”

Archie let the nonsense words the two discussed wash over him, and he turned to the green-gold Kobold. "So, he's Shadow, and you're... Kevin?"

The green-gold Kobold shrugged. "I like my real name."

Kevin and Devon. What monster would give their twins rhyming names?

"And you're both 16 years old?"

Kevin shook his head. "We were when we arrived here. Our birthday’s in the spring, and since it’s nearly summer, we're 17 now. Probably.”

“It's hard to keep track of months out here in the jungle," Shadow admitted.

Archie took the time to really study the kids before him. They were on the shorter side, but taller than him at around 5 feet, but very slender. They wore simple, off-white tunics belted over thin pants and didn't bother with shoes. Much like Beef, they had non-humanoid feet ending in claws that clearly wouldn't fit properly in normal boots. Their hands were similarly clawed, and thin scales covered patches of their bodies like armor plates.

Where the scales didn't cover, fur took over, giving them a patchwork look that reminded Archie of a dog more than anything else. Their faces were pretty expressive, though long in the snout, much like Yin. Their little antlers added to the comparison, though Yin didn't have a dog's nose. Archie supposed he could see why the rebels all thought they were Dragons.

"So, why'd you lie?" he asked.

Kevin scratched his cheek. "You mean about the Dragon thing?”

“Unless there’s something else you wanna mention.”

“Well, we needed to rally people to our cause—”

“And pretending to be Wyrms did that?"

"Yes." Kevin leaned forward in his chair. “The people needed symbols to get behind. We sorta stepped in.”

"A few people made a few assumptions, and we just sort of leaned into it. We didn't really mean to lie about it," Shadow said. "It all just kinda got away from us.”

Kevin cleared his throat. "This all started as us against some bandits. They were using the Poison Fields to make money and kill caravans that traveled through the area. They’d lure the wagons into it, trapping the people before going in later with some enchanted gear to fish out all the goods. They killed a lot of people.” He shook himself as if waking from a bad dream. “So we stopped them. It was hard, but it was worth it—plus it got us through our first few Tier ups.”

Shadow took a sip from a chipped ceramic mug. “Turns out they were bothering a lot of other people, too, so we ended up getting some followers. Things spiraled out from there.”

Beef scratched his chin. “Why Wyrms, though?"

"That was this one's idea," Shadow said, pointing his thumb at his brother. "Kevin thinks Dragons are cool, but he didn't think people would believe us."

Kevin shrugged. "Wyrms exist, probably. They do in fantasy books, right? And Kobolds are Dragon-adjacent, at the very least. That's part of why we picked Kobold for our race. Plus, they got some really cool bonuses to our Intelligence and Dexterity. And we got a Racial Skill called Etheric Tinker. That’s a Rare Skill, right off the bat."

Beef leaned forward eagerly. "Ooh, what's it do?"

Kevin smiled wide. "It lets us work with old etheric tech, like the gears and sigildry here in this ruin. Once we bypassed the doors—”

“Broke them.”

“Cleverly worked around their defenses,” Kevin corrected his brother. “Once we did that, we were able to access most of the chambers here. But that's another reason for the Wyrm story. This place is chock-full of their pictures and stuff. Plus those old, those weird panthers."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Harnoq,” Archie said over his mug.

"Gesundheit.”

"No, they're a type of Chimera,” Beef clarified. “We know one!”

"Oh!" Kevin looked at his brother. "Is he here?"

"No, he went—" Archie nudged the big lug. "Somewhere else," Beef finished, correcting himself without a beat.

"Oh, good. I'd feel bad if he saw us taking over his, like, ancestral home or whatever."

Shadow shook his head. "It doesn't belong to the panthers, anyways. The Dragons lived here, along with some spear-wielding soldiers and these little otter guys. There's like twenty mosaics showing them further up in the pyramid."

"Sounds like Dragoons," Archie mused. "We know some of them, too. Not familiar with any otter people, though. That's new."

"I think they were called the Geist? At least, according to some of the stuff we found in here."

Beef and Archie both exchanged a look before they both shrugged. "Never heard of them.”

Archie rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Okay, so the Wyrm-Dragon stuff is all explained, I guess. But what's the deal with this Overlord guy and those douche-canoe Adamants?"

"Oh, yeah," Shadow said. "The Overlord moved in after we took down the bandits and those giant, armored pigs that they rode around. It's like they were waiting for the bandits to clear out of there. It was barely a month after we killed the last bandit lord when the Adamants stormed into the area. They took over the four towns nearby, and then they grabbed the Poison Fields. No one was using them anymore, but it’s a big field of poison. Why would we want it?"

"At first, people were kind of relieved,” Kevin said. “At least it wasn't more bandits. And they kind of billed themselves as, like, priests. And I figured, what harm could some bunch of priests do?"

“The giant snakes seem like a dead giveaway.”

Shadow shrugged. “They're kinda cool. Like a really sick, epic mount."

"They're dicks, but they looked cool at least to start, for sure. The armor, the snakes, all that talk about Justice. They didn’t start off as fascist jerkwads. See, the bandits had these disease powers that were nasty to deal with, and compared to them, the Adamants just crushed stuff with their powers. Even then, at the start, they just fought off local monsters. They were helping.”

“Plus, if they got uppity, we figured we could handle them ourselves.” Shadow sighed. “We were overconfident.”

"Yeah," Kevin said. “Then one day, they brought their whole dumb temple and plopped it down into Morva.”

“The Hall of Judgment,” Archie said.

“That’s the one. They built it fast, even considering the weird System shenanigans. It's like it was just there one day. After that, the Adamants started cracking down hard. Taxes went up outrageously, and any offense got folks thrown into cages or into the Poison Fields."

Shadow nodded along. "We already had our base here and a few followers. Our life was good. We could have stayed hidden and lived off the land. A lot of the Wyrmkin that joined us are survivalist types. They could do it easily.” He toyed with his mug, pushing it across the table. “But this isn't a game. We realized that after we fought the bandits and lost a few people. We couldn't let more people get hurt and die. People that we came to care about, you know? Neighbors. Friends. We had to fight back."

"So far, it's been going well," Kevin said with a weak smile, but Archie could hear that the kid’s Spirit wasn’t in it. "It’s just us taking potshots at the Adamants and their guild lackeys whenever we can. Guerrilla tactics, mostly. But the Adamants are strong. We can face down one or two at a time, but anything more than that gets to be too much for us, Master Tier or not."

Beef gasped. "You're both at Master Tier?"

Kevin brightened. "Yeah, we are.”

“That’s awesome! Did you weave your Pillars, then?"

The twins shared a look. "Our what?" Shadow asked.

Archie winced. "You'll need to talk to Felix."

"You know, you mentioned him before," Kevin said. "Who is this guy? Your leader?"

"No.”

“Yes."

Beef raised his eyebrows at him, and Archie groaned. "Fine, yes. He's the leader."

"He's Unbound, too," Beef added.

"No shit." Kevin leaned forward. "What's his power set like?"

Archie shrugged. "He's…hungry."

Shadow frowned. "That's—I don't think I heard that right. How’s that a power set?"

"Doesn't matter," Archie waved the question away. "He's the boss, and he's off grabbing Seats and Seals so he can keep us all safe. Got a place up north called Elderthrone, where you wouldn't have to fight snake knights all day just to get a little peace."

"What does this have to do with Seats and Seals?" Kevin asked.

“Building up his Authority so he can do more Territory stuff.”

"Authority," Shadow echoed. "This ruin keeps asking us for Authority to access the deeper portions. We don't have enough.”

“Claim a Seat and Seal, and you'll get the Authority over the whole Territory, unless you’re messing with the Hierophant’s fakes. Usually, that's more than enough to access some ruins, unless these are especially tied to something else, I guess."

"Interesting." Shadow's eyes looked off into the distance. "Very interesting."

Beef cleared his throat. "You know, if we leave now, we'll be able to make it back to our camp before it gets too late. Then we can get back to Elderthrone and keep you safe."

"Oh, we're not going anywhere," Kevin said.

Archie closed his eyes. Of course it couldn't be that easy.

"We can't," Kevin continued. "We need to take down the Overlord first. If you want to stick around and help, by all means. We'll go with you after Morva and the other towns are free. Sorry to your boss and whatever, but we've got business to take care of here."

"Ah." Archie opened his mouth. He wasn't sure what he was going to say, but he needed to convince these two kids to come with him. He refused to leave them behind. Seventeen or not, they were too young to be out in the middle of nowhere, all by themselves, facing down Divine knights.

Look at yourself. You've gone soft, old man.

"My lords!" Leynard ran from a side door, rushing through guards that looked just as worried. He was sweating, and his Spirit stank of fear.

"Calm down, Leynard. What's wrong?"

"We're surrounded by the enemy!"

"What?" Shadow jumped to his feet. "How?"

"They sped through the jungle right for us. Our maze wards were useless against them."

"How many," Kevin asked, already checking the chain of his weapon. "Is it guilders or Adamants?"

"Neither, my lord. It's... You have to see them. They're unending."

"Shit.”

Shadow looked to Archie. “If you're willing to fight, we could use the help.”

“Lead the way."

The four of them, led by Leynard, made their way up the pyramid via another series of crudely made ladders. The place was upside down, so the rooms they moved through were confusing to make sense of, but Archie saw things like an armory, kitchens, even bedrooms, before they reached a short hallway. From there, they climbed into a narrow room filled with jacketed Wyrmkin, all of them huddled around the far wall, which was transparent. Like an enormous window, it was edged with sigils that gave off the only light in the room, and it looked out over the dense jungle.

"There, my Lords," someone called, pointing.

Archie looked out the window and stifled a laugh.

"What the shit," Kevin whispered. "Who the heck are they?"

Spread out amongst the trees was an army consisting of many Races, though most notable were the blue-skinned giants and the man in crimson-silver armor holding two deadly axes that blazed with silver fire.

"The Overlord must have hired mercenaries. I don't recognize that symbol, though. Is that a burning eye, or is it a crown?"

"Hey, so, cards on the table," Archie said through a smile. "We didn't come to find you alone."

Beef laughed outright. "No, we didn't."

Shadow looked at them as realization dawned. "You mean—?”

“You want to take down the Overlord, right?” Beef gestured out the window. “How about having an army to help?"

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