Rival Pt. 3

Breakfast time came around and I was exhausted. My eyes didn’t get to close for the majority of the night. Around the table sat Rocco, Clarine, Masir, Fence, and of course, my father.

For breakfast, we had crab legs and mashed potatoes. Crab legs were a luxury in Milona. Only the richest in the city could afford them at any restaurant or grocery store. Hell, it might be the same way here. We’re in a castle after all. But if I lived in the ocean, I’d hope for a price cut of some sort…

“Did you all sleep well?” My father asked everyone.

They all nodded politely.

“Yeah, Dad, the beds here were kind of-”

“I asked them, not you. You might be older, but the face you have after pulling an all-nighter never changes, Bane.”

My father was always perceptive to things like this. What an annoying skill for a parent to have.

Lars wasn’t with us and although there was no explanation, I didn’t have trouble understanding why.

The silence at the table may have just been because none of us are completely friendly with each other. We’re all being treated by the mayor in his castle but it’s like he summoned heroes from polar opposite backgrounds. Clarine was the head honcho Scavenger Lord here. Rocco was a Scavenger Lord from another land who happened to cheat on the previously mentioned one… Masir and Fence are kind of just there. Their existence doesn’t seem that important, no offense to them or their parents. As for me and my father, we’re like the wild cards in a table that’s already chock-full of wildcards. Say what you want about what we’ve been through but when you break it down, none of us are really comfortable with each other.

“I spoke with Lars last night.”

The silence that already consumed the table somehow grew even louder as everyone began to stare.

It took my father a few seconds to speak. “W-what?”

Ah, shit, maybe this was bad timing. “Last night, I couldn’t sleep so I snuck out of my room and actually, you know what, we don’t have to talk about this. It was nothing important. I was just trying to make conversation…”

Way to go, dumbass.

Clarine spoke up. “As long as nothing happened, everything should be fine. Let’s not create any more problems…”

If that wasn’t her way of telling me to shut the hell up and keep my head down, I don’t know what is. Rocco seemed not to know anything about Lars so he didn’t really understand what was happening. My father on the other hand seemed worried but did his best to hide it from everyone else. Chances are it worked. My father had an extremely solid poker face but just as he could read my face, I could easily read his.

After breakfast, I picked up my plate before my father took it from my hand and put it back down on the table. Apparently, people who eat here don’t do their own dishes. That just sounds lazy… I was going to head back to my room but my father grabbed my arm.

“Let’s go to my room, Bane.”

Oh God, I could already tell this conversation wasn’t going to be a pleasant one.

…

“What happened with you and Lars last night? I told you not to be around him, let alone talk to him!” My father sighed.

I shrugged my arms in protest. “He was laying his hands on one of the maids who clearly didn’t want to be with him. I overheard from the castle halls and I intervened.”

My father facepalmed. “And nothing bad happened to you?”

“No, I told you, I was stopping him from hurting someone. He was drunk and didn’t seem sensible. I punched him a couple of times until he was knocked out. I laid him on his bed and waited for him to wake up-”

“Why? Wh-why didn’t you just leave? I don’t understand. You should have left.”

“Jeez, Dad, calm down. I wasn’t gonna have him wake up just to grab another maid and do it all over again… But when he woke up, I made a mistake. I told him that I was going to turn him in…”

My father stood up and started groaning. “No… Why would you tell him that?”

“I was going to turn him in anyways and he would have known it was me. I change my mind, that wasn’t a mistake. In fact, what we ended up agreeing on was probably the best-case scenario.”

“Agreement? What the hell are you talking about, Bane?”

I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly knowing how my father would react to this next bit. “He threatened to expose my secret if I ratted on him but there was no way I could let him get away with such a horrible crime. So I might have, maybe, sort of, kinda agreed to join him on his scavenging mission tomorrow to kill a couple of dwellers and may have also lightly implied that we would fight to the death…”

“Bane, what the hell?! You can’t just do that!”

I shrugged casually this time. “Why not? I’m surface-resistant and I light on fire. What can he possibly have over me in that situation?”

My father remained silent for some time. “... And he made no mention of your abilities?”

“Well, he did, but still, what can he possibly do?”

My father was clearly disappointed in me. “I-I don’t know what the hell he can do against a man on fire but if anyone can do anything against you, it would be him!”

“Why are you giving him so much credit? How the hell do you two even know each other to begin with? Why did he know who I was when I first met him?”

My father sat back down and leaned over as he put his hand on my shoulder. “My entire life has been dedicated to saving humanity, even back in the old world with my old job. You could say that it’s because of my humanitarian experience in the old world that I’ve become as well respected and recognized to this very day. Then you look at a person like Lars who was in prison by the time the conversion happened. Absolutely no real accomplishments to his name. So when I tell you that he is the only human being that could possibly rival my status as the best Scavenger Lord, you need to understand that he is not a force to be reckoned with. He chose to deny the status of Scavenger Lord to continue working small jobs. Nobody knows why he operates the way he does but he is better than almost everyone at everything. He is not someone you want as your enemy even if you have a body of flame. Shit, I still have to think about what to do as well. Why is everything happening like this, now?!”

I always knew Lars wasn’t to be underestimated but this is absurd. Rival my father as the greatest Scavenger Lord? That can’t be possible. Would I really end up losing to him on the surface even with my abilities? No, that will not happen. I will not allow it to…

“We’ll join you…” My father whispered.

“What?”

“Clarine, Rocco, and her crew, we’ll join you on your scavenging mission with him tomorrow,” he said strictly.

“Wouldn’t that be too many people-”

My father shook his head. “Lars does all his scavenging missions on his own. If you went, it would have just been the two of you. That’s how strong he is…”

There’s no way that’s true. I’ve never heard of a scavenger that does missions on their own. Even a Scavenger Lord always brings at least a couple extra men like Clarine.

Lars… who are you? How did you become so strong? Why do you do the horrible things you do? Why did you tell me the truth about our world? I know now that Lars is not only a formidable opponent, but he may also be someone who can overpower me with ease. If I want to stand a chance at surviving our encounter, I need to understand his mind…

“We’ll brief the others later today. I’ll make sure they’re prepared and understand the situation. Bane, you lay low and get rest if you can. Tomorrow’s mission won’t be easy. Not in the slightest…”

“What? Dad, what are you saying?”

He scoffed, “Bane, do you think surviving will be enough? If we want to save you and the world… Tomorrow, Lars must die.”