Apocalypse: Fairy System by Macronomicon (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

a chance to search the reaper for hidden weapons and teach him some respect! This reaper is guilty of the murder of children, for Vresh’na’s sake!”

“Is anybody else wondering why he doesn’t just answer the question!?” Ron asked in the middle of the slowly heating mob, his voice pitched just nasal enough to carry through the entire room, somehow finding a chink in the judge’s armor of boisterous bellowing.

“What question?” someone asked aloud.

“Did someone ask the judge a question?”

“Why’s he yelling, anyway?”

“What’s that copper thing mean?”

God fucking damnit. Of course people were oblivious. Getting everyone on the same page was like herding cats.

Jeb stood and filled his lungs.

“MIRZOS ELKOR, HAVE YOU AIDED OR ABETTED IN THE TRAFFICKING OR REAPING OF HUMAN CHILDREN!?” Jeb bellowed, with every ounce of training and clarity he could muster. One thing the army teaches you is how to scream in such a way that people can still understand you.

It rarely came in handy, but this was one such occasion, forcing the judge to lean away and shutting him up, albeit temporarily.

“The judge did?”

“Wait, so is this a sting?”

“Chris Hanson, eat your heart out.”

“Why don’t you take a seat, haha!”

The judge scanned the crowd, turning a light shade of blue, eyes wide as the scattered voices began to unify against him.

Jeb took a deep breath and cut through the chatter.

“Don’t you think someone who kills children for personal profit would have to rank among the most cowardly, spineless, pathetic excuses for a thinking creature? Worth less than the gum on my shoe? You wouldn’t want to look like that kind of reaper in front of all these people, so just answer this one simple question for all these curious onlookers:”

Jeb motioned to the crowd.

“Did ya help kill kids? Or did ya not?”

“This slander can’t be allowed to stand!” the keegan judge said, slamming his sticks down on his dais, stalking around the stone shelf to glare directly down at Jeb, only feet apart. Less than the distance it would take for the keegan to reach out and throttle him.

“I challenge Jebediah Trapper to an Honor Duel!”

“Wait, what?” Jeb frowned.

Chapter 20: Location, Location, Location

“Are you… Are you serious?”

“Unless you wish to retract your scurrilous statement! You have insulted me, and the only way out for you now is to retract your words or face your death in combat!”

“First of all,” Jeb said, holding up a finger. “It was a scurrilous question, which you refused to answer because you’re obviously guilty, and second, duels are stupid!”

A collective gasp rippled through the stands.

“I mean, what kind of idiot thought it was a good idea to determine the truth through a fight? The person who is more correct and the person who is stronger are rarely the same person.”

Accept a duel with a guy who had dozens upon dozens of stats over Jeb? Nuh-uh, not a good idea.

“Then retract your accusation, right here and now!”

“Nuh uh.” Jeb shook his head. “That’s a false dichotomy. This isn’t some grade-school bullshit; this is organized murder we’re talking about, and I refuse to entertain either of your blatant attempts to dodge culpability. I’m not dueling you, I am hunting you. I will not retract my words, either. Every one of them is true.”

The judge’s eyes squinted in glee. “Are you a Citizen, human?”

Jeb felt a hand grab him roughly by the shoulder.

“Goddamnit.”

In the stands, several spectators slipped through the noisy crowd watching the two men in the center of the room, aiming for the exits. Some of them, Jeb was sure, were simply going to gossip to their friends about the excitement at the courthouse…

But at least one would lead them to the rest of their quarry.

******

Nancy and the others were killing peruha, which were inhuman tentacle-things in barrels filled with salt water. They didn’t look like people as much as rabzi did, so that made things easier, but they were a bit more dangerous to fight.

One girl had nearly been yanked into the barrel when one of the monsters grabbed her spear with its suckers and tugged.

The kids standing next to her had nearly been paralyzed by the sight of the gnashing beak aiming for Lindsey’s head.

They had managed to pull her out and kill the creature, but not before Lindsey got a fair number of bumps and scratches, especially bruised and cut skin from where the toothy suckers had latched onto her.

Nancy glanced down at her own wound. The scar test on her hand had long since faded to nothing, which had prompted the children to make a new one, right overtop where the original brand had been.

They did this by using the flame of the lamp in their room to heat some purloined silverware before burning the backs of their hands, keeping their marks looking fresh.

It wasn’t gonna work forever, but it didn’t need to; they were escaping tonight.

They’d been pushing themselves extra hard, splitting their levels between Nerve and Body, getting faster and smarter. Even the smallest of them, little Marcy Evans, was already able to cling to the ceiling with just her fingers, and she had made huge strides in her ability to understand what was going on around them since she’d raised her Nerve by five points.

Nancy had even gotten her new Class the other day, lying to Mr. Surpey and claiming she chose Spearman.

Instead, she chose one that gave her Nerve and Myst. Nancy figured that doing the opposite of what Mr. Surpey wanted was a good way to start working against him.

As soon as she chose the Mascot Class, she’d suffered from a massive headache and an inexplicable need to hug fluffy things, but once those faded, the world laid itself bare in front of