The Flock Keeper

'The minotaurs are always welcome in Wendle River,' a young man said in a formal voice. 'We saw you coming and prepared this feast for your breakfast.'

'You will always live under our protection,' Kuerolong said, nodding in return. 'You are new here. What happened to Orlin?'

'Orlin was my father. He passed away this spring. I am the flock keeper now. My name is Nylin.'

Kuerolong nodded. 'You make a good flock keeper. Orlin would be proud of you.'

Nylin glanced down at the burning logs in front of him, his eyes lost in memories. 'What brings you here, my King?'

Kuerolong snorted the air, his wet snout twitching in the firelight. 'We're building an army at Los Verion. Glory to all who join us.'

'To what purpose?' Nylin said.

'A sky lord has risen to challenge Lord Malkor.'

Nylin gazed up at the clear blue sky overhead. 'Then the rumours are true.'

'Is it safe to have an open fire like this?' Riser said.

Kuerolong turned his shiny black eyes towards him, regarding him as though he was some kind of fool. Nylin frowned, grinding his teeth on one side.

'Okay,' Riser said. 'You carry on.'

'We're in a natural valley,' a young woman said behind him. 'No one can see us unless they are already close by. No one bothers us here. They know we are under the protection of the minotaurs.'

Riser nodded, wondering who she was. She had a pale face and deep blue eyes.

Ranno stood suddenly. 'Trouble comes.'

Kuerolong was on his feet at once, reaching for his halberd. The other minotaurs rose quickly too, snorting the air as they dragged their hooves across the ground. Riser sat chewing a chicken leg. Whatever was happening, he was sure the minotaurs could handle it.

Cries rang out at the edge of the settlement. Figures charged towards them, their deformed features coming into view as they ran towards the fire.

'Clerics!' Nylin called out, reaching for a short sword at his belt.

Kuerolong swung his halberd in a wide arc, slicing through two clerics at the waist before striking a third in the rib cage, sending him crashing to the ground. More clerics charged over their fallen bodies as the other minotaurs took positions all around the campfire. They swung their halberds with brutal efficiency, hacking down the clerics before they could get close enough to fight.

A big fat cleric came running from a nearby hut, holding a short staff in both hands. A bolt of something white hit the campfire, sending burning logs flying in all directions. Kuerolong swung his halberd high, decapitating the cleric before swinging low to sever the legs of three more clerics who were trying to grab him from behind. A bloated cleric head bounced across the ground, coming to rest near Riser's feet with its beady black eyes staring up at him.

Jumping to his feet and ran towards his exoskeleton, throwing his chicken leg on the ground. A cleric ran towards him, catching him on the side of the head with a swinging fist. Riser grabbed the cleric by the neck, using his momentum to sling the ugly creature into what was left of the open fire. The cleric landed on his hands and knees, squealing like a pig before rolling on the ground with flames roaring across his back.

Shouts rang out all across the settlement. Nylin used his short sword to great effect, cutting down cleric after cleric as they charged towards him. The minotaurs were lethal with their halberds but as the clerics arrived in ever greater numbers they lacked the room to swing their weapons and had to fall back to using short axes instead.

Riser finally jumped into his exoskeleton, activating its weapons. Climbing upright, he fired a stream of hot yellow bullets into the mass of fighting clerics all around him. The tips of his miniguns glowed orange as they cut a swathe through the advancing hostiles. He swung his arms from side to side, trying to kill as many as he could find.

The place was quickly overrun. Hundreds of clerics fought with the villagers, beating them to the ground. Many had already fallen with savage wounds and now lay bleeding across the ground. The clerics showed no mercy. The kicked and punched anyone within reach, even those who were already injured or dead. Riser looked up when he noticed white flashes erupting in the distance.

Ranno dashed towards them and a few seconds later someone roared in agony as a cloud of yellow particles illuminated the sky.

Riser activated a lever on the back of his wrist and the Refractor Orb rolled out of its container on his back, coming to rest on a harness in front of his belly. He didn't have to touch it to use it. He could control it directly with his neural implants. Swinging around to face the closest danger, he unleashed black lightning in a torrent of deadly strikes. The bolts struck several clerics at once, blowing them apart. He used the Refractor Orb in conjunction with his more conventional weapons to lay down a heavy wall of fire around him.

The clerics fought hard, hundreds of them pouring into the camp site as he and Ranno did their best to cut them down. The old man was throwing yellow particles around again. Wherever they settled the clerics melted or burst into sudden bloody fountains. Any who got to close to him were knocked aside like rag dolls, their bodies broken upon the ground.

The people fought hard too, though they had already taken heavy losses. They showed great skill with their short swords but they were greatly outnumbered. They had to fall back into smaller and smaller clusters, pressing their backs against each other as they fought for their lives.

The minotaurs pushed forwards to help them, and Ranno hunted down any clerics with staffs, surrounding them in clouds of tiny particles that seemed to eat at their flesh and tear them apart. Riser had no idea what was going on.

A heavy wooden club bounced off the armour on his forearm. Turning he saw a cleric holding onto him, his black, bird-like eyes staring from a pale, disfigured face. Riser struck out with his fist, the power of his exoskeleton supercharging the blow, and the cleric's skull cracked, collapsing in on itself.

Another cleric jumped on Riser's back, stabbing with a short knife as he tried to slip the blade between the bars of his exoskeleton. Riser electrified the external frame, shocking the cleric until he tumbled to the ground. Nylin leapt upon the fallen figure, striking it through the heart with his short sword.

The shouting continued as the sounds of fighting roared across the settlement. As more and more people joined the fighting, the minotaurs finally found enough room to swing their halberds again, collecting cleric heads with their savage blades. Slowly the tide began to turn.

Riser unleashed wave after wave of deafening black lightning, using his neural implants to target his enemies even when they snuck up behind him. The larger clerics had all already fallen. The smaller ones seemed agitated, running on bowed legs and becoming increasingly violent. They lacked any real purpose without their larger cousins, and soon the people surrounded them, cutting them down with short swords and knives.

The minotaurs charged into any large groups of clerics that they could find. Within a few minutes the last cleric had fallen and the people stood listening to the sounds of their own panting breaths while the minotaurs snorted the air, their wet snouts searching for the scent of more enemies.

'Why didn't we smell them approaching?' one of the minotaurs said.

Kuerolong approached him, slapping him on the back. 'You fought well Baroling. They came from downwind. This was a planned attack. There must be lords nearby.'

'Our watch towers didn't warn us,' Nylin said. 'I suspect our scouts in the hills must already be dead.'

Kuerolong nodded, breathing heavily as his big black eyes took in the carnage around them. 'The lands become more perilous every day.'

Riser watched as the people sought out their dead and wounded, treating those who could be saved while comforting those who were already slipping away. The bodies of clerics far outnumbered the bodies of people but there had certainly been heavy losses on both sides.

'How many clerics attacked us?' Riser said when Ranno tried to walk past him.

Ranno didn't look at him. He just kept walking, but he called out over his shoulder. 'More than you can count.'

It took over an hour to treat the wounded and get everything under control. Large campfires were piled high with cleric bodies, sending thick black smoke into the sky.

'Won't this make us even more noticeable?' Riser said.

Kuerolong glanced in his direction. 'Let them come - if they dare.'

Riser admired the King's boundless courage and energy but he wasn't keen on being slaughtered by a thousand clerics so soon after breakfast. His stomach was still settling from their feast. He wanted to err on the side of caution until someone told him what the fuck was happening.

The minotaurs were fierce warriors, that much was clear, but there was only a handful of them. They had almost been overrun by greater numbers. If it hadn't been for all the people fighting with their short swords, the outcome of this battle might have been very different.

'My thanks to you,' Nylin said as he approached.

Riser glanced over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.

Nylin frowned. 'What are you - a machine of some kind?'

'Are you talking to me?'

'Of course. You fought well. You killed many clerics though I don't claim to understand how. Your weapons are beyond me. I give you my thanks, and the thanks of my people.'

Riser chewed his lip, unsure of what he was supposed to say.

Nylin continued staring at him.

'Ok.'

'Are you a guardian?'

Riser shook his head. 'I'm a man, like you.'

'But your weapons... what are they?'

'I picked up a few things at Los Verion. Talk to a guy called Ben if you go there. He has a workshop and piles of cool tools and equipment.'

Nylin stared blankly before nodding and turning to walk away. Riser got the feeling he hadn't understood a single word he was saying.