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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4654646" data-attributes="member: 3285">Unpaid Debts: Part 5 – What, You Didn’t See This Coming?“The track resumes here,” said Claudius Cressius-Tensen.  “It goes into the gorge.”They slowly and carefully climbed their way down to the bottom of the gorge.  Suddenly, Claudius shouted.  “I found it!”  He scooped something covered in mud out of the dried riverbed. “Put that down!” shouted a familiar booming voice.  “Drop the sword and step away from it!”Kham closed his eyes and slowly turned around.  “I know that voice…”“I, Quintus Aurelius Ignatius of the Legion of the Triumphant Rays of the Invisible Sun, hereby claim Precision in the name of the Emperor!”Quintus stood in the sunlight, resplendent in his lorica segmentata and scutum. A banner flapped from his longspear.  “Coryani legionnaires!” shouted Sebastian.The rest of Quintus’ contubernium joined him on the ridge: Hervius Flavinius Tranio, the legionnaire sorcerer with hair that fanned out behind like a centurion’s helmet; Oppius Camelius Rusticus, the best scout in the legions; Tertius Caprenius Augustalis, the horn blower responsible for drawing the attention of the men and issuing the audible commands of the officers; and four other milites gregarious, the foot soldiers who were vital to the contubernium.  On the other side of the ridge, something else sparkled in the sunlight, but it was not the glint of metal.  Burnished bronze, faceless beings made their way down the slopes, similar to the nightmarish creatures with the exception of the leader.  He was a dreadful thing, with one arm tapering in a wicked scimitar-like blade, the other covered in strange overlapping scales so that it function as a shield of sorts.  The k’n-yan warlord’s body was easily as elaborate as Quintus’, and its form gave the impression that it had been grown rather than sculpted.Sebastian didn’t hesitate. He pointed at the k’n-yan and clenched his fist.  “Atrum pampinea!”A forest of squirming yellow tentacles sprung up beneath the k’n-yan, grasping them and whipping them about.  Claudius looked between the two forces.  Then he turned to run.“Hey!” shouted Kham.  “Get back here!”Temporarily preoccupied, Quintus’ pointed at Claudius.  “I said HOLD!”Claudius froze in place. A fusillade from the k’n-yan peppered the legionnaires, forcing them to hide behind their shields.  Then the k’n-yan warlord was upon them.  Beldin blocked the thing’s blade-arm with Windcutter, deflecting it just in time.  Sebastian raised a hand to cast a spell, but the k’n-yan pointed at him first.  A beam of yellow energy struck him.  The dark-kin fell to his knees.Kham yanked Precision out of the scabbard in Claudius’ hands...and was immediately engulfed in flames.“Yaaah!” shrieked Kham.  The legionnaires hurled spears at the k’n-yan, who responded with sparkling yellow beams.  Both sides slowly advanced down the ridge.Kham shoved Precision back in its scabbard, still in Claudius’ frozen grip. The flames went out. “Skiz!” Kham wrenched the scabbard out of Claudius’ hands.  He took off at a sprint through the riverbed, unhindered by the muck.The rat popped out of Kham’s satchel.  “Yeah boss?”More rays and spears arced back and forth across the ridge.  Beldin backed away as Quintus charged the k’n-yan warlord.  “You know that collar I gave you?”“The one that smells like angry dog?” Kham had taken the collar from Raze’s corpse, Aglamar’s hell hound pet. “I’m wearing it right now.”Beldin picked up Sebastian.  The beams had weakened the sorcerer so much that he could barely lift his head. “That’s great, Skiz.” Kham kept running.  Some of the legionnaires had turned their attention to him, as did the k’n-yan.  Beams and spears struck in the muck to either side of him. “Give it to me.”“But—““No buts, Skiz!  Now!”The talking rat wriggled out of the collar by pushing on its with his forepaws.  Kham reached down and grabbed it.It expanded to fit a human-sized neck.  He put it in.A furrow of muck spewed up behind Kham as he accelerated far beyond normal human speeds.  He blurred in place for a moment.  Then Kham, Skiz, and Precision were long gone.</blockquote>

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