Duke’s curiosity fought with his desire to wipe out everyone involved in the destruction of his dungeons. The reality of what he was seeing did not coincide with the reality that he understood to be true, and the dissonance was striking him deeply. Once again, his XENOGLOSSIA didn’t translate the man’s words, leaving it just as he spoke, in 18th century Royal English.

  “Thou dost appear perplexed. What doth give rise to thy tribulations?”

  “Who the hell are you and why are you speaking English?”

  “I am Baron Lane Gardner, and I extend mine greetings unto thee, notwithstanding thy humble vernacular. I do articulate the King's English, for I am a true Englishman. Why, pray tell, would I converse in any other tongue?”

  Duke shook his head as he wrapped his mind around what he was hearing. He tried one more time, “OK, fine. Baron Gardner, what are you doing here?”

  “Verily, I find myself traversing the vast ocean and vanquishing all the serpents that do appear. Pray tell, what dost thou occupy thyself with in this place if not to join mine illustrious crew? Thou didst indeed come hither to enlist among us, didst thou not?”

  “What you and your crew are doing is hunting and killing sentient beings. You are all murderers and I cannot allow that to continue!”

  “What folly is this? These dreadful creatures of the deep are but mindless brutes, nothing further.”

  “You truly don’t know what you are doing and who you are doing it to? Are you just that backwards, or is this all some sort of elaborate ruse? Perhaps I should just eliminate you all like I had originally planned.”

  “Thou couldst no more inflict harm upon me within this, mine sanctuary, than an ant might inflict upon an elephant. Ponder most judiciously ere thou dost proffer threats beyond thy capability to fulfill. Perchance, thou dost require a demonstration.”

  Gardner then gestured and black chains sprung from the doorway to encircle Duke. They wrapped around him in a split second, pinning his arms as well. Duke, for his part, watched the chains impassively, not taking his gaze from the ship’s Captain.

  “Thus, thou dost perceive. The entirety of this world doth move at my sovereign command. Thou art naught before mine immense power.”

  Duke kept his gaze locked on the man as the chains vanished into smoke. “You have absolutely no idea who you are dealing with. But let me give you a taste.” He further flexed his DUNGEON ENGINEERING Ability, dispelled the ship’s deck and surrounding seas, reshaping the entirety of the ship into a series of jail cells floating in space. Each other person who had been on the ship had their individual jail cell.

  Duke glared at them all, “You have attacked dungeon after dungeon, killing them indiscriminately and using their corpses to power the empire that you serve whether you know it or not. That all ends now. I will allow it no longer.”

  Now that Duke could see space around him, he could see that the other ships had ringed him and the ship he was on, bringing their weaponry to bear but had not opened fire. Since they had come so close, he was able to reach out to each of them with his DUNGEON ENGINEERING Ability and grab hold of their dungeon substance. Each ship was of a completely different design but all were crafted from tortured and warped dungeons. He paused momentarily as his communication crystal chirped.

  They can contact me like that? Well, shit. I thought these things were more secure than that. Guess I’ll answer and see what they have to say before I tear them all apart.

  “Go ahead. I am listening.”

  “Unidentified lifeform, you are interfering with Syndicate business. You are advised to cease your activities and depart this area before hostile action must be taken.”

  “So, you don’t call shooting at me repeatedly hostile action? It felt pretty hostile to me. And who am I talking to anyway?”

  “This is Captain Pritchard of the Syndicate Ship Titan Extractor. To whom am I speaking?”

  “I am the Lorax. I speak for the dungeons.” Duke had to clench his jaw to keep from chuckling. The Lorax. That’s a good one. “Your harvesting days are over. Kindly surrender your ships and any Dungeon Cores you have kidnapped.”

  “OK, Lorax. I am giving you one final warning. Leave or die.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “I tried to be diplomatic. I really did. But you fuckheads just don’t get it, do you?”

  Duke didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he pulled all the ships together into a single prison, depositing the entire crews into cells, and then began to shrink the prison around them all. The cries of disbelief and panic came quickly, followed by the cries of pain. In seconds, it was over, and Duke called forth the actual Dungeon Cores from the ships. The Cores were dim but still held life. He placed them into his “core bag” and headed for the plant’s surface. There were more Syndicate forces to deal with.

  Arriving on the planet’s surface, he headed straight for the base camp of the Syndicate forces. It seemed they were waiting for him as he was greeted with weapons fire. Duke used his DUNGEON AURA to absorb the projectiles and beams. Oh shit, does this make me untouchable? Duke casually walked forward into the increasingly desperate fire.

  Feeling completely invulnerable was a mistake. The blade that struck him from behind was overwhelmingly enchanted to be able to cut through anything that they had ever encountered short of a dungeon wall. It sliced cleanly through Duke’s neck in a fountain of blood. His head spun through the air with a sickening rotational velocity, dizzying him before landing in complete darkness within an enchanted sack. Duke’s body collapsed lifelessly to the plant’s surface. For Duke, everything stopped, frozen in time.

  Hapthor didn’t celebrate his latest kill. Instead, he flicked the blood off his blade before wiping the last of it off on the clothes of his victim. He glanced around at the others while they celebrated the victory. He supposed they had reason to celebrate as, by all accounts, this foe was impossibly difficult to deal with, having a range of advantages so long, they still have not been properly catalogued. None of that mattered to Hapthor. The hunt was over, his stalking complete. He had the satisfaction of the kill and that was all he needed. He didn’t bother to check his notifications as his level had not increased. He still sat at level 599 and needed to find an even greater foe to make the final step towards Tier 13.

  “Stop dancing around like children and place that body in a stasis chamber. Mr. Nonetes commissioned me for this job and I’ll not have you lot mess it up at this point. When you get back to the station, go wild. Spend your bonuses on drink and cheap companionship or whatever other hedonistic pursuits you care for but not here and not now. The job is not done until the subject is delivered.”

  The group sobered up immediately, all signs of revelry ceased, none daring to oppose the intimidating figure that they had all seen vanish before their eyes and take out the target. Among the group was one who had worked with Hapthor once before and had not joined the revelry. He instead had been hailing the ships for a pickup, knowing the assassin’s desire for efficiency. He spoke up as everyone else fell silent.

  “Sir, we have a problem. None of the ships are responding to my calls. I have checked over my comms gear and everything tests as normal. Can you bring them up on yours?”

  Hapthor’s gaze pierced through the man momentarily before he spoke, “At least one of you are still on task. What’s your name, soldier? You look familiar to me.”

  “Name’s Geslek, sir. We worked together on the Oslomar job.”

  “Yes, that makes sense. That job went well, and now you display competence above your fellow soldiers. Would you like to join my staff? I can make the arrangements.”

  “I…I would be honored.”

  Hapthor grinned, malice glowing in his eyes, “I thought you might. No one has turned me down yet. I know I am a demanding sort, but my people are well rewarded. From this day forward, you have two paths open to you – death in service or immortality. Let’s be smart and see that you take the latter, eh?”

  Gasps erupted from the other soldiers at the mere mention of the possibility of immortality. The Eleventh Tier was beyond a dream for them. They were considered an elite squad, but none imagined they would reach above Tier Five, let alone the elusive pinnacle of immortality. That it was offered to one of their own was overwhelming. One by one, they straightened up and tried their own comms, hoping they would be tapped as well. None of them received a response. The ships were not answering.

  “Anyone? Any response at all?” Hapthor gazed around the group but only got head shakes in the negative. “Very well.” He strode away from the group to a clearing and began pulling items out of his storage device. He had received it as loot from a dungeon run centuries ago on his homeworld. That was before he joined up with the Syndicate and learned that dungeons were monsters in and of themselves. It took him nearly an hour to retrieve and set up the equipment. Thankfully, everyone else kept their distance and knew better than to ask stupid questions while he worked.

  Finally, the equipment had been set up and he turned it on, watching the power supply carefully to see how stable it was. “Not as stable as I had hoped. I’ll have to keep this short then.” He waited for the systems to fully energize and then sent his message through the Exospace tunnel.

  “Hapthor requesting assistance. Subject eliminated. Remains captured. Ships unresponsive and likely destroyed. Pickup requested.”

  The response he received was equally brief, “Message received. Retrieval dispatched. ETA six weeks.”

  Hapthor nodded and began to tear his set-up down and put it back in storage. When he was done, he strode over to the group and smiled at the team leader, “So, have you killed all the habitable dungeons or is there somewhere we can hang out for five or six weeks?”

  “Number sixty-two is habitable. Low-tier goblins are the main threat but nothing we can’t easily handle.”

  “Good, grab everyone up and we’ll head there. Once set up inside, we will keep a rotating guard outside to scan for incoming comms. Agreed?”

  “Sounds like a plan to me, sir.” He spoke louder so that everyone could hear him, “Break camp. We are setting up in number thirty-two. I want a camp set up with a defensible perimeter within an hour of our arrival. Losnath, you are to gather five others to set up a rotating comms scan outside the dungeon. OK, everyone, break camp and move out!”