Company unknown 4, p.1
Company Unknown 4, page 1
COMPANY UNKNOWN BOOK 4
M. HELBIG
Copyright © 2023 by M. Helbig
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, May 2023
www.mhelbig.com
CONTENTS
Field of Screams
Questions & Questions & Questions & Answers
The Local Greeting
Like Looking in the Mirror
Enemy Thy Name Is That Guy
There’s No Place Like Second Home
A Demon of the People
The Hole Affair
Friends with the Wrong Kind of Benefits
What a Welcome
That Nightmare Wasn’t So Bad After All
Hammer & Blade
Different Stuff That Wants to Kill Me
More Monster, More Fun
New Friends, Old Enemies, & Somewhere In Between
You’re Not the Only One with a Mask
Painful Reunions
Is Maybe an Answer?
Fast & Slightly Insane Is the Only Way
The Dreg’s of the Enemy
I’m Not Touching You
The Royal Greeting
The Mask Comes Off
Creepy Old Man? Meet Creepy Young Man
Making New Friends & Only Killing Most of Them
No Pain, No . . . What Was That Last Part Supposed to Be?
Sweating for the Moldies
Gesundheit. Now Don’t Kill Me
Why Is That Drawing Having All the Fun?
The Great Swap in the Sky
Besiege My Heart
Hide & Seek
Johnson, Park, & Associates
I Think He Has to Pee
Definitely Not Father’s Day
Old & Older
Always Make a Bad First Impression
“Bonding”
Someone Else’s Mess
Do I Know You Guys?
A Familiar Situation
You Have to Learn to Walk Before You Can Fly, But Maybe Learn Trust First?
Monsters, Monsters, and Also Other Monsters
Super-Awesome Amazing Mer! Now with Flying Action
Up, Down, and All Around
You Should Hear My Orc
How Many Mysterious Figures Are There on This World?
This Teamwork Sure Is a Lot of Work
Putting the Work in “Teamwork”
Tables Turned, Flipped Over, & Obliterated
That Answers Something, But What?
Living Up to Your Name
Winner’s Syndrome
Un-Masked
Well, If That’s What You Want . . .
Now What?
The Only Thing Left to Hit Is Myself
A Void Not of My Soul
Old Man Begone
All Hail the . . .
Character Sheet
FIELD OF SCREAMS
Our distrust was strong. So was that of the squad next to us. The third one was a bit of a wildcard, but they did have their reasons to not fully embrace us in the warm and snugglies. Despite that, the three squads packed tightly together in a perfect circle. Danger and mystery of the lethal variety tend to breach differences better than any diplomacy ever can.
The howling grew louder yet its source remained a mystery. The field in front of us was still the same. The fact that the fluffy brown bunnies were not reacting to the noise in the slightest only made my nervousness grow. Bunnies were usually prey, but that didn’t mean the same held true here. My home was a place formed by merging pieces of a hundred different worlds, so I was well used to things not looking as they appeared. Though we were now on a completely different world, demons came from here, and that pointed strongly to anything we encountered being a tad more dangerous.
Having been a monster hunter since birth, I didn’t trust anything my eyes showed me anyway. Some called that a "deep-seated psychological issue,” but I called it “practical.” Hadn’t steered me wrong in nineteen years.
“Anyone have something to pierce the veil of the unknown on those?” I asked.
Warham turned her purple eyes on me and blinked. “But your squad isn’t even wearing any veils. And what does that have to do with the rabbits?”
“Not the Unknown—my company—the unknown as in . . . the magic and stuff—”
“Come on, Mer.” The incredibly annoying wood elf at my side shook his head. “If she’s someone you like, the fancy talk is obviously going to go over her head. Simple, like this.” Dink turned to Warham. “He means use Perception or any other information-gathering magic . . . sorry, magic that will tell you stuff about the rabbit that you can’t get from just looking at it.”
Metric’s beak flapped open before the words could fully sink into Warham. “Perception two identify them as rabbits.”
Warham’s own second piped in after. “Tier-three Perception says they range between a paltry level one and two. I think we will be fine, sir.”
I scanned the third leader in our motley collection. Pits had been at this profession longer than Warham and I combined, but then again he’d also spent most of that time as a squad leader, not out on his own. As such, it was unsurprising that he took easily to my leadership and just shook his head at the attention.
It was also not a big shock that I had gone immediately to my fellow leaders first and then to our squad members second. “Stick with what you know” had always been one of Mom’s sayings after all, which was why I had skipped over the only person with us who was not in any chain of command.
“Perception five?” the masked woman asked. “It reveals much more. For example, the rabbits in front of us have fewer than ten health apiece and have no unusual abilities. Would it not be better to ask other questions? Questions about perhaps the—”
Her words cut off as one of the rabbits contradicted her by displaying one ability that was quite odd. Sure, if you want to get technical its flight was less of an ability and more of a byproduct of something picking it up and tossing it, but semantics don’t tend to matter a whole lot when something is hurtling toward you.
Ever the professional, Pits had his shield up in more than enough time to protect the blue-skinned masked demon from the furry missile, as well as the next three that crashed into the same spot seconds later. The rest of the tanks in our front row were equally adept as more rabbits flew from every direction.
Though less than effective at doing damage, the barrage did make it nearly impossible to lower our shields long enough to locate a cause. To counter that, I went with my less powerful but much more versatile spell Tiny Eye and had Metric do the same.
The eyeballs hovered from our circle to about fifteen feet above. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the cause of the rabbits’ sudden flight. Something was clearly tossing them, but it was obviously invisible or from some sort of other magic. Metric came to the same conclusion. Our attempts to move our eyes in closer only resulted in them getting caught by a rabbit instead of a shield.
While Metric summoned another Tiny Eye, I chose a different avenue and turned back to the lone member of our group from this world. “Mask,” as I was calling the blue-skinned demon, had talked me into begrudgingly summoning a portal to this world. I had only done that to save my squad from danger.
She had wanted us to come here to take over the leadership of my father’s people, as he had gone missing and they were at war with the red-skinned demons. Supposedly, those were the bad ones and the blue-skinned the good ones, but given that my sources for that information were a tad bit biased, I couldn’t assume that was true. Few things are ever so cut-and-dry, and wars never are.
Right now, though, I had more pressing concerns. “Any idea what’s doing this?”
Though her metal mask hid most of her face, the slit at the bottom revealed just enough of her mouth to show it tightening in thought. “Things that could be the cause? My world is a dangerous place, Prince. Knowing where we are? That would help much. But as I do not currently possess a map, I can only offer a conjecture.”
“Fine, conjecture away, but faster . . . I order you and stuff as your prince.”
“Royal decree!” Dink got barely one note of his snicker out before I ended it with a palm to the back of the head.
“What I believe?” Mask asked. “The most likely reason is that we are in the Field of Souls. A necromancer imbued the very grass with the spirits of his fallen retainers and their enemies centuries back. The grass will continue to assail us if we press to the north, where the ruins of his castle lie, but if we head south they will leave us be.”
There was a lot of arguing with Warham at first, but the fact that her squad only had six members while I had two full ten-man squads along with Mask on my side meant the decision was a forgone conclusion. I think she just did it to save face with her battered group, and not to build tension on a “will they or won’t they” scenario like Dink suggested.
While Pit’s squad hadn’t worked with mine much, the fact that we were both trained in the same style meant we mostly kept together on that side of the formation. Warham’s side was a little dicier initially, but the threat of an embarrassing death pushed their focus up several notches and they only took a few bunnies to the face.
Much as I wanted to leave their he
The field had apparently contained a half-dozen rabbits when we arrived, yet we seemed to face an unending supply of the furry grenades. As abruptly as the assault began, it ended when we walked over some sort of invisible line. Just to be sure, I leapt back over it and nearly got another bunny to the face.
Dink and some others saved parts of that one and a few that landed over the line for dinner later. I only allowed it after conferring with Mask and deciding that the grass was the only thing haunted, and then I had her use Perception and other spells for extra care.
With that danger out of the way, it was time to get some answers for the bigger problems. The largest question of all was where to start. I didn’t have the answer; I just had to hope someone else did.
QUESTIONS & QUESTIONS & QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
After having a little more fun taunting the grass by pretending to step over the line and then not doing it, I moved back toward the group. My instinct was to go toward the clump that made up my squad, as that was where I was most comfortable, but seeing Dink make kissy faces to Warham forced a different route. Metric eliminated my quick stop-off by pulling Dink away and having him begin the nearly infinite amount of extra training he’d earned.
As she was the only non-member of the three squads, it was unsurprising to find Mask alone. The way she was disdainfully eyeing the rest said that was how she preferred it. Her expression and posture settled when she noticed my approach, though not by much. There were a lot of questions in that but others were more pressing.
I put on my best casual walk and even added a little whistling. Seeing that it had the opposite effect, I decided to go with an easy question to start. “If the grass was so intelligent, then why did it only toss rabbits? Wouldn’t it have been more effective to trip us up or throw us around?”
“Did it contain souls? Yes, but not the brains of those so condemned. Grass is not a substance known for strength. That is one of the few ways this world and yours are the same. You will find many more over the coming days, Prince.” Her gaze held more steel than her mask.
"OK, that’s a good segue into my next question: What can you tell me about this place? What dangers can we expect?”
“Expectations? They are subjective and based on personal knowledge and experience. How can one know of another’s assumptions if they are unfamiliar? Your world is vastly different than my own, and I only spent a few days there. I will therefore do my best to advise you of any perils we may face as we near them.”
I sighed. “Are all your people like you? So evasive and defensive?”
She turned her head to stare off in the distance. “Would you not be the same and more if you had lived every moment in fear of your life? The Fahrkini—or red demons, as you call them—want only our extinction.”
“Any idea why?”
Though I didn’t think she was capable of it, Mask blinked. That she didn’t answer me right away said almost as much as her words. “Has it always been so, that our two peoples have been at war? No, until a few generations ago it was all raids and skirmishes. More to keep the other side honest and to keep our skills sharp. Most conflicts were settled by duels of champions.”
“And then it all changed.” I nodded as I recalled such stories I’d heard from the countless people who made up my own patchwork world. “What was the cause this time? Let me guess, something minor that quickly escalated.”
She rubbed her small chin. “Does that seem likely? Perhaps. If we ever locate your father, he will be able to answer you. What I do know is that it was something involving the royal families.”
“Great! I’ll just add that to the lifetime-sized pile of questions I already have for him. So, any idea where he is?” I rubbed my hands together. “And please tell me it involves killing lots of things to get to him. Please?”
“Answers to those questions? They will come when we are back in the safety of the capital. This place is still dangerous, and there are those who may be listening that we would not want them to hear.” Her eyes subtly wandered to Warham and then to the forest in the distance.
I obviously had more questions, but I decided not to press them, and not because of the dangers she mentioned—though I didn’t doubt that was at least partially true. Call me distrustful, but I was certain there were several important things she hadn’t told me about this situation. Maybe it was because I knew almost nothing about her. Could have also been that she hid her face behind a mask. Or that I was pretty sure she was quite a bit more powerful than me. Or that she’d kind of tricked me into going to a dimension full of people who wanted to kill me. Or that I don’t trust anyone. Whatever the case, I’d definitely be on high guard with her . . . and Warham . . . and just about everyone new I met.
Basically, it would be like every other day back home, except Metric didn’t have a map of the area. What we did have was a way to return. If things looked even a little bit fishy, I planned to use my portal ability without hesitation. I’d just have to do my best to make sure we didn’t get into any such situations for the remaining twenty-three hours and thirtyish minutes before I could use that ability again.
“How far away is the capital?” I asked.
I thought I saw a quick smile form on Mask’s face, but I may have imagined it. “Two hours it would be, if we took the hard way. The easy way? It could be two or three times that.”
A big grin formed on my face as I turned toward my squad. “Anyone want to see a city on another world by lunch time?”
Dink’s eyes narrowed. “The only time he smiles like that is when he’s going to lead us into certain death.”
“Lady in mask say hard way or easy way.” Metric blinked once and stared off into her usual nothing.
“What does the hard way involve?” Dink yelled over me.
“Is it dangerous?” Mask asked. “It depends on what you would think of a gorge full of deadly monsters. The Fahrkini do patrol that area as well, though infrequently. If we encounter them, we can expect a few of their elites.”
“So, lots of experience to be earned,” I happily added.
“Per encounter? Yes. In total experience? It will probably amount to the same.”
“And loot?”
“Will it be present? Yes, it will.”
I turned back to the squads. “Loot from other dimensions, guys. Think of how much that will sell for back home.”
Lots of skepticism greeted me from my own squad. Pits’s squad too, with the exception of Buttons and one of their new people. Warham’s was enthusiastically on my side. That probably should have been a big red flag, but shiny objects and fun danger were on my mind. I really needed that kind of pick-me-up after fighting two indecisive duels, and you’d think my guys would have taken that into consideration but once again they were only thinking of themselves. As always, they were very selfishly putting their own lives ahead of my never-ending psychological needs. Well, too bad for them because—
