Damien was off the stage, in a broken pile. His bravado, his overbearing aura of strength and his vicious character had been crushed in moments by a single strike from Laurence. Nothing like this had happened before in the history of the gang. Nothing like this would likely ever happen again. There was truly nothing that had prepared the the children of Spring Street for this. To them, bigger was better. The bigger, tougher, and more muscular you were, the stronger you were; so the more you could get away with. That was why the most respected people were the strongest and the bravest. They would be able to bring in the biggest loot piles thorough feats of strength or daring.
Laurence had turned their world upside down. He was not the biggest, he definitely did not have the largest muscles, and he was incredibly thin. It was simply impossible for anyone to comprehend how he had dominated Damien so decisively.
As the next challenger of the path of darkness came out they were confronted with the same bizarre tableau that had plagued the crowds. The young boy's gasp of “What...?” broke the silence and freed everyone from their shock. Sound rushed back into the cavern like a tsunami. It quickly consumed everyone as they began roaring at the insane turn of events that had taken place. No one could stop talking about it, it was simply too shocking.
As the few people who were dedicated to treating the wounded rushed over to look after Damien, Laurence got off the stage and walked over to the other seat next to Yun. He sat down and looked at Orwell, then at Jim, who was grinning from ear to ear. Not only had the boy backed the right horses, they had managed to reveal a lot about themselves without actually revealing anything at all.
When the shouts and gasps of shock finally calmed down Orwell had the chance to finally talk. “That... That was insane. That was bizarre. Mother Babel...” He could not help but swear. “Is Damien allright?” At the nod of the medics he looked at Laurence with wary eyes. “Well, you’ve shown you’re definitely strong. If you’re this strong now, then there's no doubt you will become a powerhouse of the gang in no time at all. Tell us your name!”
“My name is Laurence Absolution.” Once more Laurence managed to shock the crowd. There were no stunned silences now, but instead whispers of confusion. Everyone knew what that clan name entailed, and no one would deny that Laurence’s bizarre strength made him fit into their perceived mould for that of a golden child. The issue people were having was that they could not work out why he was joining the gang. Spring Street was an abandoned area of Spirit, without clan contribution. At one point the area obviously did have clan influences, because there were so many treasures in almost every building, but the influence had been lacking for years.
Orwell swore again, before appealing to the murmuring crowd. “By the Lady's eye... a member of the clans...” The disbelief was thick in his voice, but Laurence could not understand why. Orwell knew he was a golden child. The young man looked at Laurence and winked quickly before continuing. “I guess, ladies and gentlemen of our beloved street, we have an Absolution clan member in our gang now. He has proven his strength beyond question, so let’s continue with the challenges!”
He ushered another strong person onto the arena and let the children and teens try to do what even a seven year old could do. By the end of the night all of the entrants had completed the tests, and all had passed. Generally speaking the gang would not have more than about six people pass the tests each week, but today over double that had passed. In fact before Laurence got onto the stage, the only trial that had received failures was Yun’s.
The event came to a close as the final person exited the path of darkness. It had been a brutal day, not necessarily unusual for the entrance tests, but far more shocking than any event before it. As the troupe of new members left the cavern, the crowd continued to cheer and holler at them. The sound echoed down the tunnel and gave it a slightly warped edge to it, making them seem somewhat demonic. Orwell had warned them about this but it was far more unsettling than anyone had expected.
After a ten minute walk they exited the tunnel and were shown to their rooms. There were two large spaces, for males and females of all ages, with pallets sprawled all over the rooms. This was where they would be spending a lot of their time before they attempted to continue to climb. When shown their new sleeping spaces they were informed that they would be given better accommodation of they could do something of great merit to the gang, either by bringing in a consistent amount of valuables or by harming the income of any of their rivals. The caveat was that by you going up, someone else would be pushed down. Generally speaking the person who went down would be the person who did most poorly over the preceding months. The only exception to this was those that held their spot for over a year. If they could manage to keep a private room for a year then a new wing would be built with four extra rooms so they did not have to leave.
Laurence and his friends got settled into life in the gang quickly thanks to Jim, whose sage advice often steered them out of trouble. Within the week they began working jobs to begin accruing merit within the gang. It was tense to begin with, but the sheer physical competence that Laurence, Yun and Louisa had by being Saints pushed them past many of the other members of the gang.
By the time they had been in the gang for a month, all three were in the top twenty of the most reliable members. They were valued, and while not universally liked, were very much respected. After what happened to Damien, no one wanted to get on the wrong side of Laurence’s strong arms.
Days trickled by, and they began rising in the ranks quickly, turning heads but making a few enemies in the process. Yun was unaffected, but occasionally someone would grass Laurence or Louisa to the bobbies and they would have to quickly escape from groups hunting them. The presence of some kind of police force was much lower in the desolate strip than the majority of Spirit, but there were still men and women who were in the employ of Robert Anvale in the area.
Calling the bobbies on a job was the simplest way for someone to attack the value of a person within the gang without either attracting their attention or their ire. Often the ‘hit squad’ that would be sent to deal with gangs of thieves was comprised of people who could even take on Saints, despite being of Earthen rank themselves. They achieved this through a combination of extremely precise teamwork and an affluence in the Dominus clans Break Talismans. A Break Talisman was a key tool for anyone in combat. Looking like simple pieces of paper, they contained the aura of a peak person of the tool's equivalent tier. This aura could do one of three things depending on the will of the original maker; they could bind a target to a location, stun and befuddle a target, or shatter a construct made of mana.
These talismans were extremely effective, because they ignored the skill or strength of their target and the talismans themselves increased effectiveness multiplicatively. They could be applied at a distance as long as you could see the target, and did not wane in power over distance at all. Their only real weakness was that, like all talismans, they were single use. Once they had run their course or were overwhelmed they would turn to dust.
It was precisely these talismans that Laurence and his friends began encountering six months into their tenure in Spring Street. They had fast become valued members of the gang, by bringing in consistently large scores as a team of four. By their third month Laurence, Jim, Yun and Louisa had all been upgraded to solo rooms, which turned a few heads, and made the up-setted gang members disgruntled. People snitching on their claimed ground increased dramatically, and almost every single job they staked a claim to in the gang main hall was covered with bobbies by the time they arrived.
It got to the point where they would stake four targets per job and they could only hope for the best that the person or people who were snitching would pick the wrong target. They got lucky for three straight months, but eventually they rolled snake eyes.
They were attempting to break into a vault that had long been considered unbreakable, a single room covered from roof to floor in arrays that all covered each other. If someone attempted to sever a single seal then they would immediately trigger the rest of the arrays, which in turn would force them away and repair the broken array. It was a process that many would have failed, but Laurence thought that there should be a way in without having to break any of the arrays. He did not get the chance to test his theory, however, as the moment he worked out the first step to opening the room he heard a voice echo into the building.
“Law the Young! We, the good men of Sir Robert Anvale’s policing force, have you surrounded. Please give up, else we will be forced to employ talismanic effects.”
Thanks for the chapter.
ReplyDeleteNo problem! Hope you enjoyed it!
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