NOVGO.NET Chapter 44: Blades And Debt
Chapter 44: Blades And Debt
Gravel erupted thirty yards away as the earth split open with a dull grinding groan.
Four jagged fissures tore across the market lot, sending plumes of brown dust into the autumn air.
Auditor Khol dropped his digital stylus, stumbling backward as three black-plated carapaces surfaced from the torn ground.
Dozens of segmented appendages clattered against loose stones, spraying sharp rock fragments across the recruitment lines.
"Armored Burrowers!" a draftee screamed, turning on his heel to flee toward the perimeter fence.
"Hold your positions and lock your bucklers!" Ruby shouted, slamming her shield rim into the dirt.
The three neighborhood recruits froze, their knees shaking as ten-foot centipedes with amber mandibles climbed from the trench.
Maya reacted instantly, leaping forward with sharp grace as four balanced daggers slipped into her gloved fingers.
"Form a defensive wedge behind me right now!" Maya barked, issuing commands with practiced military authority.
"You, porter with the clipboard, get behind my defensive line before those mandibles slice your torso in half!"
Fin did not glance at her, casually passing the metal clipboard to Jax with his left hand.
"Hold the attendance sheet, Jax," Fin said calmly, rolling his shoulders to loosen his back muscles.
"Are you going to draw your daggers, boss?" Jax asked, clutching the paperwork against his chest.
"These lower-rank burrowers do not require weapon maintenance fees," Fin answered, stepping past the defensive line.
’Chitin carapaces crack easily if you strike along the natural growth seams,’ he calculated with detached precision.
Maya threw two daggers with whistling speed, pinning a burrower’s optical stalk to the gravel with expert aim.
The wounded beast thrashed wildly, but four more armored centipedes surged forward to swarm the lone scout.
Fin moved without drawing steel, crossing twenty paces of broken ground in less than two silent heartbeats.
He planted his left heel, pivoting his hips to deliver a flat palm strike against the lead monster’s snout.
The concussive force of sixty-two points of strength detonated through the beast’s skull with a sharp crack.
Chitin shattered instantly, driving the creature’s head into the dirt while its yellow ichor splashed over the gravel.
Maya blinked in disbelief, freezing mid-stride as the certified D-rank commander dodged a sweeping tail with casual ease.
Fin caught the second burrower behind its neck plates, twisting his forearms with brutal packing-line leverage.
A loud snap echoed across the lot as the thick spinal segment tore free from its armored thorax.
’Lift with the legs, turn with the core, and break the hinge before the load shifts,’ he thought.
The third monster lunged with snapping mandibles, aiming directly for his exposed throat in a desperate strike.
Fin stepped inside the attack arc, driving an open palm into the creature’s soft throat seam with terrifying velocity.
The impact lifted the eight-hundred-pound beast clean off the ground, throwing its limp body against the perimeter fence.
Two more burrowers attempted to flank him, scuttling across the stones with venom dripping from their mandibles.
Fin swept his right leg, catching both creatures across their segmented legs to collapse their forward momentum.
He brought his heel down twice with sledgehammer force, pulverizing both heads into the dirt in three seconds flat.
The remaining fifteen burrowers scrambled out of the trench, hissing furiously as they formed a closing ring.
Fin shifted into a low sprint, blurring through the swarm like a freight train cutting through flimsy cardboard.
He delivered palm strikes, elbow fractures, and heel stomps in a continuous sequence of devastating warehouse efficiency.
Every strike landed precisely upon the joint seams, snapping carapaces without wasting an ounce of kinetic energy.
Within forty-five seconds of the initial ground breach, twenty armored burrowers lay dead in a neat circle.
Silence settled over the market lot, broken only by the sound of falling rain and dripping monster ichor.
Auditor Khol stood frozen beside the transport ramp, his mouth hanging open as his evaluation slate dropped into mud.
The seventy-four draftees stared at their commander in stunned silence before erupting into a roaring wave of cheers.
"Did you see that?" the lead neighborhood recruit shouted, pumping his rusted sword.
"He broke twenty armored beasts with his bare hands!"
Maya stood ten paces away, slowly lowering her remaining daggers as her grey eyes calculated the impossible telemetry.
’That was not Grade-D output,’ Maya calculated rapidly, her pulse quickening with intense analytical focus.
’His acceleration exceeded seventy meters per second without a visible mana flare or kinetic enchantment,’ she noted.
Fin walked back toward the command table, wiping a small smear of yellow bile from his knuckles with a rag.
[ Combat clear: E+ armored burrower swarm neutralized ]
[ Monsters defeated: 20 ]
[ EXP awarded: +12,300 EXP ]
[ EXP: 183,200 / 2,500,000 ]
[ Progress: rank D (7.32% to rank C wall) ]
He reached out his hand toward Jax, who handed the metal clipboard back with trembling fingers and wide eyes.
"Not a single tear on the attendance sheet," Fin noted, checking the corners of the parchment.
"You dismantled twenty armored beasts in forty-five seconds without drawing a blade," Ruby said, stepping beside him.
"New whetstones cost eight credits each, so using fists saves wear on the blade edges," he answered dryly.
Maya walked over with measured steps, sliding her balance-weighted daggers back into their leather chest sheaths.
She pulled a silver stylus from her collar pocket, clicking the tip three times with rapid mechanical precision.
"You moved at well beyond the standard velocity in your old logistics file," Maya said, eyeing his boots.
"Night shifts on the freight lines teach a man how to move quickly between conveyor belts," he replied.
"I have tracked twenty corporate vanguards, and none of them possess that level of joint-strike precision," she countered.
"Corporate vanguards rely on expensive elemental spells instead of learning where a monster bends," he answered with a shrug.
"Your tactical efficiency produces an eighty-four percent reduction in standard equipment depreciation costs," she calculated aloud.
"Efficiency is how working people keep their grocery budgets balanced during a regional siege," he stated calmly.
Maya stared at him for three silent seconds before a sharp, calculating grin spread across her pale features.
"Looks like I just found the only profitable unit in this entire district," Maya declared, tapping her stylus.
"We are not an investment fund, corporal," Ruby pointed out, crossing her armored arms over her kite shield.
"Every successful mercenary enterprise is an investment fund if you calculate the risk margins properly," Maya countered smoothly.
"Invoices and profit shares wait until the defense shift ends," Fin said, tapping his clipboard with a pencil.
"Then add my name to the secondary roster as your attached telemetry specialist," Maya requested, stepping forward.
"The central division assigned me to audit this sector, but auditing this squad promises much higher returns," she added.
Fin looked at Auditor Khol, who was currently scrambling to retrieve his muddy slate near the transport landing gear.
"Does your senior auditor approve of you joining our frontline defense roster?" Fin asked with a faint smirk.
"Auditor Khol will write whatever report I put in front of his nose," Maya answered with crisp indifference.
[ Unit roster updated: scout corporal Maya (attached telemetry specialist) ]
[ Squad morale: high ]
[ District defense readiness: operational ]
Fin signed the bottom margin of the muster sheet, sealing Maya’s name beneath the Iron Dogs and the draftees.
"Welcome to the Fourth District Auxiliary Reserve," Fin said, handing the clipboard back to Jax.
"Report to the supply carts and help Bram distribute bucklers to the second rank," he instructed her.
"Understood, commander," Maya replied, turning toward the supply wagons with a sharp glint in her eyes.
She clicked her silver stylus once inside her pocket, watching Fin’s calm stride as he inspected the barricade line.
She did not see a common warehouse draftee holding a rusty post in the lower district.
She saw the most profitable secret in the entire city of Jonxy, and she intended to count every credit.