“ANOTHER,” HUFFED OUT THE CORRODED AND SLURRING VOICE of thirty-three-cycles old Magnus as he sat up at the bar within Gavryn’s Tavern, which was located on the small mining planet of Boruna-FK1, in the VT-707 galactic sector.
Jostling his empty shot glass with dirt and grime-covered right hand, the bushy bearded and long, stringy haired Crixan looked broodingly forward with his dead eyes as a female Borunan Bartender beckoned to his call.
“Another, eh? That’ll make it what now, Stranger??? Six tonic shots?” asked the Borunan Bartender who had almond-colored skin with golden freckles on her cheeks, amber eyes, and frizzy, reddish-brown hair that she had tied back in a ponytail.
“SEVEN,” Magnus huffed as he tapped his empty shot glass back down on the bar’s impenametal top once more. “Another… Now.”
“Ugh… Come now, Stranger. Every night-cycle… EVERY SINGLE NIGHT-CYCLE you come in here once the day-cycle shift in the Mines ends where you drink yourself until you either crawl, are dragged, or are THROWN THE THRACK OUT of this truly fine establishment. Ugh… And alas… Every night-cycle I, or one of the other girls, willingly keep on serving you your drink of choice… But no mo--”
“CHASMA,” Magnus uttered suddenly, causing the Borunan Bartender to stop mid-sentence after hearing the mysterious and nameless stranger call her by her first name. “Give me another thracking drink… NOW.”
The former Breaker of Worlds then dug his right hand within the dark, ratty-looking cloak that he was wearing to pull out what Chasma thought was a Pulsar Pistol… Until he rummaged out…
“TEN CURRENS,” Magnus gruffly spouted as he kept his blood shot eyes locked upon the surprised twenty-three-cycles old bartender. “I will give you ten currens to get me another drink.”
“Ten currens???” Chasma repeated in confusion as she eyed Magnus’s Currens Pouch. “But… But shots of Tonic only cost FIVE.”
“THEN YOU BETTER MAKE IT A THRACKING DOUBLE.”
“Ugh… FINE. Very well, Stranger. Just don’t say that I didn’t try to help you.”
“You are helping me… By getting me another…”
“DRINK. Ugh… Yes, yes. I KNOW. I’ll get you your thracking drink. One double tonic… And a forceful removal from the tavern, coming right up.”
Magnus nodded to Chasma as she proceeded to turn away from him to pour him his double shot in a drinking goblet from a big, pyramid-shaped impenaglass bottle that contained the tavern’s Borunan Tonic.
As the most dangerous life-form in the whole ‘Verse waited drearily for his double shot to be poured and served to him, the main doors to Gavryn’s Tavern suddenly slid open.
“LET’S GET THRACKED UP!!! YEAH-YEAH!!!!!” cried out twenty-eight-cycles old, almond-skinned Borunan Miner Dallbret Shaccur after he and his fellow co-workers had fumbled inside of the tavern after working a long, SEVENTEEN HOUR-CYCLE shift down in the dreaded and HIGHLY DANGEROUS Psyranium Mines.
Following Dallbret from behind was the older, more seasoned and brutish miner Axekolle Brummblok, who was forty-one-cycles old and had been working down in the mines for the past TWENTY-CYCLES.
And then lastly, nervously joining both Axekolle and Dallbret in their pursuit of copious amounts of alcoholic beverages for the evening-cycle was a new miner rookie by the name of Tatm Ashir.
With scaled, alabaster-skin, a head full of red thorns, and mustard-yellow-eyes that glowed in the darkness, the young twenty-one-cycle old rook, who hailed from the far away world of Ruuatune, looked around the derelict-filled insides of the tavern irritably as Axekolle smirked at him from the side.
“DALLBRET,” Axekolle called out to his fellow miner and close friend in a voice that was heavy sounding and gravel-like. “Take the new blood up to the bar and get’em a tripleshot of tonic.”
“Tripleshot? Thrack, Axe! You tryin’ to zero the poor Ruua???” Dallbret madly laughed as Tatm nervously smiled at his two elders.
“If the Rook wants to hang with us then he can start drinkin’ like us too.”
“Alright. Heh, heh… Sounds grand to me, Axe,” Dallbret said before turning in the direction towards Tatm. “C’mon, new blood! Let’s get you nice and thracked up, eh?! HA-HA-HA!!!”
Wrapping his right arm around the still very nervous and out of place looking Tatm, Dallbret ‘escorted’ the rookie miner up towards the bar with Axekolle trailing behind them like a big, dark shadow.
Upon reaching the bar, Dallbret looked to Chasma and barked, “HEY! HOW’S MY FAVORITE GIRL IN THIS WHOLE THRACKIN’ SECTOR DOIN’ ON THIS FINE AND GRAND EVENING-CYCLE???”
Rolling her eyes as she poured Magnus a double shot of tonic, Chasma looked to the rather obnoxious Dallbret and sighed, “Ugh… What’ll it be, Dall?”
“Aw, c’mon, Chassy-Baby! No need to be so sour! I was only askin’ ya a PURE and HONEST question.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Sure, Dallbret… And I’m Queen of the ‘Verse. So… What’ll it be?”
“A shot of the grandest tonic you got in this raxx-hole for the rook here… AND MAKE IT A TRIPLE.”
“A TRIPLESHOT???” Chasma repeated with her eyes widened and brow raised as she set her glance on the wide-eyed Tatm. “You sure you can handle that?”
“Sure he can! Can’t ya, New Blood???” Dallbret smirked at Tatm ,who gave him and Chasma a shaky head nod and a forceful smile.
Whilst Chasma thought otherwise, Axekolle stepped forth to the bar to say, “He will if he wants to keep running’ with our crew.”
Tatm now nervously glanced at Axekolle, who stared down at him intensely.
“Guh-give me a triple tonic shot,” Tatm stammered at Chasma as a cold sweat bled out of his scaly skin. “NOW, WRETCH!!!”
Eyes widened, Chasma gasped in shock of what the easily influenced Ruaa has just called her. .
Wanting to throw a drink in his face and slap the raxx of him, but knowing fully that this would be bad for business (and put her own life-cycle in grand danger), Chasma swallowed her pride and said through gritted teeth, “Aye. One Tripleshot of Borunan Tonic, coming right up.”
As Chasma turned her back on the trio of miners to make up the drink, Magnus downed his double in record time.
Upon placing his drinking glass back down on the bar’s impenametal top, Dallbret noticed the former Breaker of Worlds right away.
“Well, well, well… Look who’s joinin’ us, boys.” Dallbret sneered as he zeroed in on Magnus. “ITS RAXX-BRAIN! HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!”
Whilst Dallbret cackled ravenously, Axekolle glared at Magnus as Tatm looked at him in a mixture of curiosity and cautiousness.
“How’s it goin’, Raxx-Brain?!” Dallbret continued. “The boys and I missed you down in the mines today-cycle. A shame, it be. A grand shame!”
Eyeing Magnus’s Currens Pouch, which still rested on the bar’s top alongside his right hand and empty drinking glass, Dallbret sneered, “Hey, Raxx-Brain… Let’s say you pay for our first, oh, I dunno… three? FOUR ROUNDS???”
As Dallbret went to snatch up Magnus’s pouch with his left hand, the World-Breaker grasped onto his wrist with his right hand in the blink of an eye.
“HUH??? URGH… UNHAND ME, YOU RAXX-WATING SKOGG— OOMPH!” Dallbret scoffed after Magnus had shoved him backwards into Tatm (which he secretly caused with small use of his well-hidden telekinetic abilities).
After Dallbret and Tatm had both fallen down to the floor, Axekolle set his burning hot sights on Magnus, who still kept his haggard self facing forwards.
Tightening his palms into balled up fists, Axekolle stepped strongly towards Magnus in the FULL MEANS of cracking his head open until…
“STOP!!!” Chasma cried out, halting Axekolle from wrecking Magnus temporarily. “Stop! You lot know the rules! NO FIGHTING IN THE TAVERN!!! If you wanna throw blows, then throw’em the thrack outside! UNDERSTOOD?!”
“Yeah,” Axekolle huffed as he set his buttered sights back down on the emotionless Magnus. “UNDERSTOOD.”
_
POW!
POW!!
POW!!!
“URGH-GAH!!! YOU THINK YOU CAN LAY HANDS ON ME?! DO YOU?!?! RAAAH!!!” Dallbret mindlessly raged as he continued his brutal assault of punching Magnus several times in his face with his hardened, miner’s fists.
Knocking the haggard, low-life-cycle living former intergalactic peace-keeper down in a puddle of dirty rain water, Dallbret stood over the Breaker of Worlds ready to put the leather to him until…
“STOP, DALL!!! THAT’LL BE ENOUGH,” Axekolle ordered firmly as he kept his big, muscly arms crossed over his bulging chest whilst a very uneasy looking Tatm stood at his right.
“C’MON, AXE!” Dallbret revolted as he took a brief moment away from his beating of Magnus into a bloody pulp. “I’m only gettin’ started with this raxx-eating SKOGGER!”
“I SAID THAT’LL BE ENOUGH, DALLBRET!!!”
Heeding Axekolle’s intense order, Dallbret bitterly stepped away from the battered and bruised Magnus.
Turning to Tatm now, Axekolle smirked, “Hey, Rook… How ‘bout you give the Raxx-Brain a few licks?”
“HUH? Muh-Me???” Tatm nervously stammered as Axekolle lowered his dark brow at him.
“YES YOU, New Blood! You wanna keep runnin’ with us… RIGHT???”
“Yuh-Yeah… Yes,” Tatm stammered quickly as he set his sights on Magnus, who was still down on his hands and knees in the rain puddle, spitting up some of his golden, ichor-like blood. “I’ll do it.”
“THEN STEP THE THRACK UP, KID,” Axekolle sneered as he turned to look down at the lowly Breaker of Worlds once more. “Give this WASTE OF A THRACKIN’ LIFE-CYCLE a taste of your scaled fists! DALLBRET, BRING THIS THRACKER BACK UP TO HIS FEET!!!”
Heeding the word of Axekolle, Dallbret nodded as he looked down at Magnus once more and growled, “GET UP, RAXX-BRAIN! GET THE THRACK UP!!!”
Grabbing Magnus by a clump of his unwashed hair, Dallbret pulled him back up to his feet rather roughly.
With golden streams of blood running out of the nostrils of his busted nose and numerous cuts in his cheeks and forehead, Magnus slouched lifelessly in Dallbret’s grasp as Axekolle shoved Tatm before him.
“Go on, New Blood… GO ON!!!” Dallbret raged as Tatm looked over Magnus’s brutalized looking face in disgust and horror. “Show this thracker what happens when you mess with us!”
“Whatcha waitin’ for, Rook,” Axekolle pressed towards Tatm as he stood frozen before the captured World-Breaker. “THRACKING STRIKE HIM BEFORE I STRIKE YOU!!!”
Not wanting to hit Magnus, but fearing the wrath of both Axekolle and Dallbret grandly, Tatm regretfully balled up his right fist, hauled it back past his right shoulder, and flung it forth a half-milli-cycle later.
WHAM!!!
Cracking Magnus right between the eyes, Tatm watched in shock as a nasty gash had instantly split open in his skin due to the sharp scales on his knuckles.
“THRACK, NEW BLOOD! A grand thracking hit that was!” Dallbret cackled as he held the now ‘scatter-brained’ Magnus in his grasp still. “Go on! Hit him again! HIT HIM AGAIN!!!”
Not wanting to punch Magnus due to him hardly being able to stand, but not wanting to enrage Axekolle or Dallbret, Tatm balled up BOTH of his fists, gritted his fanged teeth, and unleashed ALL of his pent up anger and aggression upon the World-Breaker… Rendering him unconscious in milli-cycles.
