The Butcher and the Mule

Dust and rocks kicked up as Avii’s fist struck the earth with enough force to fragment the ground. But he knew immediately by the way the gauntlet shifted around his hand that he had missed his intended target. As the airborne debris cleared from his face, it was apparent that Sebastian had shifted his head to the side at the last moment, just enough to avoid the quick death that the mule had been hoping to deliver.

Beneath him, through the settling dust, laughter flowed from the man's mouth. Sebastian’s face was not stricken with fear or contorted by malice. Instead, a joyous expression marked his cheeks as maniacal cackles echoed out. Reaching his hand up, the Butcher gripped Avii’s wrist before he could draw back for another strike. Then, with a bloodstained smile growing wider, the man’s body shifted as he prepared to punch with his offhand.

Avii could only somewhat see from the corner of his helmet’s narrow eye sockets as the man prepared to retaliate. Barely able to make out what was happening, he didn’t know what to expect until it was already too late. He had noticed that Sebastian clenched his fist in the seconds before slamming his elbow to the ground, but then the strike came. The earth beneath the man’s arm vibrated, kicking up dust in the moment before his fist surged forward, carrying with it the power and speed of a javelin.

A surge of pain shot through Avii’s body as he was thrown from Sebastian. In an instant, the roles were reversed as the Butcher seized the opportunity to mount the man. As he rose his fist high to deliver his next strike, Avii could finally see it. The metal that had covered Sebastian’s arms had not been armour at all, but bolts for a powerful weapon tied to the top of his fist. A purple light radiated from his elbow, following the length of his forearm before pooling at the tip of the rod that stuck out from between his middlemost knuckles.

“Mule.” He growled with his fist primed for the next punch. “Mule, mule, mule! You should have played my game!”

With a flex of Sebastian’s gloved hand, there was an explosive burst from behind his elbow. At this, his fist flew towards Avii’s head, the bolt set to land between his eyes. Flinching to the side, the strike narrowly missed, kicking up dirt as the glowing metal rod was forced into the earth. Avii pivoted his body enough to glance through his helmet at the bolt that had been forced a full foot into the ground from the strike.

Immediately, Avii's heart began to race as dread settled into the back of his mind. He frantically reached for his plated core, feeling the metal that Sebastian had pushed through his armour and into his side. Though it had only pierced him a few inches, the weapon had somehow penetrated his Maldainian metal, meaning that a direct strike to his helmet could be lethal.

Flinging his arm out after the failed strike, Sebastian channelled magic back into his forearm. The next bolt slid into place between his knuckles, beginning to glow purple as magic pooled around it. From beneath him, Avii watched as the man’s maniacal expression grew ever more sinister. He licked at his bloody lips with excitement while raising his fist high before swinging down once more for Avii’s head. But, with a rip of the bolt from his side, the mule swung the metal rod up at the Butcher’s arm.

As he struck with the makeshift weapon, Avii pushed the life-threatening blow just beyond his head. He listened as the metal scratched against the MULE’s helmet before being stabbed into the earth. This strike, more so than the last, threw Sebastian off guard, his form lowering enough for Avii to make his own counter.

“Stop, squirming!” Sebastian growled as he struggled to lift his body back up. “Foul mul—”

“Piss off!” Avii bellowed in reply.

Reaching a hand up, Avii grasped Sebastian by the nape of his neck before wrenching him down as hard as he could. Already off-balanced, the man struggled against the mule’s strength, helplessly tumbling forward almost immediately. A moment later Avii heard the sickening squelch. In an instant the man’s body tensed as he began to scream wildly.

Sebastian bucked against the sudden pain, breaking free of Avii’s grip long enough to sit back up and grab at his missing eye. This had been exactly what the mule was hoping and waiting for. Taking advantage of the moment, he swung with his other fist, connecting hard against the man’s torso. He watched as reinforced plates dented inward slightly, causing the Butcher to expel a sanguine cloud from his mouth as he tumbled back to the ground.

With that, Avii stood, pulling the hindrance of a helmet back into place hidden within his collar. Now able to see clearly, he reached over, touching at the hole in his suit where Sebastian had stabbed. As he raised the metal gauntlet back to his face, he eyed the blood that coated its fingers. That was when he realized the rods Sebastian wielded were different than those produced by standard Kovika ironworks. They were not merely iron nor steel, but something closer to the plates of his MULE.

Pulling one of the rods from the ground, he eyed the metal's distinct colouration. The craftsmanship was still nothing like that of a Maldainian, but it became apparent that in his time away, the Kovika nation had made strides copying his people’s craft. It was a thought that both chilled Avii to the bone and boiled his blood.

“Do you like it?” Sebastian boasted as he stood, drawing Avii’s attention back to him. “We’ve gotten better since you left.”

“How?” Avii barked as he ripped the second rod from the ground and wielded both as though they were daggers. “That art was lost!”

“Practice makes perfect! Never doubt the drive of the proud and superior Kovika nation, beast!”

At that, Sebastian raised his hand, revealing the brightly glowing tip of his kukri in the moments before a bead of light fired forward. Knowing what the weapon could do, Avii dodged to the side. But the bolt still struck his shoulder, throwing it back and leaving a nasty scorch mark in its wake.

Breathing a sigh of relief that it had not been worse, Avii rushed away. Though the weapon couldn’t break through the armour, at least not with a single shot, it still had enough power to throw him off step. That, paired with reinforced rods for close range, meant that all it would take was a single mistake for the mule to join the beast folk at the bottom of the pond.

As Avii took cover, he thought about what tools his MULE had at its disposal. While once powerful, Maldain had always been a nation of crafters, not one of militaristic ambition. The MULE, as superior as it was, had been designed for mining. And though he and his brothers, while deep underground, had learned to be resourceful, his suit was still nothing compared to the offensive capabilities of Kovika and Estarian variants.

If Avii was to survive, he needed time to think. He needed a distraction. That was when the idea struck him. The thought of teasing the Kovik hubris.

“Why did you do it?” Avii called out to Sebastian from behind his cover. “Why infiltrate Estaria?”

“Oh, more storytelling with the mule?” Sebastian replied with a sinister chuckle. “Do you really care to know?”

Listening to the man as he talked, Avii moved, doing his best to navigate the edges of the courtyard. As he ducked from cover to cover, he gave Sebastian his moment, taking advantage of a Kovik's need to monologue. That was when an explosion rocked the cover he had previously spoken from, informing him that his plan to keep moving had been the logical choice. Sebastian wanted games after all, and Avii had no issue with playing hide-and-seek with the man as the world continued to burn around them.

“Come out, come out, mule!” Sebastian cried. “If you must know, it was to find you. Old man O’Sinas would never shut up about the prize that the Estarian pigs had taken from him. A mule. The one mule that could grant Kovika the supremacy it deserved. The one that could lead our people into the heart of Mount Maldain and that treasure trove you filthy bastards hoarded.”

Avii stopped to listen as the name of the expired Butcher rang in his ears. There was no doubt that the man had seen him as a prize. As his own property and personal plaything. He had always been certain of that in the ways he would torture him. In fact, the more he thought about it, there had been plenty of times Avii had heard O’Sinas refer to him as his special pet. But after all the years they'd spent together, he had never heard about a quest to the heart of the mountain. A quest that very much echoed the words of Lieutenant Marx. Echoed the mission he had been forced to embark on.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Avii called out, preparing to move again. “You put the idea in the Lieutenant’s head, didn’t you?”

An explosion tore apart the debris that Avii had been hiding behind moments before. Luckily, he was too quick, having already moved on to another collapsed building. From there, he listened to Sebastian's enraged roar. Avii could tell that the game of cat and mouse was wearing on his twisted psyche.

“It was already there,” He howled to the courtyard. “I merely needed to twist the dagger. Hint that we needed a mule to reach the deepest levels of the mine. Tell my brothers-in-arms where the camp was ahead of time. Watch as the Forty-Fifth Cloudborne destroyed the headquarters as we left. It was all me. All my idea! Just to get a hold of you. To bring you here and now. To be able to tenderize you with my own hand before getting you to call off these metal hounds of yours! Before unlocking the power of your mountain with that armour so Kovika can finally make this world bend the knee.”

“My hounds?” Avii called out, confused by the statement as he took position behind a collapsed guard tower. “What do you mean—”

Suddenly a pair of arcanzcores dropped beside him, erupting a moment later with a concussive blast that scattered rubble and man alike. Avii tumbled to the side, rolling against the ground before finally coming to a stop. His vision swirled as he listened to the footsteps of the approaching Butcher. And even though he still had fight left in him, still wanted to live and get the answers he felt he deserved, his body had other ideas.

“Got you, mule!” Sebastian growled, taking hold of Avii’s suit and lifting him towards his primed fist.

A powerful punch cracked Avii’s head back, worsening his already swirling vision. As his face returned forward and Sebastian came once more into view, another strike knocked him back to the ground.

“Good!” The man howled excitedly. “Good! Good! Nice and tenderized. Now to finish the job and then take that armour of yours.”

“You—” Avii mumbled through a shattered face. “You can’t.”

“We can.” Sebastian hissed with a smile. “We’ve learned how to bypass that little security rune of yours since you’ve been gone. We just needed you to start it up for us. So thank you for that.”

Though dazed, Avii could still feel Sebastian dragging him. Foot by foot, he was moved closer to something. And, before long, the ground became wet. He was then thrown forward, splashing against a thick liquid that smelled of death and tasted of iron.

“Now, mule,” Sebastian ordered, pulling Avii’s face up to meet his twisted smile a final time. “I want you to drown!”

And then the world went dark as Avii’s head was submerged beneath the lake of blood.