“Guys I was just getting some sleep.” Ozzy groaned, throwing his head back over the chair as the last vestiges of sleep were swept away before him in a wave of divine laughter at his expense.

  “Perhaps there should be complaining penalty?” Fauga suggested as he poured out a cuppa’ for Ozzy.

  “Perhaps not, if that were the case he might not get any benefit from the blessing at all.” The rat chortled, his smokey form vibrating with laughter as Fauga nearly spit his tea out.

  “I’m gonna reject both of your blessings and go live as a hermit.” Ozzy threatened, taking a swig of the quite frankly delicious brew. It was familiar to Ozzy, containing hints of peppermint and chamomile, not a bad choice.

  “Bah, you’d go crazy sitting inside. More likely you become house husband.” Fauga slapped back, the insult catching Ozzy on the teeth.

  Looking up at the god over his tea he had half a mind to toss it at him. While he wasn’t sure about the rules regarding disrespect towards deities, he was sure this one was asking for it. Another sip of the tea changed his mind however, it was probably the best he’d had since he’d been back to see his mom.

  The god smirked down it him, probably guessing exactly what Ozzy was thinking.

  “Very funny you two very funny. We have business to conduct though, don’t we?” Remulas asked.

  “It is like rat says.” Fauga said, straightening his posture and looking down on Ozzy like he’d been the one to distract them from their purpose for yanking him out of his nap.

  Remulas looked between them, waiting for another jab or quip, when none came, he cleared his throat and started reading the contract aloud.

  “In accordance with the desires and goals of Remulas the Rat God and Fuaga Lord of Powder this agreement dictates a proposed blessing which if accepted by Ozzy Irman will cause an alliance to be formed between Remulas The Rat God and Fauga Lord of Powder up and to the point of Ozzy Irmans death or departure from Arcturin. Should the proposed blessing not be accepted the mentioned Gods may reconvene and renegotiate the terms and blessing till a satisfactory outcome is achieved at which point the blessing will be proposed to Ozzy Irman who may once again chose to accept or reject the blessing. The current blessing and conditions of blessing are as follows.” Remulas said, magically unrolling more of the scroll to continue reading.

  “Ozzy Irman will become an honorary member of the Rat’s Circle receiving all benefits yet not being required to adhere to the same strictures and rules as the current members of the circle. Ozzy Irman will receive power in form of ability enhancements. Furry Form will convert the abilities health regenerating time to prime condition to coincide with the time it would take to refill mana reserves from empty, currently three minutes and eight seconds. This effect is dependent on condition and not flat in its scope” Remulas continued reading.

  Nearly falling out of his seat at the mention of the blessing Ozzy listened with his heart racing. He didn’t know exactly how it’d work, if minor abrasions and stuff would heal instantly or if even broken bones would only take a minute to heal. It was a quite frankly stunning ability, one which was probably more valuable than all of his rat abilities combined.

  “Conditions applied to the blessing are as follows. Save for scenarios where The Rat Circle’s interests collide with Fauga Lord of Powder Ozzy Irman must leave them be and reasonably defend them from intrusion, destruction, and prying eyes. The collision of interests includes but is not limited to; degradation of the city, direct harm to its residents including Ozzy Irman, and blocking the progress of Fauga Lord of Powder and Ozzy Irman’s goals.” Finishing reading the section Remulas looked over at Ozzy, waiting for any comments.

  “Any questions?” Remulas asked him.

  Ozzy looked at Fauga, “Should I have any questions?” He asked, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the massive wall of text in front of him.

  “The council of the rat, what is it?” Fauga asked for Ozzy.

  “It is a group of choice followers who head my operations within Myreluck. Once you’re back in the city they will need to meet you to understand what kind of man you are.” Remulas said. “Anything else?”

  “Honestly I don’t think so, it’s a very generous blessing and the conditions were the original ones I wanted. What are you even getting out of this if you don’t mind me asking.” Ozzy asked, reading over some of the highlights again.

  “I get you, an alliance with The Machinist, and I get to keep all of my assets. Shoot high aim low little stranger.” The rat said, grinning a toothy smile.

  “I accept the blessing.” Ozzy said, feeling marginally creeped out by the rat’s predatory smile.

  Fauga clapped his hands together, startling Ozzy, and the world fell in on itself jerking him awake on the bench back on the swamp train. A bench away Norman jerked, his hands up to defend himself as he took on a look of affronted fright.

  “What was that?” Norman yelped.

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  Yawning and stretching his arms he spun on the bench, letting his feet touch the ground as he moved to a sitting position. “Just a very annoying dream.” Ozzy said.

  “Well it’s a good thing you woke up, we’re about to cross the Murk.” Norman said.

  True to his word they were approaching the wide stretch of flat. In front and behind them were several dozen vessels, mostly swamp wagons but there were several other types more closely resembling boats as well.

  As they grew closer to the murk the sounds of combat began to reach their ears, and Ozzy could vaguely make out the shapes of rapidly moving figures out on the roiling water. They were the tier 4 hunters Ozzy had told him about the last time they’d been about to cross.

  The figures were whirlwinds of violence and carnage, they moved in pairs maintaining a wide berth between the other pair where the swamping vessels moved rapidly through still taking on monsters though they were largely beaten back by a group of hunters who hopped from ship to ship as they made it through the murk. It was a well-oiled machine of carnage, and it was clear to see the only reason they were even able to get across was because of the tier 4 hunters who laid into the monsters like weapons of mass destruction.

  At first Ozzy couldn’t understand why people wouldn’t just hunt the murk for monsters. After all it had a huge concentration of them and they were basically just chucking themselves into the meat grinder that was the elite hunters. Then he saw them.

  A pair of tentacles lashed upwards faster than Ozzy could think, smashing into one of the elite hunters and sending him upwards with a thunderous crack. The second hunter reacted instantly, pouring lightning into the water from where the tentacle had come and flying upwards. Whatever it was under the water was far from hurt however, and it struck back shooting a geyser of boiling water at the remaining hunter and forcing them higher upwards as they used some sort of barrier spell.

  A horn blasted out from the side of the harried hunters and immediately the vessels crossing the murk stopped, backtracking or in one unlucky swamp wagons case speeding up to cross over.

  In answer to the horn the pair of elite hunters that had been fighting on the other side of the ship convoy abandoned their fights and flew to help the lightning casting hunter who was still shielding themselves from a never-ending torrent of scalding water. The reinforcements arrived at the same time as the initial hunter Ozzy’d seen struck away by the tentacles did.

  The first hunter flew downwards, striking the water like a missile as he cast a massive spell under the water, breaking the surface like a depth charge only to be thrown out again. It was an insane concept for a fight and as he watched it was more like the hunters were only succeeding in annoying it rather than hurting it. The monster’s attacks never grew slower, or less frequent, and it never gave any ground.

  Watching the fight filled Ozzy with a sense of dread for the swamp he hadn’t felt since seeing the leviathan, their elite hunters were not only incapable of defeating the massive monster, but hardly even bothering it.

  The fight continued for the better part of an hour, just winding repeat of the hunters getting their asses handed to them until finally the monster seemed to lose interest and back off. Once it was gone the elite hunters flew over to one of the nearby ships and stayed there for a second hour, leaving the whole convoy at a standstill as they regained their strength.

  Before Ozzy could watch them get back to their carnage however Lucy was back on the top deck with several other core users, each of them sizing up the defenses and looking out towards the Murk.

  “Glad to find you here Ozzy you can help us with the ranged defenses.” She said by way of greeting. “Dugan you’ll take the front with Lorelai, I’ll stick here with Dunphram. Once you’re across I want you to make your way to the third segment while this one is crossing.” She said to Dugan and Lorelai. “Ozzy and Katie you’ll be at the back shooting forward. Questions?”

  Ozzy began to raise his hand only for Lucy to wave it away. “Katie explain things to Ozzy once you get over there, I’m going to organize things over here in the meantime. Get moving!”

  The woman Ozzy assumed to be Katie smiled broadly at him as she came forward, “Nice to finally meet you Ozzy! I know it’s kind of a bad time but I just wanted to thank you so much for taking care of Norman.” She gushed, “I’ll explain the enhancement circles as we move though.

  With the murk once again crossable the vessels that had begun to pile up moved across quickly, they were left with little time to make it and to their position which was at the far end of the platform.

  Crossing the spanning gaps between the segments Katie explained rapid fire everything he needed to know about the defensive emplacement.

  Essentially, they were bigger and meaner versions of Emil’s enhancement ability, though they wouldn’t break down nearly as easily as his would. They not only enhanced the attacks fired out from them but improved mana regeneration, by a significant margin, the only catch was he had to stay in the center of the circle or he’d lose the effects and promptly feel super wasted. Channeling all of the extra power they put out was apparently a very easy way to get worn out for an hour or two.

  From the moment they’d arrived on the top deck Ozzy had begun summoning rifle rounds, pocketing one and then two as they reached the enhancement emplacements.

  Stepping into the emplacement he was practically inundated by a wave of power. His entire being quaking for the few moments it took for him to adapt and steady himself against the sides of the small, raised platform.

  The interior of the emplacement was very similar to the bowls on the machine Trinidad had used to combine his cores. Though rather than concave it was flat and had nearly four times as much glowing rune work. From the waist down he looked like a Christmas tree, the runes all casting strange patterns up at him, glowing brighter and brighter until the dimmed as Ozzy felt at one with the formation.

  His mana regeneration nearly tripled, he summoned nine extra rifle rounds in the time it took for them to get close to the Murk. Whereupon he summoned about a dozen shotgun rounds. He didn’t even bother summoning extra rounds for his revolver, at his current rate he’d be gaining mana reloading his revolver even if he was fanning the hammer.

  They were only a few vessels back now, and everyone went quiet in the anticipation of violence as they finally started to get better looks at the monsters that were coming out of the water and attacking the ships en-masse.

  Fish men with legs sprouting from wide silver bodies that sported massive piranha like heads. Bundles of barbed tentacles that shot dissolving ink out at defender’s eyes. Caiman-like creatures that had bodies closer to the size and shape of a Great Dane that leapt out of the water. Massive crabs with multiple claws and even the occasional huge sting crab. Root suckers that smashed into the sides of the swamp wagons only to be swarmed by the assisting hunters and brought down.

  Each boat that passed through was a maelstrom of combat and blood. Though thankfully the elite hunters kept anything truly monstrous from getting through.