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The Artificer woke up. She was close to the end of her journey, she had to be. The scavengers were getting more and more frequent, and this building was big enough that it had to be the one.
… She wasn’t exactly sure what ‘the one’ meant, but it was important.
When Artificer reached a tall, slick wall, she chose to go up rather than down. It took a few tries, and she was panting for breath as her fur sparked, but she recovered quickly. She exited the pipe, and was in the open. She peeked over the wall.
Holy shit, that’s a lot of scavengers.
There were more than she’d ever seen in one room before. The most she’d seen was about a dozen at a toll. Here? There were at least 60, maybe more. They seemed to be guarding a large dome like building, so of course if they didn’t want anyone in there, she wanted to get in there.
She ducked back down, thinking. She wasn’t sure how to approach. She could take a lot of scavengers at once, but this was absurd. Normally she’d throw a bomb from a distance then run in with a spear, killing them all on her way, but here her best bet was to just run. She dropped her spear, coated a few nearby pieces of rubble with an explosive substance, and clutched them, taking a deep breath.
She jumped over the short wall, and swung her tail behind her, letting the explosion propel her through the air. At the peak of her jump, she threw the first grenade straight down, into the center of the first group. Most of them survived, unfortunately, but they were struggling to stand. Good enough.
She landed in a roll, and a spear grazed her cheek. She leaped gracefully, before propelling herself through the air once again with another explosion. This time she landed a little less gracefully, and unfortunately in the middle of the third group of scagengers. She grabbed a spear out of one’s hand as it prepared to throw, and stabbed it into its chest. She let out a concussive blast, disorienting the scavengers around her, and ran forward, slightly dizzy from overexertion.
She threw her second bomb behind her, and turned around before she could see what it hit. She exited through the pipe, and took a moment to catch her breath.
“Expertly done, if I do say so myself.” Artificer said, talking to herself. She’d picked up that habit a while ago, and she’s not entirely sure why. When she was ready, she picked her spear back up, and headed into the large dome.
It looked shockingly clean, like whoever was in here was expecting her. There were six spears evenly laid out in a circle of the small hallway. She saw a large chair in the middle of the room, a citizen ID drone much like her own floating around it, and in the center stood a darkly colored scavenger, wearing an extravagant mask with several pearls hanging from it. It paced around the chair, until it spotted her, at which point it jumped down. It had a single spear on its back, atypical as she usually saw scavengers with three or four. It also had three red centipede platings on its chest, likely as protection.
“I don’t blame you.”
Artificer looked startled, as the scavenger spoke in the slugcat language. She was about to throw her spear, but she lowered her arm once spoken to. “... What?”
“I know what happened. I don’t blame you for being upset, or even for being vengeful.” It- no, she , had a strange accent. Her throat was clearly not used to speaking in slugcat, and the words were a little hard to understand. “You are right to have rage, but it is misplaced.”
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put a spear in your heart right now.” Artificer was getting impatient. She didn’t want to be lectured by a scavenger . She wanted vengeance.
“Because I did nothing to wrong you. You lost your pups to my kind, yes, but not to me. Not to any of the scavengers in my city. You are blinded by rage, and are hurting the wrong people. Most of my subjects who you’ve killed would have agreed with you. But you have hurt every one of us that you come across, ones who have never met you. We banished those at the toll who hurt you and your pups.”
“Stop lecturing me. I don’t actually give a shit about what you think, funnily enough. You’re just giving one last shot to try and stop me from killing you. Your kind betrayed my trust, and I will not let you do it again. As soon as I drop my spear you’d kill me.” The Artificer gripped her spear tighter, and approached the Chieftain.
The Chieftain shook her head. “If I wanted you dead here, you would be dead. If you turn around now and do not hurt anyone else, I will escort you out of our city and send an order for no other of us to engage with you.” She grabbed the spear from her back and dropped it in front of Artificer.
“And why don’t you want me dead? You said it yourself. I slaughtered your subjects in mass. You and everyone would be much safer if I was dead, right?” She picked up the spear on the ground and held it out to the Chieftain. “So just fight me already!”
The Chieftain looked down at the spear, and grabbed it. “Very well. I hope this brings you the satisfaction you wish for.” Her voice was sad, almost pitiful, and it was pissing Artificer off.
“Don’t fucking pity me!” Artificer shouted, throwing the spear towards the scavenger’s heart. It bounced off of one of the centipede shells, and knocked the larger scavenger back. She recovered quickly, and threw her own spear with terrifying speed. Artificer barely rolled out of the way.
The maroon slugcat picked up one of the spears from the ground and lifted it to her mouth. She spun it around before throwing it at the scavenger again. It instantly exploded on contact, blowing both of them back. One shell remained.
The Artificer recovered first, and propelled herself to the Chieftain. She grabbed her, and violently tore off the last shell before throwing the Chieftain against one of the walls. The Chieftain landed upright, and grabbed a spear as the Artificer ran to the closest spear.
The Chieftain threw first, and Artificer barely managed to parry it with her own spear. Both landed near her, so she picked one up and in the same motion threw it.
A loud Crack! Echoed through the chamber as it hit one of the horns of the mask, breaking it off. The mask was knocked off of her face, revealing it. The mask hit the ground, and the pearls on it clattered against the floor. Echoing through the hallway. The combatants stood frozen for a second, staring at each other.
Artificer ran up and grabbed the Chieftain by the neck, holding her against the wall with one paw. She glared into her eyes, and the Chieftain spoke.
“Well fought, red one.” She looked resigned to her fate, and did not struggle.
“My name,” Artificer growled, and grabbed a spear from the ground, before giving it a spin subconsciously. “Is Artificer.”
“It is nice to meet you, Artificer.”
“Somehow, I doubt that.”
Artificer reached up her spear to throw it, but hesitated. After several moments, she drove it forward with full force and let go of the scavenger.
The Chieftain opened her eyes and stood up. The spear was planted in the wall, right above her shoulder. She watched Artificer for a moment before talking. “... Why do you spare me?”
Artificer groaned and put her face into her paws, wondering the same question. “Fuck you.” She had no idea, really.
Several moments passed, before Artificer picked up a spear and pointed it at Chieftain again. “Take your colony and leave this city.”
The Chieftain looked puzzled at this, and tilted her head. “You bested me, so I shall honor your request. But why?”
Artificer held her glare. “The structure is a person. I won’t pretend to understand it, but this metal box and all its parts are part of him. He can feel it when you rip the metal off to be repurposed.”
The Chieftain looked a little surprised at this, but nodded. And picked up her mask. She looked back to Artificer. “Thank you for sparing me. I hope we meet again on better terms. Farewell, Artificer.”
Artificer scowled. “Once again, fuck you.”
The Chieftain turned and left, and the Artificer sat, wondering why she let her live.
She thought about what the chieftain said. Before the incident, the scavengers and Artificer were on good terms. Actually friendly. Thinking back now, that seemed absurd. But, the Chieftain gave her a chance. The Chieftain was understanding.
Maybe other scavengers would be too.
She didn’t like that thought. She killed so many of them.
The Chieftain actually talking to Artificer made it harder to push the thoughts away. She never really thought of the scavengers as people after she started her revenge. Just threats. Just targets. She felt guilty for that.
She didn’t like guilt. She wanted to stab something. That usually made her feel better.
She tightened the grip on her spear, and exited the dome. She supposed her revenge was over, now that she thought about what the Chieftain said. She was right. Artificer hated that she was right.
Fighting has become so ingrained into her, so she didn’t know what she should do with her life now.