People sometimes joke that it’s a small galaxy, as though chance alone explains unexpected encounters. In truth, chance is tightly fenced. Finances, attitudes, health, and habit constrain where people go – and those constraints overlap. The pool of individuals one can truly encounter is far smaller than the galaxy itself would suggest.

  – Kyro Boughton, Statistician

  Naven took several gulping breaths, his lungs and sides burning. Another high-G jolt had left his vision swimming, and he could only imagine how the rest of the crew – most of whom were not trained in space combat maneuvers – must be taking these frequent crushing pressures.

  He couldn’t blame Apex for doing the maneuvers, either. Twice already the entire ship had shuddered. Once, from a mana blast actually grazing the dragon’s side, and again from a missile that had been shot down just a hair too close for comfort. The wild jinking movement, combined with the intermittent heat shrouding and the weird mana cloak to baffle MADAR, were the only reasons they were still in one piece at all.

  “We are not widening the gap.”

  Apex spoke up bluntly. For all that the dragon had his pride, Naven appreciated that he didn’t mince words when the chips were down. It was refreshing to hear such a plain diagnosis without a hint of panic in it. Why should the ship panic? He’d already died once.

  Naven took a breath. At some point, he’d just given up and gone to believing this was the real deal. This was, in fact, Apexillos, the famous Emperor Dragon. The things he’d seen in just the last few days had been enough to shrug off the doubts he’d had. He was already being chased by a one hundred year old pirate while sitting next to the leader of the infamous Cult of Renewal. This was just one more thing to add to the stack of absurdities.

  “I can see that.” Sallus grunted, as she too dealt with the rapid shifts in forces on her body. The compensators kept them from getting smeared to paste, but that didn’t make it comfortable when their limits were strained. Even the normally unflappable elf was showing the stress.

  Naven grunted,“Yeah.” He could see the monitor, too. Apex was actually a little faster than the Rattling Saber despite Sallus’s fears, but the huge ship chasing them didn’t have to maneuver. Their options were to keep running toward the nearby pair of dwarf planets, or turn around and try a suicide run against a much, much larger foe. One would kill them slowly, the other quickly.

  Sallus sighed and reached forward as the acceleration eased for a moment. “I didn’t want to do this… but I might be able to slow him down and give us a fighting chance. Just give me a few moments. How’s your heat buildup, Apex?” Her fingers flew over the console, faster than Naven could follow in his half-dizzy state.

  “I have been periodically venting heat to provide false targets and heat shadows,” the dragon replied. “It is likely helping to keep them from compensating.”

  It wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, for Naven, it was a fairly elementary tactic. Some of the more advanced Navy ships had ‘heat blooms’ to do that very thing. They couldn’t hide their signature like Apex, but it was possible to expand it briefly. That tended to confuse targeting.

  The surprise wasn’t that it had been thought up… the surprise was that the dragon from an age before space travel had so rapidly assessed the weaknesses of modern weaponry. It made Naven somewhat nervous to think about. His loyalties were still to the Coalition, despite his exposure to the less pleasant side of it.

  How dangerous would Apex be when he was fully upgraded?

  Naven’s thoughts were interrupted as the viewscreen blipped away, and the numerous stats shoved aside to the smaller monitors. Instead, the main screen displayed a grainy image of the bridge of the Rattling Saber in all its glory. The fact that they were still so close that video transmissions weren’t particularly lagging was worrying, but all that fled from Naven’s mind at the sight before him.

  It was, in fact, an elf-orc hybrid. Naven had never seen one in person, but he’d seen images of them in the past, and they were distinctive. The greenish tinge to the skin, the upward snout, the large tusks… all of it was orcish. Orcs had the same pointed ears as the elven half, so that wasn’t a tell… just the build.

  Gristlemaw, as he assumed it must be, was gangly and stretched. Like an orc half-melted and tugged at both ends, it left him with a lanky, almost delicate appearance, even though Naven estimated that in his prime Gristlemaw’s shoulders would have been broader than his own. It was a distinctive appearance.

  Yet not half as distinctive as how Gristlemaw looked now.

  The captain’s chair was bonded to the grizzled pirate. Tubes and wires tangled all across the emaciated chest, plunging in at various points, feeding or extracting fluids that Naven didn’t care to know about. Half of his face was metallic, with a bright green artificial lens in place of one eye, and a patchy white beard growing out of the organic half of his face.

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  Worse, he looked dead. Not rotting or like an undead, thankfully, but withered and desiccated. It was patently obvious that the ship itself was keeping him alive somehow, against all odds. It was a strange sight, as Naven realized that few people had seen Gristlemaw even a century ago, and here he’d just revealed himself to a random ship.

  Or not so random, as he learned in a moment.

  “Why little Sallus, come to see me here? Nobody told me you would be the one to run into my arms. A little far from daddy’s house, aren’t we?” The skeletal figure chuckled, a crackling noise like leaves crushed underfoot. It unnerved Naven almost as much as what the old pirate had just said.

  Sallus herself didn’t show a smile or shock at all. “I wish I could say you’re looking well, Gristlemaw. I take it that the Ascendance wasn’t enough? You look like shit.”

  The hybrid wheezed softly, and took a few moments to reply. Naven realized that the sudden movements of the ship had stopped, with just the steady acceleration forward giving a gentle press into his chair. He was still processing what he’d heard, too.

  Ascendance. The nigh-mythical miracle drug. They said it could add decades of youth to your life, but no one had ever heard of it being used. It was supposed to be so rare, only the wealthiest could afford even a single dose. It had been written off as just a story, given that even the wealthiest in the galaxy normally only lived a few decades longer thanks to much better health care.

  He looked over at Sallus. Gristlemaw, who hadn’t been heard from in a century, had just called Sallus by her first name. He’d recognized her. Elves lived longer than humans, but not that much longer. Sallus couldn’t have been over fifty.

  “You yourself know the limitations of that…” Gristlemaw finally replied, his breath reedy and thin. Speaking was an effort for him, there was no doubt. “I had to find… alternative means.” He paused to catch his breath again, and Naven realized the plan. His struggles to speak were delaying his further attacks even longer.

  Gristlemaw found his voice again. “You are looking for Tifello?”

  The mention of the hero made Sallus tense… but she didn’t deny it. “We know he’s here somewhere. And we know he’s involved with kaleidoscope. I guess you’re working for him, aren’t you?”

  Naven burned to ask more questions about this, but he bit his tongue. This was too much information being given out to ruin it with further questions. He’d have to ask Sallus after this, but the idea that Tifello was behind the drug trafficking they’d been handling… it was less unbelievable than he’d like to admit. The swordsman hadn’t been seen in centuries.

  The old orf shuddered once, and for a moment Naven thought he’d died right then and there, mid-conversation. Finally, his jaws opened and he forced out the words once more.

  “I work for myself, as always.” The words came without anger or even pride… as if it were strange to even question that. “What you seek will be… disappointment for you, child.” He paused again, sucked in a breath, and focused on the camera again. “Or perhaps not. This old man remembers now. Parth gave you… the other half… didn’t he?”

  This question, Sallus neither confirmed nor denied. “I think you know the answer to that. So you’re not chasing us at the whim of Tifello? Then why bother with a ship this size? I thought you were all about challenges, not pouncing on a lone, lightly armed ship.”

  Gristlemaw chuckled in that unnerving crackling noise again. “You are taunting me.” His one organic eye, rheumy and unfocused, rolled to the side and back toward the camera again. “But you are right. You have… caused a lot of trouble… little girl. I thought it would be… more interesting.”

  Sallus shrugged. “We had to move earlier than expected. I think we’ve done well, though. All things considered.”

  “Mmmhmm…” The half-dead pirate mumbled a reply, his gaze turning to Naven, assessing, then back to Sallus. “A Draconis ship. Older than I am… with only two on the bridge. Heh.” He wheezed again, and Naven once again bit his lip. Every moment the man spoke gave them precious distance, however minute it might be.

  At last, the old pirate chuckled again. “Did you find Apexillos? Or perhaps settled for one of the others?” He let out a low, groaning laugh that ended in a spasming cough. “Ahh… not long for me. I know what you want. We both want.” He straightened in his chair, with some effort.

  “Make me a dragon hunter, girl,” Gristlemaw hissed. “You have… six hours.”

  The camera feed flicked off, and Naven immediately saw that the pursuing juggernaut had stopped accelerating. The distance was widening rapidly.

  “He wishes to hunt me?” The indignant growl that cut into the room was more like a digitized snarl, and this one Naven could understand. Apex had his pride, and while he’d been surprisingly forgiving about certain familiarities, this was an insult he couldn’t ignore.

  “What just happened?” Naven broke in to ask. “Six hours… until he starts after us again? Why? He’s won – sorry to say it Apex, no offense.”

  “As much as it pains me to admit, it is the truth.” The dragon’s grumbling was mild, as he also had questions. “He knew who I was. He spoke as if he knew you.”

  Sallus just frowned at both Naven and the disembodied voice of the dragon. “I’m not going to answer any questions about that. I’ll tell you what you need to know, that’s all. I knew Gristlemaw before he was a pirate, and I saw Parth give him the Tome of the Dead. I got the Tome of Life.”

  Naven froze. “Why did Parth have…?”

  “Those two books are still in existence? And why give one to a pirate?” Apex growled. “Is this why he looks dead himself?”

  Sallus nodded and moved to scan the system, her fingers dancing over the controls while she spoke. “Several copies of each, actually, though I suspect I got the original of mine. I think Gristlemaw got a copy.”

  The elf looked up. “He gave us six hours to get out and hide. Then he’s going to hunt us. That’s what he does.” She took a long breath. “Now that I’ve seen him, I think I know what he did. What you saw was just a puppet. Gristlemaw bound himself to his ship, much like Apex is bound to this vessel. I think he needs that body alive, but it doesn’t have to be functional.”

  Naven shook his head, “But why give a pirate a necromantic artifact? It doesn’t make any sense…”

  “Are you going to help me make a plan, or complain about what a crazy man did before you were born?” Sallus broke into Naven’s confusion with a sharp tone. “We can talk about that later. Right now we need a place to hide and plan our next move.”

  With so many strange revelations, it was a bit much to ask of Naven to just put it aside… but he understood. He let out a deep, pained sigh. This would have to wait.

  “Fine. Show me what we can reach in six hours.”

  Hide and Seek

  OP Regression ? LitRPG ? Urban Fantasy

  Of course, I chose regression.

  But I won’t be.

  What to Expect:

  

  
• ?? Overpowered main character with a human heart


  
• ? Full regression with future knowledge


  
• ?? A hostile System and an unforgiving world


  
• ?? Dark progression fantasy with ruthless growth


  
• ?? Epic battles, betrayal, and real consequences