Jadis had never conducted an interview before. She’d been on the interviewee side of things several tis in her life back on Earth, but doing the actual interviewing was a new experience. If she were honest with herself, the thought of being in a position where she’d need to assess potential candidates for hire into a company she owned had never occurred to her. The fact that it was a rcenary company and the people she had to interview were basically trained killers was even further outside the realm of her expectations. Thus, she had no idea what she was supposed to ask in such an outlandish situation.
“Is that a lamp?”
“It’s a flail.”
“It looks like a lamp.”
“Yeah, it’s, uh, made to look like a lantern. But it’s a flail.”
“Huh,” Dys ran her fingers through her hair as she leaned back. “I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use a… flail, in battle around here. How’s it been working out for you?”
“It’s effective. I don’t have much, but I’ve got a little Arcane magic and I can channel it into the flail. Adds so flare to my attacks. The fire kind, not the flashy kind. Well I guess it does flash, particularly at night… ah fuck—it adds magic damage to my attacks.”
Fortunately, Addy’s sister seed to be feeling just about as awkward as Jadis was.
Bridget looked like a smaller, less broad version of her sister. However, that didn’t an she was a small woman. She was still a few inches over six feet and was obviously well-muscled. She just wasn’t quite as tall or thick as her older sister. Still, she was a powerfully built orc lady and since she’d shown up that morning wearing her full set of armor, she cut an impressive figure.
Her equipnt consisted of a sallet helt and rounded steel armor with mitt-like gauntlets. The various pieces looked like they’d been scavenged from other sets of armor, their styles and colors not quite shing in the way a custom-made full set would, but rather than looking ramshackle the mix just made Bridget look like more of an experienced rcenary. There were also various small tal icons she’d tied to pieces of her armor with bits of rope or twine. Nothing dangled loosely, but the little copper and iron symbols she’d clearly added onto her set gave her a more tribalistic look, despite wearing armor that was closer to full plate than anything else.
The strangest part of her equipnt though was her weapon. The “flail” was a more than seven-foot-long wooden polearm with steel reinforcent. At the top was a steel ring to which was attached a swinging head. Except, rather than being a tal ball with spike or sothing similar like Jadis would have expected based on every movie she’d ever seen featuring soone using a flail, this weapon had what looked like a lantern hanging from it.
No, not just looked like, it absolutely was a lantern. Made of steel and with four open-faced sides, the device was definitely a lantern. Except, it didn’t have any glass on the open faces. Plus, the overall construction of the lantern was far thicker and heavier than anything normally seen on the typical lamps carried by people or found hanging from posts along the street. Bridget’s weaponized lantern looked sturdy enough to hit a rock without bending or breaking, not easily at least.
“That’s pretty cool,” Dys complinted. Seeing the confusion on Bridget’s face, she quickly anded, “Pretty impressive. You don’t see many lee fighters who do magic damage too, at least not without enchantnts. How’d you end up going down that path?”
“Um,” Bridget leaned her head side to side as she considered her words. “I was offered a strange class and I took it? Shit, that makes sound—it wasn’t just because it was strange, alright? But when you’re offered a couple of really basic combat classes and then the gods toss one you’ve never heard of before at your feet, you’ve got to take it, right? I an, it’s a risk, but we’re fighters, yeah? Everything is a risk.”
The look on Bridget’s face as she explained her choice was nervous and almost apologetic. After Jadis had invited the orc woman in to sit down and have a talk she’d removed her helt, which did make it a lot easier for her to read the woman’s expressions. She was a good-looking woman, with a strong jaw and thick, slanted eyebrows that gave her resting face an intense look. Her black hair was pulled back and tied in a heavy braid that had been pinned up in a few loose coils. A sharp scar ran across her right cheek and onto her nose, adding to her overall look of a warrior. Her eyes were dark, almost black, but had flecks of orange and red in them that made them stand out. Altogether, Bridget looked like the kind of woman who should be brimming with confidence and swagger, not anxiously biting her lip with a short fang.
“I completely understand,” Dys said after a mont with a wry smile tugging up a corner of her mouth. “My sisters and I have weird classes too, but we make it work for us. What’s yours? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, just curious.”
Bridget still looked nervous, but Jadis’ admission that she also had a couple of unusual classes seed to put the orc a little more at ease. With a little hesitation, she shrugged.
“It’s called Lantern Light Landsknecht.”
“…for real?”
“Yes, I’m serious,” Bridget sighed as her shoulders drooped. “I thought it sounded interesting at the ti, plus the gods clearly offered it to because of the only noteworthy thing I ever did before unlocking my primary class slot.”
“What could you have possibly done to get offered a class with that kind of na?” Dys asked with incredulous interest.
“I killed three bandits with a lantern.”
“Okay, now you’re ssing with ,” Dys accused with half a laugh. “Did you really?”
“Really!” Bridget insisted. “Back in the village I grew up in we grew fields of sun berries. Nightdaws like to eat them, so the farrs would pay the kids to patrol the fields at night with, uh, well, lanterns on poles. Kind of like this one. But, you know, more normal. Anyway, I was walking the fields one night when I stumbled across a trio of n eating the berries and stuffing their pockets. I yelled at them to bugger off but they ca at with knives. That’s, uh, where I got this.”
Bridget paused her story to tap the scar on her face.
“Sort of got into a real scrum of a fight with them. Even set one on fire when I bashed the lantern into his head. But, yeah. Sort of my call to fa, back ho.”
“That’s impressive,” Dys said, aning it. “How old were you when it happened?”
“Fifteen.”
“Fuck,” Dys shook her head slowly. “You must have had so great training to take on three n alone.”
“I had so, yeah,” Bridget smiled bashfully while rubbing the back of her head. “But mostly I got lucky. The bandits were on the run from the law, had been for weeks, so they were weak with hunger. And they were low in level to begin with. And one was a goblin, so, you know,” she shrugged. “But yeah. When I unlocked my primary class and saw that the gods had offered a class that called back to my one big mont, I just had to take it.”
As Bridget told her story to Dys, Jay relayed the information to the rest of her companions who were all gathered together in their room upstairs. Jadis wasn’t about to make the decision of who to hire into their close-knit team without consulting the rest of them, even if she was the leader of sorts. Originally, she’d wanted the whole team to be present to interview Bridget, but Aila had insisted that having eight people questioning the lone orc was too intimidating. Instead, it was just Dys talking to the woman alone while everyone basically eavesdropped via Jadis’ ability to be in two places at once.
“I bet she’s weaker than she should be,” Kerr comnted from where she was sitting on the edge of the bed.
“She doesn’t look weak to ,” Syd retorted. “Plus she’s definitely got so kind of training going on if she took out three grown n when she was a kid.”
“Fifteen is practically full grown with orcs,” Kerr shot back. “Those green-assed lunks grow fast as weeds. Besides, I’m talking about her stat distribution.”
“She’s probably right,” Aila added with a sigh. “Most lee combatants who also use magic are at least level twenty. That’s for a good reason, Jadis. If you want to be effective at lee, that ans you need to focus on physical attributes, and quite a lot of them, too. Strength, Agility, Vitality, Fortitude, Endurance; all are important for lee fighters. If you add magic into your kit, like Arcane, that ans you also need Focus and Will. That’s eight different attributes you now need to split your attribute points across, rather than just five. Which ans—”
“Which ans her stats overall are probably weaker than soone who focused just on physical or just on magic,” Syd chid in. “I get it. I’m guessing dual magic and lee fighters are usually level twenty because the secondary class focuses on magic while the primary class concentrates on physical?”
At Aila’s affirmative nod, Syd humd in consideration.
“That doesn’t an she’s necessarily weak,” she speculated. “She might have started with a good spread of stats. Or she’s gotten the right passive skills to support the build.”
“Possible,” Aila admitted. "But not likely. Big buffs to multiple attributes aren’t all that common. And if she focuses on those then she won’t have many actual combat skills or spells.”
That statent brought her up short. Aila’s analysis of Bridget’s possible build echoed strongly of Jadis’ own class choices. Concentrating primarily on stats had worked out well for Jadis, mostly because of how huge her stats were for her level, plus the few skills she had were powerful and applicable to most situations. Was the sa true for Bridget?
Probably not, Jadis had to admit. Her situation was unique and far outside the norm. It was unlikely that the orc lass would have the sa incredible boosts and benefits that Jadis had started out with. But speaking of boosts…
“Um, if she j—joins us, then c—couldn’t she increase one of her, ah, attributes with Jadis’ help?”
Thea made the point a second before Jadis brought it up. Having tossed the idea out there, the other won considered it carefully.
“I don’t see the problem,” Kerr said before anyone else. “Big Stuff has plenty to go around. Pump the lamp lady up with your special sauce every few days and she’s good to go. Side bonus for joining the company. Should probably put a clause in the contract about it.”
“I don’t know if Jadis having sex with every mber who joins the guild is necessarily tenable,” Eir said with a small frown. “Especially since it would preclude anyone joining who wasn’t interested in that kind of interaction. Besides which, I’m taken to believe that Jadis has no interest in n. Does that an we’ll be excluding all male candidates from joining the company because Jadis would not want to have ritual sex with them?”
“Yeah, no, that’s a whole different discussion,” Syd shook her head. “Right now Dys is still talking to Bridget downstairs, so one problem at a ti. Do we have a consensus on how we’ll be proceeding with her?”
There were various shrugs and nods and other shared looks among the won, but Aila was the first to speak.
“Attributes and skills and rituals aside, what do you think of her as a person?”
A good question.
Thinking about their continued interaction, Jadis had to admit that she liked the woman. Bridget had ward up as they talked and now that she was more comfortable, Jadis could tell that she was a friendly and decent sort of person. Not as unabashedly forward as her sister Addy, but still frank and well-aning. Regardless of fighting ability, she seed like she’d be a good addition to the team.
“I think she’s worth a shot,” Syd told them with a tilt of her head. “How about we take her for a run out into the hills and see how she does?”
“I agree, we should see how she does in the field before we make a final decision,” Aila said as the others voiced their own agreent.
Down below, as Bridget continued to chat about her experiences being a solo rcenary, Dys interrupted the lantern user with a grin.
“Well, I’ve heard enough,” she said. “I’m going to tell my sisters and the rest of the team that we should give you a test run. Do you have the ti to go fight so demons today?”
“Absolutely!” Bridget exclaid cheerily. “I was just faffing around lately anyway. I an, not that I didn’t have plans overall, but I was waiting to hear back from so of the other rcenary companies and so I was just, uh—bloody baskets I didn’t an it like that.”
“I get what you ant,” Dys assured the floundering orc. “Just give a minute to go let everyone know you’ll be joining us and we can get moving. We’ll need to go pick up our smith since she’s no doubt buried headfirst in her forge, but then we can head out into the Broken Hills.”
“Great! I’m ready to go! Got my weapon, my kit, my ergency supplies—smith? Like, a blacksmith? We’re bringing a smith with us?”
“Yup,” Dys grinned lopsidedly at Bridget. “Assuming you end up joining us, you two will probably spend a lot of ti together. You both have so leveling to do to catch up with the rest of us. You’ll see.”
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