The safe house Hans guided Hector to was an apartment above a butcher shop. It entirely lacked furniture. Hans paid the butcher a couple of small coins for meat trimmings that were mostly greasy fat and elastic tendons, then they climbed steep stairs to enter the safe house. Hans tossed the trimmings into a tin bowl, threw in a pinch of salt, added water from a jug, and set the bowl over top of a candle to warm.

Then Hans pulled out a bamboo carrying container. He unwound a knot holding the lid in place and shook out a handful of powdery white pills. "Zing Hunters carry spirit pills. Very fast restoration. Better than beer or wine."

Hans swiped all but two of the pills back into the bamboo carrier. "Take one. I eat other."

That seemed adequate assurance these weren't poison. Hector briefly considered the film A Princess Bride, where a character intentionally built up an immunity for a poison. That didn't seem realistic, though. Not when Hector's body enhancement so greatly exceeded that of Hans. Only an idiot would trust their trained tolerance to a substance against superior enhancement.

Hector popped what looked like a worn down piece of chalk into his mouth and grimaced at the salty and bitter and soapy taste. He swallowed quickly and found an immediate explosion of energy in his stomach. Almost by reflex he drew energy through his body aperture. The intense flood lasted approximately thirty seconds and vanished.

At least half of the energy had escaped his absorption attempt. Hector didn't think he could do much better even if he'd been prepared. It didn't just feel like an explosion in his gut, it actually was one. Cosmic energy erupted free of his body in every direction. And his reserves now sat at nineteen percent.

Hans smirked. "The Azure Spear Maiden bitches carry many of these pills."

"Murdering women for pills doesn't sit right with me."

"They kill many hunters. Core eaters."

"And I'm better than that," Hector said.

Uncomfortable silence fell, with Hector unsure if he would still be granted hospitality after his refusal. Hans spent the time brooding and stirring their small meal as it cooked over the candle. And, contrary to Hector's skepticism, it did slowly cook. He rested with his back in the corner and dozed off only to wake when Hans placed two bowls before him, one of goat trimming soup and the other a slop of sauerkraut.

The broth was thin, the 'meat' rarer than he liked, and the seasoning lacking. Hunger ensured none of that bothered Hector. He devoured the meat, drank the broth, and ate the kraut. Hans shrugged off his gratitude and settled onto the floor in the opposite corner as Hector. The two of them snoozed until dawn light entered the sole window.

Hans stretched with a whiny groan, bringing a wary Hector fully awake. The uneasy rest left him feeling more tired than ever. He'd gotten a taste for sleep and wanted more. Failing that, breakfast would be acceptable. Hans offered him another spirit pill, no doubt hoping to tempt him with the easy energy. Little did the man know that Hector had his own hack for that.

Even being prepared this time, Hector lost about half of the energy from the burst. He didn't have the ability to request a survey result from the System for an accurate reading, but Hector estimated he instantly restored about one percent of his reserves. That wasn't a lot in general terms. The fact that it happened in less than a minute, though, was huge. It opened up the possibility of restoring some portion of energy mid battle.

They departed the safe house and Hans guided Hector to a nearby bakery. When they drew close, the heavenly scent of fresh bread on the air pulled him onward with a draw almost tangible. He almost didn't notice the blue robed women with Asian features holding fresh loaves. Had they been a little less obvious about noticing him, Hector might not have survived.

As it was, he realized five women milling about near the bakery were staring moments before they dropped their baked goods to summon spears. Hector may have been groggy from sleeping in the same room as a man he didn't trust, but he quickly put together the fact that blue robes plus spear externalities plus instant hostility could only make these women the Azure Spear Maidens; individuals who were also almost exclusively referred to as bitches by Hans.

Hector backpedaled to get distance, almost tripping when he ran into Hans. The other man cackled at the predicament. "You fight or die now. Let us kill bitches."

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Fight or die seemed very much like a false dichotomy. Hector still did not want to kill other humans when he had another option. In this situation, that other option was fleeing. He was about to fly when the spears of the Azure women flew into the air to point down at him, poised to strike. His five opponents were each level six, so he didn't trust his body enhancement against weapons forged from their externalities.

Unfortunately, he didn't dare turn to escape and expose his back.

At least that let him witness the insanity of Hans on full display. The man manifested a double-edged arming sword and blasted himself forward to hack at their foes wildly, screaming profanities in his native tongue. The spears in the air reoriented towards Hans.

Hector could not in good conscience let the man who fed him the previous night die while he escaped. Knowing he'd been manipulated into joining this battle by a man who likely didn't care if he lived or died, Hector formed cables. The first one tripped a woman as she was about to dodge Hans, allowing the sword to disembowel her. The second cable rearranged a face – its owner surviving the damage but unable to continue the fight.

Actually, the blinded woman was beheaded by Hans a heartbeat later.

Hector's third cable died before it could reach its target as a descending spear intersected it, the weapon externality causing the cable to short-circuit and pop like a soap bubble. Hans dodged a spear coming for his back, revealing he possessed a superior mental sense.

At that point, one of the three spears still in existence pivoted to strike at Hector. He dove under it, firing a burst of cosmic energy from the soles of his feet to tackle one of the women. As they rolled across the paving stones of the street, he maneuvered her between him and the attack. The woman screamed as the spear pierced through her back and out her front. Its point just barely missed Hector as he kicked her aside.

His next cable circled the neck of another woman and constricted hard enough to become a garrote, destroying the trachea, carotid arteries, and muscles located there. As she began to panic, Hector rolled to his feet in time to see Hans stab his blade into the heart of their final opponent.

Hans rushed to pull familiar bamboo containers off the Azure women, some of whom were still in the process of expiring. Hector joined the crazed man in the robbery. "I assume we need to flee the authorities now?"

"There were eleven of these bitches in town. Four of them are level seven."

Hector stiffened at the revelation. They'd just killed five women. That was bad enough, even if the violence had been mutual. But now he had drawn the ire of six other women, four of whom were superior in level to him.

Hans pulled Hector into a run through the streets, moving towards the outskirts of the town. They wound up in an abandoned bath house. Hans closed the door and sat with his back to it, manic glee in his eyes. "We killed five of those bitches."

"I'm still not clear on why we attacked them." Hector made his words hard to express the degree of his disapproval for being roped into a battle he never wanted.

Hans spat deliberately on the ground. "They are foreign."

"Yeah? So am I."

"You Amarat same as Stein." Hans pointed to his face. "Those bitches are Zing. Slanted eyes."

Hector resisted the urge to knock the hateful bigot unconscious. "You dragged me into a life or death struggle because you don't like how they look?"

The rough man scowled. "You like those bitches? Think they exotic? They have no business here. Their land is across ocean. What they call Latin Province belonged to Helvetian hundred years past. Damn Emperor wants our whole continent. Wants slanted Zing replace us."

Ironically, the man was speaking to someone who wasn't even from the same world as him. Hector shook his head. "I'm more foreign than they are."

"Our new king. He Amarat like you."

"Lord Annihilator," Hector muttered.

"King Huron will stop Zing Emperor. We stop Azure bitches."

Hector ripped open one of the bamboo carriers and threw a spirit pill back. When the energy dissipated, he took another. In quick succession, he emptied that first carrier and went through over a dozen pills. That restored about five percent of his reserves.

His racist companion followed his lead and rapidly consumed pills.

"I'm not here to kill people and steal pills," Hector said.

Hans snorted. "Secret recipe died with last king."

Hopefully that was not the case. Otherwise Hector wasn't sure how he would get Riley back. He couldn't expect to steal her away from a lord. Zara didn't seem amenable to arguments about charity either, despite her generally kind demeanor. Which in his estimation just left bribery. He didn't know what he could bribe her with. Maybe if he collected enough of these spirit pills from Zing warriors?

That was not a pleasant thought.

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